• The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leaders

  Publisher's Weekly says: "In this provocative analysis of contemporary business leaders, psychoanalyst [???] and consultant Maccoby (The Gamesman) reminds readers of Freud's assessment of the narcissist as "the type of person who impresses us as a personality, who disrupts the status quo and brings about change."

  Which just goes to prove that both "Maccoby (The Gamesman)" (uh-huh) and Publisher's Weekly stopped reading Freud a bit prematurely. Or they were smoking crack. For a far better introduction to the psychology of narcissism, try Little House on the Prairie.

• The Point of Existence: Transformations of Narcissism in Self-Realization (Diamond Mind Series, 3)

  A reader-reviewer writes: "Almaas cross correlates metaphysics with psychology in a mind numbing fashion..." This appears in a 5-star review, so no, it wasn't meant to be funny. btw, A.H. Almaas is evidently also the author of Spacecruiser Inquiry: True Guidance for the Inner Journey, just in case you want to run out and get that one too. You never know. Another reader-reviewer quotes the Master: "It can be scary, but it can be quite thrilling. Not everybody has the heart or the stomach for this kind of adventure." That would be me on the stomach part.

  Oh wait. Holy shit! The same guy goes on: "Almaas, or 'Ali' as he is called by his students at the Ridhwan School here in Boulder..." See what I've been telling you? I'm fucking surrounded by these cocksuckers!

• King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine

  I often refer to Robert L. Moore and Douglas Gillette, the authors of this stinkwad of spiritual bungputty, as The Brawny Lads. See maturely masculine picture of them here.

  "Arguing that mature masculinity is not abusive or domineering, but generative, creative, and empowering of the self and others, Moore and Gillette provide a Jungian introduction to the psychological foundations of a mature, authentic, and revitalized masculinity."

  Yeah? Fuck you! And the archetype you rode in on.

  btw, readers who bought this piece of shit also bought: Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man by Sam Keen. Now this is interesting to me. Because my ex-date, Anomalie Aescalapius, gave me a video of this asswipe talking about the sacredness of sex. What was she trying to tell me, I wondered. (I can't remember whether this was before or after I tried to get her to watch my Bend Over Boyfriend videos.) Anyway, this Sam Keen individual was riding around on a fucking HORSE! Hey wait a minute... What was she trying to tell me???

• The Urantia Book

  Oooh, this is one of my favorites! No kidding. It's got everything. But don't take my word for it. Hie yourself over to urantia.org, where you can read cool shit like this:

  "A local universe is the handiwork of a Creator Son of the Paradise order of Michael. It comprises one hundred constellations, each embracing one hundred systems of inhabited worlds. Each system will eventually contain approximately one thousand inhabited spheres. Our world, Urantia, belongs to a local universe whose sovereign is Michael, the Son of God and the Son of Man, known on this world as Jesus of Nazareth. In the central universe the Universal Father (God) is personally present; in the universes and planets of space our Father is being represented by his Sovereign Sons, while he is intimately present in the minds of his mortal children through his indwelling spirit, The Thought Adjusters."

  and...

  "Around 1,000,000,000 years ago Urantia had attained approximately its present size. At this time it was placed upon the physical registries of our local universe, Nebadon, and given its name, Urantia. [Page 660:3] The sixty three papers comprising this section relate the history of our planet, the geologic development, the establishment of life, and the evolution and history of man, evolving civilizations, human institutions and governments. Here also are discussed the Trinity concept, the evolution of religion, the indwelling spirit of God (the Thought Adjuster), personality survival, the bestowals of Christ Michael."

  Et cetera. I'm not entirely certain about this, but I have a funny feeling this planet may be located somewhere here in Boulder, where I myself am personally present.

So they're not all
strictly speaking
limericks. But this
is a haiku.

Self esteem is the existential booby prize, the path from empathy and pathos to the pathological. It's snowing here again today, and waking to my angel's voice, tell her I love her, that it's necessary, good. That I see in her longing my own. That darkness invades the light. That in it always underneath is where I touch her deepest heart, my own. Not in a dream, on the telephone. Real. And I read in Freud's classic paper on narcissisism, this: "A strong egoism is a protection against falling ill, but in the last resort we must begin to love in order not to fall ill if, in consequence of frustration, we are unable to love."

I take notes over coffee...

Something deep in my throat gives up an animal cry. A howling for a mate who now lies still, fallen and unmoving in the muted snow. Out on the ice, I have come too far, sleep now approaching rapidly as night. Peace or death, maybe both. What I dreamed in this life about to show itself. Or disappear. My eyes meet yours again, angel, another, alive. And I touch you in this empty mourning, this longing ache that holds no one, hold you there. Bless our unknowing as best I can.

• Essential Papers on Psychosis
  
• Essential Papers on Dreams
  
• Essential Papers on Suicide
  
• Essential Papers on Literature and Psychoanalysis
  
• Essential Papers on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  
• Essential Papers on Countertransference
  
• Essential Papers on Short-Term Dynamic Therapy
  
• Essential Papers on the Psychology of Women

In other news, I'm sitting on my couch with my new Mac Powerbook, cruising Amazon and blogging this here item by ripping off some unsuspecting neighbor's wi-fi bandwidth. Bad fences make cheap... No wait. That's what she said.

My daughter Selene, who turned 13 this month, has just set up her own blog at smudgedeyeliner.blogspot.com. (Hey! I was going to rename mine that!) I didn't put her up to it, honest. Anything I suggest is a surefire candidate for her Don't Do list. But I was pleasantly surprised to see this today. As a proud dad, what can I say? Except: Please throw her some links.