Here we stand, aggressively destroying our planet while passively letting it happen. We simply don’t have a lot of insight into two primitive aspects of our mental and emotional functioning—aggression and passivity. Certainly we need some amount of aggression—make that healthy … [Read more...] about Our Messy Mix of Aggression and Passivity
Inner Passivity
The Futile Dialogue in Our Head
Our mind is often the stage for the acting out of a recurring dialogue between two conflicting parts of our psyche. In people with mental disorders, one of these voices—inner aggression—can take over or “possess” the consciousness of these individuals and command them to commit … [Read more...] about The Futile Dialogue in Our Head
Lost in the Fog of Inner Passivity
All of us have in our psyche an aspect or feature that goes by the name of inner passivity. This hindrance to our creativity, self-fulfillment, and humanity may be the most difficult thing for us to see and understand about ourselves. Inner passivity produces a wide range of … [Read more...] about Lost in the Fog of Inner Passivity
How Deeper Insight Relieves Stress
As I sit at my desk writing about stress, I can feel some tension stirring in my body. Outside my home office where I write, construction workers are noisily building a new house. Work will go on next door for a few more months. No doubt I’ll feel the nuisance of the noise at … [Read more...] about How Deeper Insight Relieves Stress
The Common Ingredient in Human Misery
What do binging, hypochondria, and hoarding have in common? On the surface they appear to be unrelated. Yet all three of these behaviors have the same source in our psyche. That source—inner passivity—is an unconscious sense of identity situated in our psyche that determines, … [Read more...] about The Common Ingredient in Human Misery