Modern psychoanalysis thinks of the self as having multiple states or narratives. Patients walk into our offices and present us with their story, but as analysts we know there are many stories to one self, and many experiential states to that self. Furthermore, we know, that depending on the day, event, mood, and situation, we […]
Category: Psychoanalysis
ON THE NATURE OF OBSESSION – And The Occupation Of Our Minds.
Years ago, during a weeklong yoga & meditation retreat for weary city dwellers, my teacher, Rodney Yee, told us the following story in an effort to help us focus and clear our minds. Two Buddhist monks complete their initial training and are ready to travel through the country to practice what they have learned. […]
ON DEPRESSION – and the myth of the high functioning depressive.
“So you still don’t think I am a high functioning depressive?” my patient asks me this half smiling, she knows my answer, and more importantly, she knows first hand that there is no such thing as “high functioning” when one suffers from depression. Depression is an illness. A life threatening illness. It is not […]
IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF IT AIN’T GOT THAT SWING
– The Home Chemistry Set. Love at first glance, that irresistible urge to get to know someone, to find the “one”. That feeling that starts in our gut, makes us giddy, goes to our heads, and makes us do the darndest things. That thing we call magical: that chemistry that everyone talks about and agrees […]
JUST LIKE MOM…
Revisiting the mother-daughter conundrum. You wake up one morning and while washing your face you see…your mothers face. How can that be? You answer your daughter and find yourself repeating a familiar phrase. When and how did this happen? Many of us have spent a lifetime trying to not be like our mothers. Trying to be […]
WHAT’S THE USE OF TALKING ABOUT IT? The Talking Cure- and why it works.
Ever wonder why you have a running conversation with yourself? Why you talk to yourself on a more or less constant basis? Sometimes over trivial matters like what to fix for dinner , or what to wear, and sometimes over more serious subjects, like what to do about your job, or your partner, or […]