Patrick M. Ohana
Bio
A medical writer who reads and writes fiction and some nonfiction, although the latter may appear at times like the former. Most of my pieces (over 2,200) are or will be available on Shakespeare's Shoes.
Stories (483/0)
A Perfect Year for Cancer
Breast cancer was her September 11, robbing her of a breast, and then allowing her to live free of it and cancer for ten years. The first five years of this decadent decade were supplemented by a daily tablet that battled the disease by limiting the normal supply of estrogen, which also served to sustain its persistent onslaught. But the tenth September 11 Memorial piercingly pronounced the expiration of her reprieve. The disease thrived undiscovered for close to a year thanks to an ER physician, surely a misnomer, who did not uphold his Hippocratic oath. But where does this recurring story begin? Beginning and end are equally unpromising; the beginning then, and only for the sake of chronology.
By Patrick M. Ohana3 years ago in Longevity
“The Future of an Illusion”: Allelu-Freud
Peter Gay points out that “Freud was a consistent, aggressive, dogmatic atheist, a child of the Enlightenment who saw a world at war to the death between science and religion. To study religion, he was convinced, one must take a stand outside it: only the unbeliever can truly understand belief” (Gay 429). In other words, Freud felt that in order to evaluate any religion, one had to be an atheist. It is a powerful statement that follows a specific pattern of logic that beautifully reverberates in the saying: All the thoughts of a lizard are lizard. Still, should we take this notion for granted? I think that this essay will answer the question quite clearly, for I will deal with four critics and their views vis-à-vis The Future of an Illusion, but also with their position towards religion. Furthermore, I shall analyze the text of The Future of an Illusion in order to ascertain any relationship between its rhetorical devices and the proposition of this essay.
By Patrick M. Ohana3 years ago in Psyche
Freud’s “Totem and Taboo”
Like mathematics, every field of knowledge would love to pride itself on being peerless and free from any other influential sphere of study. Anthropology was heading in that direction when it encountered Freud, or when Freud went out of his way to encounter it. Of course, most fields owe something, directly or indirectly, to the exact science of mathematics and or to the more subjective sphere of philosophy, but can still voice their adopted independence. Freud changed all that for anthropology. Although he was specifically studying the human psyche, he was also examining all the developmental and cultural aspects of humans, thus stepping into the realm of anthropology and creating psychoanalytic anthropology.
By Patrick M. Ohana3 years ago in Psyche
The Dead Desk
Black, halogen, cold table-lamp on the far-left corner, heating, enlightening ordered pages. White, ink-jet, Lilliputian printer on the far-right corner, weakly whispering poetic outputs. Grey, greyscale, baby scanner exquisitely centred between black and white. Pen-holder with one pen, though it could fit a hand in its holes, carved in white onyx, lying in proximity of the page spitter. Black, sleek notebook computer, conveniently placed, activated even when the pen is full of black ink. White paper with clear scribblings of tasty ideas:
By Patrick M. Ohana3 years ago in Journal
Staying Inside
The woman I love is not a blond like in the pic above or a redhead or one who dyes her hair blue or purple. The woman I love has short dark brown-auburn hair and I love to stay inside her. It’s always warm and then hot and then warm again. I refuse to explode, so I can remain inside her forever minus an hour during which I could prepare to explode for the last time and be only stopped by death, the hunting ground for every love and life.
By Patrick M. Ohana3 years ago in Filthy
TJ Padida’s Superpowers
What special power(s) can pass any test, at least anywhere on Earth, and be named accordingly? Gaining information about an event at a remote place by unknown means? Perceiving information about a future event before it occurs? Transferring information between individuals without the use of any of the five senses? Influencing matter, time, space, or energy by unknown means? No one has been able to prove any claims of special or super powers including any so-called events that relate to clairvoyance, precognition, telepathy, or psychokinesis. It remains to be seen whether it is too bad or too good.
By Patrick M. Ohana3 years ago in Futurism
A String Theory
It would be easier to describe string theory, the little that I accept of this doubtful turf, than to tell you about the beginning, and the end for that matter, of the string. I barely noticed it one cloudy October weekend afternoon, dangling unbound in the air a bit closer to the ceiling than the floor. Roughly a foot long, it looked bluish and felt British between my fingers. Pubic hair has a peculiar texture, a strange consistency, so it seems, compared to other types of hair and particularly the locks that cover our heads. I have known British pubes, rough and downy at the same time, like a dying poet, unlike the ordinariness of the French, Korean, Russian, and Spanish, and the pubes of other nationalities in all probability. I pulled on it the way an ill-fated woman first pulls on a penis to assess its solidity before milking it for that nauseating nectar. What can be described as a space in space suddenly opened up and pulled me in much the same way that a mindful ant is sucked in by a mindless anteater. I found myself in a dark coldish cave that meandered to a cool darkish cavern.
By Patrick M. Ohana3 years ago in Filthy
Let Him Forget Thee, O Jerusalem!
The First Day Their six-day trip to Jerusalem during the savage spring of 2014 started splendidly. They had decided to drive and walk throughout the city, arriving to the Caesar Premier hotel early in the morning of the first day. “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” seemed to suit their home away from home.
By Patrick M. Ohana3 years ago in Psyche