Many of us identify with our mind. It can feel as if our conscious mind (the function that processes thought, memory, and imagination) is the center of our being, even our essential self. When we experience ourself this way, our consciousness is restricted and we’re at the mercy … [Read more...] about Are You Passive to Your Mind?
What Freud Knew That We Still Hate to See
The world’s mental-health dysfunction derives largely from psychological ignorance and self-deception. Why do you think so many 21st Century people are still hateful, violent, and murderous—or so depressed and despairing. Why are so many of us unwilling to protect our planet or … [Read more...] about What Freud Knew That We Still Hate to See
The Emotional Conflict Behind 50 Mental-Health Symptoms
What’s brewing inside us when we’re frequently feeling wrong or bad? How about if we’re feeling lonely, overwhelmed, jealous, anxious, or bitter? Or if we’re having difficulty getting our life in order and functioning at our best? It's time to stop blaming others or … [Read more...] about The Emotional Conflict Behind 50 Mental-Health Symptoms
A Novelist’s Quest to Unravel His Madness
William Styron’s little book, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness, offers vivid depictions of the suffocating gloom that in 1985 stalked his descent into major depression. He is perhaps remembered as much for this 1990 book describing his meltdown into depression as for his … [Read more...] about A Novelist’s Quest to Unravel His Madness
When Inner Growth Feels Impossibly Difficult
Some of us feel hopelessly bogged down, swallowed up daily in a mire of inertia and misery. We agonize in a sense of inadequacy and smallness, just tolerating whatever happens to us. This grim emotional infirmity is described by a reader who sent me this email: I found your … [Read more...] about When Inner Growth Feels Impossibly Difficult