Sympathy usually means entering into and sharing feelings that another person has verbally and intentionally expressed; empathy involves intuiting something unspoken, of which the other person may sometimes be entirely unaware. A psychotherapist’s ability to empathize with and understand unconscious parts of a client’s communication depends in large part upon feeling comfortable with those parts within him- or herself. Personal psychotherapy must therefore play a central part in training.
Category: Unbearable Emotion
Art and the Dread of Experience
A discussion of one particular form of artistic inhibition, where artists misuse their art form in order to deaden unbearable emotions. Great works of art have dimension; they contain and express vital human truths. Unsuccessful works of art created in this defensive manner instead deaden emotion, rendering it “flat”, “two-dimensional” or lacking in depth.
The Toilet Function of Friendship (and Other Relationships)
Some people use their friends as a kind of “toilet” into which they can dump all their bad feelings. These individuals rely on a primitive kind of projection to evacuate experience they are unable to tolerate.
Autism Symptoms in Other Disorders
Autism symptoms may appear in other disorders though the person doesn’t reach the threshold for a full diagnosis of autism. Common autism symptoms displayed in such cases are flattening of emotion through the repetitive, circular use of words and music, and the deadening of relationships in which separation cannot be tolerated.
Insufficient Mind in Anxiety Attacks and Disorders
A mental inability to bear intense emotions often lies at the heart of anxiety attacks and disorders, where the person experiencing anxiety feels threatened by (and in danger of disintegration under the pressure of) emerging and unknown emotions.