The brain is a social organ of adaptation, shaped by evolution to connect with and change through interactions with others. Psychotherapy leverages the ability of brains to attune and learn from one another in the service of adaptive change. This intimate interaction between human connection and learning has been forged over the eons in the… Read more »
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This imbalanced, man-card mind-set is part of our legacy because children ape the attitudes of the parent whose gender matches their own. In a Time magazine article about this study, Harriet Tenenbaum, a co-author, observes, “Most parents say they ask boys to be more expressive but don’t know [they] are speaking differently to them…. These… Read more »
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Freud may justly be called the most influential intellectual legislator of his age. His creation of psychoanalysis was at once a theory of the human psyche, a therapy for the relief of its ills, and an optic for the interpretation of culture and society. Despite repeated criticisms, attempted refutations, and qualifications of Freud’s work, its… Read more »
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No one is saying that the unconscious is a magic bullet. These are often complex conditions. Freud himself stressed that working with the unconscious is painstaking precisely because it is unconscious. Further, psychoanalysis has itself radically revised Freud’s original conclusions. But it now holds a century of wisdom on engaging this hidden and sometimes devastatingly… Read more »
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This is no different at the social level. When an economic system or government is responsible for personal harm, those affected can feel profoundly helpless, and cover that helplessness with self-criticism. Today, if you can’t become what the market wants, it can feel as if you are flawed and have no recourse except to be… Read more »
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These findings point to the value of a whole person approach in patients who have complex or persistent problems with depression. Longer-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy involves the shared commitment of patient and therapist to understanding emotionally painful parts of a depressed person’s life. This may activate a beneficial process of psychological growth with a lasting gain… Read more »
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Go into this therapy with an open mind, with a positive attitude. Decide at the very beginning that this is going to work because you want to participate in your healing. Psychoanalysis depends a lot on talking freely — a stream of consciousness. Wilhelm von Humboldt said in the 18th century, “Language is, as it… Read more »
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There is still an unjustified stigma around mental illnesses, but we’re not even talking about mental illness,” says Reidenberg. “We’re just talking about life and how hard life can be. The benefits of pscyhotherapy [can be viewed] more like stress-relievers like exercising and eating right — just strategies that help make life easier and help… Read more »
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A summer read suggestion: “This extraordinary book is about one ordinary process: talking, listening, and understanding. Its aphoristic and elegant stories teach us a new kind of attentiveness. They also unveil a delicate self-portrait of the analyst at work and show how lessons learned in the consulting room can reveal as much to the analyst… Read more »
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A conversation between therapists that identifies and answers important questions in relation to the virtue of psychotherapy.
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