Paul Attinello

Author: paulattinello

  • Dreams of buildings

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    by

    paulattinello
    in

    [The writing group exercise this week: list two buildings or places; list words associated with them; and what is unusual or unexpected that happens in those buildings?…] I am always enchanted – literally: mesmerized, ensorcelled, under the power of, unwilling to leave them – by buildings that flow. Ancient buildings made by hand, to no…

  • Tree, cloud

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    paulattinello
    in

    It is simple, but always striking… especially for one who comes from calmer climates. The wind is from the west, blowing strong all week on the back of my flat, the side with my bedroom, the side where the kitchen and bath are built in. The kitchen and bath, being towards the back and more…

  • Twenty-five miserable things about me

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    paulattinello
    in

    Having lost the chance to study in Zürich this year – yes, it will happen; but next February at best, more plausibly next June – I'm still going to start analysis in the next few weeks, and am meeting two prospective analysts this week. I keep thinking that what is really the central 'presenting' problem…

  • Strategic retreat

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    paulattinello
    in

    I won't send in my application today for the Jung-Institut; the finances are just too uncertain. I suppose I'm trying to actually take the intelligent (!) advice I gave David R.: to not be too hasty to advance on a new path if the resources aren't ready yet. It's a bit frustrating, and I feel…

  • My mind beats on

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    by

    paulattinello
    in

    A difficult day after a difficult night: not much sleep resulted in a chaos of thoughts, worries. Can I really afford this, this adventure in Küsnacht? Is it a good time to be starting such a program, am I sure that I can do the work, that I won't tire and fail? Of course I…

  • The Joy of Malevolence

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    paulattinello
    in

    After being split between days of work – teaching, students, paperwork – and nights of reading and thinking about my glorious future as a Jungian analyst, I grabbed a book off the shelf to read in between things: Thomas Disch's story collection Getting Into Death. This is of course the same brilliant Tom Disch who…

  • After Küsnacht

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    paulattinello
    in ,

    So: I am back from a week in Küsnacht, a posh southern suburb of Zürich right on the Zürichsee (where, as it happens, Tina Turner lives – and no, I didn't see her), where I studied at the Jung-Institut for a week… It was good; some of it was great. And yes, I'd like to…

  • Einpacken

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    paulattinello
    in

    As I finish packing, many thoughts and images cross through my mind, past and future. And one from the present: dismayed horror at my clothes – do I really look that shabby, that dull? But I suppose I haven't much liked the way I dress, or the way I look, for about six years –…

  • Electric

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    paulattinello
    in

    In the midst of packing and printing maps to Zürich, and rather grandly ignoring St. Valentine's Day, and reading bits of Jung and von Franz – and, not least, despairing over a hideous eruption of lint all over my best black jeans, which I'm trying to fix late into the night – I had a…

  • Sub specie aeternitatis

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    by

    paulattinello
    in

    I am very, very lucky – despite hosts of administrative things happening this week, most have gone off well; most answers to e-mails today were yes, okay, done; and I don't leave for Zürich until Sunday. Therefore there is some quiet time to finish reading some of the Jung I wanted to read before leaving;…