February 11, 2013   |   0 comments

Author Thomas Sheridan on his latest book The Anvil of the Psyche.

This is a two part interview. Click here for part two.

Ask yourself: what is popular culture? How does it come into existence? How do universally accepted ideas of art and creativity, mass media, publishing and financial constructs, and political and social doctrines arise? Are mass social and cultural movements – coupled with one’s personal and social identity – always a natural flow of social, economic, philosophical, spiritual and artistic threads of the collective human experience? Do they organically emerge from the underground to gradually become mainstream cultural and social consensus? And from these options and opinions, do we pick and choose objectively? Do we, as the consumer, the investor, the voter make our individual decisions, affiliations, allegiances and even our emotional attachments, determined exclusively by our own choices? The answer to all these questions is NO!

In The Anvil of the Psyche, Thomas Sheridan seeks to show us how controlled we really are, the often detrimental effects this has upon us, and what we can do to build a firewall for our minds. Topics discussed include politics, sport, advertising, mainstream media, personal identity and perception, reality TV, subliminal messages and popular music including Elvis and Michael Jackson.

www.thomassheridanarts.com

Illustration by David Dees

Bumper music: Cliff Martinez ‘Traffic OST’
Brian Hodgson ‘The Mind Robber’