Hello,

And welcome to what will be the final issue of this season of ◎ Drafts. Since July 5'th, I've mostly sent out a version of drafts or a ⌬ Podcast Lecture Monday through Thursday and a digest sort of Newsletter on Fridays. The open rates on the emails have been between 35%-60%, which I think is ok for an email newsletter kind of thing.

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Fall is here

My fall semester starts next week, I won't have any students, but I'll be returning to campus for lots of meetings and other sorts of planning and getting ready sorts of things and stuff. Usually, this time of year gets me feeling excited, but it's more of a nervous sort of energy this year. I don't know what to expect from the university (or society in general) when we try to start a "normal" sort of academic year with Covid continuing to be a going concern. I have no idea what will happen, but right now, I don't think that the educational institutions I'm engaging with are generally saying, "We think everything will be ok. Seriously, it will all be fine. Things are going to be fine, good, and everything will work out. Don't worry about anything. Things will be fine!"

This sort of over-the-top optimistic presentation leaves me thinking that what I'm seeing is a big negation and that unconsciously they believe that things will not be fine. However, they can't really admit that to themselves or others. As a result, this massive amount of optimism and reassurance makes me (and I'm assuming many other people) feel very ill at ease.

For the record: I hope that I'm wrong about all of this and that the optimistic folks have it right, that everything will, in fact, be fine. That would be double plus awesome.

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Top of mind

As I start the fall semester, there are a few things that I'm spending time thinking about.

• Teaching about psychoanalysis in understandable ways
• Psychoanalysis & Detective work
• The combination social work that does not suck with psychoanalysis
• How to effectively understand why people do the worst things to themselves, others, and the environment, and how to effectively engage people and systems in ways that result in them being less destructive.

Writing this season of ◎ Drafts has helped clarify some of my own thinking, and I want to sincerely thank you all for being the readers who motivated me to express these ideas in writing. By taking the time to read this, you've kept me writing, which has kept me thinking.

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Projects

As I move back into full-time teaching mode, which will take up a massive amount of time and energy, I'll also be doing a few other things.

• I'll be launching my own clinical practice. (For years, I've practiced as part of a group, and I'll be going out 100% on my own so that I can do things 100% the way I want to do them.) There has already been a "soft launch" of the practice, and I'm currently seeing analysands, patients, doing some supervision, and running one group. I'll be sending out a full launch email with a link to the website for this new clinical practice soon.
• I've recorded InForm 050, and I'll be editing/mixing that soon.
• I've got an InForm interview with Peter Rollins scheduled for 8/26. Pete has had a major influence on me and my thinking, so being able to interview him is something I'm excited to do.
• I'm going to continue to work on the paper for LACK 2022.
• I plan to try to present a case at Clinical Study Days 14 in February of 2022. (I've got to start writing that!)
• I will continue to post the ⌬ Podcast Lectures for the class I'll be teaching this fall.
• I'll try to make some more episodes of The Gorman Limit after things sort of slow down.
• I'm talking with the folks from The Regrettable Century about doing a reading group/podcast crossover event where we read and comment on the text Psychoanalytic Politics by Sherry Turkle. We are in the scheduling phase of that project. (Scheduling is difficult when you have to coordinate with several people across several time zones!)
• Most importantly to me, I'll be trying my best to be a good partner to my partner and a good-enough dad to two small humans.

So, as always, lots going on.

I'll do my best to make this list shorter, not longer, by closing out lots of this stuff by the end of the year. Wish me luck!

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Coming soon

In addition to the pending announcement of the clinical practice, I'll also be launching a more extensive version of the membership program here at [S][J][P]. I hope you'll all stay subscribed and be excited about the new membership program when I start to send it down the runway.

Fin

As always, thank you for taking the time to read these words. And, till next time, please, make glorious mistakes!

-- N