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Why do we repeat the same mistakes?  Why do we keep doing things when we don’t get a different outcome? We all develop patterns that have become ingrained.  How do we find a way out of them? The past exerts … Read more

In Carl Jung’s model of psychology, the human psyche is a self-regulating adaptive system. In his view, it is when we fail to adapt to changes and challenges that our lives become more complicated. If someone is avoiding adapting to … Read more

Endogenous depression is classified as a major depressive disorder, a mood disorder characterised by persistent and intense feelings of sadness that can last for extended periods of time. Psychology differentiates two types of depression: endogenous (causes from within the person) … Read more

Overcompensating describes the way in which we find ourselves needing to work to conceal or neutralise the impact of another person’s personality or decisions on us.  Instead of our processes being simple they become complicated.  One complication is that we … Read more

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.  In it, and in subsequent comments and his book Living Better (2020), we have learned that Campbell uses a … 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

How are men who grew up without fathers expected to know how to live well, and how to nurture themselves and their relationships? Near the end of Cormac McCarthy’s devastating novel, The Road (2006), the father and son duo who … 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