Freud’s Theory of the Id, Ego and Superego: Lost in Translation
Good things about the superego, and how it came to have a bad rap.
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Points of Departure
The basic emotional issues that drive us, and their implications for the most common psychological problems: depression, anxiety, shame, low self-esteem, etc.
Why Empathy Fails
In order to empathize with another person, you have to recognize that he or she actually exists apart from and without specific reference to you. Our ability to tolerate separateness largely determines how well we are able to empathize with others.
Defense Mechanisms III: Further Uses for Projection
In addition to ridding the self of painful experience, projection may also defuse internal conflict between opposing impulses or ideas. People who use projection in this way often provoke behavior in others than appears to “validate” the projection.
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The Hatred of Authority
While rebellion against established authority often leads to progress and positive change, legitimate authority exerted with concern has its value. Some people can’t tolerate the expression of authority in any form, however, and live in constant rebellion against it.
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Defense Mechanisms I: Splitting
Splitting (along with its companion defense, projection) is one of the primary defense mechanisms; it’s also an indispensable part of everyday mental processes, enabling us to make distinctions and evolve meaning out of our experience.
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Psychological Obstacles to Grief and the Grieving Process
Though we tend to talk about grief and the grieving process as a unique category of experience, it also involves painful feelings akin to other kinds of suffering, and we will mobilize our habitual defenses against such pain when it becomes unbearable.
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On Everyday Narcissism
The desire for attention, respect and admiration from others is normal, a kind of everyday narcissism, as long as it doesn’t interfere with our ability to notice, respect and admire others and to have meaningful relationships with them.
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The Rise of Bipolar Disorder Symptoms and Treatment
Why has Bipolar Disorder, once a fairly rare phenomenon, become so pervasive in our society? This article looks at four influencing factors: (1) improved diagnosis; (2) an enlargement of our conception of the illness; (3) a “vogue” for the label that has led to over-diagnosis; and (4) illicit drug-use and psychiatric medications that have actually increased the incidence of Bipolar Disorder.
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Do You Want to Be a ‘Good’ Person?
What we consider “moral behavior” can be motivated by religious beliefs, an inherited set of values, empathy and enlightened self-interest. The appearance of extreme virtue may mask highly “immoral” and destructive feelings through the process of splitting and projection.
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“Psychiatric Meds Are Like Insulin for Diabetes” (Big Lie #3)
Contrary to what we have been led to believe, psychiatric medications do not rectify a chemical imbalance in your brain but instead create one; the body then adapts to this imbalance, and when drug use is discontinued, the physical response is akin to withdrawal symptoms.
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