As journalist Charles McNulty writes, Ingmar Bergman [1918-2007] “will always be remembered first and foremost as one of the most influential of European auteurs, a filmmaker whose enthralling forays into characters’ interior darkness were unmatched in their psychological acuity and inward intensity.” [From "Bergman a giant not only of film but of the stage," Los [...]
“In order to have more, you need to become more. The guy says ‘If I had a good job I would really pour it on, but I have this lousy job so I just goof off.’ “If that is your philosophy you are destined to stay there. Some people say if I had a lot [...]
“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading for?… A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.” – Franz Kafka, 1904 Experiencing a powerful [...]
“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. “We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in [...]
“Sometimes I’ve believed six impossible things before breakfast.” – The White Queen in “Through the Looking Glass” “Our faculty of attention affects us in countless ways. Our very perception of reality is tied closely to where we focus our attention. Only what we pay attention to seems real to us, whereas whatever we ignore—no matter [...]
Narcissism may show up as a sense of entitlement, and feeling of immunity from normal human responsibility and consequence. It is something that can affect many talented people who gain celebrity status. Before Lindsay Lohan was arrested recently, she reportedly commandeered a car and took three men hostage, according to video interviews with those men. [...]
Writer, performer and radio program host Sandra Tsing Loh recalls being a student at CalTech was a mixed experience: “I think I was regarded as a very odd person, indeed. I didn’t fit there, and I didn’t know what I was doing. I was bad in science. It was kind of a mess. [Q: That [...]
“He received the highest honor in his field, the Pritzker Prize, months after his 80th birthday. … At 97, architect Oscar Niemeyer is eagerly watching one of his most ambitious projects take shape, a mile-long seafront esplanade..” [More on the page: Design.] Niemeyer is only one of many examples of people living vital and creative [...]
“There’s two kinds of people in this world, there’s winners and there’s losers. Okay, you know what the difference is? Winners don’t give up.” That is Richard (Greg Kinnear) in the comedy “Little Miss Sunshine” – perhaps addressing one of his pep talks to his daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) about pursuing her dream to enter [...]
In a BBC Radio interview, Stephen Fry asked ‘Harry Potter’ author J.K. Rowling about “not holding back from the difficult and the frightening and the treacherous and the unjust and all the things that most exercise children’s minds.” Rowling (her name rhymes with bowling, rather than howling) replied, “I feel very strongly that there is [...]
One of the key elements in our life satisfaction, according to many personal growth leaders, is creating and following a vision, pursuing meaning and purpose. In a recent blog post, Brad Swift of Life on Purpose noted that some experts think “We aren’t built to be happy. Rather, we are built to survive and reproduce. [...]
“Protesters held and wore signs demanding impeachment of the president.” [From the Wikipedia page: Movement to impeach George W. Bush.] “A public opinion poll from the American Research Group recently reported that more than four in ten Americans — 45% — favor impeachment hearings for President Bush and more than half — 54% — favored [...]
There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894) The sort of glee that we appreciate in babies [photo by gadgetgirl] is only one sort of being happy – there are a wide range of feelings and experiences that relate, including cheerfulness, contentment, exuberance, [...]
“I only know that summer sang in me a little while, that in me sings no more.” That excerpt from one of her sonnets expresses how much poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) probably knew of depression. Singer Marie Osmond has described her experiences suffering from postpartum depression in her book Behind the Smile: “I’m [...]
Only a rare person can illuminate and advance an entire domain of knowledge, as Einstein did with physics, but he also embodied a number of traits and experiences that can inspire even us mere mortals to live more exceptional and creative lives. On a recent Tavis Smiley Show [transcript], Walter Isaacson spoke of the subject [...]
“The unconscious is our best collaborator. I try to let the participants [in my movies] have downtime before shooting and after rehearsal, so our secret collaborator can do its work. I have learned to trust and encourage that more.” That perspective of director Mike Nichols [from the page Depth psychology] articulates what many artists know: [...]
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Site author: Douglas Eby, M.A./Psychology, is a writer and researcher on the psychology of creative expression and personal growth, especially for high ability adults. He is publisher of the Talent Development Resources series of sites.
