Psychotherapy in Dublin

Saintly Truth On the Ceiling

2012-02-03T16:08:00.002Z

This is a decorated ceiling in Castel d'Angelo in Rome and I did like the centrepiece. But again, I couldn't track it down. There was a similar image on the Internet but no further information. This was was the apartment of Pope Paul III but who was the figure in the painting? Again I had to search by describing the image and this has to be the Archangel St Michael. Only he has the boots, wings and unsheathed sword and interestingly he is one of the few saints common to Christians, Jews and Muslims. According to my source, the Lucky Mojo Curio Company, he is the Patron Saint of Policeman and if you boil up some bay leaves and write a careful prayer to St Michael, you will be successful in sports competitions. In one old painting St Michael is depicted with his foot on the throat of a wrongdoer, poised to eliminate him with his sword. Importantly for psychoanalysts the sword often denotes the Word and in Christian philosophy, the sword can mean speech and eloquence, possibly due to the double edge of both sword and tongue. Psychoanalyst Lacan said the only desire of the psychoanalyst may be that the client communicates with him in words. Freud talks of the "sword of speech" and following him, Lacan speaks that "Truth hollows its way into the real, thanks to the dimension of speech." So what is St Michael saying I wonder, up there on the ceiling?

The Man who (nearly) fell to Earth

2012-01-30T15:46:00.000Z

I spotted his near Dublin's National Concert Hall, although I nearly missed it by not looking up! I have no idea why it's there and I will be pleased if someone lets me know. It's quite realistic. This is at the far end of a telephoto lens, so from a distance it's kind of convincing. I speculated about what it might mean - apart from "a night on the tiles". "He got drunk and didn't make it home," perhaps. That suits me, because drunkenness is indeed a symbol. It would have to be be, since inebriation is all about an altered state and hence mystical and other-worldly. Compulsory drinking bouts were common amongst Chinese societies and naturally Celtic ones too. Even the Aztecs have their 400 rabbit gods who are drunk at all times after imbibing the sacred pulque. The drinking rituals are about reawakening the life force, often in midwinter, although it sometimes seems like the opposite! Samain (November) would be the major Celtic celebration and mead the chosen drink in earlier times. The Ancients called wine that was high in alcohol, pure wine, and in Gaul as well as Ireland there was usually a bit of fisticuffs after imbibing large quantities. Participants would be deprived of their weapons beforehand, for obvious reasons. The rituals were compulsory so there was no getting out of it. And if you were Welsh and a deposed king, drowning in a vat of beer might be your fate. But I am no closer to the reason for the street art - or maybe it's really a person after all!

Skeleton Time

2012-01-26T18:37:00.000Z

This fascinating gravestone was on the wall in a church in Rome. I couldn't remember where I took the photo - the perils of not taking an establishing shot! But I have tracked it down. It is the San Lorenzo in Damaso Church in the Piazza della Cancelleria. I know because it's just after the shots I took in the Leonardo Exhibition in a palace that surrounds the church. Then a bit of detective work revealed that it is a work by none other than Gian Lorenzo Bernini. This is not so much a representation of of death, but the skeleton of a dead person. It is perhaps the representation of the state of being dead. Memento mori, remember that you will die, is something we should all bear in mind. Our time is limited and we should use it well. The Scots have a saying, "we're a long time dead." Our time alive is short, in comparison to the other state. This type of funerary monument was for the rich, who could afford a sculptor and a grave within the church itself. Richer folks commissioned a whole chapel! But it did provide work for sculptors who were otherwise unemployed. The skeleton is not very scary is it? And it's certainly not the devil. In Petronius' Satyricon, a silver skeleton moves around a banquet, serving to remind us of the brevity of life. Its message appears to be "enjoy life while you can." So we should appreciate the fleeting moment and try to live in the "now".

All the Gods need a Blue Sky

2012-01-24T15:43:00.001Z

This is the Pantheon dome in Rome. "He does like his domes," readers might observe, and that would be true. With this one I didn't like the white sky at the centre. I wanted to see the heavens and I guess that for me the heavens are blue. But I have a collection of skies that I shot in Herbert Park in Dublin and I replaced the white with a sky I liked. The blue colour spill on the dome is original though - and it could just be "noise". The camera couldn't cope with the speed I asked for and produced some interference. So I played with the image a bit and I did get rid of it, but I put it back because the picture looked better. The Pantheon is one of these places that you really have to see. Yet it's hardly original in its present form, having been modified and built upon since Agrippa dedicated it to all the Gods. That was some time before Hadrian rebuilt it in AD126. The dome is the same since then and it is speculated that the dome is the reason for the name "Pantheon", since it resembles the heavens and as such, "All the Gods". Such a dome requires a blue sky. It would be disrespectful to have anything different. And that does remind me of a cliché that for a while replaced "brain storming". "Lets blue sky it," management people said for a while. It meant "thinking without preconceptions" and admitted no pessimism. But in real life, just as in my original Pantheon photograph, we don't always have the luxury of a blue sky. Not even in Herbert Park.

The Ambivalance of the Aquatic Arthropod

2012-01-18T15:26:00.000Z

As the blog progressed I began to find that you could run out of symbols. True symbols are ineffable, incapable of being described. What could be more ineffable that a crab? Indeed we have not spoken of the humble crustacean before. It's the zodiac sign of Cancer and so I'm surprised that the aquatic arthropod has not made an appearance! In some cultures they are regarded as crafty because of the sideways scuttle. But I particularly like a myth from the Andaman islands. The first man who ever drowned, capsized the boat in which his mate had set out to look for him. She joined him and they both changed into a crab. It's kind of creation myth that adequately explains the jointed limbs and segmented body of this strange sea creature. More often than not the crab is a symbol of incarnation, an avatar of transcendental forces. And although they usually originate in the underworld, crabs often come from the sky. Yet despite the coincidence of the Zodiac sign with the summer solstice, crabs are lunar symbols and are usually depicted on the Moon Tarot card. They move backwards and forwards and so like the best of symbols, are ambivalent and can be either good or evil. I saw this fellow, sadly demised, on the beach at Fregene near Rome - and couldn't resist taking a photograph. The beach too is ineffable with its many shifting grains of sand and the crab has found its last resting place there.

Portrait of man looking at a Portrait

2012-01-16T19:04:00.005Z

This happens to me every year. My partner will spot a photo opportunity and I moan and groan about the light. But I then I go for it and it turns out well. It's shot in the ancient Jewish Ghetto of Rome in one of these narrow streets with artisan shops - and the only light is from the window. With this kind of picture I always wonder about the subject. He was much too absorbed in his search to notice me or my camera. How nice that is. The search for the object is at least as important as its acquisition. And the joy of finding something one was looking for after a long search is exquisite. It really is beyond price and even value. Any collector will be pleased tell you of the journey to find that elusive book, album or print - often at length. It's part of the object's provenance. I like to find a book that has some kind of history inscribed on the inside pages. Perhaps it was a gift and the giver pondered for a long time over how delighted the recipient would be to receive it. That relationship sabotages a gift relationship that demands we give a like object in return. Yet I like to think this man has found something he was looking for - for himself. Perhaps it meant something very special to him. I hope it did - and that he purchased it and took it home joyfully.

Another string to the crossbow

2012-01-12T11:40:00.004Z

I think this is a symbol we haven't yet tackled on the blog. The bow, no matter what it's form, is all about tension and in all cultures it's an important symbol. It has enormous sexual symbolism since it takes a precise, ordered structure of tension, relaxation and release. Wilhelm Reich, had he taken more interest in the symbolic application of his work on sex and anxiety, would have found much of interest in the bow. It is the weapon of kings and royalty but also of the warrior and hunter. But whereas the arrow is penetrative and clearly male, the string is female. And although we could almost miss the string (as in this photograph) it provides the thrust without which the whole thing is ineffective. The bow derives its whole power from the tension in the string. Anubis, Apollo and Shiva are all depicted with bows as are some figures in Christian art. Archers are masters of our fate and whoever is their target is doomed. But the archer is at the other end of the bow, away from the sharp end. We often talk about having another string to our bow, so the archer also needs back-up support! This crossbow is in a courtyard in the Castel Sant'Angelo in the centre of Rome. You could miss it because it is in a courtyard leading off the main visitor route, so if you do pay the castle a visit, go early and explore everything.

Rome on a Clear Day

2012-01-05T09:23:00.002Z

It's not so often you have such a clear day in Rome, with no pollution obscuring the mountains. It's a fabulous sight. This photograph is taken from the Gianicolo Hill which can be reached easily from the Vatican. You can walk up there if you have the energy. But it's a steep enough climb, so luckily there are plenty of buses. I was looking down at all the places and wondering how long it would take to explore everything in the Eternal City. A lifetime maybe? I also thought that it would be difficult to take a poor photograph from this location! Most tourists explore the famous sites that you can see here, but if you track back through the extensive parkland (much of which used to belong to the Vatican) that extends for many square kilometres, there's interesting places a visitor might miss. Rome is built on hills so there are even tiny farms very close to the centre. I found one as little as a kilometer from the busy roads around the Vatican. There's been human habitation here for around 14,000 years and its worthwhile speculating what it looked like then. I'm sure it looked well.

Ambivalent Orange

2012-01-03T12:36:00.007Z

Let's start the New Year afresh with this striking plant and the fruit it bears. It's a Queen Palm tree and the fruit starts out green and ends up orange. I was wondering if that's the way we all start out - a bit green. One of Shakespeare's characters, Cleopatra in this case, refers to her salad days, "when I was green in judgement, cold in blood. "That generally denotes youthfulness and inexperience and an inclination to rush into things without thinking. Of course green is much used in sayings. We are green with envy for example. But we are never orange with anything! Orange is such a nice colour and beloved of artists like Kandisky. "Orange is red brought closer to humanity by yellow." It is indeed a happy looking and it's often associated with vivid autumn shades and the Thanksgiving festival. Looking at the picture cheers me up but orange also has negative connections. Agent Orange was much used in the Vietnam War, destroying crops to terrible effect as well as harming soldiers who sprayed the substance. But the herbicide derived its name not from its own colour but from the striped drums used to transport it. It was a case of a dreadful substance shipped in a happy container.

For Marina: Died 1st December 2009. Sadly missed.

2011-12-01T13:46:00.000Z

Back Street Code

2011-11-27T15:23:00.006Z

This is one of the locations I was enthusing about in my last blog. If you go off the beaten track and wander in the back streets, you'll come across this sort of place. Possibly this has been a stable for the richer classes who lived in one of the Georgian tenements in Baggot Street or perhaps in Merrion Square. The photograph had a very dreary sky, so I painted it the exact blue of the sky behind me on the day - just an awkward but well meaning attempt at authenticity! I'm not sure how authentic these window are either but they appear to have been renovated in the style of the period. Georgian houses were rather small and rooms didn't boast the amount of space of the later Edwardian and Victorian buildings. I was wondering what this kind of space was signified. Certainly it's managed to hang on where similar building have long perished. There is some sense of a not too distant past and the knowledge that it constitutes a rapidly disappearing space in our cities. It's a nod to older times, but when it was initially built, would this building have been regarded as picturesque? I doubt it. It's one of the codes we use when we look at older buildings and this involves not only memory but also the received codes about interpreting the past. The latter derive from books, television and film and our expectations are very much driven and shaped by these classifications.

Tunnel Through

2011-11-23T16:02:00.006Z

There are quite a few small streets that go via a tunnel under the Lower Baggot Street tenements. If you want to see a bit of Dublin that has a mixture of old and new, then take one of these tunnel trips and explore a block or two. It's probably not your typical tourist area and it's none the worse for that. If I want a different kind of image, I explore these areas and this usually proves rewarding. A tunnel is a symbol of course, and one that has much to do with the underworld. Tunnels always lead from the light into darkness and then into light again. They offer some kind of obscurity and maybe that's why some people feel impelled to cover their walls with graffiti. And what tunnel worth its salt wouldn't be gloomy? If you encounter a tunnel in a dream I rather doubt that it will be brightly lit. They are usually dark and anguished, indicating anything from hardship to a frustrated desire. So we move to the most famous of tunnels, the exit into life through a tunnel from the mother's womb. Babies must struggle into existence along this constricted passageway. We all go through such a tunnel and it's the initiation rite par excellence. As well as life, tunnels bring death, souls and even the sun can be coaxed along some underground channels. I'm not claiming anything so special for my Baggot Street tunnel, but this I can say. When I stopped to take the photograph, several tourists also stopped to watch. Some of them changed course and walked through the tunnel and into a hidden neighbourhood they would otherwise have missed.

Urban Spring

2011-11-14T16:11:00.005Z

This is one of these long fountain arrangements that grace public buildings these days, but it was windy and it made a good shot difficult. The fountain is near the top of Leeson Street in Dublin and you have to wander through the gates of the office to access the water. Every so often a gust would shape the water and make it dance, so I tried a few shots of which this is the nicest. I got wet into the bargain so I hope it was worth it! A fountain is always a spring in symbolic terms. It's a symbol for purity and the water that emerges is held to be basic cosmic matter, without which life would be impossible. Springs are also symbols of motherhood and in some cultures, fishing in springs is forbidden - as is the cutting of any trees that border them. I've talked about springs before so I won't labour the point about drinking from the spring of immortality. Nor did I feel like drinking from this one. Nonetheless, when they are in a built setting, fountains are central to the idea of an earthly paradise - no more so than in the Arab world, where sacred formal gardens are stunning. These usually take the form of square courtyards with a circular fountain in the middle. The cult of fountains as a place of healing is common throughout the Celtic World, but especially in Brittany at the Fontaine de Barenton. I haven't even begun to discuss springs and the Orphic fragment that fascinates psychoanalysts. I'll leave that for another occasion.

Moon on the Wall

2011-11-13T16:03:00.003Z

I found this in the back streets near Dublin's Grand Canal. I was despairing of an interesting image, but the more run-down parts of the city presented me with a few opportunities. It's a funny depiction of a quarter moon with the traditional face - and I did laugh when I saw it. We always talk of moonlight but the moon has no light of its own and only reflects the light of the sun. It's operating on borrowed light! But for me, the moon is about the passage of time. It has very regular phases that let me know how much time has gone by, in a way that a calendar never can. And of course the moon "dies". It disappears for three days in a lunar month and to many cultures this represent the passage between life and death. As readers will be aware, I became very interested in rabbits and culture, so I know the Aztecs associate the rabbit with the moon. For Aztecs, the moon was a crescent-shaped water container with the silhouette of a rabbit sitting on top. I've mentioned the 400 rabbits of the Aztecs previously and in this case, the rabbit is a harvest symbol. They believed that their 400 rabbit gods were completely and permanently drunk. Now it could just be that this graffiti was painted by some drunken rabbit who was hopping out at all hours of the night. I like to imagine it was!

Just Leaves from the West Wind

2011-10-28T16:14:00.003+01:00

I couldn't let the autumn pass without one decent leaves shot. This is the top of a pile of leaves in Herbert Park, blissfully minus the sound of leaf blowers. It appealed because it had a swirly look, as if a gust of wind had shaped them, then suddenly stopped in mid-swirl! Poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, had a thing about leaves of course - and he was referring to the ordinary people in society when he spoke of pestilent stricken multitudes. Many of us are currently feeling as if we have been swept around, turned over, ruffled up - any number of pictures could describe our reaction to the grave economic circumstances that appear beyond our control. But leaves are all part of the cycle of life and death and they're all about the kind of decay that will lead to new plants in the spring. Perhaps parts of our lives are just like leaves - and maybe that's why children like kicking leaves furiously along the pavement with so much fun. And good gardeners will want that leaf mould if they have any sense - I expect the Herbert Park keepers are creating just that for fertiliser. This kind of change is ultimately for the better. Yet change is hard for all of us. People come to psychotherapy to help them change, certainly not because they want to stay the same. And if all goes well, that change in the person will occur with the same due process as plants and leaves. I like to see it as creating the groundwork for transformation, just like the leaves in the park. "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"

Under Pressure?

2011-10-25T16:26:00.005+01:00

The old railway works in the centre of Turin have been retained as a museum and this is one of the remaining features. Constructed in 1885, the Officine Grandi Riparazioni makes quite nice use of an old building for exhibition and museum space. But for me, the real interest lies in the factory's fabric rather than what's on display. This water tower is quite imposing although there's nothing grand or sacred about its humble purpose. It could be straight from an old western, complete with creaking. I wondered if the symbolism of towers actually held, when the tower in question is intended for something so mundane as maintaining water pressure. It may well be that there's a closer symbolic fit with with a waterfall rather than a tower. In practice, it's the pressure in the downward motion of the water that is the point. Yet strictly speaking, the water still comes down from the direction of the heavens, whereas the ladder reminds us of ascension. It’s another of these combinations of opposites. When in operation, the tower features both up and down movement. And there's water and metal, yin and yang. It's only a device to increase pressure which is surely a good thing for a water supply. But when we feel under pressure, we're seldom talking of anything good. Many people come to psychotherapy because they "can't take the pressure any more." Many are worked too hard and in some occupations, burn-out is accepted as an inevitable consequence of the job. If you feel that pressure in your life is out of control, it's a good idea to check out what help is available. The pages at my web site should help.

Rabbits and Symbols

2011-10-24T15:44:00.006+01:00

I found this in the Egypt Museum in Turin and took a detail shot. It looks like it's on stone but as I recall the material is painted fabric. Ever since I became interested in rabbits I wanted to have a look at their place in history. So when I'm in a museum, I have a small side project! Rabbits are the third most popular pet after cats and dogs - but alas they are also the most ill treated. Rabbits are prey animals and don't like being picked up - so they are probably not suitable for very young children. Often they are kept in cages that are too small and fed food that is totally inappropriate. Yet they are very companionable, affectionate and rewarding pets, if treated carefully and thoughtfully. Rabbits and hares have been around for 55 million years. They were venerated in Ancient Egypt and throughout the Celtic world they had great respect. Because of their cleverness and speed, rabbits were thought to have the ability to shape shift or turn into people and back again. As moon creatures, rabbits come out at night to play and they can vanish at will. There are quite a few cultural prohibitions on eating rabbits. Shi'ite peasants of Anatolia refuse to eat hare because they believe it is a reincarnation of Ali, who intercedes between the Prophet and his True Believers. Although there is definitely one Rabbit Goddess, Unut from the Greco-Romano period in Egypt, the Aztec believed that not one but 400 rabbits guarded their crops. But like all good symbols, rabbits are ambivalent. They can be either wise and productive or lazy and idle. In other words, they hop from one side to another!

The Sunflower Sutra

2011-10-20T15:43:00.002+01:00

I took the title from an Allen Ginsberg poem. Ginsberg was a beat poet and didn't mention flowers too much as I recall. The sunflower in his poem was a dead one sitting atop a dump in the city. Our sunflower is very much alive and living happily in Piedmont. It's not so easy taking a sunflower photograph because they seem to turn away from the direction of the light. It leaves the photographer with a perfect sunflower and a featureless white sky. Finally I managed to find one that was correctly positioned for my shot. Here more than with any other flowering, the symbolism indicates a return to the centre since flower blooms are thought to represent the cycle of life and death. I always come back to the story of Persephone, carried away by Hades from the meadows of Sicily when gathering flowers. She would have plenty of work in this field where rows of sunflowers are planted between and around grape vines. She was to be become Queen of the Underworld and so the flowers are the souls of the dead. Lets end with a quote from Ginsberg's poem. "A perfect beauty of a sunflower! a perfect excellent lovely sunflower existence! a sweet natural eye, to the new hip moon, woke up alive and excited, grasping in the sunset shadow sunrise golden monthly breeze!"

Pluto Park Revisited

2011-10-18T16:26:00.004+01:00

You may well ask, "what is this structure?" I asked the same question, but could not find an answer. I can tell you what happens there now, but its intended purpose I don't know. I thought that it might be a building constructed for the Winter Olympics. It's a part of the environmental park in Turin - the one I call Pluto Park. This is an enormous canopy - enough to cover an area the size of a couple of football pitches. Apart from the pleasure of strolling around the walkways, there are usually children happily playing team games under the roof. It rather resembles an enormous metal tent because there's very little to the sides, only the big canopy with it's geometric shape. I would describe the structure as an awning which of course takes us into symbolic territory. Traditionally, the King grants a subject the honour of a covering, an honour because the awning or canopy comes straight from Heaven. It represnts rank and power - from the King who is at the Centre of the World. This awning is more square than round so it relates to Earth rather than Heaven. However the stairs and the stepped roof seem to indicate a more heavenly path. Anyone can walk up the walkways or use the many lifts and although it wasn't quite completed when I visited. I always enjoyed walking there.

Sign of the (Old) Times

2011-10-17T16:20:00.004+01:00

I am fond of my signs, especially if they are made of iron like this one. The company is rather older than the date that appears in the photograph. As far as I can find out, the company was previously called Ross, Stephens and Walpole. an iron and brass founding concern that made railway bridges. The riveting is something we don't see to the same extent nowadays, but a riveter used to be quite a comparatively highly paid manual trade. Symbolically, the riveter's trade would subsume a group of qualities allied to iron - durability, toughness, hardness and hellish strength. Iron comes from the Underworld and is of the unconscious. Some even reckoned that as a base metal it should be kept separate from other more noble elements. There is an active principle in iron that is always connected to change. The plough and the many cutting implements like chisels are used to change substances and of course iron weaponry exerts its own change on the world. Iron has been found in artifacts as old as 3500 BC, probably mined from meteoric iron. So iron came first from the heavens whereas our iron sign has its roots in more recent times - the post Industrial Revolution. But I do like the technical term "passivated iron" because of the active principle inherent in iron. Passivating entailed dipping the iron into a concentrated solution of nitric acid. This formed a protective layer of oxide that retarded further corrosion.

Numbers in Pluto Park

2011-10-14T16:29:00.006+01:00

I've spoken of this park before. It's very nice to stroll through and when I do I always notice the numbers on every post. They're very bold and make quite a statement. I'm not talking of numbers as mathematical or their use for listing and categorisation. It's rather their use as symbols that interests us here. There is a view, coming from ancient times, that numbers have power and significance beyond simply expressing quantity. Plato referred to numerology as "the highest level of knowledge. It sticks in my mind in the Book of Revelation 13:16-18 states that "Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six." The number is a person and to address someone by number is like naming them. It's that action of naming. which is said to have mystical properties. In the Fulani culture, it is de rigueur to give numbers to things close to you. Mention of how many children, cattle or even your age is not acceptable. To do so would be to release power that flows without stopping. I'm not suggesting these numbers mean anything sinister is happening in Pluto Park. Whether the iron structures are from the factory that used to stand here, I cannot say, but they all have a number and the numbers seem to say more than mere words.

Castles, Walls and the Inner Refuge.

2011-10-13T16:46:00.006+01:00

This is part of the old Roman Wall in Turin. In the sun these bricks are such a warm colour, I just wanted to sit and look at them. In symbolic terms, walls are not quite the same as castles, but since this wall is castellated, I'm going to take a liberty. Because city walls and castles are fortified structures, they represent the inner refuge of the psyche. Even God has been described precisely as residing in such a place. I often hear a line from Psalms (60:9) repeated in reggae songs. "Who will bring me into the strong city?" And that most Buddhist of Christians, Meister Eckhart, also said in his Sermons: "Strive to make your way into the innermost fortress of the soul, into the House of Christ." and "There is within the soul a castle, into which not even the gaze of the Triune God can penetrate." In this he portrays the castle as representing Oneness. Castles are strong, they are high and they are very hard to breach. What better refuge could the psyche have than a kind of castle? You can do this exercise yourself, it's rather good fun. I try to visualise the kind of castle that might represent such a fortress deep within my own psyche. Now for some time it looked like one of these chunky Scottish baronial castles. But now, for preference, this is the one I visualise. It's protective and high and it'll do the job. But it is also an attractive and appealing structure that speaks of its designers and builders. Have a go yourself! What does your inner fortress look like?

After Market

2011-10-11T16:51:00.007+01:00

I like markets after they're closed and workers with lorries are clearing away the debris. There's a sense of open space and very often an opportunity for a dramatic photograph. This is in Turin and L'Antica Tettoia dell' Orologio market is indeed very old. These days, vendors are predominantly Moroccan and you can get any old thing here - it's quite a recycling effort that goes on naturally. It occurred to me that a market is always a social space, even when its cleared away. People will drift across the space on their evening walks and no doubt children on bicycles will zoom around in the evening. It is the complete antithesis of a shopping mall where everything is under control and the whole place can simply be shuttered at the press of a few buttons. Young people who tend to hang around shopping malls are drawn to what sociologists call "centres of consumption". The problem for corporate malls is that youngsters don't necessarily come to buy. It's more that they like to be in the midst of things that are happening - where the action is. They associate themselves with the values of the mall but even so, they tend to be moved on by security, because they don't always buy very much. Unlike modern shopping centres, an old fashioned market has irregular boundaries and temporary structures. Produce is arranged to be examined, rummaged through and even in these modern times - bargained for. I know which kind of market I prefer.

Full Final Jacket

2011-10-10T16:03:00.007+01:00

I'm not sure a jacket is a symbol, although perhaps it should be. It's clothes and dress that fall into the symbol category and a jacket is just part of the category. But prior to a fight, don't people take their jackets off? They don't take any other part of their dress off before a dust up. Clothes are exterior but are supposed to demonstrate something that is "other" about the wearer. Uniforms refer to rank, status, occupation and in particular the vestments of religious orders denote the sacred. The colour of clothing signifies something other too, as in white for purity. Yet all clothes also represent something of the interior person, because whatever the case, clothes are not merely coverings, but signs. I'm reminded of the song about the "Dedicated Follower of Fashion". Animals wear no clothing - it's purely a human characteristic and so it's more than just our fur. In this case its about our personality and interior being - but only what we wish to reveal to our community. I came across an excellent saying by Baltasa Gracian Y Morales. "Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets." I think in psychotherapy, we start, not by ignoring the jacket, but gradually seeking to divest ourselves of "show" and so reveal our true self. And of course, here in the picture of the window we have the shadow falling on the object. If we took the jacket off, the shadow would still be there.

Donnybrook Shopping

2011-10-07T16:01:00.011+01:00

It was a lovely Autumn day and the sun obliged by lighting this corner of Donnybrook. As I've mentioned before, the blighting by an awkward planning application caused many shops to close - two banks, grocery stores, a gym, a video store, a pharmacy, a dry cleaners - the list goes on. This end of the street is like chicane - it's not a good place to try and cross the road. The road narrows to an S-bend that would be the pride of Mondello Park and you have to "throw a double six" to make it safely. The Donnybrook History Society tells of a time when people jumped on and off the bus at just this point where traffic used to have to slow down. No longer! Yet in 20 years, these shops have remained exactly the same. The only thing to change is the ethnicity of the restaurant that tops the pub. So what is it about change? We seem to want change and then we complain when the old things have disappeared. Things were always better in the old days! The old 24 hour video store is no longer, a victim of changing technology. Now you can download an movie in the comfort of your home. But change inevitably means loss. When a client enters psychotherapy they are giving up old ways and adopting new ones. It's hard because old ways are familiar and comforting. But if you want to take the plunge and abandon old unwanted ways of being, have a look at my psychotherapy web site. There just might be something there for you and its much easier than getting across the road in Donnybrook.

Tuttosport - the Last Word

2011-10-06T15:11:00.007+01:00

I love passing this building just to see the lettering on the roof against a blue sky. It has a relationship with a recent blog. Tuttosport is a sports newspaper who's founder, Renato Caslabore, died in the 1949 Superga air disaster together with nearly all members of the Grande Torino football team. It's now an immensely popular 32 page daily published in Turin and Milan. My subject isn't sport though, because what attracted my attention was lettering. Now letters don't always function symbolically but in both Hebrew and Islamic traditions, letters are extremely important. Hebrew letters possess powers of creation that only God can know and Arabic letters are wondrously symbolic. And of course, devotees of numerology know letters possess numeric qualities and they are regarded as holding some other kind of truth. All letters are symbols of mystery! But letters cannot be separated from the Word or Logos as it is in Greek thought. Now my old minister was quite a preacher. He gave an address to a religious gathering in which he quoted fulsomely from the bible using memory alone. His critics were both envious and furious. "The Word of God" they said, "should be read." And they had a point. In most religious cultures, letters and the word are first and foremost the property of God. And getting back to our image, there are many who believe that sport is the last word.

Polizei On the Canals

2011-10-05T14:50:00.008+01:00

I took my camera to the Grand Canal in Dublin without much hope of finding something different. I have taken many photos there and I despaired of finding anything new. But how wrong I was. The German Police barge was unusual enough for me to take a few photographs. I never did find the reason for the boat being there. It stayed for a few weeks and then disappeared. Perhaps it was purchased as government surplus in Germany and brought here to be refitted. Someone will let me know, I'm sure. Symbolically, anything to do with police is a sign of authority and if you dream of police it's often about the father or at least a father figure. I never heard anyone recount seeing a policewoman in a dream. It's almost always a policeman. A boat on the other hand is rather clearer to understand! It's the symbol of voyaging and this boat has made a considerable voyage. But the voyaging is often about the underworld, where a boat carries dead passengers on their final trip. Occasionally the boat was dragged along a canal bank by a long rope in the shape of a serpent - and that would seem appropriate for our picture. French philosopher, Gaston Bachelard compares the boat with a coffin, bearing the soul to its rebirth. It has to be birth in that case where clearly death cannot be a last voyage. If we regard life as a kind of voyage, the boat can be a sign of security. This barge is very much a secure container and necessarily womb-like inside. So in the picture, the boat is mother to the police father.

The Vault of Heaven

2011-10-04T15:22:00.004+01:00

Domes are meat and drink to the jobbing symbolist! A dome building is an image of the world and this is delightfully typical. The sky is round, the earth is square and the pillars are rays of sun, flooding down onto the earth. There is even a central hole which denotes the sun. It's a fair bet that most people who look up at this dome know little of this and why should they? They experience it at an unconscious level. But not everyone was looking up at the time I took the photograph. My concentration was disturbed because a rather disreputable individual was taking far too much interest in my camera kit. Even in church the harsh realities of the outside world intrude! I remember him though and I guess he has his own relationship with this image. This is the interior of the very fine Basilica at Superga. It's on a hill overlooking Turin, with fabulous views and a funicular railway to get you the top in some style. The church was built from 1717 to 1731 so that Victor Amadeus Savoy could fulfil a vow he made during the Battle of Turin. The Superga hill is well known for the calamitous 1949 air crash which killed returning football heroes, Il Grande Torino. At the time, 10 Torino players were in the Italian national side and some say it was a tragedy from which the team never really recovered. When I was there, a man and his son, dressed in Torino colours had made a special pilgrimage to visit the memorial shrine and I was honoured to witness an emotional father-son moment.

Going to the Dogs (and Under the Weather)

2011-09-30T17:16:00.007+01:00

If you feel like this, then things are getting you down. This was a day to stay in the house really. If it's dull and dismal for any length of time it can be draining. We all have these moments and often it's accompanied by feelings of despair. Jungians believe that depression is caused by a particular relationship between the ego and the self. In the first stage of life this is generally positive and possibly inflated because the ego experiences itself as at the centre of consciousness. But in mid life, feelings of disconnection are common. Men in particular have feelings of disappointment about the recognition they failed to achieve, the friends they don't have, the status and power that did not come. And last - but hardly least - they may mourn the money and material goods they failed to gather. In mid life, the persona of youth cracks to pieces and it may be replaced by hopelessness and depression. One day, a message was left on my mobile phone from someone who wanted to see me for psychotherapy. I called the number back and was surprised that the message came from Shelbourne Stadium. I may never know who it was, but I wondered whether they felt they had literally "gone to the dogs". If you have feelings of depression, it's a good idea to speak to someone and there's more about that on my professional web site.

Passive Waters?

2011-09-30T15:04:00.007+01:00

There are many such shots and quite often they win competitions. I don't know why, because there is no mystery to them. I did change the sky and with a background of trees that's quite some work. I like it though, because it gives the picture a "pop-up" look and, in consequence, the whole image starts to look artificial. I called it passive water because canal water does not flow "naturally". It is compelled to go where the human-made channel determines. And even at locks where the water can be at its most active, it is nonetheless persuaded to accommodate the demands of the canal. Like the sea, psychoanalysts don't have much time for canals. Whilst they prefer inland water, canals can't go where they want. They may not babble round stones and carve a meander from a field. For the most part, canals are waters which take a set course for movement of cargo. So they are very predictable and denote peace and order. That doesn't mean canals are totally safe. In 1792, 150 Athy-bound passengers forced their way onto a Grand Canal barge, many of them drunk. In spite of the Captain's warning, the barge capsized near the eighth lock, with the loss of five men, four women and two children. At Portobello Bridge in 1861, a horse from a horse-drawn bus reared, causing the other horses to back the bus through the rails of the bridge. All the horses and six passengers died. That's part of the ambivalence of symbols - passive or not, water can be either life or death.

2011-09-30T14:54:00.000+01:00

Exist with the Self for Lamp

2011-09-29T16:32:00.002+01:00

"Exist with the Self for Lamp" is a saying attributed to the Buddha, meaning that we should exist in the Universal Spirit. Certainly a lamp is the symbol of divine souls in many cultures. When I was in Turin, it was the 150th anniversary of the Italian Republic and this decorated square was just one of the many displays that accompanied celebrations. The symbolism of the lamp really derives from light - the lamp is the framework for diffusion of light in Buddhism and in Islam, light is the manifestation of the lamp. I would say that this careful display gives some expression to these beliefs. They look a little oriental don't they? Lamps were set at the top of Buddhist pagodas and were called "the lighthouses of the Dharma". A red lamp represents the truth in lodges of many Chinese secret societies. In the West, we also associate the lamp with contemplation and holiness. But the custom I like best is that of the Berbers. They set a lamp near the new born's head and maintain it for ten nights. Now that same lamp was carried in front of the bride and kept burning through her wedding night. The light represents a person.

Church Steeple in Pluto Park

2011-09-28T15:52:00.002+01:00

The Church at Piero della Francesca in Turin is quite spectacular. I am not over fond of new church buildings - they seem a bit utilitarian to me. But this one catches the eye. Of course, the structure is the equivalent of a steeple, but a steeple is also a tower. Churches are for the most part "set into" towers. And taking the outside view. the tower seems to constitutes the main deal. You can see them from a long way off and, more often than not, they are the highest points in a small town or village. In symbolic terms they connect heaven with earth. Together with the rubble works and cellar that is often beneath them, they include the Underworld too! This tower is different in that it's set apart from the main building. Standing beside the church in an inviting open space, it also provides a mounting point for exterior bells. It's altogether quite different from what one might expect. I spent a pleasant time there, just walking around and framing images and thinking that this offers a public space so often lacking in church grounds these days. Symbolically, towers are often considered unfinished. They simply don't reach the sky and although the builders can keep trying, they are doomed to failure. In the Tarot card, "The Tower", builders are cast down by a bolt of lightning and the whole structure seems about to crumble. The Tower is an ambivalent symbol denoting the spiritual rather than the material path.

Pluto Park and the Forbidden Planet

2011-09-20T17:12:00.007+01:00

Here's that same water pipe in Pluto Park from two blogs previous. I call this place Pluto Park, because the iron girders remind me of the way old science fiction films depicted the urban landscape in far-off colonised planets. An industrial look was common but deliberately "made strange" to connote the future. I do recall that the the classic film, Forbidden Planet, itself a take on Macbeth, displayed a kind of industrial-technological look. In maybe the same way, Pluto Park has retained elements of the old factories on who's site it now stands and so provides continuity for a once dynamic industrial area that has seen considerable degeneration. An amble along the elevated walkways, surrounded by marching ranks of industrial girders can be stunning. Yet iron suggests strength and harshness, especially since in this location it has been allowed to retain its rusty orange colour. And although iron is associated with darkness, the girders lend power to whatever scene they grace. It's a nice counterpoint to the lawns, trees and ponds that nestle beside the large housing projects in this part of the city. When I was looking for a photo feature to portray a gateway to another planet, I used one of these iron structures in a collage. It looked rather fitting - a proper Stargate. So perhaps it's Planet Earth that's colonised by ourselves and we paint our future in terms of our own symbolic past. Maybe this is the Forbidden Planet.

The Hospital Fence and Sacred Space

2011-09-19T14:54:00.011+01:00

I said I was going to get back to Pluto Park but more of that later. This is part of the CTO hospital in Torino - that's the Centro Traumatologico Ortopedico, which specialises in serious trauma. Those involved in road and skiing accidents may end up here, often helicoptered directly to the front of the hospital. The location is meat and drink to a photographer and the hospital has the best snack bar ever. If you have to spend a lot of time waiting around, there is plenty to occupy anyone interested in sandwiches and photography. Yet the matter of interest here is the chain. Imagine the picture without the red chain and it would be so much less. Chains bind and this one is binding a specific area to make a barrier or boundary. Not much of a boundary one might think? Well, it only needs to be notional here. No serious harm will come to transgressors, but it does say "Keep Off". In our psyche too, we do do fence things off and often it's absolutely necessary to make boundaries to protect a part of ourselves that we feel is special. In particular, this personal space is prohibited to others. Jungian psychologists sometimes call this "sacred space" - a bounded area which is so personal to the individual that no one else may tread there. Temenos (τέμενος⁾ is Greek for a cut off piece of land designated for an official function and it has become associated with the immediate area around a temple or altar. Jung transposes the term and the concept to a personal psychic location.

Out of the Blue in Pluto Park

2011-08-30T16:21:00.008+01:00

I guess this is the best title since I haven't managed to blog much for the past 3 months. Maybe I seem to have appeared "out of the blue". I have had urgent family matters to attend to and also the demands of another project took me away. All will become clear on the latter in due course. This picture was taken in Turin and represents a feature of an urban recreational park - a regeneration project built on an old Fiat tyre factory. Some of the factory has been retained and this is the bit I liked best. It's just a simple down pipe from which water flowed to a pond - an industrial fountain if you like. I found myself looking at it for some time, because against the clear blue sky and the buildings behind, the flow of water made a very striking and intriguing sight. Blue is an amazing colour and not that common in nature. It offers a deep translucent void that we can very well fall into, whether its sea or sky. Here, the water is infinite with possibility, jumping into shapes that appear random. I think a slow camera shutter speed reveals its mercurial splendour. After initially disliking this industrial park, I fell in love with it and was privileged to spend some time in its embrace. I call it Pluto Park, for reasons that I will explain in further posts. So I'll leave you with with the water in Pluto Park and I hope you find it as relaxing as did I.

Summer shower

2011-06-09T13:00:00.005+01:00

It doesn't feel much like the summer. It's chilly for June. Yet someone said to me that it was brilliant weather. I probed a bit and I discovered that he meant it wasn't raining and hence the weather was OK. I was irritated when I was caught in a heavy downpour. The sun had been shining and it looked settled - but that can easily change in Dublin. So I ducked into a doorway and took my camera out. It took several shots to get something that appealed to me. I counted the number of people in the picture and there are eight, not counting the person who's arm alone got into the shot. The reflections were wonderful and I particularly liked the trailing red streaks made by the traffic lights in the wet asphalt. They look impossible don't they? But that's what they were like for a brief instant. The rain disappeared in an instant too, so its a bit of bad luck that I and my eight subjects got caught in the rain. I am always saying that we can't control everything. Not everything can be in the hands of the individual. We might have been born in the Saharan region and many are. But most were not born there. We are thrown into the world without choice and that we have to accept. What we do after that, as individuals, is something we are able to work on. Definitely you could find out more at http://coinneachshanks.com/

Psychoanalysis - part of the Secret Service?

2011-05-24T14:30:00.008+01:00

The visit of the US President was quite the thing in my neighbourhood. Apart from any parked cars mysteriously vanishing at 2 am! The President came and went and for the most part no-one caught a glimpse of him - unlike our experience of the Queen or His Holiness the Pope. But naturally, I couldn't let the event pass without a blog entry. I must say, it's not often I see someone from the Secret Service. That's because it's secret, I hear you say. Well, here's the man with the sign on his back and he looks the part, almost straight out of the movies. Secrecy is a big time symbol and a secret is very much a privilege of power. This image means that such a person shares in that power and partakes in the privileges thereof. The down side is that holding a secret causes a great deal of anxiety. Prometheus shared a secret with Zeus that was entrusted to him by Themus - but not before making Zeus suffer as much as he had. He was then released from his chains. That was a happy event for him, since Prometheus' liver was being clawed by vultures at the time and was not a happy fellow. Sharing a secret is good for the soul. Freedom comes from unburdening oneself of the terrible weight of guarding a secret. The excuse of those in power is like that of the alchemists. One shouldn't reveal a secret to those who would misuse or abuse it. With secrets come domination and a sense of superiority. So at very many levels, unburdening is one thing that can be of immediate benefit for someone participating in psychoanalysis

Echoes of Colour

2011-04-28T16:48:00.004+01:00

This scene worked out well and that's not unusual because this corner generates many lovely images. One could just hang around and watch. It would always be rewarding. I loved the colours in the child's bike, which were rather reflected by the advertising and even again by the Dublin Bus colours in the background. These are sometimes called "echoes" in photography. So I think this blog is about the echo rather than colour. Nonetheless, colour is symbolically about universality and that rather suits the image too - with the older men talking behind the young couple with the child. Echo is not such a positive symbol though. Chained to a rock for a romantic infraction, Echo the nymph was condemned to become a person who could only repeat the last words she had heard. She is the symbol of regressivity and passivity. In other legends she was infatuated with Narcissus, but thwarted, she sought refuge in the caves and forests. Maybe we can hear her calling him in this image. The advertisement might fall neatly into the Narcissus category - calling to us and repeating what we like back to us - as advertising generally does. Advertising wants us to gaze at and fall in love with our own reflection. So that we buy things for the person we think we are and who we recognise in the advertising. Over the years I have become convinced that this is how it works. Narcissus is so obsessed, he doesn't hear Echo and so I rest my case. I'm not so sure about the bus. Its good to see the bus arrive!

Boy on the Bridge

2011-04-27T16:02:00.007+01:00

This railway bridge is perfectly adequate for the task - but it's a little depressing I always think when I am there. The combination of that shade of green with the close mesh has a touch of prison about it - restriction or containment of some sort maybe. The symbolic function of the bridge is not so different from its practical purpose here. A bridge allows us to cross from one side to another and in so doing stay away from dangers of some sort, In this case it's trains and electricity, so the bridge is a container too. The bridge takes us from one state to another - the transition to from Earth to Heaven is often represented by a bridge. There is a symbolism of passage. The Pontiff of the Christian Church is a term which originates in the old Roman colleges and means "bridge builder". There is a corollary in Welsh and Irish Mythology with the legend of Branwyn, Daughter of Lyr. In this tale, an avenging army of the Welsh came to the magical Shannon on which there was no bridge. King Bran lay across the river and allowed his army to march over him and to the other side. This is associated with the saying, "The Chief should be a bridge". In dreams, bridges are usually about a danger to be overcome. In all likelihood, some obstacle in the dreamer's life has to be crossed and the dreamer will be in transition from one state to another. The boy in the photograph cuts a solitary figure doesn't he? I can't see his face but the the stance suggests "pensive" - almost as if he does have some important obstacle under consideration. If a client brought a bridge dream to a session, I would certainly ask for associations to bridges. But in the end I would be asking whether there is anything up ahead perceived by the client as transitional and difficult.

Duck Sandwich

2011-04-24T14:30:00.004+01:00

It's not that unusual to see ducks in my neighbourhood where they frequent Herbert Park. But this is close to the centre, so I was surprised, not only by their presence there, but by the busy corner they had elected to stroll around. Ducks don't care, clearly. They have definitely been mentioned before in this blog. In the far east they symbolise marriage and felicity because duck and drake will swim in each other's company. American Indians think highly of ducks as spirit guides and use duck feathers in dances and rituals. But of ducks in Welsh or Irish mythology, no mention can be found. They tend to be confused with swans apparently. These days when I see a duck I can't help thinking of the Marx Brothers film Cocoanuts. Looking at a map, Groucho says "I say, here is a little peninsula, and here is a viaduct leading over to the mainland." To which Chico responds "Why a duck? Why that...why a duck? Why a no chicken? " Of course it continues with a typical Groucho non-sequitur "Well, I don't know why a no chicken; I'm a stranger here myself!" That's what come to mind for me of course, not the symbolism of ducks. Psychoanalytically, if I reported a dream about ducks I would have to explain all my associations including Marx Brothers, chickens and viaducts. Come to think of it - wasn't there a viaduct in the previous blog photograph? Why? Why a no chicken?

The Same but Different

2011-04-24T09:23:00.003+01:00

Passing this street I thought how much it had changed and how little. It always looked a bit like this even though the only surviving feature is the railway bridge in the centre of the image. To my recollection, there was always a terrace of small houses with larger and grimmer buildings in the background. Perhaps the train has a different livery now. It's not a suburban train, because it's too long - and as I positioned myself for the photograph, the train kept moving through, carriage after carriage. A friend of mine used to refer to this street as "ugly street" and certainly it isn't very pretty. Yet it's full of visual interest on this occasion. The sunshine helps. I do remember that the founder of psycho synthesis, Roberto Assagioli, was clear on the question of things "always being the same". They are not of course. Although there has always been redevelopment, it takes place in different contexts where different relationships pertain. We have to be certain about what is different here and now - and most important of all, what it means for us.

The Shadow doesn't Walk

2011-04-22T13:49:00.003+01:00

The shadow can't walk under its own steam. It's always someone's or something's shadow. Unless its the pulp fiction hero of the thirties of course. The image above, which features a a kind of portico, reminded me of discussions about the shadow that I have had with Jungian psychologists. Now the shadow as a psychological concept refers either to the whole of the unconscious or to that part of the unconscious that comprises traits and attitudes that go unrecognised by the individual. So the shadow cannot be an entity of any kind and certainly not a human entity. In philosophy, reification is a tendency to refer to an abstract as if that abstract possessed a concrete or material existence. To refer to the shadow as a real thing with its own concrete existence is to reify it. Yet the collective, including government agencies or business corporations, does possess both an unconscious and a shadow that comprises unrecognised attitudes. So we can put the shadow forward as a concept and it has the power to offer explanations for certain kinds of behaviour. You may dislike someone for no reason and it is likely that your unconscious identifies, in that person, traits that you don't like about yourself. That is your shadow. But of course there is no substantial shadow separate from you or from the people that comprise collective organisations. I think the pulp fiction Shadow was rather interesting because although he couldn't make himself invisible, he could shroud his opponents minds so that they saw him several feet to the right or left. When your shadow is in charge of your actions, you are likely to be as off-target as the adversaries of the that pulp fiction character.

Shopping and Floating Commodities

2011-04-21T14:01:00.005+01:00

Shopping centres or malls are much the same, but Lingotto is hardly the worst. The new Turin Metro goes there now so it's busier than it used to be. Built inside the old Fiat factory in Turin, it is quite airy and light - as is this photograph. Because of the shiny floor and the shadows, people look as if they have levitated slightly. I particularly like the youngsters chatting in the background. Shopping centres rapidly became a place where young people could "hang out" although not necessarily buying anything. Therein lies a conflict. Consumption of commodities has taken over space. In fact, it more or less governs it. Even television space is all about shopping, buying things, selling things and so on. Henri Lefebvre says that this "sacrifices the future and destroys the present." I feel that past societies would look unfavourably on a world so dominated by commodification. Its a present where even we ourselves become commodities. We have sold our own future and destroyed our personal present. That is what leads many into psychotherapy. They feel and know they are more than commodities but they are uncertain regarding what they may in fact be. For me, the young people in the photograph represent hope, because they are in conflict with the space. their agenda is different. In due course, they may even be moved on. But they will have served their purpose by confronting the adult world. That is their job.

Portico flâneur - the art of strolling

2011-03-27T15:30:00.005+01:00

I do like Turin and its porticos. On the one day I had chosen to prowl around, it rained! However this was no problem. You can walk for many kilometres under these arches and look at the many different shops. Turin has managed to hang on to its old traditions. There are small cafes, many with the original period decor. There are hobby shops with all kinds of models and you can order made-to-measure confectionery. Turin continues to be a centre for chocolate making and it's generally small scale. The Slow Food movement began in this region and it does show. What better place to be a flâneur? In order to be a flâneur proper you must have an interest in the city and its ways. You have to be have an affection for the things the city can offer. It is the zenith of participant observation - where some detachment is necessary for full enjoyment and appreciation. Probably my fondness for Turin is showing. It is nice to just walk around with no particular aim and I feel that perhaps we are in danger of losing the art of strolling. In these times, we must always have a purpose - shopping mostly. It isn't necessary. So perhaps we should all try to be flâneurs. Just as an exercise, go out for a walk around the city and see if you can do this without intention.

Block

2011-03-17T10:59:00.003Z

This is a much worked on photograph with a few errors that were, in the end, satisfactory. It reminded me of the sixties and seventies obsession with "high flat syndrome". That naturally only applied to the UK and was entirely ethnocentric. Many countries are perfectly OK with apartment blocks - or condominiums are they are sometimes called. If you live in a city, acknowledging the benefits rather than the drawbacks of high density, then you know that many facilities are available to you - including transport, leisure and health. Importantly they are close by. In Spain and some other countries, participation in an apartment block committee is compulsory. That's perfectly sensible you might think. yet it demands a sharing sensibility. It's where collective and individual needs must coincide. In Jungian psychology, the individual is often privileged over the collective. Some practitioners seem to feel that this is means the individual is always "better" than the collective. Yet as existentialist psychotherapists know, we don't have a choice about being social beings. Where individuals benefit from sharing there can be no argument. Both individual and collective values are valid.

Sustainable Purification?

2011-03-13T11:33:00.007Z

This doorway is on O'Connell Street, much of which has seen better days. Particularly at the north end, there are many closed buildings - even a hotel where I once stayed seems quite derelict! The message is aimed at the banking sector and naturally many members of the collective are rather angry about the behaviour of those in whom we were encouraged to trust. Symbolically though, it is the method suggested by the graffito that interests. Fire is about many things. Yet we can be clear that in this case it's about change. Purification is in the very nature of fire and cleansing is what is suggested here. My philosophy hero, Gaston Bachelard would smile at this one. When he wrote the Psychoanalysis of Fire, one of the things he had in mind was the overpowering, elemental force of fire and the dramatic change it produces. When a fire starts it produces a chain reaction by which it sustains itself. Combustion brings fire and a process of change that both continues and is somewhat difficult to stop. Certainly it cannnot be reversed. Although the graffito doesn't go very far - graffiti never can - it's suggesting sustainable change. Change imples some kind of loss and in recent times, losses have been high.

Jason and the Psychonauts

2011-03-06T13:13:00.005Z

I saw an opportunity to change a good enough seascape into something more particular. In general I don't like the Photoshop excesses, which are everywhere. But the shot seemed to be asking for manipulation. Also it seemed as if my horizon was, for once, dead level and made for a straightforward selection job. It was a very dull day without a great deal of sky detail but the sea looked choppy and threatening. So I opted for wide angle lens and then cropped the image to the centre. The sea invariably symbolises the unconscious, undifferentiated and formless. Terrifying eh? It's shapeless and dark and might have monsters in it. Am I speaking of the sea or the unconscious? A journey through the sea of the unconscious is what we embark upon in analysis. Paraphrasing Shankaracharya's "sea of passions", whoever crosses the sea with its demons and massive waves can be said to have travelled to the ends of the earth and have departed to the beyond. I have always felt that anyone setting out in analysis is a brave person embarking on a difficult and even perilous voyage, so the sea provides a good metaphor. Like the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts, the analyst and analysand must together confront, overcome and ultimately integrate whatever is in the unconscious. That's why some of us like to call analyst and analysand after the Argonauts. We are Psychonauts, forever piloting our ships across the sea of the unconscious.

Down here at the Railroad Station

2011-03-05T12:16:00.003Z

In this picture, the passenger is arriving - and clearly wants to move forward on his journey at haste. If we dream of ourselves in this position we are clearly in transition. Having said that, I am always dreaming of changing buses, trains, planes and moving between termini. These splendid trains in the background would signify power, luxury and comfort in a dream. They could also indicate a development in your life. But this all depends of course on the context. If you were always travelling on this kind of train, it might signify something completely different. However, when I think of railway stations, they sometimes remind me of the ancient caravan trade routes. Now the caravanserai were roadside stops for the caravan traders to rest and recuperate. Like the old coach inns, they provided meals and accommodation. The railway station is a bit like that. These lines are from one of my favourite poems, Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. "Think, in this batter'd Caravansara/ Whose Portals are alternate Night and Day/How Sultan after Sultan with his Pomp/Abode his destined Hour, and went his way." The railway station is, over time, like anything else. It's subject to change. Major railways stations no longer offer baths to travel-stained passengers, like the caravenserai of old. That's a pity. I remember using the service at Euston station in London. It was affordable and briefly luxurious. Chain coffee shops and clothes franchises can never replace that.

Mutual Support

2011-02-28T16:04:00.004Z

I really like this good fun picture. Nearby a shopping centre, this Christmas ice rink has obviously been popular because it has remained for some time! Certainly there are no indications that it will close. The two young women were having a good time supporting each other and when I inspected the photograph closely, it reminded me of the trust games often used in youth work. One person must support the other and the other must trust that he or she will be supported. I have seen it go wrong but not deliberately! Naturally it also reminded me of some elements of successful psychotherapy. This doesn't and cannot happen without trust. But although one person, the client, can "lean" on the psychotherapist, the psychotherapist may not lean on the client. Yet there is something similar that the psychotherapist might do for a while. The technique is called "holding", which is rather like a continuing version of a supportive hug. Whilst the client is particularly vulnerable, they may need to be "held close" so that they feel supported. There are occasions when that is all that can be achieved, at least for a while. A psychotherapist may have to challenge the views of the client, but that doesn't happen when they are being "held". Child psychologist Donald Winnicott said that the the therapist could provide a holding environment, by being patient. In this way, the therapist allows the client's true self to gradually emerge without defences getting in the way. He said that it was, in any case, the patient, who has the answers. Back to my picture! On that afternoon, for a short while at least, it was the two youngsters who had the answers.

Columns and Pillars and the Rest

2011-02-27T13:31:00.004Z

If I am in Rome, I always visit this square. It's the Largo di Torre Argentina and it's reputedly where Julius Ceasr met his assassins. Apart from its beauty and antiquity, it is the home of an interesting and much photographed cat colony. Then to the rear is the very old Jewish Ghetto of Rome, where there are more antiquities and restaurants with arguably the best food in Rome. Various columns here have been salvaged - there are four temples - and stood beside each other in this large square. It's quite a sight. So I am going to talk of columns - one of the most discussed symbols. I am sure the Freud would agree. In any case, columns have always been derived from trees and the support structures for buildings were originally made from trees. They were designed, not only for support, but to give vitality to a building. Many architects do not like the current mode of suggesting that a building hasn't much support. This lacks vitality, they might argue. They appear without substance. And many reject the column since to them it implies patriarchy. It is thought however, that the sexual connotation of pillars is that a right hand pillar constitutes the active male principle and the left represents the passive female principle. That is primarily associated with the reproductive organs. It does not imply that males are always active and females passive! That's a question for another blog! I do like the arrangement of the columns in the picture and the deep blue sky at dusk. I could stand there for quite a while, as the light changes!

Reflecting Back

2011-02-27T12:54:00.003Z

For some time now, the popular rugby bar has featured this hamburger stand painted like the hotel frontage. I've been waiting for a good shot, but somehow it never came. So today I forgot about the empty foreground (which photographers don't like except when they have to leave space for a magazine title). I like the hotel's idea and it gives me the opportunity to talk about reflection. In traditional "counselling", reflecting back is the primary technique. By accurately repeating or summarising the clients' words, clients are reassured that they have been heard properly. In normal conversation this is is unlikely to happen. And in adverse circumstances, some people talk over the words of others, never allowing them the feeling of being heard. Worse still, the utterances of some are snatched away form them by the conversing other and completely transformed in the process. Analyst, Christoper Bollas, regards this as kind of theft. All modes of psychotherapy attempt to counteract this unfortunate phenomenon. Symbolically speaking the reflection is associated with the mirror, which in Latin is speculum. When we speak of speculating, we are referring to that process by which we reflect and mirror things of importance to us. So for me this brings to mind the Vietnamese saying "Like the Sun, like the Moon, like Water and like Gold, be clean and bright and reflect what is in your heart." At the very least, we can set out to be faithful to ourselves.

Through the Big Fridge

2011-02-26T15:54:00.005Z

For this photograph I was at the limit of what the camera could do and outside the limit that I was myself permitted. In the Museum of Cinema in Turin, one is not allowed to take photographs. If there is a better Museum of Cinema, then I haven't heard about it. This superb building, an old Jewish temple, (Mole Antonelliana) was reconstructed to house a stunning collection of film artefacts and there's lots to do for people of any age. You can kiss goodbye to an afternoon quite easily here. I liked the fun side of things. You can walk through the giant fridge under the giant chicken and emerge to yet another cinema screen. But of course for this blog it was the symbolic nature of food that I was thinking about. Now food is not of itself a symbol whereas various kinds of food residing in a fridge are indeed symbolic. The chicken or at least the cock is a solar symbol, heralding daybreak as it does. Milk is of fertility and plenty and so on. But the fridge made me think about food and the use of energy in the present day world. Useful as it is, it uses energy to keep things fresh for longer than their natural life. We buy food that has often been transported long distances. We freeze it and then quite often we later defrost it in a microwave oven. Then we heat it up. So there is an argument for choosing fresh food, locally produced and in season. Perhaps we wouldn't have to go through the fridge quite so often!

Straight lines at the Bus Stop

2011-02-26T14:36:00.005Z

Just a wet day at the bus stop, waiting for the right bus that seems to take a while. Taking a few photographs seemed like a good idea to fill in the time. Nor was I going to move from my seat into the damp street! This is what came out with a long lens and some ferreting around. There's an abandoned umbrella that had given up the ghost and I thought it looked interesting beside the lines. The yellows in particular seems to match, so a shallow depth of field and a focus on the umbrella was my choice. This image was certainly the best of the bunch. Yet in the end it was the lines and not the umbrella that were dominant. There are always lines around and usually they are boundaries or instructions. An instruction is implicitly a boundary of sort. Intellectual and moral rectitude says one dictionary of symbols - I suppose that is roughly correct. The furniture maker would not use a crooked line to make his artefacts! We wouldn't want to be crooked. We have to keep the right line, and of course always remember to stand behind the (yellow) line and certainly not not cross the line. In Freemasonry the plumb-line hangs from the arch to touch the ground. As in many philosophies, it joins heaven and earth - the Cosmic Axis. I am quite an admirer of Le Corbusier, who insisted that buildings should always be in the vertical plane. For him this was the "pliant symbol" of the vertical. I'm not so sure. These days it might very well be the pliant symbol of the horizontal and terrestrial.

Planning application (pour homme)

2011-02-05T16:30:00.003Z

This is just another of these recession images and the centre has much potential for strange images of this kind. They would be amusing if the economic situation wasn't so bleak. Shops normally put up their shutters permanently but this one was a little different. I presume that the advertising had to run its course whilst the display of a new planning application was required. I guess what also struck me was the awkward position of the hand, almost as if it didn't belong to the man pictured here. The symbolism of the hand is extensive. It can represent action, domination or power but it can also indicate supplication or submission. In this image it reminds me of the way current politicians are taught to hold their hands They must not point apparently - or make finger-wagging gestures. What results is a certain distortion, which is no way a real indication of anything substantial. In Buddhism, the hand must not be closed because that indicates the hidden and secrecy. It is not an honest gesture. In psychoanalysis the hand can often be seen as synonymous with the eye. So in certain circumstances in dreams, the appearance of the hand can be interpreted as an eye - hands are use in communication and so are the eyes. The hand in the image does not seem to offer much honesty, does it? What are we being offered by the hand, the advertisement? What is being communicated? Something other than what we might at first imagine?

The Year of the Rabbit God

2011-02-04T11:41:00.005Z

This is the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. Small, wily and fast, rabbits are underrated and I feel this is quite unwise. Rabbits have staying power and there are always a lot of rabbits around. It set me wondering if there had been a Rabbit deity of any kind - in ancient times perhaps. In my researches, I discovered a rabbit! Unut was a powerful rabbit-headed Goddess who currently stands at the left hand side of the statue of the King in the ancient Egyptian city of Hermopolis. On the other side stands Thoth, God of Wisdom, all discovered relatively recently. Of course, the Rabbit Goddess is of fertility and the spring. Yet ultimately she is celebrated for her speed and she is known as The Swift One. In Celtic mythology, the rabbit can appear and disappear at will. Because of its zig-zag motion, the rabbit can evade predators by changing direction with astonishing agility. It's also a bit of trickster. In one of Br'er Rabbit's adventures, he escapes by persuading his captor, the fox to throw him into the briar patch. "Whatever you do, don't throw me into the briar patch!" In fury, the fox duly does so and of course, that's where Br'er Rabbit lives! It is fitting that Unut should be discovered in a city named after Hermes, the archetypal trickster. But what of our photograph? I took this detail of an Egyptian obelisk in Rome with a long lens and to my surprise, I could see rabbits. Can you spot Unut? I can. Happy Chinese New Year!

Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

2011-01-27T16:30:00.004Z

Naturally I couldn't help taking a picture of this enormous sign. It's covering a closed down bank - a bit of an ignominious end for a formerly prestigious institution. But I started to reflect on what constitutes the truth. Now early in my training we students were visited by a Choice Therapist who, as an introduction, argued that there was no such thing as truth and that no-one could define it. That was a little relativist for me and I recalled the words of my philosophy lecturer from 1968. He would quip that "truth ... is that, which is, in fact, the case." Now that opens several cans of philosophical worms as he very well knew. Truth is multi-dimensional. There are many layers in a truth cake. Yet when we come to lived experience - and I'm thinking of someone communicating that to me in the psychoanalytic space - it has its own truth, which I would not wish to compromise. That truth might be but a a layer and to that extent, one dimensional. Yet it cannot be reduced to either "knowledge" or "fact". It is not about science. Nietzsche said "... may the will to truth mean this to you. That everything shall be transformed into the humanly conceivable, the humanly evident, the humanly palpable. You should follow your own senses to the end." Maybe there is a crossroads in psychoanalysis where, for a short space of time, truth lives. (Ref: Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Blissful islands: Thus Spake Zarathustra, tr RJ Hollingdale, Middlesex, Penguin, 191, p110)

Please knock

2011-01-26T13:14:00.007Z

There are many door knockers like this but there was something that drew me across to this one. Perhaps it was the reflection of the church opposite. Or maybe it was the brass, dulled a bit with its patina not altogether removed by polishing. The paintwork lends a kind of impressionist look to the reflected building and it gave me a sense of familiarity which is always reassuring. So maybe its the alchemy of brass that's driving the image. Brass shares the symbolism of bronze and both are copper alloys. Copper bonded with zinc, gives us this solid, lustrous substance brass, which is powerful, even violent, due to its composition of symbolic opposites. Copper is thought of as fire and zinc (like silver) tends to be associated with water and the moon. Bells are made of brass and of course they are sonorous, booming out across cities. Tibetan singing bowls are also made of brass and for the most part, brass (like bronze) is a sacred metal. Here on the door though, I think it is a symbol of power and strength. It's not a jolly, welcoming door knocker. It's rather a big, robust and probably expensive piece of kit. The knocker doesn't have to be a circle, but in so many cases of door knockers, it is. Its presence on the door makes up a circle within a square. This dynamic possibly suggests a change in status levels - but symbols are so ambivalent, we would have to examine the original set of circumstances of the door!

Stairway Down

2011-01-16T13:04:00.005Z

Well, when I saw this I thought it looked bleak. But it was the complex of bars, rails and steps that took my interest. I also thought that it would illustrate the positive and negative aspects of symbols. (Just for the technically minded, I used a filter to achieve the speckled look although it looked fairly stark anyway.) This is the entrance to an office block that in all likelihood was hastily erected during the boom years and never occupied. Symbolically, stairs have two clear meanings depending on whether they are ascending or descending. A stairway up is, of course, an ascent to the spiritual and to heaven, but down leads to the underworld and the unconscious. Descent isn't always negative but in this case, these stairs speak of negativity and decay. It is interesting that when things are left unused they seem to decay and need repair more quickly than if they had been in constant use. Except for the Pyramids! Now they were well built.

Silent Light

2011-01-10T14:28:00.007Z

This is just outside St Peter's and it's early in the evening just after Christmas. I was initially reluctant to get my camera out of the bag for the shot. And I wasn't altogether prepared to be persuaded that the shot would work. Nevertheless, a handy fence presented itself and I gave way, committing to a long and very approximate time exposure. I wanted the figures to be blurred in the ghostly way that's typical of old street photographs - and I got half my wish. But I was pleased! Despite the bustle of Rome and its many tourists, these streets had a very particular sound. There were only pedestrians going about their business and somehow the light and the sound in the scene combined in a synesthetic relationship. One could almost hear the light. There are no filters in use, so the starbursts around the street lights are just a dialogue between the street lights and the lens.

Fountain, Memory and Modernity

2011-01-08T12:17:00.006Z

This is the Piazza Navona, a place of which I am particularly fond. Always vibrant, this beautiful square hosts many market traders selling novelties and a variety of good, especially for children. My subject suddenly appeared in an imposing manner in the shot and I was most happy for his presence. It added to the colour of the scene. It is good that he is here because this fountain takes on the symbolism of the spring and that can be of Life, Youth, Knowledge and of course Immortality. The water of the spring or fountain is venerated as purity and the beginning of life. But they connect with ideas of Memory - in various Greek legends they can bring forgetfulness . If the dead lose their memory and the new born acquire them, then that is a very Jungian formulation. At a collective level, we acquire, in some manner, the memory of the past. In Orphic terms, the Spring of Lethe lulls into death, the Spring of Memory ensures wakefulness and hence immortality. So if the collective remembers, even unconsciously, then of course we ensure memory of continuity. That is a kind of immortality that in turn connects with what we consider modernity.

Righteous Partners

2011-01-07T16:20:00.005Z

Like the toy balloons in the previous blog, statues depend pretty much on projections. They are whatever values we require them to carry. But I couldn't figure out whether these statues above were any particular Gods or historical figures. I think they were generic and hence represent something at an archetypal level. "Man" sees himself very much as an essential part of the cosmos and so man is at one and the same time a symbol and a copy of the universe in miniature. Everyone born is, in some way, the universe recreated. The statue of man is rooted in the earth but reaches towards the sky - both flesh and spirit. Now the statue horse in this position does not step (as in many traditions) out of the world of darkness. This horse is indeed a creature of light in the hands of Gods, Goddesses and heroes. It represents mastery and sublimation of the instincts and hence is "the noblest conquest of mankind". This horse is an epic horse isn't it? It is standing on par with the human. It is untethered, unridden or directed - but definitely the two creatures are together. It is when the horse is ridden that it becomes ambivalent - a creature of the light and the darkness and places in between. To me, these two look like they may do righteous battle together.

Temporary Toys

2011-01-06T10:46:00.004Z

I thought I would start the New Year with a colourful image. These balloons are extremely popular with the children who visit the Piazza Navona and they are sold in vast number. Everything in play involves giving something of yourself up to the object. We invest and, in consequence, surrender something of our self which brings the object to life. Our libido achieves this, always moving outwards - and the game becomes a bridge between imagination and the real world. I sometimes wonder what happens to the balloons though. How many of them make it home? How many accidentally fly off to the sky accompanied by much wailing by the young owner? How many just deflate of their own accord? And how many suffer an unfortunate and sudden piercing and bursting? Perhaps the temporary nature of these objects is a development progression from the transitional object, like the teddy bear. That comprises a more or less permanent bridge between the child, mother and home for a substantial period of time. But this object shall certainly cease to be and the child, although disappointed, accommodates to loss. It is a rite of passage to reality. In the meantime of course it is demanded, appreciated and enjoyed by the child. And what a wonderful display of colour these toys make!

These Legs are made for Dreaming

2010-12-29T09:11:00.002Z

I am uncertain what was on the road that made the cobbles and puddle this orange colour. But it certainly caught my attention. The owners of the legs hurried past, kindly trying not to spoil my photograph. In so doing, they somehow made the shot. Sometimes the most extraordinary things can be seen in the most ordinary of circumstances. It’s quite a dreamy image, so naturally dreams come to mind! I was reminded of the film industry term, “legs”. If a film “has legs”, then it is considered to be a work that will last commercially. The film is likely to play in theatrical venues for longer than would normally be the case. The cult film “The Blues Brothers” was not initially a box office success. Yet it achieved a status that gave it “legs” and it remains popular some thirty years after its release. So if you dream of legs it might signify that something you are doing might be a lasting achievement. Are they your legs or someone elses? Where are you walking? Take all these things into consideration, but remember that legs are primarily for getting around. What is your path and where are the legs taking you?

Stop and think about the tree, the sky and yourself

2010-12-22T15:21:00.004Z

It's not difficult to take this kind of shot, but you need to keep an eye on the exposure. At this time of year, these opportunities abound - but having the camera with you when the light is changing is most advantageous. And of course, you need to be able to stop and give it some time. Stopping and giving things time seems very difficult in these times. Everyone rushes around, filling in their day with many tasks. It takes a conscious effort to stop and pay attention to something that needs care. Many clients report being so pressurised at work, they "hardly have time to think". But everyone needs time to think and thinking about oneself is an unheard of luxury for many. Perhaps it easier for some people not to stop and think. Filling the day with tasks can be a defence against the needs, demands and requirements of the self. So here's an exercise. Stop what you are doing and look at the picture. What's the first thing that strikes you about the tree? Then think about yourself. What's the first thing that strikes you about your self?

Concrete Temple

2010-12-19T16:11:00.007Z

This structure has always been in the neighbourhood for as long as I have - although for a while I think it was removed for the building of new offices. It has no inscription, so I do not know how it came about. Perhaps a reader will know and will write to me. I like the formulation of Chevalier and Gheerbrant. Temples are earthly copies of heavenly archetypes - the human spirit is evident even though the works are usually dedicated to the Gods. Indeed, temples are the earthly dwelling of the Gods. They are both cosmic and human and so the temple-going individual's position is between the spiritual and the concrete. It is concrete in the sense of the actual because this curiously-sited small building is made from concrete. Even so, its dimensions are rather pleasing, probably because temples are designed to have a symbolic geometry. "The quadrangular ground plan, the squaring up of the temple is obtained by means of a circle radiating from the pins of a dial, which casts the shadow, which determines the four points of the compass - setting the bounds of space and time." (Chevalier and Gheerbrant, Penguin, 1996). Largely surrounded by call centres, this small temple is worth examination, if only because it somehow challenges its surroundings.

Iced to the Pavement

2010-12-18T17:28:00.004Z

Every year this happens to a certain extent and I do like it. I take many shots like this because when the snow is gone and the residue it leaves behind is iced to the pavement, it does remind me of a laboratory specimen - like a cross section of what was before. The shot itself is a bit of luck. I had failed to reset a previously high ASA and the result was much better than other shots at the "correct" ASA. It looks very much like the cold weather is here to stay for a while so perhaps there will be more sights like this. Just when i feel I have used all the photographic potential of the neighbourhood, the weather changes and with it the light. Things are always changing but we don't really recognise it until something dramatic happens. The change can be imperceptible. In psychotherapy we try to observe these small changes and we will draw attention to them. otherwise they become lost to awareness.

Still Missing

2010-12-17T17:56:00.004Z

Apologies to readers because there haven't been many blogs for a while. This is because of broadband difficulties, now resolved. I know readers do check in, so it was becoming worrisome to me. When I was out in the street this evening, I was reminded of a far more important absence. Some ten years ago, a young man went missing in my neighbourhood. Since then, there has been no trace of Trevor Deely. But his family and friends have never given up their search. I am periodically reminded he was never found and, perhaps because of the committed local campaign to find Trevor, I feel some kind of loss for someone I have not met. Loss is difficult to deal with. In the case of bereavement we know the person has departed and we have rituals and ceremonies to help us accept permanent absence. But when we do not know what has happened, it is perhaps harder to bear the pain of separation. Yet in these cases, hope also remains. This is a quote from the Facebook page "The (family) still keep up hope that he is alive, and although there is a service for Trevor Deely every year in a Naas church, they do not call it a memorial service." I hope it is established what happened to Trevor.

Signals in the Snow

2010-12-07T16:21:00.003Z

It was not expected for the snow to stay this long. It's not normally the way. We always expect things to go on "normally as normal" and we get frustrated if they don't. We are also unprepared for events that are outside this "normal" zone. So when the snow comes in Ireland, especially in November, we are surprised. I was emerging from a book shop in Dawson Street and the snow had started to get heavy. As I rounded the corner onto Kildare Street, it had begun to cause difficulties, which the police officer was trying to sort out. There was much skidding and lack of traction. Buses couldn't deal with the inclines and came to a halt. Naturally, the world didn't come to an end, although the snow did cause inconvenience. Unexpected difficulties are part and parcel of a psychotherapist's work. But it's more about the client's capacity to deal with difficulties - because there will always be difficulties of some kind. The police officer is dealing with the difficulties by "getting on with things". We all have the capacity to do this, if only we but realised it. Sometimes we need a helping hand to mobilise what we already possess within ourselves.

Ground Level Projections

2010-12-02T12:28:00.004Z

I think it was Walter Benjamin that drew my attention to aesthetics and the landscape. He argued that the notion of the picturesque only became available to the collective after the means to physically cross the particular landscape had been established.The sight of a mountain in your path may be pretty, but not if you are obliged to escape the territory and this entails crossing the obstacle. The snow is pretty when it first arrives and everyone is enthralled - but inside a week the novelty wears off and we are left with obstruction. This kind of shot is a matter of practice. The wide angle lens will usually take care of the focus, but the knack is in keeping the camera level when it is held so low that the viewfinder isn't really available to the user. Onlookers may think you are acting strangely of course but is that so bad? We spend a lot of time worrying about others and wondering what they are thinking about us. That is projection and belongs to you for the most part. A woman who was watching me and who who was clearly annoyed about local services exclaimed ".. and you should send these photos to the council .. !"

Marina: In Memoriam

2010-12-01T15:28:00.004Z

Death of a much loved friend is very difficult to accept for all of us. It is of course a symbol and like most symbols, ambivalent. I have to acknowledge the permanent conclusion of a very positive thing, in this case, a person who meant a lot to me. I like to think of Death as the Daughter of the Night and the Sister of Sleep. For the person who has lived a good life, Death unlocks the Gates and admits them to the realm of light which is everlasting. That is Death as a symbol - and surely refers to cycles and regeneration. At the same time I am forced to accept that as a human being I am perishable and impermanent. The pain of the loss of my friend can only be endured. No talk of regeneration makes that any better for me. But I am here and I can try to move forward with the values and qualities I admired in my friend Marina.

Snow Patrol

2010-11-30T10:57:00.005Z

The snow makes life a little difficult for photography since exposures are likely to be altered. You have to over expose for subjects in any shots which are predominantly snow. The camera meter adjusts for the light reflected by all that white surface and you may certainly forget any thoughts of using automatic. There is a lot of nonsense talked in Internet digital photo tutorials so beware. If you want your subject correctly exposed, increase the exposure or take a reflected spot reading and always, always use manual. Sometimes the snow goes a bit blue so make sure. Either it's a white balance error - or it really is a bit blue in the shadows. Remember that soap manufacturers sometimes add a little blue to make washing seem "really white". OK now that's out of the way, I liked the way the snow had clung to the bark of the tree so I opted to capture the moment. I wanted to fill the background slightly so it was opportune to press the shutter when I heard a car coming my way. It was making a swishing sound in the snow and it occurred to me that we are used to sound the way it is "normally". But snow seems to have a muting effect on sounds. Things go quiet. So here's a little experiment you can try out for now. Stop for a minute and just listen. What sounds can you hear? Are they a bit muffled? Anything different? You may find "just listening" rather soothing.

Sullied snow

2010-11-27T14:32:00.006Z

When we think of snow it's always virgin white. This kind of notional snow does not last very long and we can really see how dirty the city streets are when the snow merges with dirt. This is what remains after last night's strange lightning storm was followed by a cascade of icy snow pellets. It doesn't take very long for the sun to melt this down to slush, and then it seems to hang around footpaths and gutters. Now snow is water, and the two share the same symbolism - it's all about the unconscious. But there is a view that snow symbolically represents the "white" stage of the anima during individuation, where the female aspect of the soul is being "purified". So suggests Jung in his analysis of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And we have to remember that no two snowflakes are alike. It's the principle that counts, but I can't help wondering what is represented by our city's combination of snow and grime. What does it say about the city? When the snow and grime coalesce we walk cautiously over the mixture, holding ourselves in a peculiar fashion as if somehow that will prevent us falling. Try to have a look the next time the weather turns the street into an obstacle course - or maybe you can catch yourself holding this posture.

Sweet Dreams

2010-11-26T11:29:00.004Z

Naturally I could not resist the opportunity to take a photograph of this van. Here it's interesting that dreams are the object of sleep and since the manufacturer has associated the bed with dreams, I suppose they are assumed to be pleasant. We all know of course, that dreams can take many different forms. For Jung, dreams are spontaneous and symbolic auto-representations of the current state of the dreamer's unconscious. But at a deep level, I think we are aware that dreams are a kind of speculation. There is material in the unconscious that the dreamer, having temporarily suspended reality, tries to assemble in a more or less dramatic form. We believe that it something that requires attention. Psychoanalysts differ a little in approach but most are prepared to give time to any dreams their clients bring to sessions. The key reason I feel, is that dreams are uncensored - they are not consciously assembled and are likely to be free from any defence structures or armouring we might have put in place. But we do wish each other sweet dreams, possibly inferring happy endings. We don't wish each other anxiety dreams or nightmares. What would constitute a ""sweet dream" for you? Might it be the fulfillment of a wish? Now we are in Freudian territory, so I'll leave it for your consideration.

Of Gods, Pigs and Beer

2010-11-25T17:22:00.008Z

I had been promising myself that I would take some night shots close by - near the Balls Bridge over the River Dodder. Now the technique for a successful night shot is not to wait until it's very dark. It is more successful if you proceed as the night is falling. Dusk is the better proposition so if you look at the top left hand of the picture you'll see the sky isn't that black. All the same, I was reminded about how difficult it was to get night exposures right. So for the technically minded, its f5.6 at 1/20th of a second. That's slow - but I rested the camera on a wall! The symbol for today is beer of course. I'll stick to Ireland and the Celts initially, because Queen Maebh was well known and admired for her drunkenness. It was mead that was reserved for the priestly caste, not beer. Beer was the preferred drink of warriors. But it was Welsh King Berwyn who had some bother when brewing up a concoction of mead, honey and flowers. He was horrified when a wild boar foamed a bit and dribbled into his mixture. This duly fermented and the result was beer. So you see, the pig isn't half bad when you think about it. And despite the bad press in my last blog, the pig does seem to have been adopted by Celtic Gauls - who had their very own pig God, Moccus. Perhaps it was he!

Fruits of the Forest

2010-11-24T15:44:00.006Z

The dish has gathered these various times for some time now and has stuck around, changing as years go by. Occasionally something looks a little the worse for wear and is removed. But new things arrive periodically. The dish looked pretty in the light one day and I decided to take some photographs. I took many but this was the very first attempt! Chestnuts were thin on the ground this year and it was very noticeable, because usually the streets around the neighbourhood are covered in them. Many years ago, children who played conkers would have walked miles and fought tooth and nail to get to them first. Now it appears as if no one is interested in the old customs and "conkers" are left to decay. Always the symbol of abundance and plenty, fruits are the positive side of the forest. The forest can also be seen by psychoanalysis as the unconscious and hence a container of the shadow, yet it remains a feminine symbol - the great mother, because it is also a symbol of rebirth and the cycle of life. There are many people who acknowledge they are unable to understand their parents. This is common enough and no cause for particular concern! But when I hear it, I am drawn to think of the psyche as the deep and impenetrable forest - and the meetings of the unconscious in close relationships.

Forgotten Pig

2010-11-23T16:14:00.003Z

This shot was in my archives - I had forgotten about it, I really don't know why. Perhaps because it seems a little sad? There was a promotion at the Shopping Centre and the display was being dismantled. I remember that I was quite sorry to miss whatever it was! Maybe a reader will remember. If so please write. The symbolism of pigs is very consistent across cultures. No matter where you are, the pig symbolises gluttony, greed, excess - even ignorance. They can be dirty, selfish, wicked and depraved. That's a lot of baggage for a pig to carry all on its own - even if it does like to roll around - as St Clement of Alexandria points out - in "filth and dung". I believe they are quite intelligent creatures, so I am pleased that the Vietnamese regard the sow with her large litters as a symbol of plenty. The renowned sorceress Circe (daughter of (Helios and Perse) was given to changing her guests into animals. But she reserved for her suitors, the privilege of being turned into swine. She bore a son to Odysseus, who stayed for a while and somehow managed to survive the fate of her other guests! There was a point though. Through touching the guests with her wand, she would change them into an animal that was in line with their character. So best to be a good person if you dined with her.

The Unpleasantness of Mess

2010-11-22T12:55:00.003Z

I invite my readers to share with me in finding this quite revolting. In reality it is merely an ice lolly, jettisoned for whatever reason. We would like to both literally and psychically project our mess elsewhere. Mess and waste matter of any kind is even too indecorous for the many books on symbols. Only Freud I feel, really makes an attempt to grapple with waste. In these troubled economic times, we would all like to imagine that mess was created somewhere else by other people. It was never ourselves, we didn't participate. Bart Simpson typically excuses himself after creating a disaster by exclaiming "It was like that when I got here!" He has no intention of taking responsibility. In psychotherapy, we begin to take responsibility for our own mess and in that way we can make a start on sorting something out. That entails a change in our balance or equilibrium, and so we begin at the individual level. We all find ourselves in messy situations at some point. But when we enter the psychotherapeutic space we are discouraged from pointing the finger somewhere else. That stuff "over there" is much more difficult to "fix" than the mess that legitimately belongs to ourselves. All the same I can't help wondering what happened to this ice lolly. Was it found to be too messy and thrown away? Did some poor child drop it with much wailing and moaning? Or did it just taste horrid? I leave my readers to make their own projections.

Why a Duck?

2010-11-16T16:16:00.004Z

A very traditional shot, this one - and none the worse for that, I suppose. I did like the blue of the pond and naturally the duck wouldn't come any closer due to the lack of bread question! The pond was a thick, soupy confection that I hope I managed to catch. Ducks are not quoted in Celtic mythology whatsoever and they seem to be treated in the same way as swans. There is little evidence to the contrary and despite the existence of duck shapes in art, the pictorial evidence seems to conflate duck, goose and swan. In the East however, things are very different. because the duck and drake go around together (I nearly said "swan around"). Ducks are the symbol of marriage and ultimately the life force. I do recall that "duckie "is a popular term for an intimate aquaintance in the North of England. American Indians are also rather keen on ducks because they are very happy on the water and in the air. Ducks are regarded as guides, and their feathers are also used in their religious ceremonies. Cliched or not, I rather like my duck.

Sunday Strollers in The Garden of Eden

2010-11-14T14:58:00.007Z

I usually stay away from park photography. This is because when I had documentary work, helpful residents would guide me to a place where I could take "nice" photographs. This was usually the local park and indeed the park was usually very nice. People like their local park. and so they should. But if my task was the built environment, parks weren't for me - even if they are constructions. Is it perhaps because there is more of an effort to deconstruct the park and its relationships? So how does one or another subject perceive the park? Certainly not in the same way - as I appear to be demonstrating. I rather doubt that my strollers were sharing similar perceptions to me. Parks are always symbolically attached to the Garden of Eden - they are paradises on earth with lakes, fountains and cupolas. They seem to hark back to notions of original nature - somehow innocent and pure, despite my critique. But look, these were farmlands gifted by the Earl of Pembroke for the Irish International Exhibition in 1907. The park was constructed thereafter, so the strollers are walking through what remains of that original site.

Shoe, symbolically stripped

2010-11-11T10:54:00.005Z

If you place your shoe on the territory of another, you take possession. So says both Christianity and Islam. This is why shoes are disallowed in a mosque - because the holy house does not belong to any individual or group of persons. Hermes who was the God of Boundaries was the rightful owner of all lands on which he set foot. But this lost baby's shoe has been placed on the fence and it was clearly placed there to be found. It is not a claim on the boundary or the territory. If it was an adult shoe we could regard it as something different and in all likelihood, no-one would bother to help out. Would we automatically pick up a lost adult shoe? The child is symbolically innocent and regarded as spontaneous and simple. So the child's shoe signifies something else - a starting point perhaps, a setting out on life's journey. The child is seen as having no forethought and therefore can bear no malice. This shoe is stripped of the symbolism applied to adults and the fence on this occasion is no more than a convenient place to display a lost object.

Street Furniture

2010-11-10T17:12:00.003Z

I shot this image as an antidote to yesterday's shot. The weather changed but not the built environment. Although it looks nice and green, there isn't much here that is ""natural". Even the trees are carefully selected and nurtured for the urban environment. The street furniture, parking meters, lampposts and parking signs are all part and parcel of what we expect to find in the city. They are usually couched in terms of dos and dont's - interdictions that we must obey to comply with the space. As such, the spaces are a long way from old open ones, which were marked by directions. These served to allow us to better cross the territory. But this is the territory and these are the rules by which we engage with the space. I deliberately placed the human subject amongst the various pillars between which he appears restricted. It is almost as if this neighbourhood space decides what shall happen to the human being, rather than the opposite. The space has been produced and then human subjects must live within its rather repressive limitations. What seems like a pleasant enough scene comprises mostly verticals that work to produce merely tedium. It is as if yesterday's shot is more lifelike and real than this one.

Donnybrook Autumn

2010-11-09T15:07:00.003Z

The photograph hasn't been cropped much. I left the image wide because it gave an idea of "empty" space. I also rejected other images of the same space with more vehicles. The image is bleak because of the "emptiness". A person might be daunted to traverse this space. but in what sense can it be considered empty? There are road surfaces, boundary hedges, trees, railings, street signs and a truck. The image is really quite full of stuff to which I have a relationship. I can't get out of that. And empty or full, welcoming or unwelcoming, pleasurable or painful, that is all so much about the Ego. But this space seems to have left the body behind - even though people with bodies made the lot - surfaced the road, planted the trees and hedges, painted lines and erected signs. All the signs of people have been stripped away in a world where manufactured things are taken for granted. This urban space is repetitive and most of the things in it are made through repetitive actions. This in itself is not far from the repetitiveness of our daily lives - work, speech, newspapers, television. and the unconscious reproduction of ourselves and our relationships. This space and society try to convince us they aren't repetitive, but seem to fail in the process.

Elektra's Fuse

2010-11-02T14:09:00.007Z

This old fashioned fuse box was lying in a pile of debris in a driveway on Wellington Road. These fuses have long been superseded by circuit breakers and associated switchgear, but they are reassuringly chunky. This one looks quite old, since it has exposed circuitry - no longer regarded as safe. The word electricity has only the vaguest connection with Elektra, the mythological counterpart of Oedipus. But why should I let that stop me? It was Jung that coined the term Elektra Complex, whereas Freud was not enthusiastic at all and spoke of negative Oedipus. But in my opinion it was Jung who had the edge in psychiatric hospital practice and had clearly witnessed the daughterly sexual attachment to the father and envy of the mother. Elektra organised her brother into killing her mother Clytemnestra in vengeance for her mother's own treacherous murder of her father Agamemnon. So it's not quite the same as Oedipus and not terribly electric really! But maybe electric enough was another version where Zeus is rejected by Elektra and hurls down the Palladium (where Elektra had sought aid) from heaven in a terrible rage. That is electric. Maybe Elektra is all about rejection?

Shadow Dancing

2010-10-28T10:56:00.001+01:00

It could have been "dancing in the rain", the title for this shot. Well, I do like this photographic effort, but as usual there was an element of fortuna about it. Every day is a good day perhaps, but when you are returning from work this sudden turn in the weather is unwelcome. On the other hand, it's a pleasure then, to get back to the comfort of home, heating and warm, dry clothes. I have mentioned Jung's shadow concept as consisting of the dark areas of the unconscious, unrecognised and unintegrated. But the shadow concept varies from culture to culture. The shadow consists of "unpremeditated actions" says Chinese philosopher Li Tzu, and has no independent existence. Yet one of the most interesting traditions is that selling your soul to the devil relieves you of any shadow at all. The person stops existing, has no soul and casts no shadow whatsoever. I think this fits well with the Jungian hypothesis that 90% of the shadow is pure gold for the self (if recognised and integrated). But look - if you trade with the devil there is no gold, merely a transmutation. Perhaps that's gold to lead - but the major question of transmutation to what, I will leave with the reader. My shadow-casting subjects in the photo are in no trouble at all. I love the spectacle of their silhouettes and shadow dance in the car headlights.

The Happiness of the Red Plant

2010-10-27T11:19:00.004+01:00

Of the Autumn colours I think this is one my favourite. The red of this bush gets very prominent in the neighbourhood and then goes through quite a transition. When it's as vibrant as this, the stalk and leaves look happy. I think any kind of fiery coloured bush is associated with the Burning Bush of the Old Testament and hence the presence of God. But symbols are ambivalent. The idea that such bushes hold a treasure inside was associated in medieval times with passionate love. Plants also suck up the strength from the ground and attract solar energy - fire from two sources. So these dazzling reds are both stimulating and irresistible. The colour of fire and blood. Dreaming of particular colours is quite common. Someone once told me he had dreamt a new colour, although it was quite impossible for him to communicate what it looked like! Archetypically, the shade of red might be important. Bright red is often the colour of flags and social movements whilst dark red may be associated with warnings - like the red of traffic signals, or more mysteriously, of libido and sexuality. So if the colour red appears in a dream, it could be a good starting point to first determine the shade, then the associations to that particular red. In the meantime I will think of the red in the photograph, the plant's vibrant red of life.

Dreaming of Pegasus

2010-10-25T09:36:00.003+01:00

On such a fine sunny day as it was yesterday, it seems strange to think of Pegasus bringing the rain. The fabulous winged horse (one of my favourite mythological characters) is associated with fecundity, rain and fountains. And wherever his hooves strike earth, a spring appears. He is the bearer of thunderstorms and lightning. He had a bit of a tumultuous history did this particular horse. Born from the decapitated Medusa, he overcame the Chimaera although losing his rider, Bellerophon in the process. But the winged horse is always about creativity, should by any chance you dream of being mounted on Pegasus. Maybe you feel inspired. In this case, the symbolism of wings and the fountains take intellectual precedence over the instincts we normally associate with horses. But with all dream interpretation, also take account of personal associations. For example, as a child, I had a favourite toy which featured a picture of Pegasus. So does the mythological significance of Pegasus outweigh our personal associations with their rich complex of attachments? It is for the dreamer to decide.

Bikes, bikes, bikes and the Dream World

2010-10-22T17:30:00.003+01:00

These bikes are a common sight around Dublin these days. What is really interesting though is the process by which they are used and then brought back to a bike station on a lorry. So these bikes are on the back of a lorry, ready to be re-sited. Bicycles are quite common in dreams and this is usually positive because the bicycle is always powered by the individual - it's all about the effort of the rider, since no extra power is involved. The cyclist is independent and uses his or her own efforts. If the bike is out of control and going down a hill, then that might signify something either in the dreamer's life that is out of control or perhaps a part of the psyche is is not truly under control or integrated. I am taking the Jungian view here, that even inanimate objects in dreams signify a fragment of the dreamer's psyche. If the dream concerned the wheel then that is a different matter. The wheel is a universal symbol representing the world, where the hub is at the centre and the spokes radiate out to the edge. The wheel turning around represents renewal. All the parts of the bicycle can be interpreted symbolically, from the handlebars to the luggage rack. In interpreting your dream, try to assess the feeling tone. Was the bicycle ride exhilarating or was there something unsettling? Were you trying to carry a passenger on the bike? Leave no stone unturned when it comes to dream interpretation!

Letter Box in the Gate

2010-10-22T16:52:00.005+01:00

I guess we are still in the autumn series with all these vegetation pictures, leaves gradually turning brown as the seasons move towards winter. I liked this "hidden gate", which is not really hidden of course, although it looks like it might eventually get that way. The letter box was rather fascinating and very rural for such an urban area. I took several versions of this shot but I did use a filter to increase the saturation on the browns of the gate and the ivy vines. Gates generally signify an opening to enlightenment and to the universe. It looms large in Christianity - the gates of righteousness of Psalms (118 19-20) for example. "Open to me the gates of righteousness and I will go into them ... this gate of the Lord, into which the righteous will enter." When we go through the symbolic gate we pass from one state to another. Does the gate invite us to cross the threshold? I suppose it does.

Bottle Shot

2010-10-21T16:22:00.003+01:00

This discarded bottle might have quickly vanished in the days when there was more home brewing and wine-making. I noticed it by some dustbins and shot it just as it was - but from the top. Known as a top-shot in film, this effect is OK if used sparingly. Perhaps I use it more than that! The symbolism of bottles can vary depending on what is in the bottle, rather than its shape. What does the shape matter when the contents are more important? Well, the contents are gone, so we have to rely on the shape. This is a larger than usual vessel, more of a jar or pot. For some cultures, vessels are related to the womb, and are always feminine. And very often they symbolise immortality because they are a sign of plenty. The top shot is also a way of looking at things (and people) and in general this signifies power. If you are looking down on anything, you are in an elevated position. A top shot can easily induce a feeling of discomfort, because of the effect of "overlooking" or carrying out surveillance. So if you have a dream where you are looking down on something, it may be worth thinking about whether you feel superior to the observed person or to something related to the object - in this case what it might have contained.

Prelude to Hallowe'en

2010-10-20T12:21:00.007+01:00

Readers of this blog will know my views on photos of traffic lights. These images seldom work. Either they are over-exposed and the colours look wishy-washy, or the lights change just as you click the shutter. I liked this shot though and frankly it was well under-exposed. Then I did a bit of work to spook it up. We do approach Hallowe'en and the shops are full of colourful decorations and spooky confectionery, so it is time to consider the fun side of what Jung would call the shadow. Here is one place during the year when "the shadow", our unintegrated dark side, can come out and play. Of course all this takes place in a good container and the rites and customs of Halloween are quite old and rather formal. The children are encouraged to dress up in frightening costumes and often they demand confectionery with menaces. This differs from country to country and probably derives from the Celtic Samhain. But the word Hallowe'en is recent and can be traced back to All-Hallows-Even, (evening). That is said to be a Scottish variant of the Old English for All Hallows, ealra hálȝena mæssedæȝ, which can only be attested around 1556. Nonetheless the word for the celebration should really be spelled with that apostrophe for the missing letter "v"! And it does seem that these ghosts in the white sheets are derived from the Scottish custom of dressing young men in white with blackened faces or masks. Boo!

Dreams of an Artificial Tree.

2010-10-19T14:40:00.007+01:00

I was deliberately going for a dream-like quality in taking this shot. I made several attempts both in shooting and in editing. In the end, this was the dreamiest version. Occasionally, clients report only recalling a fragment of a dream. Often that is the most valuable. The shot reminded me of a fragment, in the sense that there seems to be something more to say. I feel that the simplicity of the dream fragment encourages imagination and prompts the dreamer's own interpretation. This is one of the key differences between Freudian and Jungian dream analysis. Freud is rather strict about what makes of a "proper dream", whereas Jung argued for including even the post-dream reflective material. But there is no right or wrong method. In the image, a very artificial tree sits in the street. Its only purpose is decoration. It isn't a real tree but it is a real artificial tree. Supposing the dreamer dreams of an artificial tree. We could track down all the symbolism of trees, but it might not take us very far. What did the dreamer feel about its artificiality? Jung (and Gestalt theorists) felt that even Inanimate objects in dreams could represent parts of the dreamer. Perhaps there is something in the dreamer's self that is perceived as inauthentic. Perhaps the dreamer knows unconsciously that he or she is projecting a false self. So there is something more to say that goes beyond "tree".

Grafton Fire Dreams

2010-10-17T11:02:00.009+01:00

I do not know what alarm had prompted the fire brigade to call in on Grafton Street. But the fire engine itself made an imposing presence. We are naturally afraid of the consuming properties of fire and take due precautions - including employing firefighters, surely the most popular heroes of the public services. The fire engine is also enduring and should surely be a recognised symbol because it subsumes many symbols. From the engine's deep red colour to the helmets of the firefighters and the deeply symbolic, pressurised water hoses, the fire engine carries a whole host of meanings. Not to mention the ladders, pumps, the giant wheels and the visible and audible warning systems. Almost all of the elements are thus represented - fire, water, earth and air. A full examination would take more than one blog. But if you dream of fire engines, think of what purpose is being served in the dream narrative. Is the ladder being used to ascend? Or are the water hoses being employed to put out a fire. And where are you in relation to these actions? Were you active or passive? What was the feeling tone of the dream - was there anxiety or elation? Finally, what do firemen mean to you? That said, I was rather pleased with this photograph and the fact that I was noticed and a fireman gave me a cheery wave. Thank you.

Shadows of the Objects

2010-10-17T10:05:00.006+01:00

In the morning the light is quite warm and today for a few minutes it picked out this interesting shadow on the wall. I dug out the camera and tried a low shutter speed shot. Not only Jungians talk about the shadow. Indeed, Christopher Bollas published an interesting book entitled The shadow of the object. Many analysts, including Freud, recognised this aspect of the self. The ego, the centre of the self, finds it difficult to either recognise or integrate certain parts of the unconscious. We would rather reject or disown these parts and throw them outwards onto others in a process known as projection. Yet that does allow for recognition. We can learn to become aware of those unconscious parts of the self thrown outwards. But like the shadow on the wall, our own shadow may be beguiling and illusory since, being a projection, it has little in the way of concrete substance. The shadow in the photograph cannot be physically grasped. Nonetheless, even lacking a direct reality the projection's consequences can be very real indeed. If you project unwanted bits of yourself onto others and allow that to determine how you act towards them, what does one say about one's self?

Attachment

2010-10-14T14:56:00.003+01:00

I think the autumn leaves caught my attention because of their position, silhouetted against the houses. There was a finality about the process of the life cycle as far as they were concerned. They are very much in their decaying period but continuing or even prolonging their attachment. They just don't want to give up the connection to the tree, the mother and life giver. Yet eventually they will end up on the ground and disintegrate. In the rough bit of land underneath, they will inevitably feed the tree and bushes with nutrients. A perfect cycle. But this put me in mind of attachment theory, John Bowlby and of course, Carl Jung. Jungians are very accepting, even admiring of object relations theorists and Bowlby could be considered as belonging to that discipline. Generally attachment is a motivational system that influences aspects of sexuality like drive, cognition and behaviour. But unlike Freud. Bowlby held that the importance of attachment lay not in sex but in security. So consider our leaves metaphor. Do the leaves achieve security in refusing to detach from the tree? What of young adults who are reluctant to leave home. They refuse to give up the parent archetype. And what of the parents who refuse to give up the child archetype and cling to their children. So perhaps it's the tree that is clinging to the leaves and not the other way around.

Solitary Rose

2010-10-14T14:06:00.004+01:00

The blog is still in its celebration of autumn. I found this very close by and was struck by the way the rose had hung on to a single bloom. Most of its leaves had gone and all that remained was this nice pink flower. As a flower, the rose is unparalleled in symbolism and denotes life, the soul, heart and love. In India it is the cosmic triparasundari and represents the beauty of the Divine Mother. In the Muslim world, the rose garden is the place of contemplation and in classical Greece roses were scattered on graves as a symbol of regeneration. They called this ritual, the Rosalia. The Christan world adopted the rose around the 7th century. Despite the distinction between white and red roses - the sacred and the profane, purity and passion - roses became the symbol of of a love that was pure. But I rather like the fact that it was a favourite of the alchemists - the Rosary of the Philosophers. In their work, their objectives were characterised by colour. The objective of the first stage was linked to white stone and white roses whilst the red was that of the red stone or red roses. The blue rose symbolically denoted the impossible!

Leaf Street Virtues

2010-10-14T13:15:00.004+01:00

The changing seasons bring an environmental diversity that isn't often acknowledged because we are familiar with summer giving way to autumn. In countries where there are only two seasons, wet and dry, there is often a longing for that deft change we take for granted. Symbolically, autumn can be symbolised by the Horn of Plenty or by a hare. I couldn't find a hare for the moment, but there is more than enough to say about life cycles. Stages of development are very important in psychology especially where children are growing up but also in adult life. The cycle of the seasons is much like our progression through life - birth, growth, maturity and decline - a process in which we have little choice but to adapt and progress. Psychotherapist, Erik Erikson presented an analysis of this process, which necessarily encompasses the bleak side as well as the hopeful. Looking at virtues, we start with hope, and move through willpower, direction and competence. As we get older in middle age we exercise fidelity, love, devotion and care. Finally as elders we reach wisdom - the wise old man archetype of Carl Jung. These all have their opposites, which Erikson calls maladaptations. But we try to aim for the virtues.

Good enough shot, good enough plant

2010-10-14T11:04:00.006+01:00

Oh yes, the October sky was just like this. The shot is polarised a bit, to pick up the deep hue. When I saw the plant, I just snapped quickly and knew that, for preference, the lens could have been different - or could it? Yet in the end, the shot was "good enough". When psychotherapists talk about good enough, they mean that it is adequate to the job. It is neither supreme excellence, nor in any way dreadful. If this blog aimed for technical brilliance every time, probably the project would fail. Other things would suffer - regularity being one. Some analysts argue that the use of the term "excellence" in current times, compromises what is good about things. Child psychotherapist and object relations theorist, Donald Winnicott argued for the "good enough parent". We cannot demand excellent parenting. What would we mean anyway, or want? Parents are real people with positive and negative attributes. All that we can ask from them, and indeed expect, is "good enough". This rogue plant fighting to live on a stone wall is good enough. The photograph is good enough. And what we should expect from a psychotherapist is that he or she is good enough.

Flags and Brand Loyalty

2010-10-13T16:57:00.005+01:00

The display had been up for a while but it drew my attention from the other side of the road. Now I think this is a Guinness promotion for Arthur's Day, which was a success last year. There should be a blog entry! The Irish Party poster is always there at the Lansdowne Hotel, but the triangular display of pennants is recent. Flags, pennants or banners are all symbolically linked and even though this is a commercial promotion, it matters not. The principle is the same. The flag and its insignia protects the organisation. So it can be a nation, lord, general or even a saint for that matter. All these are what Jung calls collectives of one sort or another, since the king, lord or saint stands in for a greater number. In this case it is a corporation - more or less an association of shareholders who have become incorporated. The corporation also attempts to include the consumer of the product under its banner and there, whether we like it or not, is the art. The flag is designed to flutter in the breeze and that is not an accident. Air is associated with movement. Spirit is aroused and moves heavenwards. When customers go out to celebrate Arthur's Day they will be gathering under the flag and insignia, proclaiming some sort of loyalty to the brand.

Sunny Baggot Street

2010-10-12T14:22:00.005+01:00

Oh I do like this shot, simply because it's kind of an old fashioned snapshot and there is, of course, a story attached. I was further down the street and noticed that there was potential for a colourful shot with the school girls passing on the pavement. I hurried ahead to the nearest pub, sat in the corner and waited. But they saw me and posed. The group crouched in for the usual snapshot but I had a wide angle lens. I ushered them closer but the second shot wasn't half as good as the first! It's a real sunny October, good-natured shot. Now the sun is a symbol of substance because it makes things apparent by distributing rays of light. Maybe because of the school connection, I am thinking of the rays of light as intellectual knowledge. Heliopolis is the City of the Sun, a name given to primal spiritual centres. That is cosmic intellect, the faculty of knowing. Both Vishnu and the Buddha have the sun as an emblem. And in some countries the sun is regarded as female because there, the female principle is the active one - the Sun Goddess in Japan and in South Vietnam. Because of illumination, psychoanalysis may also view the sun as the symbol of enlightenment, shedding light on the unconscious, or bringing unconscious contents into the light. My thanks to the young women for the shot.