Book Review: War and Turpentine
by Simona O. Grabel, PhD A book which begins with a quote from All Quiet on the Western Front gives us fair warning of the cataclysm which is to follow. In War and Turpentine, the Flemish author Stefan Hertmans offers us a fictionalized account of his beloved grandfather’s memoirs, whose life spanned two centuries. Perhaps in atonement for the heirloom watch the author dropped and shattered, Hertman’s account of his grandfather’s life is a book about time and “the silent tragedies of what time can do with people.” The life of his...
read moreBPSI Off the Couch: Dreaming Together and Apart in La La Land
On Tuesday December 20th, BPSI screened LA LA LAND at the Coolidge Corner Theater, as part of it’s monthly Off the Couch series. The following was adapted from remarks delivered following the screening. Benjamin Herbstman, MD, MHS Thank you for joining us tonight for this achingly beautiful film, and thanks for sticking around for the discussion. I’d like to take about 10 minutes to talk about how film, psychoanalytically-informed therapy, and love engage and even facilitate one’s capacity to dream, and then I’ll open up...
read moreThe Election and Family Values
By: Alexandra Murray Harrison, M.D. Important Note: The image in this post and in all the previous ones are not images of the children discussed in the posting. They are simply children whose photos I have collected throughout my travels. After the election, I was moved to write a blog post to parents and other child caregivers to support them in talking to their children about the election. Many parents at the preschool where I consult were angered or weeping at the election results, and there was a natural concern that their children would...
read moreBPSI Off the Couch: Moonlight
Find out what what said about MOONLIGHT at November’s Off the Couch. Moonlight: Talk for Off the Couch by Judith A. Yanof First, a bit of background: Moonlight is an independent film, written and directed by Barry Jenkins. It is the second feature film by this 36 year-old writer/director. The story is taken and adapted from an unproduced play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue.” The story is set in the 1980s in Liberty City, a poor black neighborhood of Miami, and shot on site. Interestingly, both...
read moreBPSI Off the Couch: Snowden
Did you miss Rodrigo Barahona’s discussion of SNOWDEN at The Coolidge Theatre on Tuesday, September 20, 2016? Read below to see what got the conversation started: If this film were on my couch, these are the words that would come to my mind as I listened to its story: Idealization Voyeurism Exhibitionism Boundaries Privacy The self Paranoia Fantasy Reality Sexuality Murder Fathers Sons Omnipotence Omniscience Good Bad Angelic Evil We might say that in some ways, the structure of Stone’s narrative follows the common...
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