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Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book WALTER ONG'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CULTURAL STUDIES: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF THE WORD AND I-THOU COMMUNICATION (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 2000; 2nd ed. 2009, forthcoming). The first edition won the 2001 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology conferred by the Media Ecology Association. For further information about his education and his publications, see his UMD homepage: Click here to visit Dr. Farrell's homepage. On September 10 and 22, 2009, he discussed Walter Ong's work on the blog radio talk show "Ethics Talk" that is hosted by Hope May in philosophy at Central Michigan University. Each hour-long show has been archived and is available for people who missed the live broadcast to listen to. Here are the website addresses for the two archived shows:
SHARE Wednesday, January 29, 2025 Some Deeply Personal Reflections About My Life, and About Certain Pornstars (REVIEW ESSAY)
The title of the present OEN article is intended to call to mind my earlier OEN article titled "Some Personal Reflections About Porn" (dated January 2, 2025). In my present wide-ranging OEN article, I highlight a new insight I had regarding the work of the the American Jesuit scholar Walter J. Ong (1912-2003) after I had published my 660th OEN article "About Pope Francis' New 2025 300-Page Autobiography" on January 25, 2025.
SHARE Saturday, January 25, 2025 About Pope Francis' New 2025 300-Page Autobiography (REVIEW ESSAY)
The present wide-ranging and extremely associative essay is my 650th OEN article. It is about Pope Francis' new 2025 300-page Autobiography, written with Carlo Musso, translated from the Italian by Richard Dixon (Random House). In it, among other things, we learn a lot about Pope Francis' childhood growing up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. So I discuss my childhood a bit in the "Appendix" at the end of my essay.
SHARE Sunday, January 19, 2025 In Praise of John Bradshaw's Book Healing the Shame That Binds You (REVIEW ESSAY)
The American recovering alcoholic and self-help guru John Bradshaw (1933-2016) published the profoundly insightful book Healing the Shame That Binds You (1987; expanded and updated second edition, 2005). Americans liberals and progressives today may still benefit from John Bradshaw's profound insights in that book, as I hope to show in the present essay through my extensive discussion of mom-son fantasy skits in porn videos.
SHARE Friday, January 10, 2025 Some Further Reflections about Cory Chase and about Donald Trump (REVIEW ESSAY)
As far as I know, there is no connection between the exhibitionistic pornstar Cory Chase (born on February 25, 1981) and the misogynistic Donald Trump (born on June 14, 1946) -- apart from the fact that they are both Americans. My reflections about each of them in the present essay involve my discussion of the late Jungian psychotherapist and psychological theorist Robert Moore's theory of the eight archetypes of maturity.
SHARE Tuesday, January 7, 2025 C. G. Jung (1875-1961) in 1939-1940 on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) (REVIEW ESSAY)
In 2023, Princeton University Press published the book Jung on Ignatius of Loyola's Spiritual Exercises: Lectures Delivered at the ETH Zurich: Volume 7: 1939-1940, edited by Martin Liebscher, translated by Caitlin Stephens. Because I had been in the Jesuit order (1979-1987) founded by St. Ignatius Loyola, I decided to take a look at Jung's public lectures in 1939-1940. I found them remarkably accessible.
(1 comments) SHARE Thursday, January 2, 2025 Some Personal Reflections About Porn (REVIEW ESSAY)
In five of my OEN articles in 2024, I mentioned porn. To ring out the old year now, and to ring in the new year 2025, I offer here some candid personal reflections about porn involving my own experiences of watching porn over the years and my candid observations about certain pornstars. My interpretation of porn in my life may surprise you -- because I also see my interpretation as extending to all men who watch porn.
SHARE Saturday, December 28, 2024 Some Reflections on the Work of C. G. Jung and Walter J. Ong (REVIEW ESSAY)
The prolific Swiss psychiatrist and psychological theorist C. G. Jung (1875-1961) explored what he referred to as fantasy thinking involving images versus directed thinking involving logic. The American Jesuit media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) of Saint Louis University explored what he referred to as orality versus phonetic alphabetic literacy. I further explore both.
SHARE Thursday, December 19, 2024 On Interpreting the Ubiquitous Mom-Son Porn on the Internet (REVIEW ESSAY)
After I published my OEN article "Texas' War on Porn, and Robert Moore's Theory of the Archetypes of Maturity" on December 6, 2024, Matt Richtel published the article "It's Time to Talk About Pornography, Scholars Say" in The New York Times on December 12, 2024. In the present essay, I use his article as a springboard for discuss the ubiquitous mom-son porn on the internet, using C. G. Jung's work and Walter J. Ong's work.
SHARE Saturday, December 14, 2024 Alexis Pogorelskin on the 1940 Anti-Nazi Hollywood Movie The Mortal Storm (REVIEW ESSAY)
In 1937, the British novelist Phyllis Bottome published the anti-Nazi novel The Mortal Storm. In 1940, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer brought out the anti-Nazi movie The Mortal Storm, starring Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart. In 2010, the DVD version of the 1940 MGM movie The Mortal Storm came out. In 2024, Alexis Pogorelskin published Hollywood and the Nazis on the Eve of War: The Case of The Mortal Storm (Bloomsbury Academic).
SHARE Sunday, December 8, 2024 Robert Hassan on the Blind Nietzsche and the Malling-Hansen Typewriter (REVIEW ESSAY)
Robert Hassan in communication studies at the University of Melbourne published the fascinating article "How Typing Transformed Nietzsche's Consciousness: The Malling-Hansen writing ball, with its potential and limitations, redefined Nietzsche's philosophical and creative expression" online at the website of The MIT Press Reader. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) went from writing his books long hand to using a typewriter.
SHARE Friday, December 6, 2024 Texas' War on Porn, and Robert Moore's Theory of the Archetypes of Maturity (REVIEW ESSAY)
The journalists Jesus Jank Curbelo and Wendy Selene Perez call our attention to the Texas' 2023 law HB 1181 in their article "Texas' war on porn" (dated December 1, 2024). Their informative account of the Texas' war on porn enables me to discuss the relevant parts of the work of the late Jungian psychotherapist and psychological theorist Robert Moore (1942-2016; Ph.D. in religion and psychology, University of Chicago, 1975).
SHARE Friday, November 29, 2024 John F. Kennedy Was a Compulsive Womanizer (REVIEW ESSAY)
John F. Kennedy's womanizing has been well documented over the years since his tragic assassination in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. The American journalist Maureen Callahan mines various sources about Jack Kennedy in her 2024 feminist book Ask Not: The Kennedys and the [Thirteen] Women They Destroyed (Little, Brown and Company/ Hachette Book Group).
SHARE Tuesday, November 19, 2024 What Can We Expect in Donald Trump's Second Term? (REVIEW ESSAY)
President-elect Donald Trump decisively defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. In the present essay, I draw on the work of the American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian and pioneering media ecology theorist Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955) to discuss the internet, on the one hand, and, on the other, the 2024 presidential election.
SHARE Sunday, November 10, 2024 Thomas J. Farrell's Encore Jungian Profile of Trump (REVIEW ESSAY)
In my short but widely read OEN article "A Jungian Profile of Trump" (dated August 27, 2017), I profiled then-President Trump as the immature trickster who is "expert in creating appearances, and then 'selling' us on those appearances. He seduces people into believing him. . . . He is a manipulator" (quoted from Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette in their 1990 book (p. 28). Now, I offer a fuller Jungian profile of Trump.
SHARE Wednesday, November 6, 2024 Thomas J. Farrell's Encore on Trump's Male MAGA Supporters (REVIEW ESSAY)
In previous OEN articles, I have drawn of the thought of the late Jungian psychotherapist and psychological theorist Robert Moore (1942-2016; Ph.D. in religion and psychology, University of Chicago, 1975) regarding the two Lover archetypes in the human psyche. In the present essay, I draw on his thought regarding the masculine Warrior/Knight archetype in the human psyche to discuss Trump's male MAGA supporters.
SHARE Friday, November 1, 2024 Pope Francis' New 2024 Encyclical (REVIEW ESSAY)
The aging and ailing doctrinally conservative Pope Francis (born in 1936; elected pope in 2013) issued a new encyclical on October 24, 2024. It is a profound meditation on the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It deserves a fair hearing. The general problem he addresses is a real problem. But certain conservative American Catholics have distinguished themselves over the years with their anti-Francis bluster.
SHARE Saturday, October 26, 2024 NYT Columnist David French on Monoculture (REVIEW ESSAY)
Op-ed columnist David French discusses diversity, equity, and inclusion (D.E.I.) in his op-ed column titled "I Don't Want to Live in a Monoculture, and Neither Do You" in The New York Times (dated October 20, 2024). In it, he argues that monoculture is not good for the soul. I agree. However, in the present essay, I want to reflect back in time to when my late friend Theodore L. Gross was subjected to the academic monoculture.
SHARE Sunday, October 20, 2024 Thomas J. Farrell on Trump's Ardent MAGA Supporters (REVIEW ESSAY)
On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, we Americans will vote for the next president of the United States. I plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the next president of the United States. But Trump's ardent MAGA supporters plan to vote for him, because they feel under siege. In this short article, I explain why they feel under siege. In it, I draw on the work of the American Jesuit scholar Walter J. Ong.
SHARE Thursday, October 10, 2024 Thomas J. Farrell's Encore on Robert Moore (REVIEW ESSAY)
In my recent OEN article "Robert Moore on Optimal Human Psychological Development," I discussed the late Jungian psychotherapist and theorist Robert Moore's thought about the feminine and the masculine archetypes of maturity in the human psyche. In the present essay, I now revisit Robert Moore's thought about the feminine and the masculine archetypes of maturity in the human psyche -- but with some new examples here.
SHARE Monday, September 30, 2024 Thomas J. Farrell's Encore on Young Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman (REVIEW ESSAY)
In this short encore article, I revisit my three most recent OEN articles. Once again, the beautiful young Lynda Carter (born in 1951) as Wonder Woman in the 1970s Wonder Woman television series is my primary focus here, because I think that that television series still has much to offer to empathetic viewers in 2024, provided that they can become infatuated with the beautiful young Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman -- as I did.