De vrijheid van meningsuiting - NRC FM

NRC FM, de podcast van NRC Handelsblad lijkt stapje voor stapje aan kwaliteit te winnen. Er is nog een lange weg te gaan, maar het gehakkel van vaste deelnemers Paul Steenhuis en Daan Diederiks wordt al minder en de opnamekwaliteit wordt al beter. Wat in de laatste editie ook helpt: er is maar een gast. Juridisch redacteur Folkert Jensma komt het een en ander uitleggen over grondrechten.

De aanleiding is, dat er recentelijk bij een demonstratie mensen opgepakt waren die een kennelijk beledigende afbeelding van het kamerlid Wilders hadden laten zien. Jensma, vertelt dat aanvankelijk gesteld werd dat Wilders geklaagd had beledigd te zijn, maar nadat gebeleken was dat zulks niet het geval was, werden demonstraten met dezelfde afbeelding opgepakt op grond van belediging van het gezag. Dat laatste was juridisch niet houdbaar, zo wordt ook door Jensma uitgelegd.

Vervolgens gaat het gesprek over de kwestie waar de grenzen van de vrijheid van meningsuiting in de praktijk liggen en hoe ze zouden moeten liggen. Het zou helpen als de gespreksleider, iets meer zou samenvatten of anderszins daadwerkelijk het gesprek zou leiden. Nu worden er een hoop behartenswaardige uitspraken gedaan, maar blijft daar weinig van hangen omdat er niet geordend wordt. Zoals Ronald van den Boogaard al eerder opmerkt had, Paul Steenhuis heeft er een handje van om te gaan deelnemen aan de discussie.

Meer over NRC FM:
Amerikaanse verkiezingen,
Over mannen en over Rumi.

Meer Ronald van den Boogaard:
Ina Muller-van Ast,
Ronald van den Boogaard geeft plug,
Jan Wolkers.

The Fisher King - IOT

The latest In Our Time sheds its light on the legend of the Fisher King, or rather a continuum over the ages, with each time and place adding its own. It is the legend of a wounded king, who cannot die and in his castle, accompanied by a bleeding spear, waits for cure.

The origins are probably Celtic. The Middle Ages added Christian elements, where the Fisher King also became the guardian of the Grail. The nineteenth century saw a renewed interest in the legend. The fact that it was Celtic, made it purely European (or British for that matter) serving the quest for nationalist identity. Ethnological approach sought the element of fertility in the legend - as fertility was assumed to feature in all primitive tales. And psycho-analytics took the tale to the realm of interpreting human soul. Last but not least, literature took a bite and made its own versions.

The thought that sticks with me is, yet again, how formative the nineteenth century has been. How our concepts and identities were shaped then and lay basis where we can hardly think past today. But that is besides the point. IOT analyzes the legend and it is brilliant as usual.

More In Our Time
The Charge of the Light Brigade,
Albert Camus,
The Nicene Creed,
Four humor medicine,
The Sassanian Empire

Anxiety and Panic Disorders - Wise Counsel

On the latest issue of Wise Counsel, Dr. David van Nuys interviews David H. Barlow Ph.D. on the Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic Disorders. The rather extensive show notes give a good impression on the subjects discussed. They also link to Dr. Barlow's page on the Boston University web site, though currently that link is broken. Mentalhelp.net will probably fix that soon; until then, at least my link is working.

In short, and much less professionally put than over at mentalhelp.net, Barlow explains what are fear and anxiety - they are not the same. He explains how they overcome people to the extent of a disorder and what treatment he suggests. His approach is that of clinical psychology, I take this to imply leaning towards psychotherapy rather than medication. Some of the interview is also spent on his evaluation of the current state of clinical psychology in the health systems in general.

Dr. David van Nuys is the excellent interviewer, one hardly notices during the podcast. Nevertheless, he is very instrumental in keeping the show on track, easy to follow, coherent and evenly distributed in focal points. His talents make for the persistent quality of the Wise Counsel podcasts.

Other guests on Wise Counsel were a.o.:
Richard Heimberg,
Tony Madrid,
Francine Shapiro,
Amy Baker,
Marsha Linehan.

Bas Heijne bij Martin Simek

Bij Simek 's Nachts was op 30 december Bas Heijne de gast. De columnist van het NRC wordt gepresenteerd als een denker en uitgenodigd om commentaar te geven op de wijze waarin in Nederland van gedachten gewisseld wordt.

Heijne komt met een analyse die bij mij een persoonlijk stokpaardje uit de kast lokte. Hij zei dat in Nederland het debat meestal bedorven wordt doordat men over bijzaken praat. In zijn observatie gaat het nooit over de grote lijnen, maar altijd over het specifieke voorbeeld. Hij vraagt zich hardop af, waarom er over de lijn niet meer wordt gezegd. Zijn stelling is, dat er te weinig wordt nagedacht en hij wijt dat aan het Nederlandse onvermogen om met enthousisasme om te gaan. Voor goed nadenken is een zeker enthousiasme voor de idee nodig, anders is er geen overtuiging.

En passie? probeert Martin Simek. Nee dat niet, stelt Heijne beslist, passie is tezeer een emotionele storm in het moment dat ook weer over drijft, het gaat bij de grote lijn over een blijvend enthousiasme. Maar ik vind dat ze allebei gelijk hebben. Nederlanders hebben moeite met enthousiasme, juist omdat het te gepassioneerd is. En Heijne heeft gelijk dat doordat men enthousiasme niet toelaat er geen overtuiging kan ontstaan, maar Simek heeft gelijk dat dat passie inhoudt. Heijne toont zijn Nederlandse gezicht door passie af te doen als te tijdelijk, te heftig om stevig te zijn. Dat is nu juist de kwestie, zo lijkt me, in de Nederlandse optiek is passie te emotioneel. We moeten wel redelijk blijven. Emotie kan dat niet zijn.

Er komt nog heel veel meer aan de orde. Een fascinerend gesprek.

Meer Simek op dit blog:
Herman Finkers,
Tijs Goldschmidt,
Truus Menger,
Eva Maria Staal,
A. C. Baantjer.

Binnenkort: Paul Gelderloos.

Quick History Podcasts

For me personally, history is a major field of interest. Consequently, history podcast can't be long enough for me, should be in-depth and take me on an extended tour from one podcast episode to the next. I can imagine though, other people may not want to invest long tracks of time into history, yet would like to learn some history as well. For them I'd like to recommend History According to Bob, which has short issues and a long, long list of episodes to choose from. Most of those, however, need to be ordered on CD, as they are no longer in the feed. I'll give two more of those history podcasts, not running too deep, not running too long. (Thanks to the reviews by Historyzine)

The first is the History Podcast by Jason Watt. Not all issues are done by Jason himself, but persistently there is a short monologue about a larger variety of historical subjects. The next is Parnell's History podcast, which in addition to the facts, also delivers some analysis.

These are fine podcasts if you want to get some passing acquaintance in a certain subject. Necessarily there is a disadvantage, the episode can tell the story in a less balanced or less accurate way. This I noticed most profoundly in Parnell's 18 minute delivery of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which I know only too well. I guess for many people who know nothing and want no more than a twenty minute historical overview, this must do, but I spotted a number of sentences that in my opinion cannot be said, without error or leading to error. Like suggesting that after the Balfour declaration the British started stimulating Jewish migration into Palestine.

Doll Work and what with the brain

The latest of Shrinkrapradio features an interview with Geri Olson from Sonoma State University. She has integrated into her approach of psychology the making of dolls. She makes them herself and she organizes workshops to have her students make dolls. She has found that the making of a doll has a significant effect on people. It allows them to express and mold into an image what effects them most deeply.

While on the subject of Shrinkrapradio, I would like to point you to two other shows that I find particularly valuable. I usually comment only on the latest shows and so, these issues, that were published way before I started a blog, are constantly overlooked. The first show is the interview with Daniel Amen. Amen is a psychiatrist and a neuro-scientist, and his approach to the psychology of man is first ad for all, through the brain. He actually gets quite angry psychologist and some psychiatrists know so little of the brain. He claims to have found many 'mechanical' brain relations to all sorts of symptoms in psycho-pathology and hence proposes to deal with them with medication and/or surgery in stead of wasting time on psychotherapy.

This brings me to the interview with David Sinclair who, after a life time of study in Finland, has found a medication that can effectively (up to 90%) treat addiction. He has analyzed how the brain learns as it were to be addicted and his medication, proven with alcohol and heroine abuse, basically helps UNlearn the addiction. The medication needs to be taken throughout life. Its effectiveness to generally unlearn, leads Sinclair to investigate on other fields where it could be applies, for example with eating disorders.

I have listened to the last two issues in conjunction and it has often made me wonder, what will be our fate. Once we know everything about the brain and we can chemically learn and unlearn whatever we like, what does that mean for our human condition?

More Shrinkrapradio on this blog:
Confronting Death (and more),
Process Work,
Authoritarianism,
Leadership and AI,
Dysfunctional personalities in the workplace,
Adventure Therapy