Modern Myths

By the Rivers of Babylon Societies keep order. They have to. For millennia, religion has been key to achieving this. Religions may aspire to make men free and able to live a full life but they also embody a set of rules designed to keep chaos at bay.  A Superego whose mission is to keep an Id in check. This has been particularly clear in the religious regulation of … [Read more...] about Where Does Change Come From?

Mickey Nardo died yesterday. I got to visit with him and his wife Sharon on the phone a short while before he got involved with Jo Le Noury, Jon Jureidini, Melissa Raven, Catalin Tufanaru, Elia Abi-Jaoude and me Restoring Study 329 in 2013. It was one of those moments - I can still remember exactly where I was sitting when I made the phone-call. Sharon had just come back … [Read more...] about Mickey Nardo: Tangled up in Life

There has been a big delay between posts. This has been primarily about trying to find an image or images for this post - unsuccessfully so far. The trigger to the post came from a piece on Surrendered Wives. The BBC website had the attached piece - strangely as part of their 100 Women series. There are some articles around the place trying to imagine a Surrendered … [Read more...] about Surrender

In 1989, BBC ran a program Under African Skies covering the music of the continent. The program and music from it captured on Cassette and later Record became widely known. On Side 2 of 4 sides of cassette, there is a brief snippet of 4 children at St Joseph's Music School in Harare answering their teacher's question - Why do People Sing? Peter: People sing to pass a … [Read more...] about Why Do People Sing?

Editorial Note: There is no-one I know who admits to listening to The Archers. But everyone in Britain knows of it - the longest running British radio soap. It begins with a horrible theme tune that has me hitting off instantly. But all changed in the last week or two. The Archers is now featuring on the news and in the newspapers. The build-up began nearly two years ago … [Read more...] about The Archers: Rob and Helen

To be read in conjunction with Little Red Riding Hood. Once a newly qualified doctor, wearing her red stethoscope, set out to treat an older woman, bringing medicines and the milk of human kindness. As the doctor was walking through the hospital, the medical director came up to her and asked where she was going. "To Mrs Clinton's bedside", she replied. "Which path are … [Read more...] about Little Red Stethoscope

This is the first of a two part piece. Little Red Stethoscope follows. More on the current post can be found in Images of Trauma. A grimm tale The development of psychoanalysis depended heavily on Freud's approach to the interpretation of dreams and myths. Key to these interpretations were his claims about the symbolic nature of certain elements of dreams, myths or … [Read more...] about Little Red Riding Hood

This is the Sixteenth Modern Myth featuring Crusoe. The Persecution series resumes next week with Brand Fascism. The clinics were different now to what they had been. Hands on fire The woman walked in, glancing at her hands as she came. Crusoe already knew what she would say. In days gone by peripheral neuropathies were rare. You saw one a year, perhaps in older people – … [Read more...] about Crusoe, We Say, Was Rescued

This is the Fifteenth Modern Myth, featuring Crusoe. The rest can be accessed under the modern myth tag. There will be another next week. The Pharma Sub-Series of the Persecution Murder Mystery will resume in the first week of the New Year. A strange man It was a time when Crusoe managed to be in Europe in Septembers. In 1957, interested in the fuss surrounding the new … [Read more...] about Castel Gandolfo

Crusoe and Hans grew up together. Crusoe’s father encouraged her to believe she could do anything she put her mind to. Han’s father, Peter, was a story-teller who delighted both children with his stories, especially during the long evenings at the onset of Winter. He told them about the Microbe Hunters who discovered the causes of diseases and laid the basis for new … [Read more...] about The Snow Queen