Episodes
Tuesday Jul 04, 2023
LAO TZU 58
Tuesday Jul 04, 2023
Tuesday Jul 04, 2023
In this podcast, we consider Chapter 71 of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching. This chapter is about self-deception, understood as a sickness. We appraise the character of many modern politicians in the light of Lao Tzu's insights on this matter. [Free. 25 minutes.]
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
A UNIVERSE OF DISCOURSE?
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
Tuesday Feb 14, 2023
What is a universe of discourse? In this podcast, I attempt an answer, followed by an appraisal of the uses and abuse the concept might be put to. (Click the link to buy me a coffee.) [Free. 23 minutes.]
Sunday Jan 08, 2023
PATHOLOGICAL IRRATIONALISM IN THE UK AND BEYOND
Sunday Jan 08, 2023
Sunday Jan 08, 2023
In this rambling rant, we attempt to outline a mass and individual psychology of Thatcherism and trace its fallout in our current situation. We note that science denial which is prevalent on social media is also often promoted by extreme right wing people. We the move on to a suggestion that Thatcher's denial of the social character of human existence is an example of the same pathological irrationalism that is a core feature of historical fascism. (Click the link to by me a coffee.) [Free. 59 minutes.]
Thursday Jun 02, 2022
THE JUBILEE, PSYCHOANALYSIS & OTHER GOSSIP - INTERESTING TIMES 53
Thursday Jun 02, 2022
Thursday Jun 02, 2022
In this podcast, I consider the question of the nature of the UK monarchy as revealed by the current jubilee celebrations, and if psychoanalysis might be useful for answering it. Recorded as I take my constitutional so contains some real-world sounds :) [Free. 39 minutes.]
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
REMARKS ON FREUD PART 2 - THE TOPOGRAPHICAL MODEL
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
Tuesday Sep 21, 2021
This podcast continues with our series of Freud's thought. It focusses on Freud's lecture Dissection of the Psychical Personality (1933), outlining it and critically appraising it's main features. [Free. 55 minutes.]
Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
REMARKS ON FREUD PART 1 - THE UNCONSCIOUS
Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
Tuesday Jun 29, 2021
This podcast is the first in an ongoing series on Freud and psychoanalysis which is meant to be useful to our series on fascism and reason, as well as to our many considerations of the workings of propaganda and ideology. Here, give some background to Freud's intellectual journey and elucidate the notion of 'the unconscious' and its significance for humanity's self-image. [Free. 34 minutes.]
Friday Oct 02, 2020
WHAT IS FASCISM? 1 - HISTORICAL EXAMPLES
Friday Oct 02, 2020
Friday Oct 02, 2020
In this first of a series on fascism, I identify eleven prominent features of the historical forms of fascism of Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy, describe them and show how they inter-relate. I make the point that the features can give rise to varied surface appearances and that we shouldn't expect future manifestations of the 'syndrome' to look like Nazi Germany or fascist Italy. I propose to see, in future podcasts of this series, to see if we find any of the crucial feature incipient or actually present in the contemporary situation of the USA and the UK. [Free. 54 minutes.]
Thursday Mar 26, 2020
PANDEMIC TRAUMAS
Thursday Mar 26, 2020
Thursday Mar 26, 2020
In this podcast we identify four types of trauma that the global CORVID19 pandemic is inflicting on individuals and societies. They are to do with isolation and restriction due to lock-down, fear, anxiety and panic, increased awareness of death, and political / economic disillusionment. In the second half we attempt to discern how these traumas will continue to act in the future when the pandemic has subsided. [Free. 38 minutes.]
Saturday Jan 25, 2020
THE YOGI AND THE COMMISSAR: REVOLUTION?
Saturday Jan 25, 2020
Saturday Jan 25, 2020
In this podcast I question the nature of revolution, particularly as to its ultimate ground, which for some should be consciousness, and for others, the power structures of society, particularly materialistically understood. I outline the thought that both must be involved as it is found in the ongoing historical conversation. This includes Freudian Marxism, and the existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir, who gives us the figures of the yogi and the commissar to imagine. [Free. 28 minutes.]
Saturday Jan 25, 2020
RESILIENCE: INTERVIEW WITH GODFREY DEVEREUX
Saturday Jan 25, 2020
Saturday Jan 25, 2020
In this interview renowned Yoga Teacher Godfrey Devereux about a recent turn his work has taken. Godfrey has dropped the language surrounding contemporary Yoga to talk instead about resilience and how it is a consequence of a certain meditative self-enquiry. I ask Godfrey to elucidate this and particularly in the context of impending ecological catastrophe. I give my own take on these matters which is more inclined to speak up for activism. Listen to the following podcast, The Yogi and the Commissar, in which I explore some of the themes that emerged and in the light of Simone de Beauvoir's existentialism. [Free. 32 minutes.]