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remembering september eleventh
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Your dictionary definition of:
 
neu·rot·ic   
adj.
  1. Of, relating to, or affected with a neurosis. No longer in scientific use. 
  2. informal; Overanxious: neurotic about punctuality.
n.
  1. A person suffering from a neurosis. No longer in scientific use. 
  2. informal;  A person prone to excessive anxiety and emotional upset.

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Psychoanalysis & Civilization [1962]
by Paul Rosenfels
To
RONALD B. ANDERSON

PREFACE

The development of a science of human nature is primarily a semantic problem. Man dwells in a self-made world of meanings, established through the use of words and an equally self-made world of values, brought into being by the creation of procedures and techniques.

Important psychological abstractions like love, mercy and honesty must be understood in depth, which means that they take on a permanent core of meaning which can be readily communicated. If these words change in meaning with changing circumstances they become mere words, phantoms from which life has departed and no matter how much intensity of feeling the user brings to the words in an attempt to endow them with life, they remain mere echoes of the insight they're supposed to embody.

When the fundamental abstractions on which human communication rests can't find a permanent identity, each man is burdened with the necessity of finding the meanings of human ideas in his own life. There's no established body of universal truth in human matters on which he can rely and the consequent insecurity for the seeker of human truth becomes very great.

Since everyone who thinks creatively must have a unified and permanent view of life many men are forced to accept that view of life which wards off discontent and anxiety, rather than maintaining that open search which only ends in the presence of the truth.

If abstractions which describe human nature are to be understood in depth they must be seen in relationship to the experiences which give them depth. Everything of importance in human nature has a paired quality, because it is part of the reciprocal relationship between the submissive and the dominant in the life process. Depth is intensified in the presence of vigor; vigor is enlivened in the presence of depth.

Love takes on its real meaning only in relationship to power; power finds its true value in relationship to love. In this book, love and power are considered together and all important concepts concerned in human nature are placed in similar pairs. Out of this viewpoint a greater unification of human nature as a subject matter becomes possible.

Men don't have to fear being abstract in viewing human nature; what they have to fear is the production of abstractions which have no relationship to the concrete world of the life of action.

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One

Civilization took its origin in the social ideas arising from the priest's view of life and the institutions which developed out of the soldier's way of life. There's nothing biologically inevitable about civilization.

Civilization is the end product of interaction between knowledge and ability, arising from depth and vigor in the human character. Man has learned through searching thought and long experience that he must live in a specialized way if his human capacities are to come to fruit.

Man's creative capacities aren't a simple consequence of his highly developed cerebral cortex. When he uses his great brain without an accompanying character specialization, his capacities for abstract thought and concrete action fall far below the civilized level.

Civilization rests on the specialization of men into thinkers and men of action, mutually interacting. In this world of specialized character, creative thought and creative action make a tremendous and sudden rise which bestows on man those unique psychological characteristics recognized as human.

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The creativity of the priest's life rests on his special capacity for sensitive awareness, not on any readiness for constructive action. The creativity of the soldier's life is a matter of special access to a tough self-confidence, not on any receptivity to conceptualization.

Priestly security rests on the acceptance of a fixed location in life; experience is limited to that location. It's a place that gives an unlimited view of the world. Soldierly freedom arises from a fixed mode of living; feeling is limited to his soldier's function. Within his domain he has an unlimited scope of activity.

Civilization takes its origin at that point where men begin to accumulate understanding and skill as ends in themselves. There's a characteristic way of living which makes it possible for knowledge and ability to accumulate. The priest's life is a prototype of the life of the thinker; the soldier's life establishes the pattern of a life of constructive action.

The form of society is established by the soldier's function and the elaborations built up in economics and politics. The organization or substance of interpersonal social relationships is established by the priest's function, embodied in social ideas and the elaborations to be found in education and the professions.

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The priest's function has developed through that of the philosopher into the scientist. The soldier's function has grown through that of the statesman into the industrialist and engineer. In the original function of the priest and soldier human matters were of primary concern; modern science and engineering have gained their greatest successes in non-human fields.

Expanding and unlimited feeling is the basis of all creative thinking; the pleasure inherent in it is the motive behind the submissive or feminine relationship to others. The sense of peace of mind, harmony and security thus derived orients the self, specializing it as a feeling organism with a high sense of self-awareness.

Extending action which accepts no boundaries is the basis of all creative action; the pleasurable quality of the mood which this attitude creates is the motive for the dominant or masculine relationship to others. The spontaneity, aliveness and freedom which arises from masculinity organizes the self, specializing it as an action organism, with a high willfulness and pride.

Love and power are specialized ways of establishing a relationship with the outside world. They're mutually exclusive; a man can't mingle submission through love and domination through power in the same character. The love feelings of the man of action lie outside his character; the power attitudes of the thinker don't influence his inner identity.

Love is the eternal feeling; power is the total attitude. There's much in the world which can't be loved, but the individual character isn't altered by this fact. A part of the view of life established by love is the hatred for that which can't be loved or ignored. There's much in the world that can't be possessed by power, but this fact doesn't alter the individual character. A part of the way of life established by power is the anger against that which can't be controlled or avoided.

Hatred creates the tension on which selective withdrawal from experience is based. Anger brings into being the energy by which selective lack of sympathetic feeling is maintained. Social progress in civilization hinges on the expansion of understanding and morality in interpersonal relationships, reducing the necessity of hate and anger.

When withdrawal includes too much of life the love of humanity becomes theoretical and when emotional indifference covers the bulk of human relationships power becomes a matter of empty posturing.

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Two

Family life is the training ground of the specialized character which civilization requires. The successful family has a clearcut psychological identity either of the love or power type. Each member of the family has an interest in nurturing & protecting the character of the others.

The family holds character in trust for ultimate utilization in the forming of creative social relationships. Deep character development of the love type which remains trapped in family feeling results in neurosis. Vigorous character development of the power type which can't free itself from family attitudes leads to delinquency.

The family circle lighted by love is filled with warmth that each member helps to create. Outside this circle there's no assured warmth; the individual must find warmth in an autonomous way thru the understanding that creative love brings.

The family enlivened by the multiplicity of interests which power brings is filled with pride that each member shares. Outside this center of activity there's no assured pride; the individual must find pride in an autonomous way thru the responsibility that creative power brings.

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Creative love is based on a high feeling capacity of the self; love is self-aware, which is the source of a pleasurable feeling of contentment. Creative power is based on a high action potential; power is willful, which brings a pleasurable happy mood.

Contentment is a reward for depth of character which serves society, avoiding selfishness. Happiness is a prize which comes to vigor in the character for the development of the resources of society, avoiding vanity.

The development of a deep capacity for the holding of tension requires the surrender of independent experience. Love submits to the nature of society in the area of action; the actions of love are confined to the service of its ideal.

Love serves truth & truth is knowledge of an external ideal which is beyond the reach of the individual's will. The development of a vigorous potential for the expending of energy requires the surrender of independent access to feeling.

Power dominates society in the area of feeling; the feelings of power are limited to the exploitation of that responsive reality which constitutes the domain of power. Power exploits the right & right is ability to control an external reality which is outside the consciousness of the individual.

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The development of a specialized personality is a necessary part of family living. Throughout his growing years the child takes on character from the family environment. It isn't easy for him to give up the kinds of self-expression & responsiveness which aren't consistent with his character.

The assumption of assertive or masculine qualities by a deeply & permanently sensitive child leads to anxiety; the taking over of yielding or feminine qualities by a resourceful & totally vigorous child brings uncontrollable restlessness.

The creativity which love serves is in the realm of thought. The creative world found by power is in the sphere of constructive action. Thinking might seem to be free, since the mind can manipulate images in any way that it chooses. The mind is free of arbitrary restrictions, but only dream-like thinking is really free, in the sense of being willful.

Thinking which finds truth is permanently molded by its subject matter. Only in the secure atmosphere of enduring submission can the manipulative component of thought employ a full measure of energy without a degeneration into willfulness.

Constructive action might appear to be based on the security inherent in established method. Only play-like activity actually conforms to a secure self-conscious view of reality. Action which reaches the right molds its materials completely.

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Only in the free atmosphere of total domination can the comprehending component of action attract a full measure of tension without a loss of integrity in the form of self-consciousness.

The actions of the thinker, no matter how much energy they use, must remain outside the core of the personality. The feelings of the man of action, no matter how much tension they accumulate, must stay outside the character.

Principles & laws embody the truth inherent in submission; when an individual goes beyond the known in his exploration of truth he goes outside of law but not outside of a submissive relationship with an ideal. He maintains a faith in law which successfully blocks the emergence of his will. When the absence of law unleashes willfulness the individual enters a no-man's land without security where aggression is bred.

Methods & authority embody the right inherent in domination. When an individual goes beyond his limit of control in his exploration of the right, he goes outside the scope of his authority but not outside a dominant relationship w/the resources of life.

He maintains an attitude of hopefulness which bars the emergence of self-consciousness. If the coming to the limit of his authority submerges him in self-awareness, he enters a sterile world without freedom where passivity takes command.

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Three

The development of specialized character in civilization deepens & envigorates the sexual tendencies. This extra quantity of sexuality has been sometimes a burden & sometimes a resource of increased individuality, but it's been a consistent problem & obstacle in the course of man's creative efforts, because of the shame & guilt which remain attached to sexuality in the civilized world.

Qualities which are feminine in nature become a part of the yielding character structure of man & provided that they find productive outlet are entirely compatible with social masculinity.

Qualities which are masculine in nature become a part of the assertive character structure & provided that they find attachment to enduring undertakings are no longer associated with merely animal masculinity, but come to stand for a uniquely human assumption of responsibility.

The natural tendency of the individual to develop the sexual nature to which he is born is set aside by the civilized process of character specialization. The fact that yielding & assertive individuals are quite different in their sexual feelings & attitudes is widely appreciated but little understood.

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Sexual nature is attached to character, not to biological specialization. This means that men & women of like character are similar in their sexual life. Such similarity is a powerful force in building family sympathy & cooperation. Without such harmony & unity, family life as it exists in the civilized world would be impossible.

Feminine sexuality in its basic biological form is tension bearing; masculine sexuality is tension discharging & the source of masculine energy accumulation lies outside the sexual sphere. The sexual act is the consequence of the fusion of female sexual feeling & male sexual interest.

The female serves the male, abandoning orgastic sexuality; the male exploits the female, giving up autonomy in the experiencing of needs.

The simple animal psychological sexual mechanisms haven't survived the civilized relationships of male & female. Sexuality is no longer born in the courtship of the biologically maturing male & female individuals. Sexual feelings & sexual attitudes are a consistent accompaniment of character development within the family, laying the basis for masturbatory & promiscuous sexual phenomena.

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These surplus sexual tendencies can be captured by family life & made the basis of a fixed sexual relationship between male & female in the interests of family closeness & family unity. Neither partner in the sex act is dependent on the other for the emergence of his sexual nature, however. Man must choose sexual loyalty & sexual responsibility, a psychological accomplishment which no other animal is called on to make.

Warmth & sensitivity have an independent existence in the character bred by the yielding family, as do pride & vigor in the assertive family. In the lower animals feminine sensitivity & masculine vigor lead to the sexual union; w/the initiation of reproduction, sexuality is interrupted & the tension capacity & energy reserve are made available to the nurturing & protecting relationship between parents & offspring.

In the civilized human world, the young arrive in a family life already established by the social ideas & institutions of society. The reservoir of tension & energy held in the character of individuals is already being employed for creative social purposes.

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The children become an additional outlet for the expression of the nature of the parents. If the children are to be properly reared, it's absolutely essential for the parents to be of like character. Civilized sexuality, therefore, has become unmated in its nature; the mated relationship is reflected in the love feelings & power attitudes which make up the psychological substance of extra-familial social relationships.

Family life must leave the civilized individual incomplete. He reaches outside it for his ideal & for the reality necessary for self-realization. Tension capacity which remains blocked within the family leads to self indulgent degeneration of feeling; energy potential which can't reach outside the family results in a pretentious vanity.

Shallowness in the self-awareness leads to inferiority feelings in the yielding personality; impoverishment of willfulness leads to a mood of guilt in the assertive personality. The mutual self-indulgence in the family life built on love is an anodyne to chronic shame. The mutually supported vanity in family life organized by power hides chronic guilt. Shame rests on an inner conviction of uselessness to society; guilt, on the acceptance of an existence w/out social resources.

If the individual who is driven by inferiority feelings devotes himself to the service of the family interests, putting the family in the place of a social ideal, he is in an intimidated position within the family & has an aggressive relationship w/society.

He may withdraw behind the family protection, developing a neurotic social orientation. The guilt ridden individual may exploit family feeling, using the family in place of a responsive social environment; he functions in a seduced way within the family & has a passive relationship to society.

He may become indifferent to social attachments, developing a delinquent social organization. Behind the neurosis lies disappointed love; behind delinquency, power which never reached recognition. The withdrawn social orientation of neurosis is colored by fear; the indifferent social organization of delinquency takes form on a background of rage.

A deep personality maintains a creative relationship to society thru love; it's only thru the love feelings that analytic thinking is possible. A vigorous personality finds a creative relationship to society thru power; it's only thru power attitudes that constructive action is possible. The love personality served the world thru producing truth; the power personality exploits the world in finding right. Love seeks a masculine ideal; power reaches toward a feminine reality.

The love tendencies are inevitably attracted by that which is psychologically masculine, which usually confuses the masculine image the thinker has of himself. This creates a problem of secret homosexual feeling in yielding individuals. Embarrassment over this emotional tendency is the outstanding cause of the psychological dishonesty which has slowed the development of the science of human nature.

The power tendencies are inevitably attracted by that which is psychologically feminine; the man of action is often unable to exploit the full scope of opportunity which his nature requires. When he experiences the richness of a responsive yielding social world, he develops a celebrative attitude; this celebrative mood often becomes dissociated from the goals of constructive living, leading to wasteful dissipation of his highly energized masculine identity.

The waste of the celebrative attitude underlies the psychological weakness that plagues masculine psychology in the civilized world & accounts for the incompleteness of the development of human modes of cooperation & mutual help.

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Four

The thinker dwells in a world without limit in time. Yesterday, today & tomorrow become the same thing thru the continuity established by meaning; truth is eternal. New truth comes out of the growth of the individual, taking form thru manipulative rearrangement of concepts on a background of the service of truth. The tension holding capacity on which permanence rests is felt in the form of love when it's fulfilled & in the form of faith when it is in the background during active growth.

The man of action lives in a world without limit in space. All distances become equal thru the unity arising from value; the right is complete. New right comes out of the growth of the individual, organizing the self for action by following wherever experimentation with method leads, on a background of exploitation of the right. The energy utilizing potential on which completeness rests is experienced as power in the state of fulfillment & as hope when it's in the background during active growth.

Patient thinking alone can penetrate the unknown, bringing new truth into being; enduring action alone can conquer the chaotic, bringing new right into existence. The thinker must be located in life so that he dwells amidst the familiar; security requires the absence of novelty in spatial experience. Security welcomes problems & abhors obstacles. The familiar has the quality of a retreat. This retreat does not imply an ignoring of the ideal; it's thru feeling & thinking within the security of the retreat that a full scale relationship with the ideal is made.

The man of action is organized so that he's aroused by the interesting; freedom requires the absence of novelty in the permanent quality of things. Freedom welcomes obstacles & is intolerant of problems. The interesting has the quality of an enlistment. This enlistment, which is the wholehearted participation in the ebb & flow of experience, doesn't imply a neglect of a domain; it is thru the experience & action arising from the freedom of the enlistment that a full scale relationship with a responsive reality is established.

In family life, the permanence of character is nurtured & the unity of character is protected. In extrafamilial social relationships the character is utilized as a means of solving problems & overcoming obstacles. The family must maintain its permanence & unity above all other considerations, in order that its task may be well performed.

Family life intensifies & enlivens the identity of the individuals within it. In the successful family, the influence of the mother looms large, the father being more concerned with the social feelings & attitudes of the offspring.

Women are sponsors & protectors of the family because their child bearing function concentrates their feelings & activities in the family; it isn't a product of psychological femininity. Men take over the primary preoccupation with the needs & purposes which derive from a creative relationship with society.

There's a consistent tendency to separate family life & social life, as if their interests & purposes were divergent. Insofar as women seek to build up tension & energy within the family which has no outlet in the world, they're the breeders of neurosis & delinquency. Insofar as men tend to outrun their capacity for security & freedom, they lay the basis for psychotic & criminal disturbances of human adjustment.

Aggression & passivity are the consequence of the utilization of familial feelings & attitudes in establishing social relationships; the world becomes an extension of the family environment. Aggression is an emergency use of power in the service of a false ideal; it exists in personalities oriented by love who can't make a creative relationship to an ideal.

When the aggressive person feels submissive toward a masculine ideal he is subject to disorienting anxiety. The protecting of family security becomes his ideal; he adheres to self-indulgent family goals.

His relationships with society are established in terms of service to family ends; he seeks to influence the feelings of others, so that they'll cooperate with his purposes. Failure of that cooperation in others has the weight of rebellion against family authority & is overcome by the most direct route available, on an emergency basis.

Passivity is an emergency need to accept love out of extravagant expectations; it exists in personalities organized by power who can't make a creative relationship to reality. When the passive person experiences domination of a feminine reality he's subject to disorganizing restlessness. The nurturing of family freedom becomes his reality; he accepts those egotistical gratifications which the family sponsors. His relationships to society are extensions of familial conformity; the gregarious experiences which he shares socially are based on the need to gain sympathy thru cooperation. Failure of that social sympathy has the weight of heresy against family law & is dealt with by a massive withdrawal on an emergency basis.

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  Five

The actions which proceed from love are in the service of an ideal & remain subjective in origin. The feelings developed by power are part of the exploitation of reality & remain objective in origin. Love is never willful; power is never self-conscious. Love isn't stationary; it grows in depth. Power isn't limited; it grows in scope. When deepening feeling can't find a totality in its subject, the individual is in the presence of the unknown. When extending action can't find permanence in its object, the individual is dealing with the chaotic.

In order that the area of love & understanding may grow, faith is necessary. Faith holds the character of the individual in a fixed position when comprehension isn't sufficient to release the individual to a full scale relationship with the ideal. Faith bridges the gap when understanding fails; when understanding has grown to the necessary point, faith disappears, its work done & insight is born. The channels of awareness are again cleared & the state of isolation from the ideal ends.

This process keeps repeating itself as new truth comes into existence. if thinking is undertaken as an end in itself, without devotion to an ideal, as a self-indulgent rumination in the area of the familiar, there's no end for faith because insight can't arrive.

In order that the scope of power & responsibility may grow, hope is necessary. Hope maintains the intent of the character when ability is not sufficient to obtain a complete relationship with reality. Hope bridges the gap when responsibility falls short. When ability has grown to the necessary point, hope disappears & mastery takes command.

The channels of self-confidence are cleared & the state of dissociation from reality ends. This process occurs over & over as new right is established. if action is undertaken for its own sake, without responsibility toward the materials which are exploited, using momentary interests for vain purposes, there's no need for hope because mastery will never come.

Aggression exploits society by establishing the social ideas which lead to conformity to its will; its authority is autocratic & doesn't develop the resources of the materials it uses. Passivity serves society by supporting the social institutions which encourage its self-awareness; its law is arbitrary & isn't responsive to the nature of its subject matter.

Aggression is social recklessness; passivity is social helplessness. Throughout the history of civilization the masculine ideal has been more or less entangled with the corrupting image of aggression & feminine reality has been more or less mixed with the enslaving ways of passivity.

Since aggression arises in response to the failures of love, it comes armed with assets of sympathy & knowledge which are put to use in the service of the emergency goals of aggression. Since passivity arises as a consequence of the failures of power, it has available the assets of helpfulness & skill which are used to protect the emergency needs of passivity.

When the family life oriented by love is self-indulgent, multiplying familial gratifications as the means to security & contentment, there can be no point at which security becomes permanent. Activity develops meaning because it protects familial gratifications. When the supply of satisfactions runs out, a sense of emptiness & abandonment enters the personality.

This is an emergency which justifies demands on the other family members, or anyone of similar familial feeling. The aggressive individual seeks to encircle others in the sympathetic familial bond; such relationships constitute his entire social life. Thru intimidation he arouses others to activity in his interests or paralyzes opposition to his will.

He lives on the edge of crisis; if his willfulness fails, his artificial security evaporates, leaving a painful emotional emptiness behind. He continues to see society as an extension of his own family, but a family which refuses to indulge him. He can no longer feel love, because his own kind have turned against him. He suffers a loss of the sense of well-being with hypochondriacal symptoms; if he attempts to cure himself by establishing mature social relationships he must run the risk of a paranoid breakdown.

When the family life organized by power is egotistical, multiplying family accomplishments as the means to freedom & happiness, there can be no point at which freedom becomes complete. Feeling develops value because it nurtures family accomplishments. When the supply of accomplishments is depleted, a mood of depression & impoverishment takes over the personality. This is an emergency which calls for automatic sympathy in other family members, or anyone of similar familial attitude.

The passive individual seeks to arouse others to a cooperative familial helpfulness; such relationships constitute his entire social life. Thru the mechanism of seduction he creates a harmony of feeling with his needs, or establishes a hegemony of feeling which banishes anything alien to his consciousness. He lives on the edge of crisis; if his self-awareness fails, his unreal freedom disappears, leaving a depression of mood with great potential suffering.

He continues to deal with society as an extension of his own family, but a family which falls to cooperate in the promotion of his egotistical purposes. His power attitude fails because his own kind have deserted him. He develops an antisocial attitude with a sense of impoverishment; if he attempts to establish a mature social domain he exposes himself to the risk of criminal behavior.

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Six

The mutual nurture of feeling in the yielding family & the mutual protection of activity in the assertive family create an atmosphere favorable to sexual feelings & celebrative attitudes. Sexual feeling is an aspect of self-awarenesscelebrative attitudes are an aspect of self-confidence.

Family life stimulates sexuality in its indulgent & egotistical aspects; the fundamental mated reaction on which sexuality rests doesn't take its origin in family life. It's a rich responsiveness to an ideal & a spontaneous expressiveness toward a domain, which brings sex & celebration into being. Once established, they're utilized by family life for its own psychological needs & purposes.

The surplus sexual feeling of the yielding personality is autistic in quality; it's established thru mental pictures & has the quality of phantasy. If the personality rejects such feelings because they don't fit in with the individual's view of himself, the depth of the sexuality itself may be permanently damaged.

The celebrative attitudes of the assertive personality are euphoric in quality; they're expressed thru habitual motility & have the quality of play acting. If the personality rejects such attitudes because they don't harmonize w/the established way of life, the vigor of the celebrative capacities may be compromised, undermining the character structure.

In the neuroses, the individual is accessible to limitless feeling, including sexual feeling, without an attachment to an ideal subject matter. The neurotic rejects the aggressive familial pseudo-ideal without finding the ideal he seeks. Neurotic symptoms arise from the overtaxing of faith.

As each effort to serve an ideal comes to an end in stifling anxiety, the individual returns to the nurturing sympathy of the family circle, a victim of disappointed love; he returns unwillingly, occupying a rebel's position. The pressure of unattached feelings creates the neurotic symptoms.

In the delinquent behavioral deviations, the individual possesses unrestricted expressive attitudes, including the celebrative attitudes, without finding a reality which is his own. The delinquent attempts to avoid the passive familial pseudoreality without finding the reality he needs.

Delinquent antisocial traits arise when hope is overwhelmed. As each new attachment to a real world ends in the same intolerable restlessness, the individual returns to the protecting cooperation of family life, a victim of frustrated power; he returns w/inner reservations, viewing the family world with heretical eyes. The pressure of unchanneled attitudes creates the delinquent behavioral disorders.

The rebellion of the neurotic consists in a refusal to conform to conventional family behavior; the heresy of the delinquent is against the family principles established by custom. Because the neurotic is filled with hatred, he looks out on the world from a withdrawn place. His dream-like relationship to others is compatible with security in the nurturing family atmosphere, but in relationship to the social world he's vulnerable to overwhelming disorientation & anxiety.

The neurosis may find a cure in cynicism, in which the hatred is communicated to others similarly afflicted. Because the delinquent is consistently angry, he deals with the world in an indifferent manner. His casual relationship with others is compatible with freedom in the protecting family atmosphere, but in relationship to society he's vulnerable to uncontrollable disorganization & restlessness. The delinquent may find a social adaptation thru opportunism, in which the anger leads to a self-expressive outlet in fortunate circumstances.

The failure to establish a relationship with an ideal robs the neurotic of his pathway to experience, depriving the personality of energy. The failure of the delinquent to find a real world of his own eliminates the sources of stable feeling & empties the personality of tension.

The neurotic becomes vulnerable to easy fatigability; the delinquent is a ready victim of boredom. Neurotic symptoms are molded by the attempt to return to experience; delinquent behavioral difficulties are given variety by the attempt to find feeling.

When the recognition of the difference between the family & the social world disappears, the psychological conditions for the development of psychosis exist. The individual enters the world of concrete experience as if it were a nurturing source of security. If he finds social dependence thru the sharing of feelings with others, he becomes aggressive.

If he finds himself alone he'll lack the means of establishing communication, since he's unable to enter a growth process without disabling anxiety. Under these conditions his thinking undergoes paranoid degeneration.

If the paranoid ideas find sufficient response among others, he may stabilize at this level. When deterioration proceeds, the energy for conceptual thinking is lost & thoughts become mere impressions without logical connections.

When the family & the social world are dealt with as if they were the same, the psychological conditions for major behavioral & mood disturbances exist. The individual accepts whatever beliefs are current in the situation of the moment as if they were a protecting instrument of freedom.

If his vanity is gratified in a socially dependent way, he becomes passive. If he finds himself dissociated from any permanent attachments he'll lack the means of establishing a world of his own, since he's unable to enter a growth process without disabling restlessness.

Under these conditions his activity undergoes criminal changes. If the criminal mechanism finds sufficient success he may stabilize at this level. When the behavioral integrity deteriorates further, the tension holding capacity on which integrated action takes form disappears & actions become mere impulses without organized sequences.

The stabilized neurotic becomes a critic; he gives expression to his idealism thru exposing the defects in the false ideal to which he remains attached but can't serve. His vision is sharp in the atmosphere of his personal rebellion.

The stabilized delinquent becomes a dissenter, or maverick; he manifests his sense of reality thru condescension & contempt for the reality with which he's involved but can't make his own. He acts with a sure touch in the unencumbered world of his personal heresy.

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Seven

Yielding psychological growth requires a stabilizing of the limitless feeling of self-awareness so that ideas may be manipulated for the purpose of solving problems. The acceptance of a problem fragments the totality of the subject matter, leaving the individual with impressions which can be manipulated.

As changing ideas come to reflect the totality of the subject matter the individual has reached a new & greater conformity. With the coming of insight, the fullness of the self-awareness is reborn & the totality of the subject matter reemerges, fusing self & subject matter.

Assertive psychological growth requires a stabilizing of the limitless attitude of self-confidence so that methods may be tried out for the purpose of overcoming obstacles. The dealing with an obstacle compromises the permanence of the relationship to the materials, leaving the individual with impulses which can lead to acceptance of experimental modes of trial & error.

As changing methods find the permanent nature of the materials the individual has reached a new & greater dominance. With the coming of mastery, the fullness of self-confidence is reborn & the permanence of the nature of the object reemerges, fusing self & object.

Social ideas are commonly held beliefs by which civilized persons share insights into human truth; social institutions are established modes of action by which civilized individuals reach mastery in the area of their social relationships, in reality to the right.

Social ideas & institutions develop thru the creative efforts of individuals, being the depository of the new human knowledge & ability which individuals have brought into being. The security & freedom on which individual creativity depends aren't guaranteed by society.

These psychological states are the product of a surplus in tension holding & energy employment which the individual finds in his own relationship to society. If creative productivity becomes less, social progress slows down. Society has no means for maintaining any particular rate of progress; only the individual need for self-fulfillment perpetuates the creative process.

It's only in his contributions to social progress that man gains that inner identity which he recognizes as his soul. In the civilized view of life, society is an ideal; in the civilized way of life, society is a material reality. The important truths are always on the move, requiring a lifetime of faith. The significant right is constantly reaching, requiring a lifetime of hope.

In order that faith may not be lost in exhaustion or hope disappear in empty boredom, men must have a personal contentment & happiness in their relationship to the social ideal & the social reality.

It's an outstanding characteristic of civilization that those pleasurable social relationships which are a necessity to mental health & social wellbeing must be found by each person on his own. How much he deviates from others depends entirely on how far he wishes to go.

Deep understanding leads into great needs; vigorous responsibility is tied to great purposes. But whether his creativity is large or small, the way a man employs his surplus tension & energy in his social life is a matter of his own choosing. Once committed to a view of life or way of life, a man will maintain it without counting the cost; before men will abandon their self-awareness or their self-confidence, they will give up life itself.

The only psychologically successful pathway to individuality lies thru creative social relationships. In following this route the individual must find his own conceptions of truth & his own procedures in establishing right. To view life thru the eyes of love, becoming a genuinely responsive person, requires the discarding of many falsehoods & these falsehoods may be part of the established beliefs thru which others maintain their psychological security.

To take hold of life with the hands of power, becoming a wholeheartedly expressive person, requires that many wrongs be avoided & these wrong modes of action may be part of institutionalized ways to which others adhere as part of their freedom.

The existence of civilization depends on the creativity of the individual, but society can't guarantee even the survival of the creative individual, let alone his security or freedom. The reason for this lies in the fact that the end results of the creative process belong to society & enrich it, but the individual growth process is entirely personal & gives society nothing. Only the family supports the individual whether productive or not & the family inherently resists change.

If the yielding individual with a heightened self-awareness can't make a relationship with an ideal because of interference from an aggressive familial orientation, he becomes rebellious within the family & develops a neurotic accumulation of tension within himself, stored for a social expenditure which never arrives. The neurotic burns in the fires of his own intensified self-awareness.

If he succeeds in sealing off his familial emotional attachments thru hate, he may take on an outward appearance of independence; as soon as he makes an effort toward social relationships he enters the area of the phobic reaction. When he leaves the neighborhood of the familiar, he's subject to increasing self-consciousness without orientation; the inner excitement is perceived in a hypochondriacal fashion, as evidence of ill-health.

Such reactions readily lead to panic & a withdrawal to the orienting protection of the familiar in the environment. The phobic individual goes forth into the world with a false courage, bred of rebellion; he next must cross the bridge that chokes him with fear & this he can't do. If by superhuman effort he does cross it, he'll only meet another, more frightening than before.

If the assertive individual with a heightened self-confidence can't establish a relationship with a responsive reality because of involvement with a passive familial organization of his energies, he becomes a heretic within the family & develops a delinquent mobilization of energy within himself, ready for a social expenditure which never arrives.

The delinquent runs on a treadmill built of his own boundless self-confidence. If he succeeds in neutralizing family involvement thru anger, he may be completely convinced of his independence; as soon as he enters social relationships, he shows psychopathic behavioral deviations.

When he moves away from the usual familial interests, he accumulates an increasing self-confidence which is without organization; the inner eagerness is experienced separately from circumstances, with antisocial implications.

Such reactions readily lead to wild bursts of activity in the fugue pattern & the protective development of indifference, turning back to those familial interests which organize the self. The psychopathic individual reaches out into the world with a makeshift honesty, born of heresy; he meets a poverty that sets him trembling with rage. Each act of submission which self-discipline attains brings a renewed flood of rage, greater than before.

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The development of an aggressive relationship to society ends the creativity of the personality oriented by love. The active tendencies of the self break loose from their subservience to an ideal & go forth into the world to protect the security of the aggressor. This compulsive dominating activity doesn't develop the resources inherent in society; it takes advantage of any situation where effective opposition is not offered.

Aggression is essentially irresponsible & immoral as far as society is concerned, but since it protects self-interest without provoking the effective opposition of society it becomes invested with ideal qualities by the yielding personality. By accepting aggression, the painful disorientation of the phobic state can be avoided.

The development of a passive relationship to society ends the creativity of the personality organized by power. The feeling tendencies of the self are victimized by circumstance, instead of being attached to the established domain of the individual.

Obsessive submissiveness doesn't serve a social ideal; it gives itself over to any situation where a temporary advantage can be gained. Passivity takes its being in ignorance & corruption in social relationships, but since it provides a privileged position without loss of social cohesion it confers advantages on the assertive individual. By accepting passivity, the suffering inherent in psychopathic disorganization can be avoided.

Aggression serves a false masculine ideal which the yielding family can provide out of its own psychological resources. Passivity exploits an artificial feminine reality which the assertive family can find without going outside itself.

Love finds fruition in insight; aggression embodies the willfulness of an individual who has lost faith in understanding. Power finds its destiny in the coming of mastery; passivity embodies the self-consciousness of a person who has lost the hope of establishing responsibility.

The willfulness in aggression can't tolerate obstacles; the hands of aggression hold weapons, not tools. The self-awareness in passivity can't accept problems; the eyes of passivity see only what's onvenient. Without an immediate outlet, the energy of aggression leads to anger; aggression has no reservoir of energy of its own. Without direct gratifications, the tensions of passivity turn to hate; passivity has no reservoir of tension of its own.

Aggression is responsible for the great weight of dishonesty in the civilized world, which cynics believe to be an inevitable part of human nature. Because mankind has never established a view of life based on love which the bulk of human beings can use in daily living, this cynicism carries a certain credibility.

Social progress rests, however, on the confinement of dishonesty & the selfishness it serves, thru the spread of creative love on a wider & wider scale. Without the basis of comprehension of human affairs which love alone can give, men wander in a maze of the unknown where human psychological matters are concerned, no matter how sophisticated they may become in the understanding of the impersonal world.

Passivity is responsible for the great weight of cowardice in the civilized world, which the opportunist accepts without question. Because mankind has never established a way of life based on power which the average man can use in daily living, this opportunism carries a quality of inevitability.

Social progress requires the isolation of cowardice & the vanity it utilizes, thru the exercise of creative power on an expanding scale. Without the basis of responsibility which power alone can give, men are the victims of the chaotic in human psychological matters, no matter how capable they may become in control of the impersonal world.

Aggression measures its success in material values without concern over method, except that it avoids conflict with the authority of the state thru obedience to the letter of the law. Passivity attains success thru guaranteeing basic gratifications without involving the individual in attachment to principles, except that spiritual law is accepted thru cooperation with religious authority.

The aggressive individual gives up contentment in favor of an enervated happiness; whatever his success, it's never enough to win the vigorous happiness which his personality can't sustain. The passive personality abandons happiness in favor of a shallow contentment; no matter how rich his store of gratifications appears to be, he never finds the contentment in depth that's beyond his personality.

The attempt to attain happiness leads the aggressive individual into compulsive activity, exhausting him both psychologically & physically. The search for contentment of the passive personality leads into obsessive feeling, which ends in a boredom which has both psychological & physical consequences.

Withdrawal from a full scale relationship with society is often the price of eliminating aggression from the personality. The monastic life sets up the conditions of this withdrawal, providing the individual with social experience under the rigid control of authority. The monastic atmosphere which higher education provides serves to promote scientific development.

The monastic life is ill-suited to the development of a scientific psychology, because the involvement with other human beings on which a comprehension of human nature rests results in rebellion against monastic authority.

Indifference to a permanent relationship with society is often the means of eliminating passivity from the personality. The life of the barracks sets up the conditions for this in difference, providing the individual with social feeling automatically set in motion by fixed social ideas.

Work patterns which take the individual out of the ordinary relationships of daily living, such as exists in life at sea, in construction projects in undeveloped areas & in explorations of remote places develop a barracks type of life which has proven effective in maintaining the morale on which engineering & industrial development rests.

The barracks life is ill-suited to the development of human psychological engineering, because the attitude of responsibility on which a control of human nature rests results in heresy against barracks law.

When the creative yielding individual doesn't find his orientation thru a monastic-type institution, he must find his security in his relationship with society as a whole. To make his social relationship in this independent fashion requires a deep attachment to human truth.

Only then can he have that faith in the unity & completeness of human nature which provides him with the motive to serve morality in social life. When he's independent, he's beyond the reach of authoritarian intimidation; there's no one to make him act & only his feelings can lead to experience.

In the development of such an independent social adjustment he must deal with many irresponsible forces which tend to capture his submissive tendency. In the presence of such forces he withdraws if he can; if withdrawal is impossible, hatred preserves the integrity of the personality.

When the creative assertive individual doesn't gain his personality organization thru the social beliefs associated with barracks living, he must arrive at freedom thru a permanent relationship to society. To make his social relationship in this independent fashion requires a vigorous grasp of right in human affairs.

Only then can he maintain that hope which is based on the permanent & enduring in human nature & which arouses him to the exploitation of the goodness in society. When he's independent, he's outside the circle of seduction of dogmatic law; there are no automatic channels of feeling & only experience can bring attachment.

In the development of such an independent social adjustment he must be exposed to many betrayals which tend to involve his dominant tendencies. In the presence of false opportunity he maintains indifference if he can; if indifference is impossible, anger preserves the integrity of the personality.

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Psychological growth is based on the unlimited expansion of human feelings & attitudes; today's truths & today's right aren't enough for tomorrow.

In order to find contentment & happiness, men must use their natures in relationship to the problems & obstacles of society itself. Only then is the scope of self-expression big enough for all the depth of tension & vigor of energy which men's specialized characters bring into being.

The tendency to become disoriented & disorganized in these complex social relationships is very great. Men call for human truth when they need it, but if it's not there, the demand on personal wisdom may be too great; if it is, the individual must either abandon his creative potential or lose the security on which his mental health depends.

Men reach for the right as they need it, but if the necessary tools are not at hand, the demand on personal strength may be overwhelming; if it is, the individual must cease creative activity or lose the freedom on which his social adaptation rests.

The historical defect in human psychological understanding has been spanned by the vision of religion; the historical inadequacy of human responsibility has been remedied by the heroic in military life. Without religion, society would have lost its capacity for faith; without military life, men would have failed to give embodiment to hope & its accompanying social morality.

The worship of God stabilizes the yielding depth of the personality, bringing a peace of mind & contentment that's in no way dependent on social experience. The military spirit stabilizes the assertive vigor of the personality, bringing an aliveness & happiness that isn't attached to social ideas.

The influence of religion contracts as knowledge of human nature expands; the scope of military influence diminishes as man's ability to control human nature increases.

Christianity rests on a personal faith for which the individual alone is responsible. Without this individual faith, religion becomes an extension of family influence, stabilizing the individual thru withdrawal from the problems of society. The church's function as a refuge may be very useful to the individual who is overwhelmed, but unless this function is confined to transient need it will stifle the creativity of love.

Democracy rests on hope, shared in brotherhood, which the individual must find out of his own resources. Without this gregarious hopefulness, democratic institutions become the sounding board of personal egotism, reaching stability thru indifference to social obstacles. Thru patriotic fervor, the state may protect the pride of individuals who can't find a personal self-realization, but such a function undoes the creativity of power.

The multiplicity of needs which exists in the love type of family is brought into being by the sensitivity which the members share. There is always room to add another need provided that awareness of the outside world isn't lost in the process.

The satisfactions which give meaning to family cohesion make the holding of tension more enjoyable; if the members lose their tension in the pursuit of gratifications they have become selfish. Such needs & gratifications must be subsidiary to the creative goals of the personality. When sensitivity enters the area of sexuality it brings major problems to the yielding personality.

The multiplicity of purposes which exists in the power type of family is a product of the vigor which the members share. They experience a variety of interests which they enjoy planning & accomplishing provided that responsibility toward the outside world isn't lost thereby.

The accomplishments which give value to family cooperation make the accumulation of energy more enjoyable; if the members lose their energy reserve in the attainment of accomplishments they have become egotistical. Such purposes & accomplishments must be subsidiary to the creative goals of the personality. When vigor enters the area of celebration it brings major obstacles to the assertive personality.

The sexuality of the yielding personality requires depth which must be found in submission to an ideal. If the male or female in a yielding family seek to usurp the position of the sexual ideal, the sex act suffers from a compulsive quality. There is a healthy tendency in each to find an ideal in phantasy outside the family which feeds the sexual tension in the personality.

The celebrative attitudes of the assertive personality require vigor which must be found in the domination of a responsive reality. If the male or female in an assertive family seek to usurp the function of the sexual reality, the celebrative state suffers from an obsessive quality. There's a socially harmonious tendency in each to find a reality outside the family, indulgent to play-acting, which encourages the celebrative energy in the personality.

The depth of feeling in the yielding character is permanently maintained, giving way only to emergencies; tension gives life its meaning & its discharge destroys the inner self-awareness. The orgastic sexuality of the yielding individual must discharge a purely physical sexual tension, leaving the character tension intact.

The vigor of attitude in the assertive character is maintained in a unified way, accepting compromise only in emergencies; energy gives life its value & its dissipation destroys the inner self-confidence. The sex act in the assertive individual uses a circumscribed physical energy; it must not consume the energy of the character.

Each man finds his own view of life & way of life in the civilized world. Adolescence is a time of universal psychological growth when the enthusiasms of love & the inspirations of power take over the spirit of the individual & guide his self-fulfillment with a minimum of interference from practical understanding & responsibility.

The individual explores his own nature & experiments with his own resources, attempting to find the core of his individuality. Maturity some times is regarded as a state in which the extravagant sensitivities & unbridled motility of adolescence is given up in favor of the customary & the conventional. Society doesn't impose the customary or the conventional on any individual, however, in those areas in which the creative takes its being.

If the individual expects support from society in establishing his own life pattern he'll be disappointed. Only truth can help a man who needs more understanding; only right can guide a man who requires a greater scope of responsibility.

When a thinker stands on his own feet in his social adjustment he'll need psychological knowledge to comprehend what's happening to him; if this knowledge is inadequate it's because the science of human nature hasn't developed to the point where it can give a man a sufficient grasp of human truth to see his problems as a whole. Man's ignorance is greatest in the area where his need for knowledge is the greatest.

When a man of action stands on his own feet in his social adjustment he'll need human skill to handle what's happening to him; if this skill is inadequate it's because the capacity for the control of human behavior hasn't developed to the point where a man can adhere to an enduring right on a permanent basis, fully prepared to accept any human obstacle. Man's clumsiness is greatest in the area where his need for skill is the greatest.

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A masculine character is completely organized by free energy, expressed whenever opportunity presents itself.

A feminine character is permanently oriented by secure tension which is felt whenever experience makes itself manifest.

When the masculine character is temporarily without opportunity, the vigor in the self persists, carried in the form of hope.

When the feminine character is incompletely influenced by experience, the depth of the self persists, maintained by faith.

Masculinity fills all the space it occupies & is therefore unified, complete & ideal. Masculinity can't find permanence out of itself & therefore needs to be loved in order to fulfill itself.

Femininity extends in time without limit & is therefore permanent & real. Femininity can't find unity out of itself & therefore needs to be possessed in order to fulfill itself.

The masculine expressiveness begins & ends according to opportunity, but it has no cause & no effect, being complete.

The feminine responsiveness is caused by experience & records an effect, but it has no beginning & no end, being permanent.

Femininity is caused by the actions of forces on it & has results in the interaction with those forces.

Masculinity has a beginning in the opening of opportunity & an end in the maturation of dominance.

Cause & effect is an abstraction based on insight into the full nature of a thing. Beginning & end is a concrete experience, based on mastery of the lasting quality of a situation.

The awareness of space is an abstraction which can be put into words. The utilization of time is concrete & can be experienced in modes of behavior.

Femininity puts the unity that exists in masculinity into words, including any impression & any fact; it doesn't find unity thru the exclusion of anything. When unity has everything of which the unfettered mind has become aware it's insight.

In the state of insight the self is fulfilled in the complete awareness of the subject matter.

The manipulation of concepts which is an essential part of creative thinking takes great energy, but this energy is all bound in subservience to the emerging unity of the subject.

When truth is reached this energy dies & the consequent self-fulfillment is perceived as a satisfaction, not as an accomplishment. No matter how much energy the feminine personality uses, the character never becomes organized by it.

Masculinity takes advantage of the permanence that exists in femininity, giving expression to any impulse or mode of action; it doesn't find permanence by making exceptions.

When permanence has organized everything which the untrammeled activity of the self has expressed, a state of mastery exists in the individual. In mastery, the self is fulfilled by a permanent command of the situation.

The attachment to methods, which is an essential part of creative productivity, calls for a high tension bearing capacity, but this tension is all subsidiary to domination of the emerging permanence of the situation.

When the right is attained this tension dies & the consequent self-fulfillment is experienced as an accomplishment, not as a satisfaction. No matter how much tension the masculine personality carries, the character never becomes oriented by it.

The self-awareness that comes with insight is based on limitless feeling. This unrestricted depth goes readily into the sexual channel. Sexual feeling & self-awareness mutually enrich each other.

The self-confidence that comes with mastery is based on unrestricted motility. This extending vigor goes readily into the celebrative channel, in the form of a celebrative attitude which enlivens self-confidence.

The capacity for psychological tension & the accessibility to sexual feeling go together. If the personality can't accept sexual feeling in a consistent way, creative love becomes impossible. Sexual feeling, like self-awareness itself, is timeless in the yielding personality. The storage of psychological energy & the readiness for a celebrative attitude go together.

If the personality can't accept a celebrative mood in a harmonious way, creative power is impossible.

Sensitivity makes possible the enjoyment of a multitude of needs. These needs & their satisfactions are acceptable to the yielding personality provided that they enrich the contentment & security within the familiar world of fixed orientation in which the yielding individual lives.

If self-indulgence isn't contained within a secure world it becomes autistic; the individual doesn't establish a relationship with society as a whole.

The ascetic refusal of pleasures can't make the individual more social. The heart of autism lies in the absence of an ideal, not in the enjoyment by the self of a multiplicity of simple pleasures.

Vigor makes possible the wholehearted participation in a multitude of interests. These purposes & their associated accomplishments are acceptable to the assertive personality provided that they enliven the happiness & freedom within the world of opportunities & fixed organization in which the assertive individual lives. If egotistical strivings aren't contained within a free world they become euphoric; the individual doesn't establish a permanent relationship with society.

Enslavement to duty can't correct the tendency to capricious social behavior. The heart of euphoria lies in the failure to take advantage of what really exists, not in the acceptence by the self of a multiplicity of ego gratifying activities.

The yielding individual labors in the service of an ideal & he needs to be so located that such energy is expended without meeting obstacles. Such a place embodies morality & therein he may enjoy all the simple pleasures.

The assertive individual develops the resources in the reality which is his own & his purpose is to be so organized by his opportunities that he accepts the tensions involved without being faced with problems.

Such a situation embodies understanding & participating in it he may enjoy all the spontaneous pleasures. One & the same world may be moral to those whose hearts are tuned to the understanding of morality & understanding in nature to those whose hands reach out to take responsibility for a world of flexible & receptive materials.

If security is found monastically & freedom comes thru barracks living, the life of love & the life of power are separated into 2 worlds.

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The career of the yielding individual gives him a fixed position relative to society, out of which an oriented security comes. Because of the permanency inherent in the career, education & training are facilitated. The aggressive individual uses the sensitivity inherent in the career for self-serving goals; the career is his sole tie to society.

However active his social life may appear to be, he never goes beyond the career identity in his relationships with others. If he attempts to do so, the entire aggressive edifice is threatened.

The social attachments of the assertive individual, operating as an informal class system, give him a fixed function in relationship to society, out of which an organized freedom comes. He lives in a gregarious environment, fraternal in quality.

The totality inherent in the group identity facilitates the finding of opportunities. The passive individual uses the vigor inherent in his social position for the promotion of egotistical goals; his fraternal identity is his sole tie to society & no matter how wide his loyalties may become in social relationships he never goes beyond his fraternal identity in his dealing with others. If he attempts to do so, the entire passive system is threatened.

The actions of the aggressive part of the self are the consequence of a self-indulgent relationship to society. Aggression is bred in the relationship with an indulgent parent within the circle of family life.

Because the individual feels loved, he's at liberty to act willfully. The false masculinity thus expressed takes its being in the act, not the man. Only particular successes gratify the masculine strivings of aggression; there is no masculine self to provide unity in the face of obstacles.

Aggression literally falls apart in the face of frustration; if emergency measures energized by rage are unsuccessful, fear overwhelms the individual.

The feelings of the passive part of the self are the outcome of an egotistical relationship to society. Passivity is developed in the relationship with an admiring parent in family life. Because the individual experiences power without responsibility, he develops a self-consciousness on this basis.

This false feminine responsiveness lies in the sensibility, not the man. Only particular gratifications fulfill the feminine needs of passivity; there is no feminine self to provide continuity in the presence of problems.

Passivity makes a rapid retreat in the face of difficulties; if emergency measures dictated by fear don't succeed, rage overwhelms the individual.

Aggression takes its being in a world seen thru the eyes of love; within this world, similar individuals of sensitive character structure compete with each other for masculine prerogatives. Whoever accepts the customary beliefs & ideas may be admitted to this family-like grouping & once a member he is free to reach for the prizes & rewards.

Aggression finds its opening wherever its philosophy can be established. True masculinity exploits society by developing its resources, leaving it richer than before. Aggression depletes resources; when the purposes of aggression are realized the residue is of no further interest to the aggressive individual.

Passivity takes its existence in a world built by power; within this world, similar individuals gather together to seek the feminine privileges. Whoever accepts the conventional modes of action & institutionalized behavior may automatically share in the community advantages.

Passivity finds its encouragement wherever authority takes over the whole of morality, rejecting individual responsibility. Genuine femininity serves society by understanding its nature, increasing the alternatives of action.

Passivity is parasitic; when the needs of passivity are surfeited the source of its awareness is forgotten.

The aggressive spirit exerts a constant pressure on the form of the government, seeking to so alter it as to provide more fully for the security of aggressive individuals. When this pressure can't attain further results due to the fact that the interests of the entire population resist further change, aggressive international policies provide an outlet for this self-seeking tendency.

The passive spirit creates a tendency toward expansion in the function of religion; it seeks the greatest possible area of application of religious law, so as to increase the enjoyment of the passive freedom which a dogmatic philosophy bestows.

When the expansion of social beliefs is stopped by the failure of its ideas to reach general acceptance, national dogma in the form of patriotic fervor takes over this egotistical tendency

Social institutions guide the actions of men in those fundamental matters where the basic purposes of society require action; the instrumentality of the institution is authority. Wherever the institution expands its scope, it's thru the authority which it puts into the hands of individuals who do its work.

The existence of a core of stable authority in society is part of the security of yielding individuals. Whenever aggression usurps the place of established institutionalized authority, the security of the yielding personality shrinks. The contemplative search for truth can only come to fruit in an environment separate from & protected by authority.

Social ideas bring the feelings of men into being in those fundamental ways in which the basic needs of society require feeling; the instrumentality of social ideas is spiritual law. Whenever social ideas deepen the scope of human attachments, it's thru the comprehension of law which individuals who labor in its service communicate to their fellow men.

The existence of a core of permanent law in society is a part of the freedom of assertive individuals. Whenever passivity generates its own opportunistic social ideas, the freedom of the assertive personality is diminished. The exploratory reaching for the right can only attain success when its activity is separate from & enriched by law.

Wherever love has shaped the characters of men, aggression has arisen. Whenever character arises from the ways of power, passivity enters men's lives. This happens because aggression & passivity are a product of the dependent side of men's natures.

Independence means facing the unknown, with the fear of abandonment that the unknown brings, or dealing with the chaotic, with the rage at impoverishment that the chaotic arouses.

Aggression & passivity allow men to cross over into a kind of social maturity without having to battle the fatigue that comes when faith weakens, or circumvent the boredom that takes over the self when hope becomes a shadow. This substitute maturity contributes nothing to social progress. It's parasitic on the civilization process, taking advantage of the knowledge that others have found & the skill that others have brought into being.

The more aggression & passivity become a fixed part of life, the greater is the subterranean rebellion against the aggressive ideal & the more men's fraternally shared thoughts turn to heretical channels in the evaluation of passive reality.

Every individual starts life potentially creative; he doesn't give up his yielding idealism or his assertive realism without a struggle. If his potential creativity remains in the stage of rebellion, he becomes neurotic.

If he remains in the stage of heresy, he becomes delinquent. The quantity of neurosis & delinquency in a particular period of civilization are an index to the amount of dissatisfaction with established aggression & passivity & are therefore a sign of reaching toward increasing health & social adequacy.

Society doesn't profit from the disappearance of neurosis & delinquency in civilized life unless such a desired state of affairs is based on the overcoming of aggression & passivity. The creativity of individuals develops on a background of neurosis which has been cured & delinquency which has been overcome.

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Institutions reach stability where the modes of action which they establish can be comprehended in the form of principles & laws. Where the right can be thus objectified by understanding, it can be administered in a routine fashion, without the investment of creative leadership.

The energy of leaders goes into dealing with the chaotic, expanding the scope of the institutions they represent.

Social ideas reach permanency when the concepts they create become the basis of authority. Where the truth can thus be incorporated in the skill of those who employ it, it can be communicated in a routine way, without the necessity of creative teaching.

The tension of teachers can go into preoccupation with the unknown, deepening the scope of the social ideas with which they're preoccupied.

Thinkers are law makers; in the political life of man, laws are formulated as a codification & systematization of patterns of action already established. With the coming of new law, chaos has already been mastered.

Men of action are administrators; in the spiritual life of man, authority gives embodiment to those established modes of feeling which the communication of ideas has already brought into existence. With the coming of new authority, insight has already won territory from the unknown.

Neither political law nor spiritual authority are creative. The existence of political law frees energy in political action; where men attempt to expand social control thru law they legislate in vain. The existence of spiritual authority gives security to spiritual feeling; where men attempt to deepen social understanding thru authority they issue futile commands.

Whenever the yielding individual enters experience he submits to social authority. Whenever the assertive individual accepts attachments he responds to social law. Within the love-type family, experiences take place in a private atmosphere. Family activities become the focusing point of mutual feeling, stimulated for the purpose of enjoying a multiplicity of needs.

Authority in such a context is intimidating & has aggressive connotations. Within the power-type family feelings take their being in a separate atmosphere, dissociated from adaptive requirements.

Family feeling becomes the basis of family cooperation, encouraged for the purpose of enjoying a multiplicity of interests. Lawgiving in such a context is seductive & has passive connotations.

The tension filled love family is complete in itself but each individual is incomplete, reaching out into the world toward submission to an ideal. When family authority is exercised for the purpose of expanding experience, based on the desire to indulge the family members on a wider & wider scale, family experience tends to replace social experience & the reaching for the ideal is lost. The service of the false family ideal becomes the basis of aggression.

The energy filled power family is permanent in itself but each individual lives on an impermanent basis, reaching into the outside world toward domination of that domain which can bring a materialization of reality.

When family law expands out of a need for deepening feeling, based on further cooperation in the gratifying of family vanity, family feeling tends to replace social feeling & the need for a responsive reality disappears. The exploitation of the false family reality becomes the basis for passivity.

A healthy atmosphere in the yielding family provides a consistent supply of simple pleasures available at need, with a respect for the privacy of each individual. Simple indulgences leave the individual ready for service to an ideal when need requires his activity.

A socially harmonious atmosphere in the assertive family is founded on a full supply of spontaneous interests, with an acceptance of the separateness of each individual. Spontaneous ego gratifications leave the individual ready for exploitation of reality when opportunity commits him.

Family feeling & family activity provide the model for those resting phases of the personality in which growth is absent. These periods have a holiday quality; if the individual can't expand beyond the level of family security & freedom he is soon surfeited. It he can't return to these enjoyments at need, he becomes the easy victim of fatigue & boredom.

The submissive tendencies reach their endpoint in insight. which is unalloyed with willfulness. At the moment of insight the subject of understanding is completely manifested & the self is harmoniously fulfilled thru self-awareness. This constitutes a fusion between self & the thing comprehended. In familial activities the self isn't fulfilled in this fashion.

Self-awareness proceeds at a high level which stimulates a sensitivity to needs & their satisfactions. When society is to be served, self-indulgent activity must be abandoned for a creative goal; then only love can keep self-awareness alive.

If the self-indulgent familial tendencies intrude into the social life of man, the pathway on which insight comes is never traveled; instead, the self takes over authority whenever opportunity presents & by act of will that fragment of understanding which suits the individual's needs is accepted as the whole.

The dominant tendencies reach their endpoint in mastery, which is unalloyed with self-consciousness. In the state of mastery the object controlled is permanently possessed & the self is spontaneously fulfilled thru self-confidence.

This constitutes a fusion between the self & the situation controlled. In familial feeling, the self isn't fulfilled in this way. Self-confidence is maintained at a high level which is favorable to active involvement in purposes & accomplishments.

When society is to be exploited, feeling which serves pride must be put aside in favor of creative goals; only power can keep self-confidence alive.

If the vanity of familial attitudes takes over the social relationships of the individual, the tools for the reaching of mastery are never found; instead, the self accepts whatever appears permanent in the way of principle in a self-conscious manner, using that moment of control which the situation brings & taking feeling as proof of permanence.

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The neurotic withdrawal differs from the mature surrender of independent experience in that the mature yielding individual is oriented by love & remains always a servant of society.

Delinquent indifference is different from the mature putting aside of independent feeling in that the mature assertive individual is organized by power & always uses society as his primary resource.

The progress of civilization rests on new ideas & new techniques. Depth of personality is required to bring new truth into being; vigor in the personality is necessary to the establishment of new right.

The mature surrender of independent experience brings the yielding individual close to the feelings of inferiority which are at the heart of the neurosis; only success in communicating ideas to others can conquer this menace.

The mature putting aside of independent feeling brings the assertive individual close to the mood of guilt which is the essence of delinquency; only success in the taking of responsibility can dissipate this cloud.

Human needs & purposes are big enough to take up all a man has to give; contributions to human truth & right have the greatest potential for fulfilling the individual.

Idealism leads to understanding & admiration; realism to responsibility & respect. The ideal embodies unity; the real takes its being in the permanent. The capacity for creative thought is dependent on the perception of that apparent willfulness in a subject on which unity rests.

Creative action becomes possible thru the manipulation of that apparent consciousness in an object on which permanence rests. In penetrating the unknown, the thinker's personality retains the same orientation as if he were in the presence of an ideal; the subject matter, being in a state of change, doesn't command this submission, but the self remains faithful.

Faith is a product of the nature of the personality itself. In dealing with the chaotic, the personality of the man of action retains the same organization as if he were in the presence of the real; the object, being in a state of change, doesn't invite this domination, but the self remains hopeful. The sources of hope lie in the personality itself.

Submission to an ideal preserves the consciousness of the yielding personality. When that consciousness tends to shrink, with consequent feelings of inferiority, the ideal is recovered by the active processes of thought.

When the unity of the subject matter is thus reestablished, self-awareness is reborn in the coming of insight. Domination of that which is real preserves the willfulness of the assertive personality.

When willfulness tends to accept compromise, with a consequent attitude of guilt, the real is restored by trial & error experimentation with methods. When the permanence of the situation is thus restored, self-confidence is reborn in the coming of mastery.

The awareness of beauty, in the sense of perfection, accompanies the coming of insight. Esthetic feelings, if they're to be more than mere pleasurable sensations, rest on the coming of unity to that which is potentially divisible into impressions, that unity being the work of the human mind.

The experiencing of beauty, in the sense of richness & goodness, accompanies the arrival of mastery. The esthetic experience, if it's to be more than pleasurable muscularity, rests on the emergence of permanence in that which potentially evokes evanescent impulses, that permanence being revealed by human skill.

The hatred of the ugly overcomes the impressionable fascination which the ugly contains. The anger at the provocative overcomes the impulsive possession which provocation invites. Sensitivity exposes the yielding individual to awareness of the ugly as well as the enjoyment of beauty.

Vigor involves the assertive individual in dealing with provocation as well as the pleasurable commitment to the good. The beauty of unity & truth are manifestations of the same capacity to find the ideal; the beauty of permanence & the right are linked together as products of the ability to take advantage of the real.

Creative thinking always makes a place for action in others; the more new truth that is brought into being in the world, the more opportunity is created for right.

Creative action always stimulates thought in others; the more new right that exists, the more room there is for truth. Thought without an action ideal leads to aggression, the selfish & self-serving action; action which isn't based on a reality enriched by thought leads to passivity, the vain & egotistical way of thinking.

Aggression requires efficiency & isn't interested in skill for its own sake. Passivity needs the form of logic & isn't concerned with knowledge for itself. Where aggression is successful on a national scale for a period of time, it can outweigh the action ideal, as in modern Germany.

Where passivity grips an entire nation for a period of time it can obliterate the sense of reality, as in modern France. The French democratic tendency is creative, but French Christianity is formal.

The Christian spirit of the Germans is creative, but their democracy is merely efficient. It's in this tendency to national specialization that the cause of the downfall of civilizations is to be found.

14

Limitless self-awareness overcomes inferiority provided that it occurs as part of a fusion with a subject matter. Such a subject matter becomes an ideal, which means that the subject freely manifests itself, as if with a will of its own.

In the case of impersonal subjects, the manifestation of the will of the subject matter lies in the completeness which gives it abstract existence.

Limitless self-confidence overcomes guilt provided that it occurs as part of a fusion with an object or situation. Such an object becomes reality, which means that it's richly responsive as if with a consciousness of its own.

In the case of impersonal objects, the manifestation of consciousness lies in the permanence which gives it concrete identity.

The union of the self-conscious & the self-confident provides the one with an ideal, the other with reality & fulfills both. This type of psychological union is essential to the creative nature of man & the character formation on which creativity rests.

When men establish permanent relationships unlimited in scope of this fused type, they find themselves in the area of sexual feeling & celebrative attitudes, for the psychological mechanisms which bring them together are the same as the biologically established mating mechanisms which bring male & female together in nature.

Personal love for individuals of the same sex in the yielding personality enters the area of homosexual feeling; personal power over individuals of the same sex in the assertive personality enters the area of an all-pervasive celebrative attitude.

If homosexual feeling invades the area belonging to family life, it becomes a form of self-indulgence inimical to a basic social adjustment. If the celebrative attitude replaces familial relationships, it becomes a manifestation of vanity which undermines the integrity of social adjustment.

In order to avoid being drawn into homosexual feeling which is alien to their lives, men go to great lengths to empty love feelings of their homosexual content. There's only one way to do this effectively & that is to avoid human nature as a subject of truth seeking.

The world is filled with a multiplicity of impersonal things a man can think about, many of them of great social importance.

In order to avoid the acceptance of a celebrative world which is a threat to their adaptive lives, men go to great lengths to divest power attitudes of their celebrative quality. There's only one way to accomplish this purpose & that is to avoid human nature as a resource for the development of right.

The world is full of impersonal materials a man can manipulate, many of which are of great social usefulness.

In a world ruled by the fear of homosexual feeling & the rage against celebrative tendencies there can be no material progress in developing a science of human nature on the one hand, nor the engineering type of skill in controlling human nature on the other.

In such a world, man loses his awareness of his first scientific subject matter, his own nature & areas of knowledge that should be best developed are claimed by the blackness of the unknown.

He allows his most important opportunity, the mutual cooperation of human beings, to fade in interest & aliveness & the skills that should be the best developed lose their identity in a sea of chaos.

Shame in the yielding personality which can't be overcome by growth may direct the individual toward ambitious effort in the career. If success comes out of compulsive activity it's demoralizing to the individual; there's no room for the creative where conformity is to the authority set up by the standards associated with success rather than to an ideal.

In the world where a man's identity is formed by his professional or business function, it's the picture of himself which others see which compels his activity. Deviation from this picture is at his own peril & any material deviation marks him for failure.

If he wants the rewards of his position, he must be loyal to it in all significant ways.

Guilt in the assertive personality which can't be overcome by growth may influence the individual toward attachment to ritualized fraternal activities. The obsessive quality of fixed fraternal feeling has a degenerating influence; there's no interest in the creative where the utilization of opportunity is in response to principles set up by custom rather than in response to reality.

In the world where a man's identity arises from a hierarchy of social attachments, it's the preestablished responses to type situations which draws him into obsessive feeling. Deviation from this mode of social adjustment is at his own peril; any serious deviation results in his isolation.

If he wants the rewards of this mode of social adjustment, he must accept the responsibility of consistently supporting it.

The security of the career ridden yielding personality doesn't reach the relaxed naturalness of contentment. Such individuals are the ready victims of fatigue & an accompanying hypochondriasis. The freedom of the assertive personality guided by fixed social patterns doesn't reach the alive spontaneity of happiness.

Such individuals are the victims of boredom & fail to reach the good fortune to which they feel they're entitled, resulting in behavioral deviations in which bad luck is their constant companion. They're readily deceived by confidence games & become addicted to gambling & short lived enterprises.

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15
 
Anxiety is an expression of a self-awareness without that warmth & contentment which comes from security. The intimidated individual is cut off from the growth that is the substance of his attachment to the external world in a permanent way.

The nameless fear of anxiety is a fear of aloneness & abandonment, occurring in a personality oriented by love who can't feel love.

As long as the individual serves a taskmaster who keeps him busy, his personality maintains an identity. Such an identity has no permanence & requires constant cooperation from others to remain alive.

It's characteristic of the atmosphere of the love family that there's always some small duty waiting, based on the needs of others for cooperation in maintaining warmth & closeness. In the anxiety state, action loses its energy investment with a consequent inhibition that ends familial cooperation.

The inner self comes into focus but there's nothing there to see or feel. The individual perceives a nothingness, an unknown, a blank window which at any time may show the paralyzing face of terror.

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Restlessness is an expression of a self-confidence without genuine freedom, lacking in vigor & happiness.

The seduced individual is cut off from the growth which is the substance of a unified attachment to the external world. The drifting rage in restlessness is a rage at poverty & neglect, occurring in a personality organized by power who can't give expression to power.

As long as the individual is surrounded by those temporary opportunities that keep his feeling alive, the self maintains an identity.

This identity has no completeness & requires reinforcement from the feelings of others to remain significant.

It's characteristic of the atmosphere of the power family that there's always some interest to be shared which becomes the basis of mutual sympathy.

When restlessness brings the chronic perplexity which ends family cohesion, the feeling resources of the individual lose their tension holding capacity. The inner self goes into action but there's no organization, no attitude toward the environment.

This behavior is only a drifting, a chaos, a door thru which impelled motion runs amok into boundless space.

The emergency reaction of fear which signals the disruption of orientation provides the basis for an unlimited receptivity entirely without self-awareness; fear replaces the inner self.

There's an unlimited accessibility to comprehension without attachment, so that the information which the organism receives can be used completely in its own interest.

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The feeling of fear has an expanding quality which is to be terminated at all cost.

The emergency reaction of rage which signals the coming of disorganization provides the basis for an unlimited manipulative motility entirely without self-confidence; rage replaces the inner self.

There's an unrestricted acceptance of an attitude of control without ownership, so that the routes of action which the organism finds can be used without regard for the conservation of resources. The attitude of rage has an expanding quality which is to be resolved at all cost.

The human yielding personality readily feels fear. If the individual must maintain an attachment to something noxious, self-awareness may be preserved thru the feeling of hate, which circumscribes the subject matter in a circle of distaste.

Hate is a stabilized alternative to fear which the individual can tolerate. It's when hate loses its structure, releasing floods of fear from which the individual can't escape that anxiety is born.

The human assertive personality readily experiences rage. If the individual must accept a noxious object, self-confidence may be preserved thru an angry attitude, which brands the object as an annoyance & separates it from the total context of the situation.

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Anger is a stabilized alternative to rage which the individual can tolerate. It's when anger loses its enduring quality, releasing unpredictable rage reactions which the individual can't avoid that restlessness comes into being.

Where depth of character takes an aggressive pseudo-ideal for its subject matter, there's no unity in the thing understood nor permanence in the self-awareness. Whatever aspect of the subject matter is vigorously manifested comes to stand for the whole. The willfulness of the subject matter feeds a dependent self-awareness in the individual.

Whenever an outside will isn't acting on the individual, a withdrawal into fantasy is necessary in order that the inner identity be sustained. Without the service of an ideal which growth brings there's no reliable source of energy in the personality.

The aggressive individual avoids fear thru conformity to institutionalized modes of action; he's a self-serving soldier in the army of personal ambition, cooperating with others to reach that apparent security which holds back disorientation.

Where character vigor takes a passive pseudo-reality for its object, there's no permanence in the thing possessed nor completeness in the self-confidence.

Whatever aspect of the object invites action takes over the qualities of the permanent. The consciousness inherent in the object builds a dependent self-confidence in the individual.

Whenever an outside consciousness isn't encouraging the individual, an indifference takes over & play becomes the means of preserving the inner identity.

Without the exploitation of a responsive reality which psychological growth makes possible, there's no reliable capacity for tension in the personality.

The passive individual avoids rage thru the exploitation of pathways to feeling inherent in social ideas; he's an egotistical priest worshipping the false idol of fraternal superiority, finding an apparent freedom thru influencing others, thus controlling the disorganization of his personality.

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additional definitions
for your added convenience in understanding...

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indifference - noun

1: unbiased impartial unconcern

2: apathy demonstrated by an absence of emotional reactions [syn: emotionlessness, impassivity, impassiveness, phlegm, stolidity, unemotionality]

3: the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally [syn: apathy, spiritlessness]

4: the trait of remaining calm & seeming not to care; a casual lack of concern [syn: nonchalance, unconcern]

semantic

adj : of or relating to the study of meaning & changes of meaning; "semantic analysis"

adj.

  1. Of or relating to meaning, especially meaning in language.
  2. Of, relating to, or according to the science of semantics.

 

spontaneity

n : the quality of being spontaneous & coming from natural feelings without constraint; "the spontaneity of his laughter"

vig·or   
n.
  1. Physical or mental strength, energy, or force.
  2. The capacity for natural growth & survival, as of plants or animals.
  3. Strong feeling; enthusiasm or intensity.
  4. Legal effectiveness or validity.

will·ful also wil·ful  
 adj.
  1. Said or done on purpose; deliberate. See Synonyms at voluntary.
  2. Obstinately bent on having one's own way

excerpt from: The Sad Times of Our Lives
 
Some writers have made a meaningful distinction between "real" guilt & "neurotic" guilt.
 
Real guilt is feeling badly about something you did that was truly morally wrong.
 
Neurotic guilt is when you haven't done anything wrong or what you did doesn't warrant the amount of guilt felt.
 
Real guilt may be expressed thru neurotic guilt, however. An example will help.
 
Suppose a depressed 18-year-old becomes obsessed about having stole another girl's underclothes when she was 14. That's neurotic guilt.
 
It seems likely that the real guilt involves something else, not just old underwear.
 
A psychoanalyst would suspect primitive infantile urges were causing the real guilt -e.g. closeness to one parent & resentment of another parent or a sibling.
 
Other therapists would look for the source of guilt in more recently repressed guilt-producing acts or thoughts - e.g., anger at a parent or sexual temptations. Neurotic guilt frequently substitutes for real guilt (it helps hide what we're really guilty about).

Reunion With the Positive (Self), Part 1: The Other Half of "The Cure"

by Michael Derzak Adzema

ABSTRACT: We compulsively & unconsciously re-create the Pain from our earliest years in the construction of negative, debilitating & self-defeating life scenarios - which facilitate our being triggered into our Pain & therefore keep us miserable.

In therapy we relive the roots of this self-destructive behavior & we try to change our behavior patterns & life situations for the better in line with the insights & connections that emerge.

Most of the time, however, the negative is all we had, so that our "new" patterns end up being reactions to the old patterns oftentimes their opposite - which are still linked to the old ways.

What's lacking is an idea of a way of being that is completely outside of this vicious cycle & this is attained only by feeling thru the Pain & accessing a deeper, more fundamental & earlier self - one that preceded the traumas, splittings, dualities - a real & authentic self our, "original face."

This earlier self provides a model for living which is totally unrelated to the later scenarios & untainted by later trauma, is more workable & socially congruent & more conducive to positive cycles of growth.

However, to discontinue the negative & foster the positive one must actively change one's life situation & environment from one that is Pain-evoking to one that, in line with the deeper self, is joy-evoking.

Thus, cure doesn't occur thru the emptying of any Primal Pool of Pain (an endless endeavor); rather, thru the discovery & reunion with one's "joy grids" & the restructuring of one's life in a way that they'll be continually evoked & fostered.

"The purpose of suffering is to learn how to stop suffering"

Seth

Negative Scenarios

Sigmund Freud & Arthur Janov both stressed that a distinguishing characteristic of neurosis is the tendency to get involved in (to create) situations that are a re-creation of the original trauma.

The neurotic tries, unconsciously & unsuccessfully, to resolve past traumas in the present - though this isn't possible.

Thus, e.g., a woman with an abusive father marries an abusive man with the (unreal) hope of making him kind.

Very few psychologists would deny the occurrence of this pattern. And many therapists would agree that it's important to relive & resolve the original trauma in order to break the negative pattern that persists in the present.

What I want to add, however, is that merely reliving the trauma & being able to discontinue re-creating the resulting negative scenario in the present is only 1/2 the cure. The really healthy person is able to create positive scenarios for herself.

I don't deny that we all to some extent create (or at least try to create) situations for ourselves that give us positive reward. We all realize, consciously anyway, that certain life situations give us more pleasure / satisfaction than others & we try to have for ourselves the kinds of jobs, friends, spouses, living situations, physical environments & so on that'll be most rewarding.

To some extent we're successful. Most of us are able to create life situations that have at least some ability to make us feel satisfied at times.

But very few of us are free from certain patterns of bringing into our lives particular negative elements over & over. The best-selling book - Smart Women, Foolish Choices - expresses this frustrating tendency & its popularity indicates how widely this is being experienced.

And while we have a myth, handed down from Janov, that primal people are free from the compulsion to re-create negative scenarios (they're supposedly "cured"), the truth is that people in primal therapy also find certain negative patterns hard to avoid, even when they've taken them back to birth & before that & seem to have resolved & to have understood them thoroughly.

The pattern often seems to be that for a long time in therapy the client will understand the roots of his act-outs . . . but that he'll nevertheless continue to recreate the same negative scenarios; or their exact opposite will be created.

It should be kept in mind that each of these - the re-creation or the counter-creation - will (ultimately) continue to trigger the negative feelings. Whether doing the same thing or doing the opposite, one finds oneself inevitably shunted back into the same old negative grooves, dramatizing the same old negative scenarios.

I should give an example or two. In therapy a client may realize his career as a physicist has been founded on a neurotic intellectualism that he discovers has been an overcompensation for being made to feel by his father that he is stupid & can't do anything right.

With his career apparently down the tubes & with no viable alternative in sight, this person may realize that sitting behind his physicist mode, like a shadow, has always been a yearning to do something physical, to work with his hands, to feel the textures of wood, to make furniture perhaps.

Should this person give up his career as a physicist & go into woodworking - & this sort of thing has happened - invariably we find that he is still triggered into the same feelings of self-flagellation, albeit from the opposite direction.

Now he still "can't do anything right" because this time he feels dissatisfied not doing something with his "head"; he feels dissatisfied throwing away & not using the skills, perceptions & talents he developed or unearthed in his training as a physicist.

The earlier path may have had its neurotic impetus, yet it is, at the adult level, now a part of his total self & can't simply be ignored any more than he can ignore the promptings of his deeper & innate self (at this point in the process).

Another example: A woman realizes the emotional & consequent, sexual wasteland of her life. She realizes that because of the therapy she now can have the love & the lovers that before she only dreamed about.

So, thinking she is changing her patterns, she begins having many lovers. It's exciting at first. Eventually she realizes that she still feels unloved & that the amount of sexual activity is meaningless. Here, again, doing the opposite only resulted in being stuck in the same negative feelings.

A more common example might be the woman who was made to feel that she always had to be the "good little girl" or else suffer loss of parental love & approval. Feeling this personal truth in therapy, a woman may feel liberated knowing that she can never get her parent's love & besides, that was all in the past anyway & therefore she can be any way she pleases.

If she then goes about being a "bad girl," she invariably finds herself triggered back into her old feelings because she begins feeling that in fact her parents were right about her (she's basically a bad girl). Thus she has to continue entering the feeling & discharging it (from the other end now) in order to restore her sense of self-esteem & feeling of liberation.

What is missing for her is a model of a way of being which is outside of, separate from the whole unreal scenario of good/bad girl . . . a way of being from the vantage point of which that entire negative scenario is distinctly irrelevant.

I propose that the other half of "the cure"- where we're able to truly free ourselves from the negative patterns - involves having access to experiences on a more fundamental & often earlier, level than that of traumatic experiences.

I should make this more clear. The neurotic, after having relived the roots of his neurosis, is left with a knowledge of the way he acts to limit & undermine his life & pleasure. This doesn't necessarily mean that he knows how to act in order to expand his life & enjoyment of it.

Thus, we observe a passive, "do-nothing" period among many primal people-no longer in the throes of the negative energy, which has been & continues to be dissipated, yet without any basis for positive action.

This do nothing tendency in "post-primal" persons, not only is a recurring criticism of them made by commentators of Primal, but also is a characterization made of them by Janov in his writings as well as being a frequent comment by post-primalers in describing themselves.1

While some of this phase may be a necessary part of the process (& I'm aware there is some evidence from holotropic breathworkTM that even this may not be true), I contend that a major reason this phase has been so obviously prevalent goes back to the model of primal pain that Janov bequeathed us. This model of a primal pool of pain, not only fosters the kind of do-nothingness described, it makes a "second half of the cure" all the more important. I will now show why this is so.

Pain As Pattern Not Pool

Janov (1970) originally postulated the concept of a "Primal Pool" of Pain which could be "emptied." Subsequently even he was forced to abandon this concept as it appeared that some Pains refused to completely go away.

Evidence of his change in position exists in his later journals (viz., The Journal of Primal Therapy). Some of his followers, as well, began admitting the fallibility of the "primal pool" analogy to Pain. Primal therapist Jonty Christie (I976) remarked, ''[W]e'll be feeling forever. I don't think you ever 'empty your Primal Pool.' I think that's a misleading notion.... I don't see anyone around who's finished feeling - who's emptied their Primal Pool." (pp. 108-109).

Vivian Janov agrees saying, "The Primal Scream indicates that there' is a pool of Pain that is gradually emptied & after 7 years of some of us trying to empty that we have sort of shifted to the idea that you never empty it, but that you identify exactly what those Pains are & you're able to live with them so that when they come up you're able to feel what they are" (Janov & Jim, 1974, p. 85).2

Other primalers speak to this issue when they say things like, "I guess there will always be certain kinds of my Pain which will always be able to be triggered" (cf., Pam and Barton, 1974, p. 160; Vivian and Jim, 1974, p. 85).

But I say that it isn't that there's always some old energy stored in a pool left to be leaked out; rather, that the patterns are still there, intact though less energized & the energy from a new situation can & does flow thru them for lack of some alternative "route" for that energy to take.

At any rate, since the primal pool model embodied an outdated mechanistic paradigm in the first place, its failure was inevitable. Despite this, it persisted in varying forms throughout the primal community. Jules & Helen Roth - figureheads in the Denver primal community & founders of the Certified Primal Therapists' Center (now called the Denver Counseling Center), where I did my therapy - used to speak of a "run-off of neurological sequences."

While in ways that would be too lengthy to discuss here I consider the therapy I received there to be the best possible & far ahead of what Janov was doing at the time (in fact, Graham Farrant also received his therapy & training from the Roths), still the concept was part of the way we all saw things at that time.

And this "run-off" idea implies that a series of sequences are run off & out of the body & that, therefore, the sequence, pattern & amount of run-off that is to take place is all carried, materially somehow, within the body.

This idea of the therapy working this way is a very attractive one, especially for those of us who have felt the way feelings can erupt from within ourselves during our therapy in a totally unexpected & totally unpreconceived fashion & can integrate aspects of thought, feeling & behavior (all w/out our trying) which had previously been thought to be completely unrelated.

It's as if a preplanned regimen of growth including both pattern & energy amount, is presenting itself, which merely needs be let out, or primaled. And this concept is to some extent true; but it isn't the whole truth. Furthermore, this concept fosters an attitude & a way of seeing people in therapy wherein just because a person is primaling it's assumed that she is "on track" or growing.

From my own experiences & observations in Primal, I propose that just because a person is primaling doesn't mean growth is happening. I'm saying that you can lie in bed for years, doing nothing but eating & sleeping & primaling (which some primal people are rumored to actually have come close to doing), but that you still might not have "emptied your pool," you might still be "running off neurological sequences."

This can occur because though you've been feeling, you might not have been growing. The difference centers around the concept of whether the neurological sequences are both pattern & energy or just pattern.

I propose that the concept of blocked energy in the body that can be released & permanently gotten rid of is an incomplete one. I think that a better conceptualization or model is that we have "patterns in the brain"3 by which we constantly block energy in the "body" from moving freely, which therefore causes energy to "build up" in those areas & which, therefore, are felt as tension areas.

I believe that what happens is that in Primal one reenters those "patterns in the brain" & alters them so that energy in the "body" is unblocked & able to move freely again - but this doesn't dissolve the patterns in the brain!

Consequently, if a present life situation is energy-producing (has Pain value) & happens to resemble a situation that one has a deeply embedded pattern for, then that energy can, theoretically, be forever triggered thru that pattern, that neurological sequence. The present situation then provides the energy which, run thru the old familiar grooves, is amplified in the kind of overreacting & misery we call one's Pain.

Thus, the danger of opening up to a pattern & getting "stuck" in it are much more real than primal therapists have heretofore been willing to acknowledge. In fact I believe this apparent tenacity of deep-rooted patterns in primal people, as seen by themselves & others, may have something to do with the swing of popularity away from Primal during the 1980's.

People certainly saw something happening in Primal but it didn't look good to see some primal people going thru the same struggles & problems for years.

This pattern of stuckness was acknowledged as long as 20 years ago by several of Janov's senior therapists. Primal therapists Nick Barton & Tracee Sheppard (l975) discussed this situation in a "Primal People" section of The Journal of Primal Therapy.

Barton refers to these as the "sackcloth & ashes" type of primalers (p. 338). Sheppard remarks that "some people . . . if they have a choice between living & feeling, they'll always feel" (p. 338), then she characterizes that as "beating themselves every night w/Pain" (p. 338).

Jumping ahead a bit, I might say that it's no coincidence that primalers who are "stuck" in this way are characterized so much by "victim" behavior. For as Grof - among a number of other deep experiential therapists - has let us know, for true resolution of an issue to occur, for it to truly go away, one needs to be able to connect with the feelings of the perpetrator, in the traumatizing event.

The primalers described by Barton & Sheppard have obviously over-identified with the 'victim" & appear to be blind to & in denial about, the "perpetrator" inside of themselves.

Thus, in failing to see the scenario from the perspective of victim & perpetrator, they continue abusing themselves (& continue the act-out of the trauma) with the therapy itself. They fall short of growing into the state of forgiveness & self-forgiveness, which is a major aspect of real cure in that it allows the person to finally let go of the past & feel peace about it in the present.

Using Feeling & Acting Together

Getting back to the pool, however, I find it interesting that, along w/ acknowledging the inadequacy of the primal-pool-draining model 20 years ago, Janov's senior therapists were also advocating a correspondingly different model of growth. They were discovering that growth only really occurs when action in one's life is added to feeling. Sheppard & Barton (1975) explain this different perspective this way:

Barton: [I]t wasn't what some of us used to think: that the feeling alone would change your life.... It took a lot of hard work.

Tracee: A lot of people that come into Primal Therapy, have trouble with relationships, so they won't have relationships. They wait until they've had enough feelings to have a relationship. If I'd done that I wouldn't be very far along in my history of relationships. It's by being in the relationship & dealing with the feelings that come up & dealing with the present that you change things.

Barton: I think that's the great asset of the therapy right now - the understanding that you can't get by on Primalling alone but rather you have to use activity & feeling together. If you have a feeling & an insight then you must use the insight on your life & then if all goes haywire again, okay come back & have more of the feelings. And then use the further insights. But you find those people who have all those feelings & all those insights & they do nothing with them (p. 341, emphasis mine).

Similarly, as Speyrer (1995) points out in this issue (p. 95), primal therapist Jean Jenson (l995) - who coincidentally was a client of the same Tracee as above, after Tracee had left Janov's Institute - in perhaps the most recent book on primal therapy, has also noted the same deficiency in classical Primal.

She writes that "to consciously choose to behave differently from the way you feel compelled to behave is essential for this work to be successful" (p. 93); but she claims that this forced behavioral change occurs only w/great difficulty. Alice Miller (1995), in the foreword to Jenson's book, reiterates this insufficiency of primaling as an end in itself & points to something additional being required in the way of action in the world:

[A]s long as the needs continue to be neglected & unfulfilled in the present, old pains & their destructive attendant symptoms will constantly be triggered. Then, therapy could become a self-perpetuating necessity accompanied by old, unresolved feelings that will constantly have to be felt & dealt with, if they're not to overwhelm consciousness. The process of feeling childhood helplessness is absolutely necessary & unavoidable. But it isn't, as Janov hoped, of itself sufficient to resolve destructive & self-destructive patterns of behavior. (p. xiv)

So the case has been made that feeling one's feelings, by itself, is not sufficient for real growth to occur. However, while I agree with the intent of these authors in pointing to something else besides primaling being required for "the cure" to be successful & I agree it has something to do with acting in the present, where I feel their ideas fall short is that "forcing" oneself to change one's behavioral patterns or even seeking to get one's needs filled in the present is ultimately doomed to failure for the reasons I stated earlier. So it's no wonder that they consider these changes to be extremely difficult (I'd say ultimately impossible).

For these prescriptions require the use of "will power," for one thing & since intellectual understanding & "will power" were found to be so impotent in talk therapies like psychoanalysis, why would they work now? Second, this forced - growth suffers from the same problems that I described above:

Lacking any idea of a true alternative, having never experienced what's really good for oneself, one stays within the vicious negative cycle, crucified between the poles of doing & not -doing the old pattern. This is just too much like the same old Judeo Christian struggle for me to stomach . . . in which case, Why Primal?

Third, it isn't emphasized that it's not merely one's behavior that needs changing (in the face of continual triggered Pain & the sometimes irresistible pulls to act it out), it's the things outside oneself which, constructed by the acting-out self, were of course chosen to foster its continued existence & to continually drag & pull you back into the same destructive but familiar, ruts, which also provoke so much Pain in you.

It's the external not internal, environment that requires the attention at this stage & this may mean changing one's life situation, one's physical environment, one's activities, occasionally one's job, occupation or profession . . . often the type of friends one has, sometimes the locale one lives in & many other things. To change these also requires an act of will - sometimes a difficult one.

However, one can wisely decide to implement crucial scenario changing decisions during the relatively peaceful, clear & courageous intervals - which all of us experience at times - of temporary freedom from the negative pulls to act out.

Upon the implementation of these changes, their integration into one's daily life, their existence in one's day-to-day experience allows for continuing reinforcement of the positive within one & less triggering of one's Pain; hence a situation that's more conducive to the emergence of one's truer self.

Finally, these prescriptions fail because they don't acknowledge the crucial importance of accessing the deeper, positive self - which is irrelevant to & not tied in to the negative scenarios - as a model for a realer life.

We know that these primal theoreticians aren't aware of these joy maps, because when these grids are fully accessed & one begins to commit oneself to their expression, the task of becoming real is a downhill coast, having nothing of the qualities of Sturm und Drang, sweat & discipline that seems to characterize the earlier attempts to grow. No.

When one begins accessing & reuniting with the deeper self, which - rooted in the Self, the inner Divinity, if you will - is infinitely stronger than the fake self, the persona, growth occurs by simply following one's deepest desires, wants & feelings (many of which are rooted in intensely felt feelings of caring, compassion, desire to serve & help, feelings of unity with others, desires to manifest & refine one's unique talents & thereby add one's small part to the creation of a better world, desires to share experience with loving people & yearning for unity with the source of all).

When truly identified with this deeper self (at least more identified w/it than w/the impostor self), growing is as natural as breathing, it's one's heart's desire; every day becomes a thing of joy in that one gets another stretch of time in which to feel the bliss & pleasure of following these promptings.

Positive Scenarios / Positive Self

Janov (1972) writes, "It's a lonely discovery to find that there's no meaning to life & I suspect that the post-Primal 'blues,' which set in occasionally, have to do with this discovery" (p. 181).

What occurs to me in reading this statement is that Janov is referring to a stage in the primal process before one has begun to tap in to one's positive potentials, which give meaning & pattern to one's life.

Janov has no idea, apparently, of how transformative & positive this primal process really is . . . of just how much happiness, bliss, peace, fulfillment, direction, inspiration, satisfaction, spirituality, creativity & joy the process can make possible for people, at least somewhere down the line.

Janov didn't know - still doesn't as far as I've heard - what kind of "renaissance" in the person is possible thru facing one's primal pains & what kind of blossoming & flowering of the personality can (& will inevitably) occur!

In response, then, to the gloomy outlook by Janov & some primalers, I'd like to point out that the experiences of some other primalers, as well as the findings of Stanislav Grof's (1976, 1980, 1985, 1988, 1993) research, show that there are positive experiences to be had, on our feeling journey, which are as fundamental & ultimately more fundamental, than the negative experiences.

What I'm saying is that the second half of "the cure" occurs when one is able to tap in to these positive experiences & is able to act to create, in the present, the scenarios that would trigger these positive feelings (instead of continuing to irrationally re-create the negative scenarios which continually trigger us into our Pain).

What we've begun to discover - which has revolutionized our entire perspective on the primal process - is that it's only when one can begin to create scenarios that are outside of the light & shadow, outside of the do's & don'ts, that are in no way tied in to the old complexes & which therefore can trigger positive feelings, that one no longer has to keep feeling those Painful feelings.

The important part, however, is that in order to be able to create positive scenarios, in order to be able to reunite with the positive self, one must feel thru enough of the Pain to have access to what Grof has called the "positive COEX systems," i.e., the positively charged "primal scenes."

When one re-experiences these pleasant memories & understands them, one can begin to understand the source of one's joy in life & can act to shape one's life & one's environment in a way that will be conducive to eliciting that joy. These positive feelings & memories embody a pattern that is totally unlike & totally unrelated to our underlying negative patterns. Hence these patterns can be the model for a truly effective restructuring of one's life.

Grof & Halifax (1977) help us to understand how the positive experiences to be had during a session can be employed in desire changing our present life situation. They note that positive changes from an LSD session can be reduced in intensity "under the influence of the demands & pressures of the social environment" (p. 212).

They go on to explain that "with discipline" the "profound knowledge acquired" can be used "as a guideline for restructuring one's entire life. Some individuals are thus capable of creating a situation for themselves in which not only the cognitive insights but also the new spiritual feelings are potentially available much of the time" (p. 212, emphases mine).

At this stage of the cure, the "work" of therapy begins to revolve more around the "hands-on" reconstructing of one's environment to create the life situation / life context producing the most in the way of positive reward.

This concept has many parallels to Marie Jahoda's definition of the healthy person as the one who "actively masters his environment," among other things (as reported in Erikson, 1968, p. 92). In other words, such a person is able to alter her environment to conform to herself, unlike the average person who is forever engaged in trying to conform herself to the environment presented.

It's related, also, to the stage of the therapeutic process where one moves more & more out of the "victim" perspective & into "empowerment." It's related, also, to moving away from BPM-II-type "stuckness" & into BPM-III- & then IV-, type struggle, empowerment, achievement & resolution.4

However this active manipulation of one's environment isn't to be confused with a construction of one's social, cultural & physical context that is forceful. Maslow's (1968) idea that the expression of one's unreal or neurotic "needs" is in fact life-negating is relevant here.

So then this active structuring isn't to be confused with a continued structuring of one's environment in a sole pursuit of "lower" pleasures, because such behavior negates the possibilities for "higher" pleasures of growth, relationship & self-actualization, which entail much acceptance of pain & discomfort in their attainment.

The Purpose of Suffering

In summary, in line with our discoveries in Primal of the falsity of the Primal Pool of Pain theory & the associated "feeling alone is sufficient" model of growth; of the importance of action in the world to be added to primaling, of the failure of attempts to change one's negative patterns without a positive model to go by & of the discovery of positive experiences, scenarios, models & motivations (a positive self) at a deeper & earlier level of the psyche than the Pain, I propose a different model for growth. The crucial idea in it is that once one has unblocked certain pathways one need not keep oneself in situations that keep directing energy thru them.