tagged w/ Psychoanalysis
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“Thinking Aloud on Pleasure and Frustration” is a six-minute documentary short film featuring Adam Phillips, an English psychotherapist/psychoanalyst, literary critic and the author of several well-known books, including: “The Beast in the Nursery: On Curiosity and Other Appetites,” “On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored,” “Going Sane,” “On Kindness” and most recently, “On Balance.” Phillips has written widely, from a unique psychoanalytic perspective, on a range of themes central to concepts such as the human condition, human suffering, desire, pleasure and the good life. As a practicing psychoanalyst, he offers a refreshingly subtle analysis of these concepts, grounded in the lives of actual persons. Phillips delivers his thoughts here with an unusually open and rich quality of fluid extemporaneous prose.
This piece includes photographs and the engrossing documentary short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/adam-phillips-thinking-aloud-on-pleasure-and-frustration/“Thinking Aloud on Pleasure and Frustration” is a six-minute documentary... more
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To many in both business and government, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power is truly moved into the hands of the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self by Adam Curtis tells the untold and controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society. How is the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interest?
The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund's devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund's great grandson, Matthew Freud. Sigmund Freud's work into the bubbling and murky world of the subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society's belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man's ultimate goal.
Part 1-Happiness Machines:
Part one documents the story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays who invented 'Public Relations' in the 1920s, being the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses. He showed American corporations how they could make people want things they didn't need by systematically linking mass-produced goods to their unconscious desires.
Part 2-The Engineering of Consent:
Part two explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses. Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany, and in response to this, they set out to find ways to control the masses so as to manage the 'hidden enemy' within the human mind.
Part 3-There is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads, He Must Be Destroyed:
In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the influence of Freudian ideas, which lead to the creation of a new political movement that sought to create 'new people', free of the psychological conformity that had been implanted in people's minds by business and politics. This episode shows how this idea rapidly developed in America through "self-help movements", into the irresistible rise of the expressive self: the Me Generation.
Part 4-Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering:
This episode explains how politicians turned to the same techniques used by business in order to read and manipulate the inner desires of the masses. Both New Labor with Tony Blair and the Democrats led by Bill Clinton, used the focus group which had been invented by psychoanalysts in order to regain power. Both set out to mold their policies to manipulate people's innermost desires and feelings, just as capitalism had learned to do with products.To many in both business and government, the triumph of the self is the ultimate... more
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“The Adventures of a Cardboard Box” is a fascinating short film by English illustrator and filmmaker Temujin Doran, which was named a finalist in the 2011 Nokia Shorts Video Contest. Thousands of videos from around the world were submitted and judged over a four month period, and from those seven films were selected as finalists. The seven finalists were screened and judged at the 2011 Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Temujin’s short film has been described rather simply as the story of one boy’s escapades with a large cardboard box, which he uses as a gateway to a multitude of fantasy adventures. The film is, of course, much more than that; it is no accident that Temujin cited the “Calvin and Hobbes” comic strip as the main inspiration for his film. As with the major underlying theme of “Calvin and Hobbes,” this film can be viewed as a contemporary narrative about one young boy’s uses of a transitional object in his play and illusions as explorations of ideas about identity and the self. Ultimately, the film becomes a perfect combination of humor and melancholy loss.
This piece includes a number of color photographs, as well as the captivating short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/07/04/the-adventures-of-a-cardboard-box-humorous-play-and-melancholy-loss/“The Adventures of a Cardboard Box” is a fascinating short film by English... more
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Short film about Collective unconscious.
Back in the November...when I first have discovered meaning of the term I got absolutely fascinased by it and I have read many articles about it.
In that time I was also reading a book Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse and that inspired me as well so I decide to make a short film about an intelectual who is strugling from the harschness of the modern age, who is trying to explain the term with his chaotic thoughts.
The idea of the film is that every person is sharing his individual process of thinking.
Camera: Panasonic GH1
Lenses: Basic lens, Pentacon auto 2.8/29
Sound: Zoom H4nShort film about Collective unconscious.
Back in the November...when I first have... more
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“Asparagus” is a stunning animated short film created by Suzan Pitt, a matted-cel work that film critics have hailed as a visionary masterpiece and one of the most lavish and wondrous animated short films ever made. “Asparagus” is the now classic film that assured Pitt’s reputation as a major American animator. After taking four years to make, “Asparagus”, completed in 1979, won awards around the world, including First Prize at the Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany and awards at Ann Arbor, Baltimore and Atlanta Film Festivals in the United States.
Pitt went on to produce a number of other notable animation projects, as well as to design the first two operas to include animated images for the stage (“Damnation of Faust” and “The Magic Flute”) in Germany. In addition, she created large multimedia shows at the Venice Biennale and at Harvard University. A former Associate Professor at Harvard University, Pitt has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship and three production grants from the National Endowment of the Arts. She presently teaches in the Experimental Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts.
“Asparagus” is designed like a Pandora’s box, opening up visions into the depths of a woman’s inner world, merging sensual and surrealistic imagery conceived in the form of a Freudian dream. Its mythical visual narrative and dreamscape focuses on erotic metaphors and intellectual references that reflect a thoughtful manner of artistic creativity deeply imbued with the vital nexus between formal experimentation and the exploration of the obscure, dark forces that lurk behind human psyche and praxis.
Defying analytic efforts since the 1980s, “Asparagus”, arguably Pitt’s finest work, is a deeply symbolic reflection on issues of female sexuality, art and identity, and that’s probably as far as one can go. The visual narrative is as lavish and vibrant as it is elusive and hermetic, and Pitt’s claim that “Asparagus” was not designed with an intention to be reflected upon but rather to be emotionally experienced seems reasonable in the face of immense interpretive difficulties raised by the struggle between its unstoppable flow of onirical but culturally familiar imagery, as well as our equally untamed desire for exegetical decomposition.
This piece includes a number of colorful illustrations, a slide show and the acclaimed animated short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/asparagus-an-erotically-surreal-dream-inside-pandoras-box/“Asparagus” is a stunning animated short film created by Suzan Pitt, a... more
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“Fear/Love” is a new short film directed by the veteran English street artist and urban videographer Rob Chiu. The film was made in collaboration with an urban youth program called the I Care Revolution, which encompasses a multitude of talented artists working together to empower young people to make a difference in the lives of others.
Set against the harsh backdrop of inner city London, “Fear/Love” interweaves the lives of three adolescents who never really meet each other, but whose actions intersect and interpenetrate as they struggle with who they are, who they want to be and who they are becoming. Their lives enact the central quest for the ever-evasive heuristic sense of identity, whether that means not knowing your identity, being ashamed of who you are, trying to become someone else or looking for acceptance.
Their intertwining journeys take them down paths mixing visions of potential identity with yearnings for love, wishes for intimacy that are inevitably thwarted by their fears of others. Ultimately, decadent overindulgence gives rise to self-destructive acts, leading up to a horrible event.
This piece includes colorful high-resolution photographs, as well as the remarkable and timely short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/fearlove-a-tale-of-identity-fear-and-self-destruction/“Fear/Love” is a new short film directed by the veteran English street... more
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You’re stressed. I’m stressed. We’re all stressed out. So how do you get rid of it? Stress Relief!You’re stressed. I’m stressed. We’re all stressed out. So how do... more
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You’re stressed. I’m stressed. We’re all stressed out. So how do you get rid of it? Stress Relief!You’re stressed. I’m stressed. We’re all stressed out. So how do... more
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“And the Walls Came Down” is a challenging, thought-provocative short film by Adam Witten, a crime drama set within critical moments of mutual confrontation with potential death. The film uses the duality of its two main characters, the criminal and the agent of the law, to reveal the reciprocal nature of interpersonal relationships, in this case through a tragic awareness of human mortality. Although each believes himself to be the opposite of the other, in fact each is disclosed to be the co-constructor of the other person’s fate. They are interwined voices singing the same anthem of self-destruction, which Norman Mailer titled “The Executioner’s Song.”
This piece includes a number of color photographs, as well as the beautiful, emotionally gripping short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/and-the-walls-came-down-two-voices-of-shared-mortality/“And the Walls Came Down” is a challenging, thought-provocative short film... more
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A fascinating talk. I find what he said about electing someone as a cure for all Bush did very interesting. It explains a lot of the hostility one sees both among Tea Baggers, on one hand, and among many people posting here, on the other.A fascinating talk. I find what he said about electing someone as a cure for all Bush... more
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Well, this is a very melancholy picture. I'd say that the carousel horse is yearning for the laughing children of summer and waits for them behind a veil of tears. A truly poetic photograph. It's accompanied here by an enchanting 3-min. animated musical short film, “A Ride on a Magical Carousel.”
Please visit my website to view this photograph in wonderful high-resolution, and to watch the enchanting animated short:
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/photo-of-the-day-carousel-horse-under-plastic/Well, this is a very melancholy picture. I'd say that the carousel horse is... more
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“Un Tour de Manège” (A Ride on a Fairground Carousel) is an enchanting animated short film by Les Manèges, four young French filmmakers from Gobelins in Paris. The film is a metaphoric fairy tale in which a magical carousel takes a little girl on the ocean voyage of a lifetime. It’s a story about childhood fears of early separation from the mother, and of being thrust all alone into the vast ocean of life.
On the little girl’s voyage she’s cast adrift in the ocean where other carousels abound, some inhabited by boys with threatening wolves, and where she must navigate dangerous whirlpools with the assistance of fluttering insects. In the end, the girl is magically saved and returned to the soothing arms of her mother, at which point she secretly turns to the audience and mischievously winks to let us know that in spite of the dangers, she had quite enjoyed herself.
This piece includes a number of pastel watercolor illustrations from the film, as well as the enchanting animated short, “Un Tour de Manège.”
Please visit my website to view the colorful illustrations and this wonderful film:
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/un-tour-de-manege-a-ride-on-a-magical-fairground-carousel/“Un Tour de Manège” (A Ride on a Fairground Carousel) is an... more
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“Between” is a 4-minute short experimental film by the German filmmaker Tim Bollinger. The film has been described as a dark, surreal piece that travels through grounds and walls and into moments stuck in time. As Bollinger describes it, “It’s a journey through worlds of the subconscious, allowing us to catch sinister glimpses of the human psyche’s ambivalence.” Its complex combinations and the resulting visions evoke a stroll in between different senses, caught up in an endless loop within our inner life, where the exit is the only entrance.
This piece includes a number of color photographs from the film, as well as the surreal experimental short, “Between.”
To view the photographs and the short film please visit:
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/between-the-exit-is-the-only-entrance/“Between” is a 4-minute short experimental film by the German filmmaker... more
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Steven Wiltshire (born in 1974) is an accomplished architectural artist who has been diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder. Wiltshire’s work has been the subject of many television documentaries; neurologist Oliver Sacks praised his artistic work in the chapter “Prodigies” in his book “An Anthropologist on Mars.” Stephen Wiltshire’s many published art books include “Cities” (1989), “Floating Cities” (1991) and “Stephen Wiltshire’s American Dream” (1993).
Wiltshire is presently working to complete his last drawing in a series of city panoramas, this time of his spiritual home, New York City. Wiltshire’s collection of already completed works depicting some of the world’s most iconic cities already includes London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Rome, Madrid, Frankfurt, Dubai and Jerusalem. A 20-minute fly-over Manhattan this past weekend provided the memory for a 20-foot panorama of the city that he’s drawing throughout this week at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. Viewers can watch his progress on a live web cam or by visiting the Institute while he works from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Monday, Oct. 26 to Friday, Oct. 30, 2009.
This piece includes a number photographs, a slide show of Stephen Wiltshire's work, a video of Wiltshire's current work drawing the panorama of New York City and a live web cam of him at work on the panorama.Steven Wiltshire (born in 1974) is an accomplished architectural artist who has been... more
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“Drift Away” is a beautiful, but sadly melancholy 4-minute short film directed by Jean-Julien Pous and produced by Sophia Shek. During the course of the film, a gracious and ethereal young woman slowly and silently glides all alone through the busily teeming streets of Hong Kong. During the earliest part of the film, it’s somewhat difficult to discern exactly what’s going on, or even what the movie’s theme might be, except possibly a visual rendering of the emotional deadness of anomie and anhedonia in contemporary urban life. The attractive young woman’s eyes acutely capture everything around her, but only the movie’s camera can catch her own eyes.
Sadly, it’s probably true that only when you’re really able to lose yourself in something or someone else, only then will you finally become capable of an emotional investment in yourself, another person and/or the world around you. Lacking that, the despairing message for people left with a desolately barren life in the midst of the intensely seething modern world is something like: “Pour your misery down, pour your misery down on me.”
This piece includes a number of color photographs from the film, as well as the beautiful short film, “Drift Away.”“Drift Away” is a beautiful, but sadly melancholy 4-minute short film... more
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“All Hail to Taxi Cabs!” is a superb collection of beautiful photographs taken of taxi cabs from all around the world. From our own experiences as passengers riding in the cabs cruising around our towns and cities, many of the photographs of taxis presented here are both old and rare, and can elicit both feelings of nostalgic reminiscence and memories from earlier times in our lives.
But these remarkable photographs reflect a deeper emotional perspective, that of the often isolated life of the taxicab driver. “Are you talkin’ to me? Well, I’m the only one here,” said Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver.” This last line has seldom ever been quoted, yet it stands as perhaps the truest line in the film. In a sense, taxi drivers represent people with desperate needs to make some kind of contact, to share or mimic the effortless social interactions they see all around them, but in which they can’t or don’t really participate. This feeling of utter loneliness is at the center of the film “Taxi Driver.” We have all felt as alone as Travis. Fortunately, most of us are better at dealing with it.
This piece includes a number of stunning, thought-provoking color photographs, as well as a remarkable slide show of additional photographs.“All Hail to Taxi Cabs!” is a superb collection of beautiful photographs... more
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"As exaggerated as many popular depictions of psychopaths often are, many nevertheless do pose a genuine danger to others. So what makes psychopaths the way they are?
Scientists are now working toward uncovering the roots of this disorder in the brain. Their research could lead to ways to intervene against the disorder and hopefully prevent it from manifesting.
But answers remain elusive, in part because it's no easy (or safe) task to study the brain of the typical psychopath.
"Psychopaths are often big trouble for those around them," said clinical psychologist Joseph Newman at the University of Wisconsin. "If we can find out what underlies their problems, we might be able to identify what kinds of interventions might be able to work for them."
"Criminal psychopaths are about three times more likely to commit violence than other offenders and about two-and-a-half times more likely to commit other antisocial acts such as lying and sexual exploitation," Newman explained.
"Although not all psychopaths are violent, their kind of behavior is very destructive socially, and hurts our trust of other people," he added. "And many people in prison who might otherwise be treated sympathetically aren't given the chance they deserve because people have trouble distinguishing them from true psychopaths."
Scientists investigating the disorder commonly agree that psychopaths are often marked by the following traits:
* Lack of empathy, guilt, conscience or remorse
* Shallow experiences of feelings or emotions
* Impulsivity and a weak ability to defer gratification and control behavior
* Superficial charm and glibness
* Irresponsibility and a failure to accept responsibility for their actions
* A grandiose sense of their own worth
"There are people who are impulsive, at high risk of substance abuse, who are high in emotionality, whom many people call psychopaths, but that is more what we'd call an externalizing syndrome," Newman said. Many scientists researching psychopathy see it as an emotionally cold disorder.
Past research, including studies with twins, suggest there is a genetic predisposition to psychopathy. Still, it remains uncertain how much their environment influences the development of the disorder. "Just because one has a predisposition doesn't mean that they have to end up behaving that way," Newman said.
It remains hard to get to the root of psychopathy, since the most recognizable group of psychopaths are criminals, "and bringing prisoners out to get their brains scanned puts a lot of people in risk, so it's very complicated to do," Newman said.
Still, understanding the roots of psychopathy in the brain hopefully will lead "to an ability to identify and negate the problem,," Newman said. "By finding out what predisposes someone toward psychopathy and how these vulnerabilities interact with the environment to give rise to a full-blown case of the disorder, I believe one might be able to prevent the unfortunate development of psychopathy.""As exaggerated as many popular depictions of psychopaths often are, many... more
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“Moments” is a stunning short film by filmmaker Will Hoffman, in collaboration with New York City’s Radio Lab. At first glance, the film is simply a mere collection of ordinary moments, such as: a falling teardrop, an escaped balloon, a dive into a pool, a school bus. But far from being just a series of mundane images, “Moments” ends up delivering a cascade of visual poignancy that makes you realize how universal these glimpses are. It’s so very powerfully engaging, like taking your whole life and strolling it past a long hall of mirrors.
The film is evidence that even the smallest things we see every day, when carefully framed, can ache with ignored beauty. There is an infinite potential of unrealized moments in the experiences of our everyday lives, which points to the over-arching importance of living neither in the distant past nor in the far reaches of the future, but rather in our everyday experiences of the here-and-now.
This piece presents a number of stunning color photographs and the amazing HD short film, “Moments."“Moments” is a stunning short film by filmmaker Will Hoffman, in... more
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“So Deep In Your Room” is the new short film by Jacob Mendel, a work that continues and extends the themes of some of his earlier films, such as “The Waking Artist”and “Rooms.” “The Waking Artist” followed the life of a desolate, joy-deprived man who was incapable of feeling or showing any sense of exuberance, while “Rooms” portrayed life as little more than reminiscent echoes of the past.
Mendel describes “So Deep In Your Room” as a morally decadent tale about failed love triangle, told in a multi-screen cinematic narrative. This stark film noir emphasizes a moral ambiguity about sexual feelings and love, representing a life of extreme asceticism, through cold-hearted, dark imagery of the collapse of Eros (love) into Thanatos (death).
This piece includes a number of photographs and the short film, “So Deep In Your Room.”“So Deep In Your Room” is the new short film by Jacob Mendel, a work that... more
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This photograph is an awe-inspiring tribute to a quiet passion for the generous art of caring. In its almost minimalist reflection of two hands gently entwined in the darkness, caring becomes the very aesthetics of everyday life. This image provides us with an almost silently unrevealed, yet at the same time solidly strong visual narrative of mutually reciprocal, unquenchable devotion between the older and the younger, the stronger and the more tender. It captures a magical portrait of a nuanced and richly caring sense of being compassionately human.This photograph is an awe-inspiring tribute to a quiet passion for the generous art of... more
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