Being and Nothingness

Strangely, I was talking about it to a friend last week who likes philosophy (more than me I think). We both confessed to abandoning B&N before the end. Well before the end. I am sure it is a classic and worth the effort if you can stick it out, but I just wasn't understanding enough and it was a case of rapidly diminishing returns. I never got to "Being and Doing: Freedom", much less "Doing and Having".

What I remember liking is the idea that there is a void, a nothingness at the core of existence. But I can get this a little easier from the Heart Sutra or the Buddhist idea that every 'thing' has a lack of inherent existence, 'emptiness' in some translations (without falling into the trap of nihilism).

So, if I ever feel the need, I will find an idiot's guide to Sartre and settle for that. In good faith of course.

Female decoration

But there is an alternative theory: that women enjoy making themselves look nice; that if they didn't like doing it then no amount of patriarchal oppression would keep them doing it; and that, rather than persuading women to stop, men should be actively encouraged to do the same. Not saying I agree particularly, but let's at least acknowldege there are different possible views! E.g. see Natasha Walter.

Dybbuk

I have seen it as dybbuk not dibbuk. And I think as a demon that possesses someone, not a ghost or someone who dies young, but surely must be the same origin. And I'm sure it is from Judaism not Christianity. The only time I remember it used is Ted Hughes in one of his poems about Plath, saying "Inaccessible in your dybbuk fury" which again suggests possession to me.

Schubert's "Ave Maria"

No, I don't think it is particulary religious at all, except that Ellen sings to the Virgin Mary, Ellen presumably being The Lady of the Lake in Scott's poem of that name (which I've never read). Hence the real name of the piece: Ellens Dritter Gesang.

Existential counselling

Yes, I remember sitting in a university library in Glasgow in 1988 and a new and exciting book had been published the year before: Existential Counselling & Psychotherapy in Practice by Emmy van Deurzen. She is obviously much better known now, but that was one of the things that attracted me to counselling. It has taken exactly 20 years to get myself on a course!