Sublime

No person is free who is tied to a defensive position. This is true of the neurotic character who erects psychological walls and armors himself muscularly as a protection against possible hurt, only to find that the hurt he feared is locked into his being by this very process.

The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud.

Children can’t go elsewhere. They have no extended social network. Even when things are going right, childhood is a gentle open prison. As a result of the peculiarities of our early years, we lose balance. Things within us start to develop in wayward directions. We may find that we can’t trust easily, or need to keep any sign of dirt at bay, or get

There is an old saying: "No man is your enemy, no man is your friend, every man is your teacher."

I believe now that the same principle is true in this type of counseling: the counselor’s personality dictates his counseling approach.

Une grande partie de la pensée sociale moderne – qui s’appuie sur des penseurs comme Machiavel et Hobbes – et de l’économie moderne repose sur l’idée que les êtres humains sont avant tout égoïstes. Les enfants, écrit Freud, « sont complètement égoïstes ; ils sentent leurs besoins intensément et s’efforcent sans pitié pour les satisfaire ». Pour une

and to understand them psychologically without “psychologizing” them.

“Each person must ask what his relationship is to the scapegoat,” wrote René Girard. “I am not aware of my own, and I am persuaded that the same holds true for my readers. We only have legitimate enmities. And yet the entire universe swarms with scapegoats.”

The center of our conscious life is called ego. It has two concurrent characteristics: It is functional in that it is the strong grounded activating principle by which we make intellectual assessments and judgments, show feelings appropriately, and relate skillfully to other people. It can also be neurotic when it becomes attached, addicted, dualis