• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

WhyWeSuffer.com

Transformative Insights from Depth Psychology

  • BASIC PRINCIPLE
  • About
  • Services
  • Comments
  • Contact
  • Books
  • Show Search
Hide Search

The Folly of Modern Psychology

Peter Michaelson · October 3, 2014 ·

Civilization is collapsing in the Middle East. Accord between Russia and the West is in shambles. Anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe. Political and social dissension runs high in America. Totalitarians in China tighten their grip.

The failure of modern psychology could sink us all.
The failure of modern psychology could sink us all.

This dissension, disorder, oppression, and mayhem are fueled by human passions, particularly negative emotions such as anger, fear, intolerance, and hatred. Why is such unreason still raging among us? The human race should be doing better. It’s almost 70 years since the end of the Second World War and the signing of the United Nations Charter when a new standard was unveiled for civilized behavior.

Sixty million people were killed in World War II. Was it all in vain? Why haven’t we met the challenge to live up to the reasonable expectation that we might now, finally, be smart enough to live in peace and harmony. I blame the problem largely on modern psychology. It has failed to teach people the essential facts about human nature.

Many modern psychologists promote the idea that our negative feelings and behaviors are, for the most part, attributable to social, cultural, political, and economic factors—or the malice of others. These external factors, however, are just peripheral. Sure, they play some role in how we experience ourselves. But they’re of secondary importance compared with the inner dynamics whereby, with only minor or even nonexistent provocation from external sources, we churn up anger, resentment, envy, greed, jealousy, and hatred. Such negativity arises within us, and we have to learn how this inner process works in order to bring stability and peace to ourselves and the human race.

Some psychologists also blame so-called toxic parents for the misery many people experience. Bad parenting is obviously a problem, yet many victims of such mistreatment or neglect can move forward successfully and happily with the right self-knowledge. We all need to understand how, unconsciously, we’re prepared to hold on to old familiar feelings of having been victimized, unsupported, neglected, or rejected. Even many children who were raised in a decent manner are prone—through infantile self-centeredness, irrational expectations, and highly-subjective interpretations of their circumstances—to believe they were somehow wronged or damaged. As adults, we have a tendency to transfer on to others the expectation that they will also treat us in an unkind manner, thereby alienating them with our negative reactions to them, while recreating negative feelings and expectations within ourselves. These dynamics of emotional processing need to be made conscious.

That’s not happening because, in addition to blaming outside elements for our misery and failure, most psychotherapists use superficial behavioral and cognitive methods to address our suffering and self-defeating behaviors. These methods are inadequate. To untangle ourselves from painful negative emotions, we have to become very smart and insightful about the inner dynamics of our unconscious mind.

What are the main inner dynamics? Worldwide dissension starts with our aggression, which is a natural instinct or biological component in human nature. Our ancestors, as predators, needed aggression to survive. We still need it to make our way assertively and successfully in the world, although our happiness depends on using this aggression humanely and wisely. The problem is that, in lacking self-regulation, we turn some of the aggression on others in a negative manner. We lack inner self-regulation because we haven’t learned or assimilated vital psychological knowledge.

From an early age some of our biological or natural aggression turns inward against us and forms our inner critic or superego. Sigmund Freud explained 100 years ago how this all happens. We have such an abundance of natural aggression that it can’t all be channeled outward. It becomes congested within us and forms our inner critic. The inner critic then becomes the seat of self-aggression and the hidden master of our personality. We absorb all sorts of criticism, ridicule, mockery, scorn, and abuse from our inner critic. This self-aggression, which exists in most people in varying degrees, can dominate our inner life, holds us accountable, oppress our spirit, and frequently belittle us with both subtle and overt feelings and thoughts. Yet the papers and books published by mainstream psychology seldom mention this inner aggression. Nor do the media, which depend on that literature for their reporting, say much about it.

We absorb this self-aggression, usually unconsciously, and it quickly produces a wide variety of negative feelings and painful suffering, including depression, anxiety, fear, stress, and physical tension. Self-aggression is irrational. It consists of words, messages, and feelings—again, often experienced unconsciously—that are unfair and cruel. Many people are aware that they’re self-critical and self-blaming. But they take this inner condition for granted, as if it’s somehow normal or the best they can expect of life. Neither the psychological establishment nor the media are teaching people to see their inner plight more objectively. Even modern psychoanalysis, which has become increasingly passive as a social or educational force, downplays the significance of the inner critic and the negativity it dispenses.

The more we absorb this negativity (or self-aggression) from the inner critic, the more our reason or rationality is contaminated. We’re filled with self-doubt. We start to believe falsehoods and do dumb things, leading to self-defeat and self-sabotage.

How is it that we absorb the aggression? Is there a mechanism to block it? The healthier or stronger we are on an inner level, the less troublesome is the self-aggression and the more successfully we can block it. With insight, we understand that the implications and accusations contained in the aggression can’t be trusted to represent the truth of a given situation. Unfortunately, we have a weakness in our psyche that serves as an accomplice to, or enabler of, the aggression. This is our lingering passivity—the old sense of weakness and helplessness—that we experienced so profoundly when we were infants, toddlers, and children.

This inner weakness—which I call inner passivity and which in psychoanalysis has been called the subordinate or unconscious ego—blocks us from accessing inner strength. Inner passivity actually has a kind of intelligence of its own in the sense that it expresses defensiveness, excuses, denial, helplessness, and “poor little me” or “what’s the use” messages. Inner passivity is a major player in our psychological defense system. In step with self-aggression, it does an awkward, tortured tango which constitutes the primary inner conflict in our psyche.

So we absorb aggression on an inner level, and then we attempt through our defense system to prove that we’re aggressive, not passive. We start acting aggressively toward others, but this aggression is often (1) just a way in which we are denying or covering up our underlying passivity and (2) a way we blow off steam as a result of all the aggression we’re absorbing from our inner critic.

If we‘re not quelling inner aggression, how can we neutralize aggression and violence in the world?

The more we absorb inner aggression, the more we’re absorbing self-disgust, self-rejection, self-condemnation, and even self-hatred. To the degree that we begin to experience self-rejection or self-hatred, we will begin to feel rejection and hatred toward others. We begin to believe that this negativity we have for them is totally justified by their allegedly stupid, vile, cruel, and threatening beliefs and behaviors. Wanting to hurt or attack them feels justified.

At this point, political extremists, as one example, believe that their hateful perceptions of others and reality are totally justified by actual circumstances. Their hatred also serves as a defense to cover up their participation in the unconscious process whereby they absorb self-aggression in the first place.

Terrorists see the world through this narrow focus, and the focus isn’t necessarily much bigger among those political operatives and partisans in the West who clash with one another in a mean-spirited way. People of an authoritarian or totalitarian mindset are strongly identified with the inner critic or self-aggression, and they thereby feel right at “home” (as in their psyche) in dominating and oppressing others.

As the inner conflict between aggression and passivity is eased (in the process of acquiring self-knowledge), we become attuned, through our consciousness, to that capacity or function within us that struggles heroically to resolve the conflict. This is our authentic self, or Self. Like a bright color, it’s difficult to describe in words. To fathom it, we have to begin to catch glimpses of it in ourselves. It comes to life within us as we struggle to raise our consciousness.

Metaphorically, this authentic self is a mighty oak that began life as a tiny seed. Emotionally, it centers us in feelings of peace, harmony, and equanimity. The self enables us to respond appropriately, rather than react inappropriately because of inner conflict, to challenging situations. The self is the essential nature within that helps us to tame inner chaos, disperse negativity, and expose our hidden capacity for self-destruction or evil. It connects us to our goodness and value. In the process, we become one with it.

The self is the great peacemaker of our species. However, it’s not likely to arise within us while we’re blaming others for our misery and misfortune or settling for psychological knowledge that skims the surface of consciousness, leaving unperturbed our base instincts and chaotic inner dynamics.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Share This:

Filed Under: Consciousness, Depth Psychology Tagged With: aggression, civilization, hatred, inner dynamics, inner mechanism, negativity, passivity, psychological establishment, toxic parents, victimization, worldwide dissension

Primary Sidebar

MOST OF OUR suffering is avoidable. Our emotional and behavioral problems can be resolved. We just have to understand how our psyche works. This website is dedicated to teaching vital psychological knowledge. Do you need help to curb drinking or to get off drugs? Are you facing a divorce or a career failure? Are you anxious, depressed, or overwhelmed by life's challenges? Perhaps you're simply unable to get your mind or intelligence into high gear. I can help. I'm Peter Michaelson, an author and psychotherapist in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I teach people how to overcome unconscious programming that produces suffering and self-defeat.

WHY WE SUFFER–THE BOOK

My book, Why We Suffer--A Western Way to Understand and Let Go of Unhappiness, is the story of what mainstream psychology has failed to teach the world. The depth psychology in this book has vital insights, answers, and solutions for you. Click on the Books link above for more information. --

Other Articles

  • The President Hears from Dr. Freud
  • People Who Hate Love
  • The Language that Liberates the Self
  • Dare We See the Trump in Us?
  • The Emotional Catering Service
  • Are You Addicted to Self-Punishment?
  • A Hidden Cause of Loneliness
  • The Impulse to Destroy Democracy
  • We Get Stronger by Seeing Our Weakness
  • The Warmonger in Our Psyche
  • Armed with Stubbornness, the Weak Go on the Warpath
  • How to Rescue Yourself from Suffering
  • My New Book (of Poetry!) Is Versed in Depth Psychology
  • Finding in Self the Richness of Being
  • Sports Fans and Their Discontents
  • Two Terrible Voices in Your Head
  • Why People Support Donald Trump
  • The Vital Knowledge We Disown
  • Climate Anxiety and the Psyche
  • Abandonment, Self-Abandonment, and Democracy
  • Our Readiness to Feel Controlled
  • The Key to Emotional Self-Regulation
  • Seven Villains in a Sad Love Story
  • The Latest Pandemic: Feeling Overwhelmed
  • The Blindness of the Species
  • Why Americans Are So Wretchedly Divided
  • Are You Passive to Your Mind?
  • What Freud Knew That We Still Hate to See
  • The Emotional Conflict Behind 50 Mental-Health Symptoms
  • A Novelist’s Quest to Unravel His Madness
  • When Inner Growth Feels Impossibly Difficult
  • Haunted by Incessant Wanting
  • My New Book: Healing Our Deadly Flaw
  • Inner Conflict’s Role in Child Suicide
  • Putin’s Psyche
  • The Flaw Wars that Sabotage Relationships
  • Can You Be Your Own Therapist?
  • The Difference Between Learned Helplessness and Inner Passivity
  • The Sad Sordidness of Inner Conflict
  • The Deep Knowledge that Liberates the Self
  • The Four Dimensions of Our Ego
  • Are You Overly Sensitive to Rejection?
  • Evolving Consciousness is the Lifeblood of Mental Health
  • Answers to Questions from Readers (Part 9)
  • Don’t Be Duped by Your Defenses
  • The Shocking Secrets of the Psyche
  • The Undercover Enabler of Habitual Oversleeping
  • Understanding the Assault on the U.S. Capitol
  • The Sheepishness of the Psyche: A One-Act Play
  • Three Self-Defeating Reactions at the Heart of American Disunity
  • Answers to Questions from Readers (Part 8)
  • Our Compulsion to Self-Punish
  • Ego and Self Do Battle for the Soul of America
  • The Hazards of Inner Conflict
  • A Toxic Inner Process Afflicts Humanity
  • Don’t Let America Betray Herself
  • Inner Conflict Ripens in the Hothouse of Pandemic
  • Living and Dying with Coronavirus
  • How the Coronavirus Plays with Our Mind
  • Access the Genius Within
  • How Meditation and Depth Psychology Overlap
  • Guilt: A Favorite Way to Suffer
  • Understanding the Psyche of Boys
  • The Joy of Militant Ignorance
  • Answers to Questions From Readers (Part 7)
  • Breaking the Chains of Self-Imposed Oppression
  • Jordan Peterson’s Blind Spot
  • Learning to See Ourselves Objectively
  • When Food is Used to Feed Inner Conflict
  • How You Can Save the World
  • The Inner Critic is a Primitive Brute Force
  • The Self-Defeat of Passive Morning Thoughts
  • Get Rid of Guilt with Deeper Insight (II)
  • Discover Sublimation, the Agent of Success
  • The U.S. Government’s Flawed Intelligence on Clinical Depression
  • Answers to Questions from Readers (Part 6)
  • 12 Ways We Fail to See or Experience Reality
  • Is Ambivalence a Hidden Factor in Much of Human Misery?
  • Inner Conflict is the Source of Cognitive Distortion
  • A Psychological Hindrance to National Unity
  • A Technique for Overcoming Insomnia
  • Liberals Need More Psychological Insight
  • Why We Urgently Need Inner Truth
  • Notes to Psychotherapists on Addressing Inner Passivity
  • Are You Living Your True Story?
  • Another Visual Portrayal of Our Psyche’s Dynamics
  • Get to Know Your Psyche’s Operating Systems
  • Illustrating the Characters Who Mess With Our Mind
  • How to Love Yourself
  • Don’t Let Inner Passivity Undermine Democracy
  • Connecting With Our Best Self
  • The Deeper Roots of Social Unrest
  • The Las Vegas Killer’s Hidden Motive
  • My Latest Book is Now Available
  • Insight that Conquers Incessant Negative Thinking
  • New Editions of All My Books Now Available
  • The Exhausting Race against Time
  • The Perils of Past, Present, and Future
  • The Mocking Voice of Inner Resistance
  • The Essentials of Empowerment for Enablers and Codependents
  • Answers to Questions from Readers (Part 5)
  • The Appeal of Alternative Facts
  • Are You a Clone of Your Identifications?
  • Unmasking Fear Itself
  • Fundamentalism and the Psyche
  • Ascending to Joy
  • Now’s the Time for Heroes
  • Feeling Like a Fraud or an Imposter?
  • The Invisible Wall of Psychological Resistance
  • Cognitive Therapy’s Flawed Premise
  • Dealing with Election Aftershock
  • After the Election: Healing the Divide
  • Collapsing into Helplessness
  • Solve the Mystery of Your Suffering
  • Answers to Questions from Readers (Part 4)
  • An Insightful Case of Self-Injury
  • Understanding Inner Evil in Mass-Killers
  • A Common Theme in Relationship Strife
  • Breaking Free of Inner Passivity
  • Are You Hopeless of Ever Finding Love?
  • Words to Enlighten Younger Children
  • Deeper Reflections on Inner Passivity
  • Escape the Misery of Moodiness
  • Answers to Questions from Readers (Part 3)
  • Emotional Fortitude for Anxious Times
  • Follow Your Fantasies to Self-Awareness
  • Answers to Questions from Readers (Part 2)
  • The Art of Self-Regulation
  • The Thrill of Fear
  • Answers to Questions from Readers
  • “Why Am I so Easily Discouraged?”
  • Paris and Our Discontents
  • Unconscious Bias in Race Relations
  • Acquiring a Feel for Natural Aggression
  • Defensiveness for Dummies
  • Exposing the Roots of Emotional Suffering
  • Who Wants to Be a Celebrity?
  • Say Goodbye to Your Regrets
  • How to Recognize Good Psychotherapy
  • Visions of Human Destiny
  • Tears of Self-Deception
  • Westerners Who Identify with Terrorists
  • A Decisive Look at Indecision
  • Neurotics on Capitol Hill
  • Inner Passivity Impairs Leadership Skills
  • Hidden Dynamics of Racism
  • Unconscious Factors Fuel Abortion Fight
  • The Two-Minute Inner Workout
  • Defeating the Inner Bully
  • When Life Becomes Unreal and Dreamlike
  • Releasing Inner Passivity
  • Deliverance from Addictions & Compulsions
  • Life’s Painful Entanglements (Part II)
  • Insight into Gender Identity Disorder
  • The Psychology of Wealth Disparity
  • How Do We Achieve Self-Control?
  • Anger and the APA
  • A Painful Game People Play (Part I)
  • Prisoners of Guilt
  • Neurosis Unbound
  • The Lingering Pain of Old Shame
  • Emerging from Shyness
  • An Unconscious Factor in PTSD
  • When in Doubt about Sexual Orientation
  • Why Students Fail to Learn
  • How to Enhance Your Verbal Skill
  • Be Brave when Truth Comes Knocking
  • What Warps the Mind of Domestic Terrorists?
  • Greed as a Mental-Health Disorder
  • The Core of Being
  • The Folly of Modern Psychology
  • The Scoop on Intimate Partner Abuse
  • Tormented Mothers, Endangered Babies
  • Terrific Knowledge for Trying Times
  • Stung by Ingratitude
  • How to Be Your Own Inner Guide
  • Does Inner Growth Require Practical Steps?
  • A Remedy for Feeling Trapped
  • The Golden Rule Needs Depth Psychology
  • A Deadly Case of Inner Conflict
  • Vital Knowledge for Marriage Intimacy
  • Stressed Out in America
  • Four Steps to Stifle Our Inner Critic
  • Oh, Sweet Narcissism
  • The Pain We Lock Away
  • Cognitive Therapy’s Distorted Thinking
  • Indecisive No More
  • Chasing the Shadow
  • How Inner Passivity Robs Men of Power
  • A New Understanding of Bipolar Disorder
  • A Chaos Theory of the Mind
  • Free Yourself from Inner Conflict
  • Curbing Our Appetite for Brutality
  • The Futility of Compulsive Approval-Seeking
  • How Worriers Unconsciously Chose to Suffer
  • Get to Know Your Psychological Defenses
  • The Love Song of the Self
  • Finding Inner Longitude
  • Overcoming a Type of Resistance to Studying
  • Understanding Anorexia
  • The Human Weakness behind Alcoholism
  • Rebutting 9/11 Conspiracy Beliefs
  • Achieving Inner Freedom
  • The Mysterious Allure of Kinky Sex
  • Hooked on Deprivation
  • Aspects of Women’s Empowerment (Part II)
  • Men’s Resistance to Women’s Empowerment
  • The Missing Link in OCD
  • A Hidden Reason for Suicidal Thoughts
  • Overcoming Fear of Intimacy
  • O Shame, Where is Thy Secret Source?
  • The Correct Interpretation of Our Dreams
  • Escaping the Clutches of Helplessness
  • The Double Barrels of Gun Mania
  • Exterminate Infestations of Negative Thoughts
  • The Psychology Behind Mass Shootings
  • Our Messy Mix of Aggression and Passivity
  • Speeding Up Our Evolution
  • Why Our Emotional Suffering Persists
  • Easing Tension and Stress at Family Gatherings
  • Wallowing in the Lap of Bitterness
  • The Hidden Dynamics of Marital Strife
  • The Psychological Roots of National Disunity
  • The Futile Dialogue in Our Head
  • Psychologists of the World, Go Deeper
  • When You Feel Bad About Yourself
  • Cultivating a Life of Disappointment
  • Lost in the Fog of Inner Passivity
  • The Private Joke behind Our Laughter
  • Why We Fear and Hate the Truth
  • When Eyes Are Blinders of the Soul
  • How Deeper Insight Relieves Stress
  • When Money Enriches Our Suffering
  • The Common Ingredient in Human Misery
  • The Infantile Basis of Our Fears
  • Cynicism: The Battle Cry of the Wimp
  • Desperately Seeking Validation
  • Being Seen in a Negative Light
  • The Need to Believe in Yourself
  • Why We Dither on Climate Change
  • Avoidable Miseries of the Workplace
  • Taming the “Little Monsters” of Insomnia
  • A Plague of Neurosis Upon Our House
  • The Origins of Feeling Overwhelmed
  • Teach Your Children Well
  • Why We’re Quick to “Go Negative”
  • 8 Ways We Sabotage Physical Health
  • Occupy the Psyche
  • The Astonishing Basis of Our Addictions
  • Deliverance From the Lonesome Blues
  • Our Global Strategy for Self-Defeat
  • The Mayo Clinic’s Bogus Psychology
  • The Meaning of Evolved Consciousness
  • The Hanky-Panky Behind Our Anger
  • Lincoln’s Integrity, Our Integrity
  • Stubbornness: The Guts to Fight Reality
  • A Participant in National Self-Sabotage
  • Underlying Dynamics that Breed Bullies
  • Deliverance from Low-Level Anxiety
  • The Politburo in Your Psyche
  • Nagging: Love Destroyer, Marriage Killer
  • A Singular Cause of War
  • The Temptations of the Injustice Collector
  • The Dire Determinants of Divorce
  • Enjoy the Quality of Your Consciousness
  • The Helplessness Trap in Cravings & Addictions
  • Mark Twain’s Mysterious Misery-Machine
  • Obesity and the Dopamine Fallacy
  • Four Favorite Ways to Suffer
  • The Deeper Issues that Produce Meanness
  • Panic Attacks Arise from Within Our Psyche
  • The Overlooked Factor in Criminal Behavior
  • The Three Amigos of Woe
  • Overcoming Incompetence and Its Miseries
  • Three Great Truths from Psychology
  • The Hidden Cause of Clinical Depression
  • Terrorism and the Death Drive
  • Welcome Aboard the Voyage of Self-Discovery
  • The Bittersweet Allure of Feeling Unloved
  • How Inner Fear Becomes Our Worst Nightmare
  • The Problem with Positive Psychology
  • Respect, Disrespect, and Self-Respect
  • Neither a Procrastinator Nor a Dawdler Be
  • Prose to Shatter Writer’s Block
  • Stop Smoking through Psychological Insight
  • The Secret Allures of Pornography
  • How Deeper Awareness Can Eliminate Shame
  • When Sexual Desire Covers Up Self-Sabotage
  • The Dreary Distress of Boredom
  • Problem Gamblers are Addicted to Losing
  • The Tyrant that Rules Our Inner Life
  • The Negative Emotions Behind Addictions
  • Beware the Limitations of Superficial Psychology
  • Get Rid of Guilt with Deeper Insight
  • Riding the Emotional Wave of Turbulent Times

Article Archives



Copyright © 2025 WhyWeSuffer