LONDON LETTER 25TH JULY 2012

All things being equal the scaffolding comes down today. As a consequence I have just taken my life in my hands and climbed out onto caffolding to clean the windows; living on the top floor it is the last time for I don’t know how long before I will be able to clean them properly again.
This monstrous metal plaster cast has been placed around the building for over two months, blocking out the light and blighting my life. It reminded me of a parable told by James Hillman, a great hero of mine, who delivering one of his priceless lectures on the state of psychotherapy told of a man who suddenly finds the view he has enjoyed for years obliterated by the erection of a large brick wall. He is sent spiraling into depression and goes off to see his therapist to explore the meaning the view had for him, the fact that it provided a feeling of freedom and open space, senses he was denied as a child. Hillman remarks that his energy would be better spent writing to the local authority, i.e. engaging in political action. Hillman’s great contribution to the debate was his onslaught on the insipid solipsism that represented so much modern psychotherapy.
I discovered Hillman in the early nineties as part of a journey I made into the so called ‘men’s movement,’ an exploration of male archetypes and mythology. Hillman came over from the states several times with Michael Meade and Robert Bly and I attended almost all their workshops and seminars. This ‘movement’ both at the time and afterwards was subjected to both severe criticism and ridicule, not least from the feminist lobby. Some of the criticism was valid, some very wide of the mark born of ignorance and ill will, some was just plain malicious. For my self I have never regretted engaging with the ‘Wild Dance’ crowd and believe it represented a time when in a range of areas I finally grew up.
It was also the period during which I left City University and began serious practice as an addictions counsellor. What I loved about Hillman was his passion to try and return psychotherapy to its subversive roots and away from a practice of adjusting people to a maladjusted world. I tried to introduce many of Hillman’s ideas into my own practice and later when supervising students to encourage them to think more radically about their own engagement with clients. Hillman’s death last year went un-remarked in this country though its impact upon me was almost as great as that of The Hitch. The two of course were worlds apart and I very much doubt that they ever met,

The BBC news channel has now more or less become the Olympic station, nigh on useless in trying to garner what is going on in the rest of the world.
Someone recently accused me of being bitter and cynical, but this is far from the truth. In reality I am a frustrated romantic, the Olympic ideal appeals to me, what I hate is the corporate greed, the free riders and political posturing that goes with it. The first Olympics to really grab me was Munich in 1972, the abiding image for me being of Olga Korbut, (rather shamefully not the massacre of Israeli athletes).  I still remember her cheeky grin and the sense of her triumph over her, admittedly much more accomplished, team mate.
So I will probably go down to the big screen in Hyde Park to sample the atmosphere and in truth am rather proud that London is hosting the games; the whole world in one city is not an idle boast.

Leveson has finally shut up shop just as Andy Coulson and Rebecca Brookes are charged. I would be more cheered by these latter developments if I did not feel that the police were using them as cover to settle some scores, http://nickcohen.net/2012/07/22/we-are-all-sun-jouranlists-now/
Still Leveson will I think turn out to be a major landmark in British political life; should one of its consequences be the reduction of the likes of Murdoch’s grip on political life in the UK we will all be the winners.

Currently reading ‘No Gods No Masters,’ an anthology of anarchist writing and have just ordered Malatesta’ ‘In the Café’ and Victor Serge’s ‘Revolution in Danger,’ the latter long been on my hit list. Malatesta writes well and provides clear and precise anarchist thinking.

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