David Klugman began his career as a writer, earning a BA in literature and music from Bennington College, and an MA in English and Creative Writing at Johns Hopkins. While studying for his Doctorate in English at Rice University, David realized that in order to write the way he wanted to write he needed to break out of the university structure of academia and put himself more directly in contact with everyday life and everyday needs. It was during this period that David began to realize a slow growing synthesis between his long interest in psychology, literary Romanticism and abstract art. He decided to go back to school, where he earned an MS in Social Work at Columbia University, and a certificate in Psychosynthesis Counseling from the Synthesis Center in Amherst, MA. Shortly thereafter, David began teaching publicly and working privately as a psychotherapist, eventually establishing a successful independent practice (which he still runs) in Nyack, NY. A few years later, sensing he still needed something more in order to put all the pieces of his particular puzzle together, David entered a 5 year course of training for psychoanalysis at the Institute for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity in New York City. It was during this time, and primarily as a result of his friendship and work with Dr. George Atwood, that David’s various ideas began to gel with actual practice. During those years, David published more than half a dozen peer reviewed articles (which you can access through this site by clicking on the Published Articles link) in national and international journals, as well as presenting lectures and seminars at local, national and international forums and conferences. In those presentations and articles, David found ways to connect all the basic ingredients of his interests together into a single string of theories or ideas: Romanticism, Imagination, healing through psychoanalytic psychotherapy, and finally the role of abstract art in what he has come to refer to as “The Feeling Life.”
Alongside his training as a writer and psychoanalyst, David also pursued a three-decade long collaboration with the fine artist Robert Strang, a friend and colleague he met while attending Bennington College. The result of their work together comprises a movement in itself, under the banner name of Noncommunication (you may access their collaborative website by going to: www.noncomm.net). Presently David and Robert offer seminars and workshops to the public based on their three co-written books (also available at www.noncomm.net). The central aim of their offering is to ignite interest in the subjective dimension of human experience by exploring what happens when psychology meets fine art.
David began drafting The Feeling Life alongside his social work, psychosynthesis and psychoanalytic trainings. More than the specialized writing he continues to develop with Robert, and the scholarly articles he publishes in local, national and international journals, it was always through this book that David felt he would reach and speak to a wider audience. After publishing The Feeling Life through Feeling First Publications, David developed this website in an effort to disseminate both the book and his message.
You can become more familiar with David’s ideas and central tenets by visiting his Blog, and by purchasing The Feeling Life now!