Some basic assumptions about human nature.
Ambivalence in both senses of the word — conflicting emotions for the same person, and difficulty in choosing between different options — both reflect idealized expectations and an underlying perfectionism.
Ambivalence and the Perfect Answer Read More »
For some of us, completing insurance forms and providing carriers with a treatment plan means the complete falsification of who we are and how we really work.
Ethical Considerations Involved in Accepting Health Insurance Read More »
Like all defense mechanisms, denial has its normal and constructive uses: by denying the awareness of unavoidable death, for instance, we’re able to continue with our daily lives.
Defense Mechanisms II: Denial Read More »
While people generally use the words ‘guilt’ and ‘shame’ interchangeably, they actually refer to different experiences. Shame concerns painful feelings about oneself; guilt relates to the hurt or harm one may have caused somebody else and depends upon the ability to empathize. Guilt and shame often occur together.
The Difference Between Shame and Guilt Read More »
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.
Psychological Obstacles to Grief and the Grieving Process Read More »
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.
Empathy vs Sympathy in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Read More »
Knowing how to identify when we’re projecting is extremely difficult, but an overly intense focus upon the behavior or attributes of another person may be a sign.
How to Tell if You’re Projecting Read More »
Psychological defenses are deeply etched neural pathways, like deep ruts in a well-traveled road, impossible to remove. Under psychological and emotional pressure, they will always come automatically and feel like the easiest, most natural response.
The Tenacity of Defenses Read More »
A discussion of envy and how the envious person wishes to spoil or destroy the object of envy. This article includes a clinical example from one psychotherapy case, as well as a personal example of envious behavior from the author.
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.
The Toilet Function of Friendship (and Other Relationships) Read More »