Nathaniel Branden Seminars

[Donovan A.]

My mother has some cassette tapes from a Nathaniel Branden Seminar. We have up to 12 lectures of the series, it was given in California and not long after the break with Ayn Rand. Unfortunately, I do not have a title to these seminars, nor a specific date as to when the lectures were given. The structure of the seminars is to answer audience questions. Does anyone have any ideas as to what the title of these seminars could be and or when the lectures were given? Any information would be appreciated!

- Donovan

Edited January 19, 2009 by Donovan A.

[Reidy]

Seminar was a monthly series of Q&A sessions with invited audiences, available by subscription (tape or LP) from Academic Associates ca. 69 - 70 and in at least one record store in Westwood Village, LA. I was in one of them with the UCLA Objectivist group, recorded at his home in May 1970. I don't think any of them included lectures.

I gather that you're collecting all the available Objectivist audios. Rand's Ford Hall Forum Q&As would be especially worth saving, as Mayhew's book is in part a bowlderization or memory-holing of her remarks. For example, her infamous rip-roaring moral condemnation of homosexuality, in 1971, is not in the book, presumably because it contradicts current Peikoff / ARI policy. It was available from Second Renaissance about five years ago.

Edited January 19, 2009 by Reidy

[Brant Gaede]

My mother has some cassette tapes from a Nathaniel Branden Seminar. It seems that there were 12 lectures given, it was given in California and not long after his break with Ayn Rand. Unfortunately, I do not have a title to these seminars, nor a specific date as to when the lectures were given. The structure of the seminars is to answer audience questions. Does anyone have any ideas as to what the title of these seminars could be and or when the lectures were given? Any information would be appreciated!

There were 48. Last March I sent Nathaniel those records plus some others. A professional recorded them into a computer and a single CD. I have them in both forms now. I've never seen a CD contain so much material. Eventually they will be put up on his Web Site and sold for a price. They will almost certainly not be available to the public as a CD. Academic Associates originally marketed these on a subscription basis, once a month for four years, 1969-1973.

--Brant

edit: these were not lectures. Typically local California Objectivists, mostly young people I think, met at NB's home and asked him questions. He gave expansive answers when appropriate. I think most were expansive.

Edited January 19, 2009 by Brant Gaede

[Donovan A.]

Seminar was a monthly series of Q&A sessions with invited audiences, available by subscription from Academic Associates ca. 69 - 70 and in at least one record store in Westwood Village, LA. I was in one of them with the UCLA Objectivist group, recorded at his home in May 1970.

I gather that you're collecting all the available Objectivist audios. Rand's Ford Hall Form Q&As would be especially worth saving, as Mayhew's book seems in part to be a bowlderization or memory-holing of her remarks. For example, her infamous rip-roaring moral condemnation of homosexuality, in 1971, is not in the book, presumably because it contradicts current Peikoff / ARI policy. It was available from Second Renaissance about five years ago.

Do you mean Ayn Rand's comments in the Q/A portion of "The Moratorium on Brains"? I purchased a copy of The Ford Hall Lectures recently from ARI, and those negative comments on homosexuality have not been removed, nor do I think they should be.

I do not know anything about Mayhew. Please feel free to comment more.

I would like to hear the Q/A portions from The Basic Principles of Objectivism and Efficient Thinking Courses. From my understanding, Ayn Rand joined Barbara Branden and Nathaniel Branden to answer questions after their lectures. As far as I know, this is not available to the public any longer.

In the taped seminars Nathaniel Branden states: " I believe that most or all of you are students at the University of Southern California here in Los Angeles"

[Chris Grieb]

Donovan; I gather all the material from NBI is missing. There would be problems with Miss Rand's answers to questions because the permission for NBI to use her name and material was withdrawn at the time of the Split.

Edited January 19, 2009 by Chris Grieb

[Reidy]

Mayhew is a classicist at Seton Hall in New Jersey and the editor of Ayn Rand Answers. In addition to the airbrushing that I mentioned, he attributes Branden's article "Counterfeit Individualism" to Rand. Strictly speaking, he omits the author's name from his text, and the index credits the article to Rand. I have a hard time believing that a professional scholar would accidentally make the kind of blunder that gets a student docked points on a high-school term paper, whereas I have no trouble believing that an ARI loyalist would do it deliberately. If it was an oversight, it's the kind of oversight that a copy editor would pounce on, so presumably he had to overrule the copy editor to get the text into print as it is.

He read a paper at the ARS/APA a few years ago saying in passing, giving no source, that Rand coined the term "psycho-epistemology." Barbara Branden has claimed (perhaps here on OL) that she coined it, and she was using it in her Efficient Thinking lectures a few months before Rand used it in For the New Intellectual.

(Glad to hear that ARI is not censoring the 1971 Q&A but, since this is the most-quoted, most-discussed remark she ever made at one of these sessions, its omission from the print version is conspicuous.)

((By the way, USC is not UCLA.))

Edited January 19, 2009 by Reidy

[Brant Gaede]

Mayhew is a classicist at Seton Hall in New Jersey and the editor of Ayn Rand Answers. In addition to the airbrushing that I mentioned, he attributes Branden's article "Counterfeit Individualism" to Rand. Strictly speaking, he omits the author's name from his text, and the index credits the article to Rand. I have a hard time believing that a professional scholar would accidentally make the kind of blunder that gets a student docked points on a high-school term paper, whereas I have no trouble believing that an ARI loyalist would do it deliberately. If it was an oversight, it's the kind of oversight that a copy editor would pounce on, so presumably he had to overrule the copy editor to get the text into print as it is.

He read a paper at the ARS/APA a few years ago saying in passing, giving no source, that Rand coined the term "psycho-epistemology." Barbara Branden has claimed (perhaps here on OL) that she coined it, and she was using it in her Efficient Thinking lectures a few months before Rand used it in For the New Intellectual.

(Glad to hear that ARI is not censoring the 1971 Q&A but, since this is the most-quoted, most-discussed remark she ever made at one of these sessions, its omission from the print version is conspicuous.)

((By the way, USC is not UCLA.))

Nathaniel Branden credits Barbara for the term, but the only public comment I've heard from her about that is that she strongly dislikes it.

--Brant

[Neil Parille]

In addition to the airbrushing that I mentioned, he attributes Branden's article "Counterfeit Individualism" to Rand. Strictly speaking, he omits the author's name from his text, and the index credits the article to Rand. I have a hard time believing that a professional scholar would accidentally make the kind of blunder that gets a student docked points on a high-school term paper, whereas I have no trouble believing that an ARI loyalist would do it deliberately. If it was an oversight, it's the kind of oversight that a copy editor would pounce on, so presumably he had to overrule the copy editor to get the text into print as it is.

Well, let's just say that if Dr. Mayhew is not Jim Valliant when it comes to accuracy, he is a little challenged in this area. See:

1. Rand's Marginalia: http://michaelprescott.typepad.com/michael...mportance_.html

2. Ayn Rand and the Song of Russia: http://mises.org/journals/jls/19_4/19_4_7.pdf

-Neil Parille

[Donovan A.]

((By the way, USC is not UCLA.))

Quite true, but I was only quoting what Dr. Branden has said in the tapes that I have.

[Christopher]

There were 48. Last March I sent Nathaniel those records plus some others. A professional recorded them into a computer and a single CD. I have them in both forms now. I've never seen a CD contain so much material. Eventually they will be put up on his Web Site and sold for a price. They will almost certainly not be available to the public as a CD. Academic Associates originally marketed these on a subscription basis, once a month for four years, 1969-1973.

I have listened to several of the seminars myself. They are quite excellent for understanding the mechanics of how Branden approaches psychotherapy, containing perhaps more technical information than found in his publications. There are also some good theoretical takes on specific Objectivist topics. I highly recommend the seminars, although they're much more fun to listen to with others if you like bantering ideas back and forth.

Chris

[Barbara Branden]

Brant: "Nathaniel Branden credits Barbara for the term [psycho-epistemology], but the only public comment I've heard from her about that is that she strongly dislikes it."

I confess, I did coin the term.

Robert Browning was once asked the meaning of a very obscure poem he had written some years earlier. He answered:"When I wrote it, only God and Robert Browning understood it. Now..." That's approximately my response when I'm asked why I chose the term "psycho-epistemology."

Barbara

[Brant Gaede]

Brant: "Nathaniel Branden credits Barbara for the term [psycho-epistemology], but the only public comment I've heard from her about that is that she strongly dislikes it."

I confess, I did coin the term.

Robert Browning was once asked the meaning of a very obscure poem he had written some years earlier. He answered:"When I wrote it, only God and Robert Browning understood it. Now..." That's approximately my response when I'm asked why I chose the term "psycho-epistemology."

Barbara, you didn't say "psycho's-epistemology." Maybe "psycha-epistemology" would have worked better, over the long term. Regardless, too late now!

--Brant