Where were you on Sunday night? Where did you "go" after The Slap - if you were watching? I wrote this article for Psychology Today on Sunday night - but because they view the words 'trauma' and 'dissociation' as clinical, DSM terms, they declined to publish. No worries, I'm grateful to be publishing at East Wind. Trauma has passed into the common parlance - and I'll have a lot more to say about this topic in future posts. MOSF 17.4: Will, Jada, Chris and Trauma: Oscars So Dissociated  (March 29, 2 ...Continue Reading

Dear all, I was moved by Ilya Kaminsky's 2013 poem today. He is a Ukrainian American, so this is making the rounds at this tense time of heartbreak. His book is on my list of must reads. If only the poets of heart could be heard, around the world. Ilya Kaminsky reads “We Lived Happily During the War” I've had two blog posts at Psychology Today in the last month: Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” and the Myth of Self-Regulation | Psychology Today Asian American Elders Report Low Support, Life Satisfaction | Psychology Toda ...Continue Reading

MOSF 17.2: THE EXILES: The tank man or the tank? Hi all, I've been thinking a lot about hope this month - hope as a combination of goals, willpower, agency, and pathways, an active principle we must cultivate in order to find our true wholeness, and feel our way into interdependence. Hope for me extends far beyond my own individual success, of course, but also in the triumph of moral and inclusive conscience. How ironic that power structures effectively act as barriers to hope, when power is constructed as we ...Continue Reading

Hi all, Hope this message finds you and yours safe and well. This has been an extraordinarily different 2 years than any in my lifetime. We haven't had the same markers - of travel, celebrations, or achievements. While I've more or less found my jam of regularity, there have been periods of stagnation, despair, anxiety, "languishing" and all the rest. This, despite progressing on my creative journey with a film and many essays for East Wind and Psychology Today. I've made new "pandemic friends", and ...Continue Reading

Hi all, Hope you all had a restful long weekend! I've been noodling on some issues - here are my latest articles - 2 short and one long. From East Wind eZine: *MOSF 16.9: An Ugly Truth: Social Media, the American Psyche, and Preventing Civil War – East Wind ezine* A 5K word read, a coda to my book Facebuddha. With particular emphasis on BIPOC communities, hate speech, and how our political situation can be seen as an outgrowth of social media incentives for virality. "We need to check social media, particularly F ...Continue Reading

My (mailserver) bad! It turns out many of my messages - perhaps over years - have not gone out due to a glitch! (You can always check out the archive, link below.) Gives me a chance to send you the link to my movie, now available on Vimeo. I need a couple thousand purchases to break even on production costs and split further proceeds with all the crew. (Fingers crossed!!) I hope you might rent or buy, and please spread the word. The Bandaged Place: From AIDS to COVID and Racial Justice Winner of "Best Film (F ...Continue Reading

(From MOSF 16.7 about THE LONELIEST AMERICANS) Dear friends, Hope your month has gone well! I've got 2 relatively longer posts from East Wind and one short piece from Psychology Today to share. 10 days ago, I had my most social weekend of the pandemic, including a 50 person outdoor barbecue in Golden Gate Park. I walked home through a crowd of probably 2000 people watching the Judy Chicago Fire and Smoke event at the de Young Esplanade. It was a beautiful day, and it felt so good to meet new people, and be with others ...Continue Reading

Hi all, Hope you're enjoying these last few days of summer, and you and yours are safe and well. I've got two long articles and two short articles to share, all published since the last newsletter. MOSF 16.4: Film as Metaphor, Myth, Virtual Reality and Stepping Stone from Dismemberment to Belonging About 7K words about trauma and the potential healing environment of film. "This essay charts the psychological impact of trauma, but also connects to the ways film can offer us a virtual healing engagement of mind/hea ...Continue Reading

Hi all, I hope you might take a look at this New Yorker length profile of two really great books. MOSF 16.3: Minor Feelings and Sister Outsider: A Brown Psychiatrist Thingsabouddit – East Wind ezine  /History’s primary transmission is in feeling. Countries, systems and families break down, or work as designed and let down, in particular, marginalized individuals and groups, leading to eruption of dissonance and more subtle betrayals of affection. This leads to feelings: strong, ugly and minor. Cathy Park Hong’s ...Continue Reading

Hi everyone - Happy Interdependence Day! People become people through other people. No man is an island. We are who happens to us and what we make of the happening. One world is enough for all of us. (And it better be, because that's all we have, by the way!) 405 days ago, George Floyd was murdered. Darnella Frazier stood there, took note, shook the world, and remains shaking herself, to this day, traumatized by what she saw. At the very least, she is far from alone in her awareness of brutality and injustice. I'm s ...Continue Reading