Why do the models we use to understand the human mind often seem so shallow, so unsatisfying? Could it be because the great discoveries in this field have not been made yet? Plato wrote of the mind in a cave, groping towards the light. Sigmund Freud broke the mind down into three components, Id and […]| Literary Kicks
The psychologist Carl Jung wrote of the collective unconscious, a source of deep common understanding and knowledge that every person seems to somehow draw from. I’ve always liked this concept, and I’ve often thought we could take this further and consider the concept of the collective self. While Jung’s collective unconscious is present in our […]| Literary Kicks
Somebody correct me if I’m wrong about this, but I’ve read several reactions to Harold Pinter’s aggressive Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and I get the feeling I’m the only one here who actually knows Pinter’s work. Harold Pinter has spent his career studying the way human beings lie. It is his obsession, his medium. A […]| Literary Kicks
You know those internet quizzes where you find out what kind of Disney character you are, what root vegetable you are, which flag of the world you are? Well, I don’t know if there’s a quiz for which classic existentialist text you are, but if there were, I’m pretty sure I would be No Exit […]| Literary Kicks
I’m always glad when the Nobel Prize winner turns out to be an author I’ve actually read (and this happens less often than I like to admit). I’ve only read one Doris Lessing novel, 1989’s The Fifth Child, but the book has stuck with me all these years. The Fifth Child is a fable about […]| Literary Kicks
