"Every once in a while, a new world appears, different from the everyday world and yet the same, particular but universal, full of innocent insecurity...That's just it and yet that's not it; the world is nothing and the world is everything—this is the contradictory and tireless cry of every true artist [that] awakens for all in this world asleep the fleeting and insistent image of a reality we recognize without ever having known it." (Albert Camus)

This Olio will focus on art as a means of addressing a fraught human existence. How do we perceive the world and, in turn, how do we then perceive ourselves? In this session we will use Dostoevsky's "Notes From Underground" as a jumping-off point to locate our modern positions in relation to theme's of the novel like: The fallacy of rationalism and scientific utopias. 

Together, we will participate in an open dialogue to process experiences and emotions that result from our engagement with the work and reflect on who we are, our values, our shared fate. Our discussions will inevitably draw us to the use of psychology/psychiatry to medicalize and subsequently pathologize, or—far worse—criminalize human reactions to structural racism and other forms of oppression.

We will discuss the impact of social contexts and their innate ability to create ruptures in mental health. Most importantly, we will discuss how to actively address these ruptures as individuals and as a community working toward social justice. 

Pre-reading is helpful but not required. We will be reading select passages during the Olio, so everyone is welcome to attend no matter their familiarity with the novel.