Out Town: Dr. Charles Riley’s journey of hope

Dr Tom Ferraro
Dr. Charles Riley II on the right

Charles A. Riley II, Ph.D. is a man with an impressive resume. He is a Princeton graduate, author of 32 books on art and music and is the current director of the Nassau County Museum of Art.

I met Dr. Riley last year when he hosted the Charles Scribner III talk about the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of the The Great Gatsby.
When I noticed that Dr. Riley was doing a seminar series on Metamorphosis in Art, Literature and Film I decided to include him in my series on writers and writing. He has chosen an interesting subject to teach about.

As a psychoanalyst, I spend every hour of every day working with patients who make valiant efforts to change their mood, self-image, their behavior or their income level and so I’m acutely aware of how difficult change can be.
I agree with Dr. Riley when he suggests that artists and writers are continually struggling with the concept of change.

Examples of writers who have directly addressed the idea of change include Dante, Cervantes, Colladi and Victor Hugo. Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” was about a depressed man in a midlife crisis who with the help of Virgil and Beatrice managed to reach heaven. Cervantes’s Don Quixote described a depressed older man who with the help of literature, his friend Sancho Panza and Dolcinea finally found a measure of happiness.

In Victor Hugo’s classic Les Miserables, Jean Valjean goes through a dramatic change for the better when a bishop shows him great kindness and mercy at the beginning of the novel and is thereby transformed into a saintly character.
“Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi was a tale about a wooden puppet who wants to change into a real boy but who must do so after facing many trials. He is helped along the way by the love of the Blue Fairy.

“Pinocchio” along with “Don Quixote,” “Les Miserables” and “The Divine Comedy” all have main characters who must embark on a dangerous journey through hell before finding happiness.
These masterpieces represent a model of growth which entails suffering before any change takes place. Don Quixote nearly dies, Cervantes must go through the nine circles of hell and nine more in purgatory before he sees God.

Poor little Pinocchio gets burned, hung and swallowed by a whale before he changes into a decent little boy. These writers suggest to the reader that hope does exist and sadness can be changed into happiness if you have the courage, get the help and receive the love of someone.
On the other hand, there are many examples of the impossibility of change.

Ahab in “Moby Dick” refuses to give up his hatred and it leads to his crew’s death. In the “Search for the Grail,” the great knight Percival never finds the grail and winds up weeping with remorse at the end. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” the central character winds up dead. In Jean Paul Sartre’s Nausea, the main character undergoes no transformation but instead remains helpless and hopeless from beginning to end as do Vladimir and Estragon in Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.”
It may be of interest to note that the process of psychoanalysis is in some ways similar to the novels of hope I outlined at the beginning. Freud described psychoanalysis as a process whereby one is only able to change if the patient is willing to connect one’s present despair and frustration with its childhood roots.

It is a process similar to the chapter in Don Quixote when he holds onto a rope and climbs down into a deep cave where he loses all sense of time.

Analysis is also like the time when Pinocchio goes into the ocean and is swallowed up by a whale.
We are all interested in change, in growth and in the improvement of mood.

Whether it’s Dante or Cervantes or you or me everyone wants to fulfill one true destiny. Goethe’s Faust was a depressed man who wanted to find true happiness. Perceval’s goal was to find the holy grail. The Frankenstein monster was looking for love. Maybe you’re ambition and your goals are similar.
One thing I do know is that in order to change and to reach your goals you will need some help along the way just like Don Quixote or Dante or Pinocchio.

And I think a very good way to begin is to get over to the Nassau County Museum of Art Tues Dec. 12 or Jan. 8 at 4 p.m. and get to know Dr. Charles Riley who will accompany you on the first step along your journey of metamorphosis. I promise you will not regret it one bit.

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