Blog
Wild Reading: How Fiction Sets Imagination Free
How does reading fiction work? By what mysterious process does a book come to life in the hands of a reader? And why is this process often therapeutic? Why is life somehow just better when reading a novel or short story and what can be done to enhance this cross-over...
Podcast Interview with ‘Emerging Purpose’
I had a fun interview with my colleague Greg Donaldson on his podcast 'emerging purpose'. After the 'how did you get into all this' background story we meandered through a number of imagination related topics: -my interest in reading fiction and how it relates to...
Living & Dead Metaphors: Re-Imagining Psychodynamic Theory
An edited extract from ‘Waking Dreams: Imagination in Psychotherapy and Everyday Life’ Part 1: What is Metaphor? Part 2: Freud and the Machine Metaphor Part 3: Living and Dead Metaphors Part 4: Re-imagining Psychodynamic Theory What is Metaphor? The Latin word...
A Wild Imagination
Wild Imagination is an earthy, untamed imagination. An imaginal perception easily lost, trapped behind the screens of our techno-civilisation. For those who might like to conserve the richness of imaginative life, this article sketches out the identifying markers of...
Wild Reading: Introduction
How does reading fiction work? By what mysterious process does a book come to life in the hands of a reader? And why is this process often therapeutic? Why is life somehow just better when reading a novel or short story and what can be done to enhance this cross-over...
‘Waking Dreams’ review in ‘New Psychotherapist’, magazine of the UK Council for Psychotherapy (ISSUE 79 / WINTER/SPRING 2022):
A Time Between Stories
A reflection on the personal and collective importance of stories for embracing the challenges of current times, in three parts: Part1: the importance of stories Part2: this is a time between stories Part3: how to find a new story Introduction: In the middle of a...
A Wild Reading List
While the main requirement for the enhancement of imaginative life is to simply spend time with images – watching sunsets, visiting art galleries and reading novels – it is also beneficial to include some critical reading. This is because reflection upon key questions...
Wild Imagination
Imagine a broad Highland-river with grey gravel banks, a summer evening stillness of trees. Imagine humid air, a steady murmur of wild water running out to sea. Imagine as if you are a child – a child crouched beside a tidal pool at the river’s edge. Imagine your hand...
Waking Dreams
The following is an edited extract from chapter2 of my book ‘Waking Dreams’: Everyone is imaginative. To imagine is an innate ability that can be enhanced with the appropriate care and attention. What creates the belief of not being an imaginative person is usually...
