Malignant egocentricity is a term that aptly describes the psychology of many dictators, dictator wannabes, and sometimes even people like you and me. In order to understand this term, it is important to have some understanding of the structure and nature of the psyche. The ego is the center of the conscious personality. It is…
You say you praise the life of Jesus, yet o’er his grave your ego trods.Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. If man’s law says keep your distance that you might save a neighbor’s life,Are you sure you’re meant to disobey and multiply his strife. You say God is your…
The perspective that the law and religious precepts arise solely from and primarily serve the interests of those in power (e.g., the government or church) is very much in line with Sigmund Freud’s conception of the personality. To clarify, let’s examine his division of the personality into three structural parts: the ego, the superego, and…
Separatio is a term drawn from alchemy and used to describe the process by which one substance is separated from another. The alchemists sought to separate gold from less valuable metals such as lead. They did this by heating a composite of the two metals until one melted and separated from the other as a…
Coagulatio is an alchemical term used by Carl Jung to describe a stage in the cycle of psychological development. To help you understand the meaning of this word some explanation is in order. When particles that are dispersed in a solution coagulate they come together, creating a more visible, solid form. An example of coagulation…
Most of us have heard the old adage that “adversity builds character.” But some, offering a new twist to this conventional wisdom, now say, “adversity doesn’t build character, it reveals it.” Also a worthwhile perspective, in my opinion. However, it thrusts us into a bit of a conundrum, because it appears that the common response…
There is a belief shared by many psychics that we choose our parents before we are born. The thinking goes that we decide on the parents we do because of the lessons we will gain by being their children. For example, you might select abusive parents so that you can have empathy for other people…
The Law of Attraction (LOA), popularized in the movie, The Secret, is a metaphysical postulate that holds significant influence in the way many people think about life or, more specifically, the things that come their way in life. This is unfortunate, for what the LOA purports is an illusion built upon an egocentric view of…
Faith has a bad connotation nowadays. For many people, faith implies a blind allegiance to spiritual assertions that are deemed irrational, or adherence to a belief system that is unsupported by facts, if not contradicted by them. Often it is equated with wishful thinking, or, more accurately, wishful believing. Most negatively, some people consider it…
Patricia (not her real name) was a bright and industrious young woman who had worked her way up to a management position in a large retail store chain. Unfortunately, she was also experiencing a level of anxiety that was making her life increasingly miserable. As she talked about her duties the cause of her anxiety…
