Almost fifty years ago there was an influential woman who called pregnancy “barbaric,” described childhood as “hell,” and said giving birth was “like shitting a pumpkin.” Shulamith Firestone was a radical activist and remarkably prescient thinker who helped define feminism as we know it. Yet today she remains largely—and unfairly—unknown. Through her relentless activism and Continue Reading …
Back to the Father: The Incest-Driven Plot of “Back to the Future”
Subscribe to more of my writing at https://www.wesalwan.com Follow me on Twitter Let’s pause for a moment to do proper homage to the remarkable fact that during the 1980s, there was a blockbuster family film in which large parts of the plot revolved around the subject of incest. That film was Back to the Future, which I recently discussed with Dan Calvisi and William Continue Reading …
Love and Metamorphosis in Fairy Tales and Philosophy
Marie Rutkowski has written a very nice piece on the role of nature in fairy tales: The effect, I think, is to make nature seem to be in collusion with love. One message in some versions of the tale, particularly Grimm’s, is that love is like a force of nature, and nature will take its revenge on those who stand in its way. Many of the various cruel stepmothers and Continue Reading …
Rousseau, Aristotle, and Freud on Political Narcissism
Rousseau was not a cheerful fellow. According to Terry Eagleton, he'd be even less cheerful if he were alive to see what has happened to the public sphere and educational system in Europe: ... would no doubt have been appalled by the drastic shrinking of the public sphere. His greatest work, The Social Contract, speaks up for the rights of the citizenry in the teeth of private Continue Reading …
Buddhist Psychotherapy?
Having recorded our discussion on Buddhism but still feeling obligated here to plumb the depths of the web further for Freud-related material, I did a search for "Buddhist Psychotherapy" and came up with this site (part of "the complementary health information service at Metta.org.uk") that demonstrates that, as Wes said, all of your talking cures come out approximately the Continue Reading …