Word: brackman
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Brackman's chief complaint, however, is that I "manipulated," "flirted with," was "irresistible to" the audience. I doubt it. That night I happened to be in a very detached and objective mood, being troubled by some events far away. Is it not possible that for many students the attractive-and-disturbing quality of my remarks might have come from the direct statement of importantly-relevant propositions on a matter crucial to their age of life? If so, let me say it is chastening and humbling to think that a frank presentation of mine could be charismatic. (My guess is that...
...Brackman's notion of "influence" is a little paranoic. A student's mind is not made of wax; it actively responds and takes and rejects according to need. If there are submerged contents, it is best if they come to the surface. A good teacher does not avoid transference; but, unlike an orthodox psychoanalyst, he at once tries to dissolve it, by noticing it, by the play of reason, by turning it into actual liking or hostility. How else does he think a young person "matures"? One does not "wait for" maturity. Along the same lines, when he speaks...
...Brackman's view, any "initiation" of, say, a nineteen or twenty-year-old male to homosexual acts exposes him to "inevitable emotional damage," so the seducer is inevitably "irresponsible." Oh, I suppose so. It is also often damaging to hold back and effectually reject. In life you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. (But Jacob's tone sounds a little like the "obsessional heterosexuality" that Ferencxi claimed made peace and fraternity impossible in Europe!) My weary opinion is, as Professor Carlson used to say at Chicago, "It's joost living that wears...
...come to my main point. Mr. Brackman's reporting of my opinions on pregnany is irresponsible and contemptible. He says some garbage about my "callous lack of concern for the plight of the unloved illegitimate child and the unwed mother." These words are entirely out of his own mind or heart. Let me review the dialogue as it occurred. In my presentation, I quoted Alex Comfort's two commandments; "Do not exploit another's feelings, and do not cause an unwanted birth," I cautioned, however, that often middle-class people put off having children, or even compel abortions...
...BRACKMAN REPLIES...