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the shadow self : page 4*......
..
.....Between Emotion and Cognition :
The Generative Unconscious - by Joseph NewirthIn the last part of this book, Newirth argues against the analytic injunction of making the unconscious conscious and presents an argument for making consciousness unconscious.
First, Newirth shows how the neo-Kleinian model he proposes views the unconscious as an expanding structure of mind, a set of functions that generate the powerful forces and modes of thought traditionally associated with the unconscious and that act both as the center of psychopathology and as a source of energy, hope and creativity. Then, Newirth illustrates (Chapter 9) the way in which many patients are imposed in the asymmetrical world of external reality and have not developed the symmetrical symbolic capacities necessary for the integration of unconscious experience; they are unable to make believe, to play, to have pleasure and joy, and to have a creative and passionate commitment to life.
from Metapsychology review by Dina Mendonca, Ph.D. ~ ~ ~ ~
.. .. I also want to bring some great vampire fiction to the attention of lesbian readers, while also introducing great lesbian fiction to an audience that might not have otherwise read fiction written by lesbians for lesbians. I am also interested in the sexual politics of the image of women as vampires. Sexual women are often classified as demons and castrating bitches, and vampires are the most popular stereotype of the dangerous, sexually assertive woman. |
At
the same time, I think the female vampire is an incredibly empowering image,
an example of a woman who has taken control of her life and her sexuality,
not letting society dictate who she ought to be and what she ought to do.
Most of all, I want people to have fun reading them. Pam
Keesey - from interview
more books by Pam Keesey : Daughters
of Darkness:
Women
Who Run With the Werewolves:
|
~ ~ ~ ~........
Elena Michaels is the world's only female werewolf. And she's tired of it. Tired of a life spent hiding and protecting, a life where her most important job is hunting down rogue werewolves.
Tired of a world that not only accepts the worst in her -- her temper, her violence -- but requires it. Worst of all, she realizes she's growing content with that life, with being that person.
~ ~ ~ ~........
As a child, I was very interested in animals, particularly dogs and wolves. I read everything I could on werewolves, and watched every movie at probably far too young an age. The one that had the biggest influence on me was The Howling. I liked the idea of a person being able to transform into a wolf, not necessarily as a horror or monster thing, just as an experience. ...
The whole idea of horror and violence from a woman's point of view interested me. Elena has this incredible rage in her, and becoming a werewolf allows her to act on those urges, so I think there's some fantasy there for anyone who has ever wished they were stronger or more powerful.
If they had that kind of body, they could act on those urges, as Elena does.
Kelley Armstrong ... BUST, Fall 2003
....
When you look up Afterglow in the dictionary, it is defined as "the glow or light that remains once the sun is gone." You're used to this bright, shiny beautiful glow but the moment the sun disappears, all of a sudden you have to readjust everything.
It's a very transitional moment. A lot of these songs are about transition... the turning over of the rock, what's underneath, the murky, shadowy uncertainty where everything looks very different.
....
One need not be a Chamber
To be Haunted
One need not be a House
The brain has Corridors
Surpassing material place.Emily Dickinson
...Emily Dickinson books
....~ ~ ~ ~"If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance."George Bernard Shaw
~ ~ ~
"With all this darkness round me I feel less alone."
Samuel Beckett, spoken by Krapp, in Krapp's Last Tape
~ ~ ~ ~
Writers write about what obsesses them. You draw those cards. I lost my mother when I was 14. My daughter died at the age of 6. I lost my faith as a Catholic. When I'm writing, the darkness is always there. I go where the pain is. Anne Rice
Jessica Lange has admitted before that "there's a lot of very black stuff in me" and that acting, especially acting emotional cripples, helps her to deal with it. Acting does for her what morphine does for Mary [in Long Day's Journey Into Night], she suggests, enabling her to confront her demons.
"Whenever I think about [characters I have played] Frances and Blanche and Mary," she adds, "I think there but for the grace of God go I."***[Independent (UK), Dec. 14, 2000]
~ ~ ~ ~
The basic notion of lojong is that we can make friends with what we reject, what we see as "bad" in ourselves and in other people. At the same time, we could learn to be generous with what we cherish, what we see as "good." If we begin to live in this way, something in us that may have been buried for a long time begins to ripen.
Pema Chodron- from Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living /
related page: Buddhist psychology
~ ~ ~ ~
In Max, which is produced by and stars John Cusack, Noah Taylor [right] plays the young Hitler, depicted here as a disillusioned artist torn between the vicious anger of post-World War 1 German politics, and his passion for art. ... Taylor relished the idea of playing a character that has always held a strange fascination for him.
"He's a fascinating figure and I've always had a sort of interest in the dark side to life," confesses Taylor. "Also he's emblematic of so much of what is wrong with the world at any given time and I don't like to shy away from that.
"I'm not the sort of person who tends to look away from something just because it's dark. To me, you have to know darkness in order to know light."......[darkhorizons.com Nov 8, 2002]
~ ~ ~ ~
"It's very hard to learn to embrace the frailties of a character if you haven't learned to embrace them in yourself," said psychologist Marilyn Jacovsky, Ph.D., who has a large number of patients who work in the performing arts. "That's what therapy is about: for you to be the best that you can be, with a great affection for the worst you have been."****
from article: Soul Workout by Laura Weinert [Backstage]
".. a phantasmagoric tale of a woman who paints between seeing patients
in an old warehouse in the back streets of New York's Meat Market District. ...
a flagrantly irreverent tale with no pretext of 'normality' on either side of the couch."related page:**counseling / therapy~ ~ ~ ~
One of the dominant themes of [her film] White Oleander is the destructive power of beauty. Though she refuses to label herself as a movie star, Robin Wright Penn is very clear when asked whether beauty can be used as a weapon. "I looked up on the internet a description of the flower, White Oleander and it was so intense - the metaphor - it was almost like suction, the destruction of whatever ate that flower, animals, whatever other plant touched that plant - and that beauty is power.
"It's such an insidious depth, that it's used in society, that it's part of our industry, as competition that you're set up, but more than that, within the vein of the film.. it's very female where it's like that coating of 'You're going to learn and going to be my skin' -- and the ability to separate and enjoy 'Beauty is power' in a healthy sense is so difficult to do.
"You know you learn it from.. mothers and their mothers, and their mothers, and I just feel like it's insidious, like that slow turning screw, it's just so deep, written in the teachings and the culture, and it's very female.".....
.[Dark Horizons Oct 11 2002]
~ ~ ~ ~
..
Jennifer (Leelee Sobieski)
in My First Mister
..
Holly Marie Combs, Rose McGowan,
Alyssa Milano of "Charmed" -
related book: Between Worlds
..
Hermione [Emma Watson]
in "Harry Potter.."
based on the book
..
from book:
Goth: Identity, Style
and Subculture
from Editor's Letter: "Dark Shadows"
by Debbie Stoller, BUST, Fall 2003It's such a relief to see darker women appearing in our pop culture... women who indulge in their dark sides for purely selfish reasons, in complete opposition to women's proscribed selflessness.
In addition, the past few years have brought us a cabal of women who are "dark" because they consort with the underworld (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the ladies of Charmed, Hermione Granger).
These characters are appealing not only because we know they can use their other-worldly powers for either good or evil, but also because they can access powers that are most surely denied them in the real world of teenage girls.
They just take their magic wands, and suddenly, poof, all the limitations of sexism are waved away. Perhaps this is why the image of "the goth" is so appealing to so many girls...
also see "Buffy" section on the shadow self : page 3~ ~ ~ ~
Though I had been painting enchanted art for several years and selling it professionally, I had only begun to explore the darker side to my artwork. I quickly found that my darker works (for example, Gothic Faery & Black Magick) were the most popular.
Jessica Galbreth
"Gothic Faery" by Jessica Galbreth - from A Little Night Magick 2004 Calendar
quotes and art from her site
Influenced by Roman Catholic iconographic art, punk rock and Edward Gorey, Hollywood native Liz McGrath is one of her generation's most unique and prolific artists. Her incarceration at the Victory Baptist's Home for Girls fueled her first artistic ventures: angry punk rock fliers, her own punk band Tongue and the conception of her fanzine, Censor This. ...
Her recent artistic venture has been a creation of a vast array of cuddly, freakish dolls which would make Wednesday Addams giddy with morbid delight. ... from bio on elizabethmcgrath.com
~ ~ ~ ~
Fear of the 'the fall' into iniquity has been expressed throughout the history of Christendom as terror of being 'possessed' by the powers of darkness. Stories of possession have always compelled fascination and horror.
Bram Stoker's "Count Dracula" being but a recent instance of this genre. Tales of vampires and werewolves have probably always been with us.
*from book: Meeting the Shadow
Bram Stoker's Dracula
~ ~
Summer's coming, bringing with it another onslaught of horror movies to entertain and titillate -- you know, get the old juices flowing. But there's more to why we lust after this genre than the old heart-thumping, chill-up-the-spine feelings they induce, said Dr. Daniel Lapin, a San Francisco psychologist in private practice.
Those who write horror stories and movie scripts may be unconsciously working out their own childhood abuse, said Lapin, who specializes in working with adults who were abused as children.
And those who read the books and watch the movies may also be dealing with childhood abuse. ....
According to Lapin, Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, was abused as a child.
"Whenever we find people who have been traumatized, they are repeating things again and again. Stoker has all the characteristics of anybody who's stuck in a repetition compulsion."
from article Authors talk horror in well-lighted place -
by Cristy Shauck, Cupertino Courier....The vampire, Dracula and incest : the vampire myth, Stoker's Dracula,
and psychotherapy of vampiric sexual abuse - by Daniel Lapin~ ~ ~ ~
....from book: The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics
from the Classic Era of Film Noir -
by Eddie Muller
Writing in 1946, Nino Frank contends that Hollywood had succeeded in inventing
a "new type of crime film," which he designates as "film noir."The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941),
Double Indemnity (Billy WIlder, 1944) and
Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944)...
subvert traditional genres by shifting attention away from the crime and the criminal to the "enigmatic psychology" of a strange gallery of characters, who, in their violent movements, evoke a greater sense of the "lived" than do ordinary Hollywood types.from Hollywood's Dark Cinema : The American Film Noir by R. Barton Palmer
Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck
in Double IndemnityFred MacMurray: "She wore
diamonds and
honeysuckle perfume.
I was drunk with it.
I never knew murder could
smell like honeysuckle."
Kim Basinger
in 'nouveau noir'
L.A. Confidential~ ~ ~ ~
Cornel West said he sees a Socratic role for Black intellectuals. They bring the news, he says, but the news is unsettling, unnerving. It's news that very few people in American society want to hear, news that--just as was the case with Socrates--it can be downright dangerous to proclaim.
According to West, the Black intellectual operates "in the middle of an American civilization that is adolescent, immature and that refuses to confront history, reality, mortality.
"Its whole project is to escape from the dark side of reality. A hotel civilization as Henry James put it, where the lights are always on. A city on the hill where the sun is always shining. Where no one wants to wrestle with shadows and darkness." ....
"Both in the Black community and in the larger American community, intellectuals are not perceived as those who are making, enabling and ennobling contributions to the community.
"They're associated with elitism, with the esoteric and the jargon ridden. They seemingly have no passion to communicate with persons where they are," West said.
And that is where the Black intelligentsia can make its mark: in answering the question, "How do we convince others that our work is indispensable to their lives, as the genius of Sarah Vaughan"--or the talents of all of the other musicians and artists whose works move us? 
..
.."That's not cheap relevance--that's a calling," West said.
[from Black Issues in Higher Education, May 23, 2002]
~ ~ ~ ~
...Gerard Jones. Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence Violent play, when accepted by adults, can give kids a sense of control over lives which are largely out of their control. Jones interviews kids who tell how violent lyrics and images let them know that they weren't the only ones who felt angry or violent, as they did, making them feel less outcast and alone with their feelings.
One psychologist who wasn't afraid to speak out, Dr. Helen Smith, maintains that perhaps kids aren't exposed to enough fantasy violence:
"Teachers and parents say, sit still, be nice, cooperate, and they don't give kids any opportunity to play with the aggressive feelings that come up for them.... With all the emphasis in our schools now on getting kids in touch with their feelings, the scary feelings like anger are just kind of wished away.
"A kid says, 'I feel like I love you' and we say 'Awww.' He says, 'I feel like I want to kill you' and we say 'No you don't!’ So a kid runs into some real conflict in life and he feels this rage coming up in him and he doesn’t know what to do with it.”
from Sue's Review - by Susan Wishnetsky, Youth Truth, January - February, 2003
Helen Smith, PhD is author of The Scarred Heart : Understanding and Identifying Kids Who Kill
images from games: X-Men Mutant Wars and EverQuest - related article: Warrior Women On Screen
alternative viewpoint books :
See No Evil // Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression // The Other Parent[May 17 2003] Digital Village radio program [KPFK 90.7fm - digitalvillage.org] notes that gaming producer
convention E3 in Los Angeles included soldiers in uniform promoting a U.S. Army video game.~ ~ ~ ~
..
..
His books talked about pedophile priests and Internet porn long before they were commonly written about by the broader media and, in his latest novel ["Only Child"], Andrew Vachss offers a noir thriller that also explores how movies have changed American society. ...What Vachss' underground crime fighter discovers is a would-be film director with a penchant for cruelty.
In assembling film vignettes he enjoys the power of directing "a scene" in his film while the actors are unaware of the roles they play. One of these vignettes ends up in a vicious murder.
This is not as far-fetched as it sounds, warned Vachss, pointing out that the proliferation of film-making technology has made it easier for anyone to be a film director. "The bottom line is people are making tapes of pit bull fights, street racing, gang initiations and shop-lifting," said Vachss. "The next phase is when they want to direct it and not just tape it.
"All these crimes I write about are crimes of power. There are those who see being a director as the ultimate power. Not directing a script, but directing life," said Vachss. ...
His non-fiction work in magazines aims to raise public awareness of crimes against youth... It is all part of one man's campaign to raise the public's awareness about the different forms of child abuse.
"All I am doing is, as always, saying: 'Watch Out!"'
[Reuters, Jan 6 2003] / photo by Eddie Adams from vachss.com
......Only Child by Andrew Vachss
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more : the shadow self : page 1***the shadow self : page 2*.....the shadow self : page 3........*..the shadow self : resources: sites articles books ........
--related pages:.......depth psychology...........dreamwork.........intuition / instinct.........mythology
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