Now, this is a gentle reminder about the Myth Salon this coming Thursday, June 11. Originally scheduled to speak about the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Brad Olson’s Myth Salon presentation will now address the underlying, systemic race and structural inequity issues that are currently defining our country that have been magnified by both the coronavirus and the murder of George Floyd this past week in Minnesota.
When: Thursday June 11, 2020 5:00 PM Pacific Time
This Thursday on June 11 – the next Myth Salon will feature Dr. Brad Olson speaking about:
The Terrors From Which Myths Are Made
Dr. Brad Olson, a former police officer, is a Depth Psychologist in private practice in Flagstaff, Arizona. He is a mythologist and writer who also works for the Joseph Campbell Foundation as the editor of the MythBlast series. Brad writes a monthly column for the Meteor.News, a local Flagstaff news source.
We are confident the Myth Salon audience will welcome hearing from a scholar who transformed from serving as a police officer to someone who understands the perspectives of myth, depth psychology, and the inherent spiritual nature of the psyche. As the Corona Virus pandemic marches on, despite having claimed twice the number of American lives in five months than the two decades of the Vietnam War, Americans are becoming increasingly impatient. The wounds are deep – and run to the deepest core of American culture. American history is defined as much by prejudice and privilege as it is by the false sense of entitled patriarchy that defines our relations with nature and one another. What is that Americans want when they talk about a “return to normal.” As any mental health practitioner worth their degrees will tell you, normal is as much an illusion as a fraud – masking a deep commitment to human superiority and elitism. There is panic in this pandemic, and for good reason, the deep existential dread accompanying it is expressed in counter phobic gestures (one cannot properly call such performative acts living) such as rushing to “reopen” the economy or the refusal to wear masks that attempt to compensate a deep, destabilizing, fear of the world–particularly of the world within. The virus inhabits us, it can’t be seen, it isn’t yet adequately known, and as Joseph Conrad put it in Lord Jim, “The danger, when not seen, has the imperfect vagueness of human thought. The fear grows shadowy; and Imagination, the enemy of men, the father of all terrors, unstimulated, sinks to rest in the dullness of exhausted emotion.”
Brad’s talk will take us through the cycles of history and myth and human relations, Shakespeare, psychology, and philosophy to explore how we might take advantage of a rare opportunity to become more self-aware, create a different perception of reality, and make better choices for ourselves, for others, and for the planet, understanding that we cannot overcome the difficulties of living by simply martialing personal will, by a declaration of individual fiat, or pretending that such difficulties don’t exist. That we may, with an open mind and heartful attention, take in the whole of life, “wrapped cool in its mystery and promise” (F. Scott Fitzgerald, My Lost City).
Sign up for the Mythblasts Brad Edits for the Joseph Campbell Foundation: https://www.jcf.org/works/wp-login.php
The Myth Salon Panelists
Dr. Dana White: producer, contributing faculty – Pacifica, co-founder and host – the Myth Salon
Dr. Will Linn: director of general education – Studio School, co-founder and moderator – the Myth Salon
Dr. Dennis Slattery: author, scholar, faculty – Pacifica
Dr. Zaman Stanizai: author, scholar, faculty – Pacifica
Dr. Vorris Nunley: author, scholar, professor – University of California, Riverside
Dr. Selina Matthews: author, clinical depth psychologist
Here’s the link to register for the Myth Salon with Dr. Brad Olson: The Terrors from Which Myths are Made.
When: Thursday June 11, 2020 5:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
We look forward to having you join us!
Wishing you well,
Dana & Will
……
Dana C. White, PhD
Host, Co-Founder – The Myth Salon
2623 29th Street,
Santa Monica, CA 90405
(310) 450-9101
Email: themythsalon@gmail.com
Will Linn, PhD
Moderator, Co-Founder – The Myth Salon
Department Chair – General Education
Hussian College
1201 West 5th Street,
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Email: Willlinnii@gmail.com
To view any of our Myth Salon or Lionel Corbett Talks, please visit: