Frontiers Friday 111: Existence (Part II) ⭕️
A Rom-Com, A Cartoon, a Philosopher and a Theologian pointing their fingers to the moon.
Here’s Part II on Existence.
(See below for more info on the next cohort of Reigniting Clinical Supervision course for Clinical Supervisors)
In case you missed the previous, here is Part I.
📽 Watch: About Time
Have you ever experience no recollection of a movie you’ve watched before?
…And this was a really good one!
This movie came back into my radar from filmmaker Nathaniel Drew’s newsletter. I got intrigued. Found out it was on Netflix, and watched it last night.
As the show was kicking in, I search my personalised learning system (PLS)1 notes app… and only to realised I had watched this with my wife 3 years ago!
This is not your typical romantic comedy. It’s not just about romantic love. To me, it’s about the preciousness of time and relationships.
Highly recommended.📽 Watch: Pixel's Soul
I've shared this on FF70.
This is one of my favorite Pixar animation (available in DisneyPlus)
The theme wrestles with the question of life's purpose. It is so well crafted.
Potential Spoiler: Finding "life's purpose" can potentially be a trap.
The soundtrack is also spectacular (surprisingly, Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails composed the soundtrack).For more about the movie, see this 8 min youtube video.
📕 Read: Standpoints
Somehow, I've never delved deep into the roots of philosophy. Yet, at its core, philosophy strives to address what it means to lead a good life.
Danish Psychologist and Philosopher Sven Brinkmann does a marvellous job in this book, Standpoints.
He distils the greats into its essence. Even though I'm familiar with some of the schools of thought (Kant, Aristotle), reading his synthesis juxtapose with other philosopher is throws new light.
I particularly appreciate his emphasis from Kantian’s view on means vs ends.
In the prologue, The Meaningful Life, Brinkmann highilghts the issues with instrumentalisation."Art, play, love, and ethics are at their most useful when they are useless— that is, when they do not serve any purpose, when they are end in themselves... it is the supposedly useless phenomena that give life content and meaning."
Here's another cutting passage from his book:
“Psychology has transformed the religious goal of salvation into self-realisation; confession and pastoral care have become therapy and coaching; the modern secular priesthood consists of psychologists and self-help gurus; and God’s place at the centre of the cosmos has been usurped by the self. This has happened over the last couple of centuries. However, unlike the religious idea of the divine and the absolute as ends in themselves, psychology – to put it somewhat simply – offers means without ends. ”I'd talk about his previous book, Standfirm in another series. I wished I had knew about Brinkmann's work earlier. I’m likely to keep returning to Standpoints.
🎧 Listen: Alan Watts
Maybe it’s his English accent, but everything he says seem to have a weight of importance!
There is an entire transcript of this talk, but I recommend listening.
Key Graf:Bad music always expresses something other than itself…Good music never talks about anything other than the music.
Good music, never refers to anything but the
music itself.
Iif you ask Bach, what is your meaning?
He said "Listen"
"That's the meaning"
Giraffes are giraffe-ing
Trees are tree-ing
Stars are star-ing
Clouds are cloud-ing
Rain is rain-ing
and if vou don't understand look at it again
See related Frontiers article: Explainoholic
⏸ Words Worth Contemplating:
”Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”~Howard Thurman, The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman: A Visionary for Our Time
For more about how I use Obsidian to manage my personalised learning system (PLS), watch this playlist.
Reflection
What makes you come alive?
For more on this, read this short reflection, Do Not Find Meaning in Life.
Waitlist for Clinical Supervisor’s Training
Are you a clinical supervisor?
If so, the online course Reigniting Clinical Supervision that has been going on for more than 4 years is about to begin it’s next cohort.
RCS is specifically designed to help you raise the bar of in supervision, and become more effectual with therapists, so that your positive impact promotes therapist’s development, and ultimately impact their clients.
Email me to be on the waitlist to be in the 13th cohort, slated to begin before the end of 2022. (E: admin@darylchow.com)
BIG HUGS TO NEW PEOPLE WHO ARE AT THEIR FRONTIER!
If you've just joined us, I'm glad you can join us at the "bleeding edge." Feel free to check out the back catalogue of Frontiers of Psychotherapists Development (FPD). You might also want to go into specific topics in the FPD Archives like
And if you want to see past newsletters, the entire archive is now made available in substack.
In case you missed it, see the most recent missives
Devotion to the Craft (6 Parts)
Caring for People in Organisations (3 Parts)
Clinical Supervision (3 Parts)
Feedback Informed Treatment (4 Parts)
Unintended Consequences (2 Parts)
Deep Learner (4 Parts)
Going Further with Deep Learner and The Use of Obsidian (6 Parts)
See What You Hear, Hear What You See (4 Parts)
Trauma (3 Parts)
Deliberate Practice (5 Parts)
Empathy (6 Parts)
Therapist Effects (2 Parts)
Client Point of View (4 Parts)
Tech Tools for Therapists (4 Parts)
Emotions (6 Parts)
Sensitivity (3 Parts)
Alliance (6 Parts)
My other blog site is called FullCircles: Reflections on Living
By the way, don't feel bad if you want to unsubscribe to this newsletter. This might not be for you. The last thing I want is to add to the anxious clutter of our inboxes.
Daryl Chow Ph.D. is the author of The First Kiss, co-author of Better Results, and The Write to Recovery, Creating Impact, and the forthcoming book The Field Guide to Better Results.
Note: These newsletter are free, many hours are spent handpicking the curated list that make it to Frontiers Friday, as well as writing the essays and recording the videos and podcasts. Amazon affiliate links, if any, are to help ease the costs. You can also support the work by picking up any of the books. Big thanks.
p/s: Please excuse any typos!