Think About It 101: GORDON LIVINGSTON

 

The tendency to hyperbole is everywhere around us, so that people who can barely carry a tune are introduced as 'artists,' while those lacking all writing skills are referred to as 'authors,' and politicians without intelligence or moral standing are our 'leaders.'  This degrading tendency, fostered by a culture of celebrity, not only leads to cynicism and a debasement of taste, it distorts our appreciation of persons of genuine accomplishment.  If our heroes shrink, so does our sense of what it is to dare greatly, to truly achieve something.

 

 

And Never Stop Dancing: Thirty More True Things You Need To Know Now (2006)

 

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read the obituary of North American psychiatrist, author and anti-war protester DR GORDON STUART LIVINGSTON (1939–2016):

 

 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-gordon-livingston-20160323-story.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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If death is inevitable, if all of our accomplishments, indeed our entire solar system, shall one day lie in ruins, if the world is contingent (that is, everything could as well have been otherwise), if human beings must construct the world and the human design within that world, then what enduring meaning can there be in life?… We are meaning-seeking creatures.  Biologically, our nervous systems are organized in such a way that the brain automatically clusters incoming stimuli into configurations.  Meaning also provides a sense of mastery: feeling helpless and confused in the face of random, unpatterned events, we seek to order them and, in so doing, gain a sense of control over them.  Even more important, meaning gives birth to values and, hence, to a code of behavior: thus the answer to why questions (Why do I live?) supplies an answer to how questions (How do I live?)… The search for meaning, much like the search for pleasure, must be conducted obliquely.  Meaning ensues from meaningful activity: the more we deliberately pursue it, the less likely are we to find it; the rational questions one can pose about meaning will always outlast the answers.  In therapy, as in life, meaningfulness is a by-product of engagement and commitment, and that is where therapists must direct their efforts — not that engagement provides the rational answer to questions of meaning, but it causes these questions not to matter.

 

Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy (1989)

 

 

 

Use the link below to read an article about 'the four existential concerns' of North American psychotherapist and novelist IRVIN D YALOM:

 

 

https://exploringyourmind.com/irvin-yalom-and-his-four-existential-concerns/

 

 

 

 

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We all carry around inside ourselves some idea of what we would like our lives to be.  The images of success with which we are bombarded are, in general, both superficial and unattainable.  The values of steadfastness and determination do not receive the admiration they deserve.  In fact, a consumer society is likely to celebrate the quick solution, the drug that will provide relief, the replacement of the old with the new, the triumph of form over substance.  These messages, surrounding us like the air we breathe, produce a lot of confusion about what will make us happy.

 

 

And Never Stop Dancing: Thirty More True Things You Need To Know Now (2006)

 

 

 

 

Use the link below to read the obituary of North American psychiatrist, author and anti-war protester GORDON LIVINGSTON (1939–2016):

 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-gordon-livingston-20160323-story.html

 

 

 

 

 

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Think About It 026: GORDON LIVINGSTON

We live in a society that has elevated complaint to a primary form of public discourse.  The airwaves and courts are full of victims of this and that: childhood abuse, mistakes of others, random misfortune.  Voluntary behaviors have been reclassified as illness so that sufferers can be pitied and, where possible, compensated.  Not surprisingly, many of these people appear in psychiatrists' offices expecting a sympathetic ear and medication that will relieve their feelings of distress.  Often they want testimony to support lawsuits or letters to excuse them from work.  They are not there to engage in the difficult process of examining their lives, taking responsibility for their feelings, deciding what they need to do to be happy –– and doing it.

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need To Know Right Now (2004)


 

Use the link below to read the obituary of North American psychiatrist, author and anti-war protester DR GORDON STUART LIVINGSTON (1939–2016):

 

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-md-ob-gordon-livingston-20160323-story.html 

 

 

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