Apollo's Angels: a History of Ballet

Suzanne Farrell rehearsing with Balanchine and Arthur Mitchell

By Jennifer Homans, New York, Random House, 2010, p. 643

This is the first cultural history of ballet--ever.  Homans is a scholar and former professional dancer so she comes at her topic with a unique perspective.  I loved when she wrote about dance conveying more than words; its a special kind of exchange between artist and audience that is beyond language.  She ended on a negative note: Ballet is dead.  May have prompted The New York Times dance critic to offer this alternative view.  A book for all balletomanes to treasure.

Affect Regulation, Mentalization, and the Development of the Self

Edouard Manet, Olympus, 1982

by Peter Fonagy, Gyorgy Gergely, Elliot Jurist, Mary Target, New York, Other Press, 2004, p. 576.

This amazing book fuses developmental psychology and psychoanalytic theory in an exciting definition of attachment theory: attachment is not an end in itself.  It produces a representational system of psychological states.  Mentalization is the process by which we understand that having a mind mediates our experience of the world.  Mentalization (or the Reflective Function) is how we know ourselves--through a gradually elaborated inner organization--and others. The stakes are higher here for psychoanalytic thinkers: one can only develop a self with the intentional mind states via the hard-won acquisitions in the attachment stage. 

The understanding of the "I" is the understanding of complex internal structures.  The attachment stage, in this way, is a life-long process.  The understanding of the "I" (our internal processes are so opaque!) as a mental agent grows out of interpersonal experience.  The baby's understanding of herself as a physical organism with a mind is not a genetic given; its a constructed capacity.  To reiterate, self-reflection and the capacity to reflect on other minds are constructed capacities that evolved out of early experiences.

The building blocks of the organization of the self are affect regulation, impulse control, self-monitoring, and the experience of self-agency.

Affect regulation is the modulation of emotional states but it can also be used to develop the self.  (Internal states that are not mirrored back to the enfant by the caregiver adequately undermine appropriate labeling.  These emotions remain confused, experienced as unsymbolized, and hard to regulate.  This may lead to the child equating internal experience with external reality.  The child may feel that emotions inevitably spill out into the world)  Fonagy et al. introduce the concept of "mentalized affectivity" which marks the mature capacity to regulate feelings and discover the subjective meaning of one's own feelings. 

Mentalized affectivity stands at the core of the therapeutic process.  It announces the gap between internal experience and external reality.  Healing can come from processing shame (or other troubling emotions) via mentalization.  Individuals come to conceive of new narratives that explain the behavior of others or themselves.  Mentalization is a creative process that engenders new narratives, alternative interpretations and differing perspectives. 

The relationship between analyst and patient recapitulates the dynamics at the attachment stage.  Fonagy describes his working method as the constant availability and active offering of the analyst's mind so that within it, the client may discover her own self.  An analyst enters into the mental world of the client and only gradually show him through contact with his mental experience, that it is a series of representations that can be played with, shared, and changed.

This book won a ton of awards.  Its the most important book I've read on self-modulation and internal growth.  I chose Manet's Olympia as the illustration for this book because she is such a proud and self-aware subject!

Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions



Mondrian [I can't remember the title], circa1912



by Martha C. Nussbaum, London: Cambridge University Press, 2001, p.752.

A super book that transformed how I understand emotions: emotions are interwoven with thought.  They are intelligent responses to our perceptions of value.  They constitute rich, evaluative judgements.

Freedom: A Novel

Andrew Goldsworthy, Dandelion Line, Storm King Sculpture Park, New York

By Jonathan Franzen, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010, p. 562

Anyone who could write a series of essays entitled How to be Alone, and claim he married his first wife because she was such a sensitive reader is my cup of tea.  I love big, lush novels, and Franzen helped me understand the long, sad Bush years.  Should have won the National Book Award for 2010.

The Man Who Loved Children

Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait, circa 1912

By Christina Stead, intro. by Randall Jarrell, New York: Picador, 1940, p.525.

The most perverted story of family life I've ever encountered.  Read Jonathan Franzen's review here.  The portrait of the father kept me up at night.  Truly original and brilliant.

Loving, Living and Party Going

The perfect illustration for Green's collection of novellas: giggling  house maids

By Henry Green, intro. by John Updike, London, Penguin Classics, 1993, p. 527

These three novellas examine the social function and meaning of class in Great Britain during the interwar years.  Although the wealthy son of an iron works owner, Green is fully sympathetic with the "downstairs" characters.  The pace and plot structures are nearly perfect.

American Beauty: Aesthetics and Innovation in Fashion

A delicate and precisely executed gown by Jean Yu

By Patricia Mears, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009, 182 p.

Mears starts with a very simple thesis: American fashion is not wholly defined by sportswear.  There are, and have been, fashion designers in the States who rival their European counterparts in expertise, creativity and vision.  Meyers identifies Jean Yu, Isabel Toledo, Rodarte, Ralph Rucci and Francisco Costa as contemporary Americans designers working in the Grand European Tradition.

Isabel Toledo: Fashion From the Inside Out

The First Lady in Isabel Toledo on Inauguration Day


by Valerie Steele, Patricia Mears, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2009, 250 p.

Toledo is an artist working in a mass-market industry. Without significant financial backing, Isabel Toledo produces collections that dispense with the idea of theme (e.g., Brigitte Bardot in Cann circa 1958) and bases her collection on the construction and proportions of clothing itself.  This beautiful coffee table book outlines Toledo's creative process and her dedication to creating innovative yet wearable fashion.