1. Everything is blooming most recklessly - find out where
2. Legal intern sought for Hetch Hetchy
3. 2010 wildland weed field courses
4. Family fun on the first day of Spring, March 20
5. Job opportunity in Sequoia/Kings Canyon Nat'l Park: Ecologist (Invasive Plants)
6. Wealth: what it is, where to find it
7. Six groups honored for Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards
8. Central Subway meandering through fiscal land mines - other projects will never get done
9. San Bruno Mtn's Colma Creek/Bog Trail and Owl/Buckeye Canyons restoration schedule
10. Cities learn to live with water/what's in your watershed/lifeline of the East Bay
11. Bison Paddock workday this Saturday/Alemany Farm Sunday
12. Feedback: light pollution/baboons
13. Join Muir's Marchers on 7-day backpack on Tuolumne above Hetch Hetchy
14. Much of the New Deal's achievements were airbrushed out of history. What lesson can we draw?
15. Botanical workshops potpourri
16. Malcolm Margolin at Western Wilderness Conference April 8-11 in Berkeley
17. Earthshine night hike at Arastradero Preserve Friday 19 March, with the irrepressible Joe Jordan
18. Saturn coming into night sky/Regulus puts the Sun in the shade
19. Scientific American does its part to keep love alive/more accidents when Daylight Savings start/Apocalypse in 2012 - our fault
20. More benefits from omega-3 fatty acids
21. Can gay footballers come out?
22. What Greek myths meant to the father of psychoanalysis. Catharsis is the cure
1.
Everything is blooming
most recklessly;
if it were voices instead of colors,
there would be an unbelievable shriek-
ing into the heart of the night
Rainer Maria Rilke,Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke
Want to see some of this reckless blooming--over the whole state? Visit the wildflower hotlines published yearly by the California Native Plant Society Yerba Buena Chapter (and road-tested yearly, so dependable): http://cnps-yerbabuena.org/experience/hotlines.html
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2. Legal Intern
Restore Hetch Hetchy (www.hetchhetchy.org) is recruiting a talented individual to spearhead an aggressive legal reserch effort designed to lay the groundwork for a petition to the California State Water Resources Control Board and/or a legal challenge in California state court. This is an unpaid position located in downtown San Francisco and managed by attorneys with Olson, Hagel & Fishbourn, LLP
This internship will consist primarily of legal and historical research of federal, state and local law pertaining to the use of federally held land for the provision of water and electricity to local municipalities and other consumers. Extensive research and review of the Congressional Record and associated governmental reports is anticipated, as is work with Federal and California water-law principles.Applicants should have completed at least one year of law school, excellent research and writing skills, some experience with legislative history researchand a demonstrated interest or experience in government, water, environmental, constitutional, and/or administrative law.
To apply send a cover letter, resume and 3 references to Mike Marshall atmike@hetchhetchy.org.
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3. Cal-IPC's 2010 Wildland Weed Field Courses!
Six upcoming field courses will train natural resource managers and restoration volunteers on all aspects of invasive weed management.
Registration and course details at www.cal-ipc.org/fieldcourses/index.php.
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4. URBIA Adventure No. 3 debuts in the most botanically diverse corner of the city!
On March 20th, celebrate the First Day of Spring with the premiere of URBIA's newest adventure booklet: "Seeking California in a World of Plants". Your family will form a team on a quest for botanical bounty at the most botanically diverse place in the city: the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum. (8,000 types of plants grow in this extraordinary garden... more than in most entire states!) With your team's booklet in hand, you'll be off exploring plants from exotic regions of the world while solving clues to seek a California land where oak trees spread overhead. On the way, hidden waterfalls, a banana tree, jungle-like pathways, a San Francisco rainforest, and a secret grotto will challenge your teams way-finding skills. A special hidden box awaits!Adventure packetswill be available from the URBIA Team at their table nearthe Garden Bookstore on a string of spring Saturdays:March 20thfrom 10-2 p.m,April 10from 1-3 p.m., andMay 8thfrom 10noon. A small donation for your adventure packet will benefit the SF Botanical Youth Education Association and Nature in the City.
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5. Job opportunity
Ecologist (Invasive Plants), Term, Full-time, Subject-to-Furlough,GS-0408-09/11
National Park Service, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
Salary range: $22.74 - 35.76/hour
Position announcement open from 03/08/2010 through 3/17/2010
Apply on-line at USA Jobs: http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/
(Type announcement number SEKI 327337 in search box to get toannouncement.)
For more information about the position, contact Athena Demetry,Restoration Ecologist, at 559-565-4479 or via email atathena_demetry@nps.gov.
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6. Wealth
"We hear political 'leaders' commenting constantlythatthat 'the fundamentals of the economy are strong.' But we here know that the fundamentals of the economy are in fact the soil and waters and plants and animals." Curt Meine, Aldo Leopold biographer
Aldo Leopold:
Health is the capacity of the land for self-renewal. Conservation is our effort to understand and preserve this capacity.
The most important characteristic of an organism [including the land organism] is that capacity for internal self-renewal known as health.
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7. Six Groups Honored for Water Conservation Efforts
Two businesses, two organizations, a city and a school district will receive Silicon Valley Water Conservation Awards on World Water Day Monday, March 22. The Awards, in their second year, recognize groups whose programs and leadership have advanced water conservation in Silicon Valley (San Mateo County, Santa Clara County and Alameda County from Hayward south).
The 2010 Water Conservation Awards will be presented to the following groups:
Agriculture Nurserymens Exchange
Business Cisco Systems
Government Agency City of Hayward
Education California Landscape Contractors Association
Greenscape Management Campbell Union School District
Organization Humane Society Silicon Valley
Additional information is available at http://www.waterawards.org
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8. From SaveMuni.com
When money is inefficiently used, other things are not or will never be done!
And the Central Subway is meandering through fiscal land mines:
http://sfappeal.com/news/2009/03/central-subways-147-million-tab-hits-budget-hard.php
Although the proposed shortened, 3-car length stations were redesigned to save money, they will forever curtail passenger capacity---for perpetuity. No, we will never have Hong Kongs 8-car trains!
And high risk construction, boring below BART and densely populated/ historic neighborhoods is never a cake walk. Like Barneys and downtown department stores, who had sub-basement permits precipitously revoked, Chinatown merchants wont know what hit them.
http://www.geoprac.net/geonews-mainmenu-63/38-failures/456-subway-tunnel-collapse-in-cologne-germany
Tragically, even if built, the Central Subways own EIR projects large reductions in surface buses to offset higher operating costs.
Tens of thousands of riders, north of the Washington Street Subway Station, will have reduced service. Few riders will benefit from the one-half mile subway ride from Washington Street to Union Square. Far worse, from Stockton & Pacific Ave., the Total Travel Time by Bus to Market St. is faster than the Total Travel Time by Subway.
In the Central Subway Final SEIS/SEIR, Volume II, Page 3-187:
The operational analysis and cost estimates that were conducted for the Central Subway financial feasibility take into account cost savings associated with the reduction in frequency of service on the surface lines operating in the Central Subway Corridor.
Like a living organism, the rerouting of major blood vessels/ circulation away from major organs is nonsensical---as is the elimination of public transit to major urban nodes.
South of Market Street, the rerouted T-Line will eliminate direct service to the Embarcadero Station (Ferry Building and ferry services), Montgomery Station (financial district, TransBay Terminal and future High Speed Rail), Powell Station, Civic Center Station and the entire Market Street Corridor---for perpetuity. From northerly Washington Street, the proposed subway goes to a new Union Square Station---requiring that riders walk up 8 stories and 1,000 feet to the existing Powell Station.
The Central Subway decreases connectivity and transfers to BART, Muni Metro, Ferry, High Speed Rail, crossing bus lines and major employment/ commercial centers. Horrifically, the Central Subway is NOT futuristic transportation design---only an old-fashioned political Frankenstein.
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9. Restore the wetland native habitat of Colma Creek/Bog Trial areas in the saddle of San Bruno Mountain
Hello San Bruno Mountain volunteers. Ournext workdays will be on:
* March 20th (Owl/Buckeye Canyons)
* March 27th (Colma Creek/bog trail)
*April 3rd(Owl/Buckeye Canyons)
*April 10th(Colma Creek/bog trail)
Workdays start at 10:00 AM and go to 12:30 PM with a ten minute break with snacks provided.
QUESTIONS? 415-467-6631 or email: restore_ecology@earthlink.net. THANKS and see you out on San Bruno Mountain.
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10. From The Watershed Project:
Cities Learn to Live with Water
Retrofitting an Urban Watershed
When you look at a satellite image of a large city, you see a swath of grey interspersed with smatterings of green space that are parks or tiny bits of urban forest. Indeed, the history of the built environment has been that of human-made structures housing human activities. What if we envisioned a different look for our cities -- one that wove watersheds into our daily lives, embraced nature as part of the built environment, and welcomed the rain as an important component of urban life?Cities Learn to Live with Water
and more:
Lifeline of the East Bay
What's in Your Watershed?
Ebb & Flow Celebrates One Year Anniversary
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11. Upcoming with Nature in the City-
Wake up with the buffalo at Golden Gate park while creating White-crowned sparrow habitat,this Saturday March 20 (2ndSaturdays)from 9:00-Noon at the Bison Paddock.Start the day bright and early looking for spring migrants birding with Josiah Clark at 8:00am! Afterwards, pick up the hot new release of URBIA's self-guided Adventure at the SF Botanical Garden (10:00am-2:00pm).
3rd Sundays,1:00-4:00 pm-March 21, say hello to spring at Alemany Farm, and lend a hand with the ALEMANY NATIVES native plant areas! Stay until 5:00 to bring home some farm-fresh veggies!
You must RSVP for the following treks - spaces are limited!iris@natureinthecity.org| (415) 564-4107.Details and more exciting 2010 Spring Treksatwww.natureinthecity.org
Tune Into Spring on Twin Peaks
March 28 |9 am - 12 pm
A special opportunity to have San Francisco Ecologist Josiah Clark lead us on inspiring walk with breathtaking views, through the Mt. Sutro and Twin Peaks Bioregion. He will help us to find spring migrating birds, emerging butterflies, and to learn about the unique local ecologies at the heart of our city. All ages welcome. Bring your binoculars!
Explore Yerba Buena Island
April 3 |1 - 2:40 pm
Don't miss this rare opportunity to discover the remnant original and current ecologies of Yerba Buena Island, with its foremost expert Ruth Gravanis. This trek requires special permits and permissions, and will be an exceptional day in a gorgeous location. We will be covering a lot of ground, so wear hiking shoes, and be prepared for a lively pace.
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12. Feedback
Barbara Deutsch:
I write to thank you for your comments on. LTE: light pollution and personal experience in re: vitamins D/B
additionally, taken aback as I was byseriously erroneous reply toquestions (themselvessuspect):
Can anyone explain why men act like baboons?
Why is it that so many human males are committed to violence?
It's a gene on the Y-chromosome that we've inherited from the lower mammals. Packs with males who protected their members, practised rape
and stole from and killed members of rival packs were more likely to survive, and males practising such behaviour were more likely to reproduce
than those who eschewed it. We share the trait with baboons.
Perhaps these characteristics attract human females, another possible genetic heritage.
Art Hilgart, Kalamazoo, Michigan, US
may I express my hope that you'll correct that error as soon/well as possible?: besides libelling baboons (see Eugene Marais's eloquent study of
of baboons living naturally), the feature grossly misrepresents humansprior to domestication (see Paul Shepardesp. his final book
Coming Home to the Pleistoceneand/orNature and Madnesswhosechapter "10,000 years of crisis" is alsoanthologizedin The Only World We've Got)
Well, Barbara, that was a paste from the Notes & Queries section of Guardian Weekly. Besides, I'm unclear what the 'error' was--that baboons are violent?
On Mar 12, 2010, at 4:24 PM, Dave Goggin wrote (re Republican Assemblyman Paul Cook, former mayor of Yucca Valley):
Hi Mr. Sigg,
Next time you see him, suggest that he introduce legislation to require that every outdoor lighting fixture sold in California include a basic pamphlet about light pollution as well as instructions on how to correctly install and adjust the fixture to minimize light pollution.
But, on an unrelated note, he also managed to have Yucca Valley become adark sky city, meaning the lighting is directed downward, where it is needed, not upward and washing out the night sky, which is important tohim.
But, on an unrelated note, he also managed to have Yucca Valley become adark sky city, meaning the lighting is directed downward, where it is needed, not upward and washing out the night sky, which is important tohim.
Chances are I will never see him again. I think that was a one-time-only event, a happy accident. However, he is a California Assemblyman and can be easily reached through that website. Tell him you read it in my newsletter. He'll be glad to hear it--you know how politicians love favorable publicity.
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13. A backpack trip with a purpose
Join us as we walk in the footsteps of John Muir to raise awareness for the campaign to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley.
In 1913, John Muir led the fight to prevent the destruction of his beloved Hetch Hetchy Valley. Situated inside Yosemite National Park, this remarkable glacial valley was described by Muir as "one of nature's rarest and most precious mountain temples." Initially protected by the establishment of Yosemite National Park, the city of San Francisco won congressional approval in 1913 to build a dam and bury this extraordinary wilderness valley under 300 feet of water. John Muir died a year later.
But Muir's spirit lives on. From August 1-7, three groups of Muir's Marchers will be guided on a 7 day, 45 mile trek across Yosemite, each following a separate route. They will converge atop the O'Shaughnessy Dam where they will be joined by activists from around the state to rally for the restoration of the Hetch Hetchy Valley.
Prior to participating, each marcher must raise a minimum of $1913 forRestore Hetch Hetchy, the national campaign to bring the Hetch Hetchy Valley back to life.
Join usas we finish what John Muir began so long ago.
Join uson the march to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley!
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14. Living New Deal Project(Excerpt from London's Guardian article, posted in last newsletter)
...Obama's economic stimulus package has more than $100bn of "safety net" provisions, yet many people are sceptical about any enduring impact it might have. In this context, the shadow of the Great Depression looms large.
Brechin had the audience spellbound at a recent lecture when he talked about how much of the New Deal's achievements had been airbrushed out of history, and of how political opponents had been "phenomenally successful" at painting it as a failure. Yet, fact by fact, he illustrated how it had acted as a glue that kept communities strong in tough economic times and "made people feel invested" in the work they were doing.
It's easy to find people here who think the New Deal was a colossal waste of taxpayers' money usually the same people who think Obama's stimulus package is doomed to failure. But Brechin sees LND as a small yet potentially significant challenge to such attitudes, and its reach is well beyond the borders of California. "People all around the country, and we hope around the world, are aware of what we are doing," he says. "And, of course, they can add to it too."
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15. Botanical workshops potpourri
The Jepson Herbarium at UC Berkeley offers its annual series of workshops on botanical and ecological subjects, from basic botany for rank beginners to sophisticated subjects. Information: jepsonworkshops@berkeley.edu, 510-643-7008.
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A society has been formed around what is probably my favorite plant genus, Eriogonum, and it is having an event in June not to be missed by aficionados:
http://eriogonum.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=42&Itemid=85
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CNPS Plant Science Training Program presents two vernal pool workshops in Davis and surrounding Sacramento/San JoaquinValley vernal pool terrain
Vernal Pool Plant Taxonomy,April 12-14,
and
Classification of Vernal Pool Plant Communities,April 15-16
http://cnps.org/cnps/education/workshops/index.php
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16. Western Wilderness Conference April 8-11 in Berkeley
Highlights organizations from all twelve western states, including Alaska. Meet new allies and discover strategic tips to strengthen your own environmental campaign. Visitwesternwilderness.orgfor more information and to register for the conference.
Malcolm Margolin moderates Saturday, April 10th Evening Workshop: The Role of Books in Wilderness Preservation!
At the Saturday evening reception, Malcolm Margolin will moderate a panel on the role of books in wilderness preservation. Slated to speak are Ruth Nolan (editor of No Place for a Puritan), Kimi Kodani Hill (editor of Topaz Moon and Shades of California), and Tim Palmer (author of Luminous Mountains and Rivers of California).
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17. Earthshine Night Hike at Arastradero Preserve (Friday, March 19)
Enjoy Arastradero Preserve after dark, and learn about earthshine and other cool astronomical happenings from Astronomer Joe Jordan. [view hike information]
(I have taken natural history classes from Joe Jordan, and I guarantee a fun time, even if it's cloudy. He's more than an astronomer--he's a physicist, chemist, natural historian, standup comedian, you name it. But I doubt it will be a 'hike'. More like a saunter or a ramble. JS)
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18. SATURN
Magnificent, always interesting Saturn is moving into our evening eastern sky. It is now in Virgo, which is preceded, higher in the sky, by Leo the Lion, which is more noticeable than Virgo in our polluted, watery skies. Saturn will be at opposition (ie, directly opposite from the Sun as seen from Earth) on March 21, at which time it will be its closest to Earth. Recently, its rings were edge-on to the Earth, making them difficult to see even in telescopes. Now they are beginning to tilt, from our perspective, making Saturn gradually appear brighter.
The brightest star of Leo is first-magnitude Regulus, which is 3.5 times the mass of the Sun, and visually 140 times brighter. That's a lot of energy, and, if you count its UV output, it's 240 times brighter! Reason it appears only first magnitude from Earth is because its light takes 77 years to get here. (Do the math.) It is almost right on the ecliptic--the path of the Sun, Moon, and planets. Consequently, it often gets occulted by the Moon. Regulus (="little king") is at the bottom of an asterism called the 'sickle of Leo', but most people see it as a reverse question mark.
Many "stars" you look at are actually multiples orbiting each other. Regulus has a lower-mass companion which takes 130,000 years to orbit Regulus. That means it is a very long way from Regulus; however, they appear as a single star--that's how far 77 light years is. The companion is ITSELF a double, in a thousand-year orbit.
(Regulus information is from James Kaler's website)
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19. Scientific American
MIND MATTERS: Keeping Love Alive: Scientific American Does Its Part
With half of all first marriages ending in divorce, how can we build lasting relationships? A Scientific American event explores the science of love
http://cl.exct.net/?qs=f2559f277e28c3ff61f29d2fd43b7c9f04c2f7fd63d0092c4d6a14f0b703c8be
NEWS: Thin Wallets, Thick Waistlines: New USDA Effort Targets Link between Obesity and Food Stamps
Could added incentives and other changes to the federal food stamp program trim rampant obesity rates among low-income groups?
http://cl.exct.net/?qs=f2559f277e28c3ff84c261098a3986fac744765effc641f7b4ce6ce7e74a08ee
60-SECOND PSYCH PODCAST: Humans Want to Share Information
Businesses are buckling under the pressure of the digital revolution because of a subtle quirk in human nature
http://cl.exct.net/?qs=f2559f277e28c3ffaf0a2bbb85a4f8d49e8fd97da8bb18a421ec10b1874a315a
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND: Extraordinary Perception
We think of people with autism as having a deficit in cognitive processing--but their distractibility could also result from having enhanced perceptual capabilities
http://cl.exct.net/?qs=f2559f277e28c3ff53d4c65fd5effeeea4479a26bd96978aa11585d38e9ca568
NEWS: Can Smiley Faces (and a 14-Step Program to Stop Overconsumption) Save the Global Climate?
When rational appeals fall short, environmentalists enlist social and economic incentives--and even neuroscience--to get the public in on national efforts to combat climate change
http://cl.exct.net/?qs=f2559f277e28c3ff233c825c0437755e55437a8123221796af5c0a4427199bd3
60-SECOND SCIENCE PODCAST: Mine Injuries Rise Right after Daylight Saving Time
The Monday after the change to daylight saving time is marked by an increase in work-related injuries
http://cl.exct.net/?qs=f2559f277e28c3ffd5026437342676bd3370cb2674c4bbbbb19efd4831f4e6ec
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND: Aristotle's Error
Using aftereffects to probe visual function reveals how the eye and brain handle colors and contours
http://cl.exct.net/?qs=f2559f277e28c3ff65a0dc8e834b5d87458557670952a330939f9c8fb154c233
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MAGAZINE: End-of-Days Danger
If 2012 marks the start of the apocalypse, it will be our own fault, not nature's or God's
http://cl.exct.net/?qs=663f5d9cad04a8125710731e3682b99cc87727266373e279dad92b21d400a86c
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20.
Benefits of omega-3 fatty acids tally up
The fish oil compound may help patients battling sepsis and age-related diseases
Science News 13 February, 2010 (excerpt)
Promising news about omega-3 fatty acids just keeps rolling in. A new study bolsters previous data suggesting that fish oil supplements high in omega-3s may benefit critically ill people in intensive care units by quelling inflammation. Meanwhile, another study finds that robust omega-3 levels protect the ends of chromosomes from damage, which suggests a benefit against age-related diseases.
Omega-3s are found naturally in fish, walnuts, certain vegetable oils and many other foods.
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21. Can gay footballers come out?
It's time to tackle homophobia on and off the pitch, say many in the game
(Full-page story--excerpted here--in Sports section of Guardian Weekly, 12.03.10, complete with picture of two Argentinian footballers embraced in a passionate kiss)
For 14 years Graeme Le Saux, the former England and Chelsea defender, endured the taunts of everyone from team-mates and players to thousands of vociferous fans chanting obscenities. The cultured left-back was, in a sense, England's first outed footballer. And he was not even gay.
Le Saux's experience, just because he took an interest in the arts, read the Guardian and was not part of the game's laddish drinking culture, was so traumatic that he considered quitting football. Far worse were the years of abuse suffered by Justin Fashanu, the only professional English footballer to come out as gay, who took his own life in 1998.
...Traditionally homophobic, macho and conservative professions such as investment banking and the armed forces are, according to Summerskill, significantly better at addressing homophobia than football. "The work we're doing with the army is much more advanced than what is happening in football. Were sending openly gay and lesbian people to fight in Afghanistan, but we can't send openly gay people to fight for the World Cup this summer."
...there are high-profile footballers who are gay. But it's not an easy place to come out. "We've talked to professional footballers who have explicitly said there is homophobia in their dressing rooms. That doesn't just make a difference to whether you will come out, but also how you play." Summerskill says he would be surprised if we did not see an openly gay footballer within a decade. But he does not believe high-profile players have a moral obligation to come out, even if it would undoubtedly help thousands of other young people - and footballers - wrestling with their sexuality. He prefers to quietly stress the positive benefits - both personal and professional - that have been widely expressed by openly gay sports stars such as Gareth Thomas and Martina Navratilova.
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I often muse on how strange social attitudes are. When life was short and people needed offspring to care for them in old age (if they ever reached old age), prejudice about sexual orientation was more understandable. But the days when population per se was a problem have long disappeared, and the opposite is now the problem. So we're experiencing outdated attitudes whose reason for being is no longer here, yet the habit persists, and some feel threatened by same-sex relationships. It persists even though we know that in situations where people spend long periods with the same sex: army and navy, merchant marines, prisons, logging camps, monasteries and nunneries, &c. What are they thinking--that residents remain celibate, or satisfy themselves by masturbating?
In the biological world sex change is common, females becoming males, vice versa, and back again; hermaphrodites are common (eg, the garden snail). Nature is very flexible, suiting organisms to the needs of the time. Where in the world did people ever get the idea that God intended there be male/female relations only? Another example of religion screwing up people's minds.
The ancient Greeks did not have a monopoly on male-male relationships, which was an important part of their culture. Besides in war (the Greek city-states were almost always fighting each other)--where everyone had a lover--in Sparta, males were required to have male lovers until the age of 30, at which time they were required to marry and produce children. It seems a sensible convention for the time.
Greek: We invented sex.
Italian: Yes, but we were the ones who introduced it to women.
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22.
Peter Conrad on what Greek myths meant to the father of psychoanalysis
Catharsis is the cure
The Penguin Freud Reader, ed by Adam Phillips
I am not convinced that Freud ever cured anyone. But as Adam Phillipss collection of his papers on the methodology of psychoanalysis reveals, he did supply us with a means of analyzing our ailments, or perhaps of mythologizing those qualms, since he housed the violent and licentious Olympian gods inside our heads and made us act out all over again their ancient, irreconcilable disputes.
The science he founded derived from a fable about a proud nymph captivated and tormented by Cupid. What Freud called the psychical apparatus belonged at first to Psyche, who in Greek myth represents the elusive, incommunicable soul. She was initiated into heavenly delights by the god of love, but was forbidden to tell of the pleasures she enjoyed with him. Freudian analysis set out to breach her vow of silence, sealed by Cupids finger when it shut her lips.
Greek myth appealed to Freud because, unlike Christianity, it held out no promise of salvation. Freud had no patience with Christian moralism. For him, the fall of man was not a criminal rebellion but an irresistible, enjoyable lapse encapsulated in the inadvertent puns or double entendres that he so ingeniously deciphered.
despite his skepticism, Freud worshipped great men such as Hannibal or Napoleon, whose achievement was to wreck a corrupt and complacent civilization. In one of his last essays he extolled the intellectual heroism of Moses, who, by transforming God into an abstraction, began the long, salutary process of annihilating him.
Despite its curative pretensions, Freud defined psychoanalysis as an art of interpretation. Phillipss anthology convinces me that it was above all an interpretation of art, which is, in Freuds view, an oblique response to neurosis. His libido theory explains the megalomania of children and of primitive peoples, but it also shrewdly accounts for the motives of artists, who use their own verbal or visual magic to ensure prompt gratification of their wildest desires. He diagnosed daydreams as the correction of real life; could there be a more succinct explanation of art?...imagination unites us with a loved one who, in reality, remains unavailable.
Psychoanalysis is meant to be a talking cure. Its greatest boon, however, may be its gift to writers, who silently transcribe what they cannot or dare not say out loud, and in doing soif theyre luckyheal themselves.
From Observer, reprinted in Guardian Weekly, 24 March 2006
