December | 2010 | Amygda7a

Here is my year in review, with some memorable major events and milestones, some smaller events, and some reminders of what I was reading or thinking or doing during the year. It’s meant to create a different experience of time, or of what a year is like.

January: New Year’s in Baltimore
January: first full year of Bikram yoga practice
January: ended practicum at Center for Children & Families
January: began Physiological Psych course (fourth year, second semester)
January: participated in focus group at Persad
January: began practicum at intensive outpatient program for persons with early psychosis/ who have experienced a first break
January: presented preliminary dissertation proposal at CIQR meeting
January: epic birthday karaoke at Nico’s Recovery Room
January/ February: Snowpocalypse
February: saw Small Cities (now “The Slow Reel”) at Howler’s
February: completed teaching portfolio per Duquesne’s Center for Teaching Excellence requirements
March: dissertation committee fully assembled, proposal approved
March: attended a lecture by Edward Tick
March: attended a lecture by Maria Elena Buszek
April: awarded dissertation writing fellowship for the year
April: Joe’s parents visit
April: saw Arthur Miller’s “The Price” at Pittsburgh Public Theater
April: saw Richard III performed at Carnegie-Mellon
April: started reading Kirkman’s Walking Dead graphic novel series
April: attended Croquet
May: Lost finale party
May: begin subscription to Stunner of the Month
May: terminated with all clients at all practicum sites
May: courses I taught, Social Psych at Duquesne and Intro to Psych at Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), end
May: cohort “graduation”; all coursework completed, beginning dissertations and internship
May: won department’s Excellence in Teaching Award
May: began forensic psych job; started co-leading therapy group for internet sex offenders
May: read What Things Do by Peter Paul Verbeek
May: begin working with a mentee/ research assistant for the summer
June: attended AASECT (American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists) Conference
June: became associate editor for Janus Head
June: watched most of Red Dwarf
June: read The Psychoanalytic Adventures of Inspector Canal by Bruce Fink
July: went to upper peninsula Michigan for Joe’s family reunion
July: saw Flaming Lips at Station Square
July: first Communiteach event, home brewing 101
August: saw Metropolis with restored footage at Melwood
August: massive car repairs
August: Nick and Elena visited
August: Pirates game (they lost)
August: party on a boat!
August: saw The Moth at New Hazlett
August: reading Jay Prosser, Second Skins
August: Four years in Pittsburgh!
September: saw Attack Theatre dance performance, Site/Re-Site
September: read The Corrections (Franzen)
October: began year one training at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center
October: saw 39 Steps at City Theatre
October: visited Colorado for cousin’s wedding
October: went skydiving
October: Communiteach event, Vegetarian Indian Cooking, and party
October: watched The Social Network and Catfish
November: took a basic knife skills workshop, bought a good quality chef’s knife
November: all internship applications submitted
November: celebratory dinner at Eleven
November: saw Gogol Bordello at Mr. Smalls
November: attended lectures by Patricia Gherovici
November: accepted to present at Society for Phenomenology and Human Sciences, but did not attend because internship apps demanded my attention
November: Thanksgiving in D.C.
November: end of third season of getting CSA boxes from Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance
December: Grammie Taylor dies: http://tinyurl.com/2bkt8pg
December: visited Colorado
December: began internship interviews
December: reading Love and Its Place in Nature by Jonathan Lear
December: watched True Grit and I Love You Phillip Morris
December: new laptop!

Update: Thought I’d do 2009, too.

January: New Year’s in D.C., with Bill and Rachel
January: began Phenomenology & Feminism course with Eva Simms, research independent study with Martin Packer (second semester, third year)
January: began second semester of practicum at Chatham University
January: began teaching Intro to Psych at Duquesne and CCAC
January: had a party at our apartment for my birthday
January: presented “Body and Technology” paper at GAP symposium
January: received teaching award from the Social Psychology Network
January: attended inauguration party
January: began taking Bikram yoga classes in Pittsburgh
February: Superbowl party at Remedy
February: began working with second couples’ therapy case
February: handed in proposal for Comprehensive Exam
February: read/ re-read Don Ihde‘s Bodies in Technology
February: started watching Saw series
February: presented history of my research question as part of “audition” for CIQR Proseminar
March: presented with other psychology teachers at Eastern Psychological Association meeting
March: another party at our place
March: watched Lawnmower Man
April: attended Croquet
April: presented at Resistances: Technologies and Relationalities Conference at SUNY Binghamton
April: presented my final Phenomenology & Feminism paper to an audience of peers, my proto-dissertation proposal
April: attended Duquesne’s Undergraduate Psychology Conference where two former students presented papers written in my Psychology of Gender course
April: new glasses
April: read Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (David Foster Wallace)
May: began working as Clinic Coordinator, screening new patients for the Clinic
May: Eva agrees to direct my dissertation
May: read Elementary Particles (Houllebecq) and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (Murakami)
June: went to Denver, then to Seattle with family
June: read Wittgenstein’s Poker
July: Fourth of July in Canada with Ian and Gill
July: Scaife Advanced Medical Fellowship Program in Alcohol and Other Drug Dependency
July: saw Girl Talk at Station Square with Bill in town
July: began brewing kombucha
August: attended ghost bike lock-up
August: completed, and passed, Comprehensive Examination.
August: began teaching Developmental Psychology II and another section of Intro to Psych at CCAC
August: began CIQR Proseminar, auditing Merleau-Ponty course (first semester, fourth year)
August: began practicum in family psychotherapy
August: began watching Hellraiser series
August: read Lindner’s The Fifty Minute Hour (best psychotherapy case studies ever!)
September: saw The Sounds at Mr. Small’s
September: visited Jillian on the farm where she worked
October: presented a poster at Society for Humanistic Psychology annual conference, visited parents
October: Gabriela’s wedding in Baltimore
November: attended a lecture by Alphonso Lingis
November: discovered Sonny’s and the pickle shot
November: saw Candide by Quantum Theatre
November: watched A Serious Man
November: Thanksgiving in D.C.
December: started watching Lost
December: Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference in Anaheim, CA, met and saw lectures by Yalom, Kernberg, Gendlin, Minuchin, and others
December: visited Colorado

2008.

January: New Year’s in Pittsburgh
January: Teaching Intro to Psych at Duquesne, taking Advanced Assessment (Rorschach), Social Psychology, Bruce Fink’s Psychoanalytic Theory, and Cultural Diversity (second semester, second year)
January: presented paper on Freud’s theory of gender at Graduate Association of Psychology symposium
January: watching The Medium on television
January: watched Fat Girl
February: read The Master and Margarita
February: participant in social drinking study (trying to make extra cash through these)
April: participant in sleep study
April: began working in Ohio doing Social Security Disability assessments
April: began summer practicum at a residential treatment facility for people in recovery from substance dependencies
April: complete graduate certificate in Women and Gender Studies
April: win paper award from department of Women and Gender Studies
May: begin independent study in psychodynamic psychotherapy
May: Hawaii Social Science Conference/ Hawaii vacation
May: began a lasting course of psychoanalytic psychotherapy/ psychoanalysis
May: watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
June: Human Science Research Conference at Ramapo College, New Jersey
June: Pennsylvania Psychological Association Conference in Harrisburg, win Existential-Humanistic Theory and Application Research Award for presentation
June: parents visit
June: attend Pittsburgh Passion football game (they totally won)
June: read Murakami’s After Dark
June: ride Critical Mass
July: visit Colorado
July: read We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lionel Shriver)
July: Joe starts a new job
August: present papers at Division 32 (Humanistic Psych) and American Psychological Association (through Div. 39, Psychoanalysis) conferences in Boston
August: watched Alphaville at Regent Square
August: began teaching Psych of Gender, and taking Case Formulation with Bruce Fink, Advanced Research with Martin Packer, (first semester, third year)
August: attend Roller Derby (Steel Hurtin’)
August: begin practicum at Chatham
September: attend SJC Homecoming
September: began CSA with Penn’s Corner Farm Alliance
October: attend SPEP, see Don Ihde panel on postphenomenology
October: saw Radio Golf performed by Pittsburgh Public Theater
October: watching presidential debates
November: saw Poona the F**kdog performed by the University of Pittsburgh Theatre Arts Department
November: saw Electric Six at Mr. Small’s
November: attended Handmade Arcade
November: saw Reggie Watts at the Warhol
November: saw Neighborhood Narratives at Firehouse Lounge
November: Joe’s parents visit for Thanksgiving
November: stated watching Mad Men
December: saw The Goat at the Pittsburgh Playhouse
December: volunteer for Persad’s glassware sale fundraiser
December: visited Colorado

Very interesting story and conversation, Cynthia Ozick on Steven Millhauser’s story, “In the Reign of Harad IV.” I had not heard of Millhauser before, but I like this Borges-like fairy tale.

The story and the conversation addresses two views of the artist (or, person with a project, like a philosophical project, or the project of constructing a life or constituting a self):

1) The artist has a strong desire to do something. Production is a selfish task, she wants to create because of an inner drive to do so. It is enough for her art to simply exist (or even to exist conceptually, personally, inaccessibly to others). Finnegan’s Wake, in its inaccessibility, was cited as an example. Kafka’s entire body of work was cited as a possible example. The artist is lonely, but fine. She’s fulfilling her desire.

2) The artist is contributing to the world. Her art is for an audience, it is meant to transform the world, and therefore the people in the world must receive it in some way. It has a political dimension. The context in which it comes into existence matters, as it is a response to the “external” world. Maybe this art can be taught. It exists in relation to other people, and one way or another, their response is crucial. The artist wants her art to reproduce, to become caught up in history. No need for examples here, right?

Amygda7a

Amy on (mostly) psychology, philosophy, and social software.

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