How you make me feel; projection and its identification.
Why do we trust some people and not others? Why do we admire some people? Why do some people make us uncomfortable? Is it because they remind us of significant figures in our lives; our mother, our father, a brother or sister, a lover, a husband, wife, a teacher? Are... Read more »
King George, the stammerer.
Bertie was never expected to become King. David, his elder brother, appeared a far more charismatic leader. People turned a blind eye to his dalliances with actresses and socialites as they had with his grandfather and nobody thought he would give up the throne for Mrs Simpson. But he did. ... Read more »
Expectation
Coming down this morning, I saw in the bone white dish, a cargo of garlic; ten bruise-pink cloves in a nest of papery skins, like dormant commas awaiting the next sentence. . The station clock was at quarter to ten. I’m going to plant them, you said. ‘They need to catch the first frost, and perhaps, next year, we’ll cook together.’ Read more »
Lost Soul
I’m not sure she knows me now. Most of the time she sits pulling the hem of her dress across her bare knees, leaning forward and then lying down in her chair, picking at her sleeves, trying to undo her buttons; her face a sad mask of confusion. She seems... Read more »
It’s a Dog’s Life!
‘A dog is a man’s best friend’, so they say. They are our companions. They are, like us, social carnivores that hunt in the daylight. We were made to collaborate. How much more effective we would have been as hunters with dogs to detect and chase our prey. And dogs... Read more »
Cries and Whispers
I first experienced Cries and Whispers in 1973. I was, even then, drawn to the deeper, darker aspects of human psychology. It was no wonder, therefore, that I was into Bergman. I rated the Seventh Seal and Persona as the greatest films I had seen. Then came Cries and Whispers. And now,... Read more »
Lost
‘Oh, dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.’ It was like a metronome, every second. Simon worked out that at this rate, she would say oh dear, 3600 times an hour, up to 50,000 times a day, 15 million times a year. But the mantra had some more intense... Read more »
Of families, fathers and forgiveness in the whimsical world of Wes
What kind of person are you? Since when have you been so perfect? When did you last fuck up? What are you going to do about it? Royale Tennenbaum has been evicted from his family by his wife, Etheline, for playing around. He is casual, careless even as he explains it... Read more »
Of daughters, damage and destruction; is that the legacy of Mrs Klein?
Melanie Klein might be said to have founded the British School of Psychoanalysis, though it was never as formal as that. There was a never a ‘concrete school’ more a movement dominated by the ideas and interpretations of Mrs Klein. Psychoanalysis was (and still is) very incestuous. There were not many... Read more »
Towards the vanishing point.
I had some pizza that I made the previous night and thought to share that and the remains of a bottle of claret with her. But she is not right. Julie has told me that she gets very emotional at the prospect of me coming round. I have recently begun... Read more »
Doing things by the book; the flawed excellence of the new NHS.
I should have listened to her dentist. She cared enough to call me in London and tell me that the Xray had shown a small translucency around the root of the bottom right canine and there was a sinus pointing to the gum. 'Your mum will need that tooth out,'... Read more »
Losing her Mind; How can we understand Dementia
'Oh Nick, Oh Nick! Please! Please!' 'What is it mum?' 'I don't know. It's all gone wrong.' 'Try to rest, mum.' 'But I'm so hot!' I take the blanket off her. 'My feet are so cold.' I put her slippers on. 'Oh these are too heavy. Take them off.' I remove them. 'My mouth is so dry.' 'Shall I make you... Read more »
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