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The idea of a complex rests on the refutation of monolithic ideas of personality.  When we think about complexes we are acknowledging that we have many selves.  In Carl Jung’s psychology, we all have complexes, autonomous entities within the psyche.  … Read More

I thought Alastair Campbell’s contribution to the current films on mental health (BBC2 Alastair Campbell: Depression and Me) was rather interesting.  The impression is of someone who has lived for most of his life battling with depression.  Where did the … Read More

An emotionally immature parent may fail to recognise their child for who they are.  So being with the parent always involves a sense of disappointment, of not being seen, of not being enough.  It can be draining to be with … Read More

We all have to find a way to grow up.  People who have Peter Pan syndrome haven’t worked out how to.  Something in the process of the development of their personality and psychology has stalled or hasn’t been triggered, and … Read More

Pornography use can have a corrosive effect on both the user and on other people in the user’s life. Pornography like any addiction, isolates users. It is the isolation that can be very destructive. When I was younger a friend … Read More

Near the end of Cormac McCarthy’s devastating novel, The Road (2006), the father and son duo who have traveled the post-apocalyptic landscape together, have to say goodbye to one another. The father is dying. The father tells the son ‘you … Read More

You know sometimes I get these crazy ideas about things that may not really be there. Howard Hughes, The Aviator (2004) Do you suffer from unwelcome and intrusive thoughts? Do you feel guilty, or that you may have done things … Read More

Donald Winnicott’s concept of the emerging self is that it is develops within a maternal dyad.  Winnicott describes the transition from absolute to relative dependence.  This work builds on Freud’s map of the child’s journey from the pleasure principle to … Read More

Low mood refers to an emotional state which is often characterised by feelings such as sadness, anxiety, low self-esteem, and loss of energy. If it is left it can become a more serious depressive problem. Equally, recognising that you are … Read More

Internalised oppression is the name given to the psychological condition in which an oppressed individual comes to view themselves with the same negative attitudes that their oppressors show to them.  Once the oppressive view has been internalised it can be … Read More