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"Life is a long series of forgetting. . an abandonment of the knowledge we entered this world with, so natural and obvious to anyone, including a child. What is truth, what is deeply known and felt, what is bestowed on us by our Creator, slowly drains from our minds, like water from a sieve. Sometimes we remember again, usually in bits and pieces, in fragments of memory that pierce the darkness. Like light unfolding into day, we get a hint of what was forgotten; and then we have a choice to make: to keep remembering, or to remain, like an...

Anybody know ? The only thing I Find is a reference in a web search is a post in 2012 to this question on FR.

I was recently delighted to note the return of the incomparable Robin of Berkeley to the ranks of the blogosphere. Her insights are among the most thoughtful and revealing I have encountered on the web, and I am overjoyed at her return from a self imposed exile of almost two years, during which she posted only about a half dozen missives. In the past few weeks she has penned another half dozen, and I am profoundly hopeful that her output continues and increases. She is a recovering atheist leftist psychotherapist whose skewering of the insanity that is the Left is...

There once was a popular Indian teacher named Papa G, who drew students from far and wide. People flocked to see him and hear his words of wisdom. One lucky man who was able to attend one of his retreats spoke to Papa G, with camera in hand. The visitor asked the guru what he’d like to say to the multitudes all around the world vying to come to India to see him. Papa G smiled an impish grin and said, “Stay home.” Papa G’s words remind me a bit of Dorothy, who journeyed all around Oz, only to find...

Hey Freepers, Does anyone know the current status of blogger "Robin of Berkeley," the recovering leftist psychotherapist whose insights into lefty anti-thought is a treasure. Her last post was six months ago, and I've not heard a peep from her since. Crusher

Back in my über liberal days, I had a mad love affair with the San Francisco Chronicle, our local daily. One of the greatest pleasures of my day was imbibing every news story and feature of our left-leaning paper. But when that paper started devoting way too much air time to slobbering over candidate Obama, my infatuation grew sour. It wasn't long before I permanently stopped my subscription and started looking for news in all the right places. I just happened on my old love interest the other day when I was relaxing in a cafe and spotted the Chron...

snip Now, let's consider together the extraordinary spectacle we see unfolding before our eyes in America today. Sarah Palin, who just announced she will not run for the presidency in 2012, is a good place to start. snip Early on, I took a passing stab at this question in "How Evil Works": Haven't you ever wondered why, when someone on the public stage radiates noble character, common sense and natural grace – like Ronald Reagan did, or more recently Sarah Palin – he or she is regarded by the "big media" with an inexplicable revulsion? Hatred is almost too soft...

As I grew up, I found some soft spirituality, in the form of Buddhism and Sufism. I loved to read the Sufi poems -- I still do; I feel comforted by the poets' adoration of God. Buddhism also gave me a road to dealing with suffering, as well as some vague notions about what life was all about (as in, being awakened to the "truth," whatever that means). But it's been only in the last couple of years of my life that I finally have a clearer idea of why we are here, and what this wondrous and brutal existence...

One of my closest friends, "Gail," lives in a pristine suburb in northern New Jersey. It's one of those leafy bedroom communities where residents drive their Lexus SUVs to the railroad station each morning to catch the train to Manhattan. After 9/11, Gail told me that eerily, several vehicles were left abandoned in the parking lot for weeks. Their drivers never returned home that day to retrieve them. But, in general, not much goes on in her sleepy, idyllic town. The residents rave about shopping sprees to Loehmanns and sprints to Whole Foods for organic strawberries. There is no crime...

One of my friends voluntarily attended an event recently, one that I wouldn't go to for a million bucks (well, maybe a million bucks). It was called Erasing White Privilege.

A number of years ago, I was the victim of a brutal street crime. Although I was left with a broken nose and two black eyes, I learned soon thereafter that I wasn't a "good victim." A progressive friend, Fran, clued me in. When I told her what happened, she said, "What you went through wasn't half as bad as what he has suffered." Fran was referring to the fact that I am white and the assailant was black. In other words, my suffering didn't matter. Fran's reaction is not at all unique in these parts; here, there are good...

(Snip) People on the left hate Palin for one simple reason: because she is everything they are not. She is their polar opposite because her life journey has diverged from the prescribed liberal path. Palin was raised to be self-sufficient and independent since "idle hands are the devil's tools." Little Sarah was up at the crack of dawn, hunting with her dad; in sharp contrast, liberal kids like me were still fast asleep. Palin didn't have life handed to her on a silver platter, like so many in the ruling class. Instead, Sarah balanced school, chores, jobs, and sports. While...

When I was in college, I read a book that changed my life. It was Susan Brownmiller's tome, Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, which explained rape as an act of power instead of just lust. What I found particularly chilling was the chapter on war -- how rape is used to terrorize a population and destroy the enemy's spirit. While edifying, the book magnified the vulnerability I already felt as a female. Fear of rape became a constant dread, and I sought a solution that would help shield me from danger. The answer: seek safe harbor within the...

When I first snapped out of my leftist bubble three years ago, I was shocked to find out how many professions had been infiltrated by the far left. The mainstream media, Hollywood moguls, and the universities were willing tools of progressivism. But there is an occupation just as culpable in ushering in cultural Marxism, though its contributions are far less well-known. For this profession, I don't have to look further than my own backyard -- that is, psychotherapy. What I have discovered after researching the history of psychology is that the originators were not simply interested in fixing people. Many...

The Care and Feeding of Progressives By Robin of Berkeley I've had to ask readers of my blog to register in order to post comments. There are three reasons why: 1. Trolls 2. Trolls 3. Trolls (By the way, I often tell clients that there are three rules for dealing with the character disordered: "Boundaries, Boundaries, and Boundaries." Not surprisingly, the same can be said about extreme progressives.) When I started my little blog, it didn't occur to me that trolls would come out in droves. Why would leftists expend their energies on me? And why would they subject themselves...

"God is dead," according to the existentialist Nietzsche. He might as well have been talking about Berkeley, California. Think I'm exaggerating? Take a trip out west and spend a few days on Telegraph Avenue. Then wander over to the downtown area, Shattuck and University. If you're really the daredevil, do so after dark, when the mean streets look positively Kafkaesque. When I say God is dead in Berkeley, I don't mean just that parts of the city look like a hellhole. I'm referring to the militant anti-God vibe. While Berkeley has always had its atheists, a shift has taken place...

There is an unstoppable force that drives a person if he willingly submits. I've seen this force a few times, most piercingly with Judy and Mike Miller (not their real names). The Millers were the most disturbed, and disturbing, couple I have ever worked with. Mike Miller molested all three of their daughters. Each time a daughter was removed, the couple responded by having another one. Although their behavior was monstrous, they didn't present as monsters. Mike was an affable, gangly man with a vacant stare. Judy was bubbly and effervescent. When she visited her children in our dark and...

Fox correspondent Erik Rush has just published a book, Negrophilia, with a profound premise. A biracial conservative, Rush decries the Left’s slobbering love affair with blacks. Like necrophilia, liberals’ obsession with black people is a sick and creepy fetish. In 50 years, this country has traveled from segregating blacks to elevating them onto pedestals. But not all blacks, of course; not Condi Rice or Thomas Sowell or Rush himself. Liberals save their lust for liberal PhDs like Cornel West, as well the black urban underclass. Of course, you can’t say any of this out loud. Citizens are forbidden to challenge...

I've been feeling funky since Black Sunday, the day of the health care debacle. As a therapist, I'm usually able to identity my feelings. But this one had left me stumped. I went through the usual laundry list of emotions: Am I depressed? (A little, but that's not it.) Worried, scared? (Yes, but who isn't?) Angry? (Very, but that's still not what's bugging me.) It took a conversation with a conservative friend, Nancy, for me to pinpoint the feeling. Nancy told me that a Jewish co-worker, a staunch Obama supporter, was feeling "shell-shocked" by Obama's vilifying Israel. Bingo. That's what...

People are strangeWhen you're a stranger Faces look ugly when you're alone Women seem wicked when you're unwanted. Streets are uneven, When you're down.  -The Doors For much of my life, I felt like a Stranger in a Strange Land. This is not unusual. Look at the history of most leftists, and you'll find the very same thing. I grew up with a surname that wasn't my own. My father anglicized it years before I was born, trying to ward off the anti-Semitism that shadowed him. I grew up without God. My parents had no use for a God...