Dr Simon Crosbie
@simon-books-art.bsky.social
PhD: 'Trauma, dissociation and the boarding school experience'. Interested in art and psychoanalysis, trauma studies, art history, and cemeteries. Survivor of institutional abuse. No DMs. Opinions are my own.
Website: http://simon-crosbie.squarespace.com
Website: http://simon-crosbie.squarespace.com
What's with all the fake accounts starting to appear???
March 26, 2025 at 12:12 PM
What's with all the fake accounts starting to appear???
AI old people and leather. Skin generated by semi-conductors, buffed, oiled and grissailled, and the life well lived reflected in sweat shop bags. It's time for a well-earned rest and a reshaping of the sublime.
March 4, 2025 at 12:48 PM
AI old people and leather. Skin generated by semi-conductors, buffed, oiled and grissailled, and the life well lived reflected in sweat shop bags. It's time for a well-earned rest and a reshaping of the sublime.
19th Century Blindness: Fanny Crosby hymn writer. "If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me."
February 27, 2025 at 11:26 PM
19th Century Blindness: Fanny Crosby hymn writer. "If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me."
"Catholics believe that, at the moment of ordination, an ontological change occurs to the priest through which he becomes an “alter Christus” (other Christ). They also believe that every priest is ordained by bishops who are direct successors of the Apostles. Priests, therefore, are—or at least were
February 19, 2025 at 11:36 AM
"Catholics believe that, at the moment of ordination, an ontological change occurs to the priest through which he becomes an “alter Christus” (other Christ). They also believe that every priest is ordained by bishops who are direct successors of the Apostles. Priests, therefore, are—or at least were
Edouard Manet's pastel sketch of the barmaid for his A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) presents an equally sombre depiction of the model. By turns, they speak to a sad, habituated routine marked by the transition from the apparel of daily life to the embellishments required for bar work in Paris.
February 16, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Edouard Manet's pastel sketch of the barmaid for his A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) presents an equally sombre depiction of the model. By turns, they speak to a sad, habituated routine marked by the transition from the apparel of daily life to the embellishments required for bar work in Paris.
Masud Khan's gushing description of Winnicott,
"A childlike spontaneity imbued his movements. Yet he could be so still, so very inheld and still. I have not met another analyst who was more inevitably himself. It was this quality of his inviolable me-ness that enabled him to be so many persons...
"A childlike spontaneity imbued his movements. Yet he could be so still, so very inheld and still. I have not met another analyst who was more inevitably himself. It was this quality of his inviolable me-ness that enabled him to be so many persons...
February 11, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Masud Khan's gushing description of Winnicott,
"A childlike spontaneity imbued his movements. Yet he could be so still, so very inheld and still. I have not met another analyst who was more inevitably himself. It was this quality of his inviolable me-ness that enabled him to be so many persons...
"A childlike spontaneity imbued his movements. Yet he could be so still, so very inheld and still. I have not met another analyst who was more inevitably himself. It was this quality of his inviolable me-ness that enabled him to be so many persons...
Not paintings as such. Sections of tables used by students in the RMIT MFA program.
February 6, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Not paintings as such. Sections of tables used by students in the RMIT MFA program.
I have started researching for a paper about the trope of hands, and in particular clasped hands, in media reports about institutional child sex abuse. The images invariably isolate the hands from the body. There are so many layers of meaning: historical, psychological and political.
February 4, 2025 at 11:58 PM
I have started researching for a paper about the trope of hands, and in particular clasped hands, in media reports about institutional child sex abuse. The images invariably isolate the hands from the body. There are so many layers of meaning: historical, psychological and political.
A series of watercolours I made based on photographs in my school yearbook. I attended a Catholic boarding school. Many of the staff were either convicted of child sex abuse or exiled to Pacific islands to escape conviction. The multiple eyes relate to the all-seeing Salesian 'preventive' system.
January 31, 2025 at 12:21 AM
A series of watercolours I made based on photographs in my school yearbook. I attended a Catholic boarding school. Many of the staff were either convicted of child sex abuse or exiled to Pacific islands to escape conviction. The multiple eyes relate to the all-seeing Salesian 'preventive' system.
Celebrating the life and work of French artist Bernard Buffet (1928-1999)
January 29, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Celebrating the life and work of French artist Bernard Buffet (1928-1999)
A social note: my mother turns 104 today. Still going strong.
January 29, 2025 at 12:23 AM
A social note: my mother turns 104 today. Still going strong.
Winnicott has stated: 'In psycho-analysis as we know it there is no trauma that is outside the individual's omnipotence.' But I would add that omnipotence is not mastery; in it there is a tremendous denial of both inner and outer psychic reality, ... (Masud Khan, Hidden Selves)
January 27, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Winnicott has stated: 'In psycho-analysis as we know it there is no trauma that is outside the individual's omnipotence.' But I would add that omnipotence is not mastery; in it there is a tremendous denial of both inner and outer psychic reality, ... (Masud Khan, Hidden Selves)
David Wojnarowicz: "Globe of the United States" at the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid
January 27, 2025 at 12:45 AM
David Wojnarowicz: "Globe of the United States" at the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid
Arrived in the mail yesterday. Italian monumental cemeteries are one of my passions.
January 21, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Arrived in the mail yesterday. Italian monumental cemeteries are one of my passions.
Pavel Smarov's (Paul Chmaroff) ' Journey on the Champ Elysees' from 1902. The insouciance of the mother preoccupied by her thoughts and the daughter who has reached the age where she realizes her family's place in the world, is all captured in a momentary glimpse as their carriage goes past.
January 20, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Pavel Smarov's (Paul Chmaroff) ' Journey on the Champ Elysees' from 1902. The insouciance of the mother preoccupied by her thoughts and the daughter who has reached the age where she realizes her family's place in the world, is all captured in a momentary glimpse as their carriage goes past.
The affective impact of seeing the art of children responding to trauma can be overwhelming. These are tiles assembled along the pier of Jindo island in South Korea, close to the location of the 2014 Sewol ferry tragedy that took the lives of 250 children from the same high school.
January 16, 2025 at 11:06 PM
The affective impact of seeing the art of children responding to trauma can be overwhelming. These are tiles assembled along the pier of Jindo island in South Korea, close to the location of the 2014 Sewol ferry tragedy that took the lives of 250 children from the same high school.
I recently purchased a secondhand copy of Thomas Ogden's classic 'The Primitive Edge of Experience'. I love this copy - besides the contents, it displays the physical traces and curiosity of the previous owner. It feels like buying an old paintbrush that still has traces of pigment in the bristles.
January 15, 2025 at 10:18 PM
I recently purchased a secondhand copy of Thomas Ogden's classic 'The Primitive Edge of Experience'. I love this copy - besides the contents, it displays the physical traces and curiosity of the previous owner. It feels like buying an old paintbrush that still has traces of pigment in the bristles.
Why do we often associate traumatic experience with darkness? I visited Auschwitz in the height of Summer. The grass was so thick, it was laborious to walk through. Swallows circled in the sky and the willows swayed in the gentle breeze. When it operated, Auschwitz never stopped for a Summer break.
January 14, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Why do we often associate traumatic experience with darkness? I visited Auschwitz in the height of Summer. The grass was so thick, it was laborious to walk through. Swallows circled in the sky and the willows swayed in the gentle breeze. When it operated, Auschwitz never stopped for a Summer break.
Few tourists visit the Verano cemetery in Rome. The Verano features extraordinary monument paintings by the artist Filippo Severati who worked in the 1870s and 1880s. His practice involved painting on a mix using lava. Several have lasted for 150 years.
January 5, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Few tourists visit the Verano cemetery in Rome. The Verano features extraordinary monument paintings by the artist Filippo Severati who worked in the 1870s and 1880s. His practice involved painting on a mix using lava. Several have lasted for 150 years.
Donald Kalsched's 'Trauma, innocence and the core complex of dissociation', a journal article that left a strong impression.
#psychoanalysis #dissociation #trauma #csa
#psychoanalysis #dissociation #trauma #csa
January 4, 2025 at 2:18 AM
Donald Kalsched's 'Trauma, innocence and the core complex of dissociation', a journal article that left a strong impression.
#psychoanalysis #dissociation #trauma #csa
#psychoanalysis #dissociation #trauma #csa
A work I completed several years ago. Artists who work around the theme of the lived experience of trauma might get this. You open any page of a Louise Bourgeois monograph and you know that she has been there -artistically - before you have.
January 3, 2025 at 1:41 AM
A work I completed several years ago. Artists who work around the theme of the lived experience of trauma might get this. You open any page of a Louise Bourgeois monograph and you know that she has been there -artistically - before you have.
The poster featuring my watercolours for the Stigma: Dismantled, Revealed exhibition at the Dax Centre in 2019. The small paintings were fixed to blank pages from 1970s photo albums, a tactile and visual reminder of past traumatic experience.
January 1, 2025 at 1:41 AM
The poster featuring my watercolours for the Stigma: Dismantled, Revealed exhibition at the Dax Centre in 2019. The small paintings were fixed to blank pages from 1970s photo albums, a tactile and visual reminder of past traumatic experience.
The A,B,C and D of Boarding School Syndrome: Abandonment, Bereavement, Captivity and Dissociation. 'Home' is never home again. Add sexual and physical abuse to the mix and the complex trauma that follows is almost impossible to disentangle.
December 30, 2024 at 10:29 PM
The A,B,C and D of Boarding School Syndrome: Abandonment, Bereavement, Captivity and Dissociation. 'Home' is never home again. Add sexual and physical abuse to the mix and the complex trauma that follows is almost impossible to disentangle.
Rene de Saint-Marceaux's First Communion of 1893 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. A young girl at the moment she receives the communion bread experiencing a deep and anticipated moment of spiritual connection. An extraordinary work.
December 29, 2024 at 1:14 AM
Rene de Saint-Marceaux's First Communion of 1893 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. A young girl at the moment she receives the communion bread experiencing a deep and anticipated moment of spiritual connection. An extraordinary work.
Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo's 1889 painting 'Memory of Sorrow (Portrait of Santina Negri) The artist painted this work as a response to the death of his sister and it is interesting that he chose to project his pain at her loss on the figure of a female model.
December 26, 2024 at 10:04 PM
Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo's 1889 painting 'Memory of Sorrow (Portrait of Santina Negri) The artist painted this work as a response to the death of his sister and it is interesting that he chose to project his pain at her loss on the figure of a female model.