Introduction I have to confess that I find politics fascinating, even if very painful at times like these, facing as we do another five years of Conservative rule. I remain though optimistic that eventually our politics will move onto a different, more conscious and compassionate plane. I do think that our societies consciousness is slowly… Read More
What is the psychology of Neoliberalism and how do we get past it?
George Monbiot in his Guardian article (11/09/19) about the power of ideology, and how it is always based on some philosophical ground, says, “We make a mistake when we assume that money is the main motivation. Our unreformed, corrupt and corrupting political funding system ensures it is an important factor. But what counts above all… Read More
Politics, Psychology and Spirituality: The need for an Institute for the Understanding of Human Nature
Politics, Psychology and Spirituality: The need for an Institute for the Understanding of Human Nature. To read this as a pdf click here It has become increasingly clear to me that the negative effects of Capitalism subjugate and oppress most people. I agree with George Monbiot’s recent analysis (Guardian 25/04/19) that it is largely a… Read More
To struggle or not to struggle?
This question goes to the heart of the paradox and difficulties we have in knowing how to live our lives. Struggle is surely necessary for us to resist the negative forces within us that trauma generated and left us with. To give into those negative impulses leads us down a slippery slope of self-disintegration. To… Read More
Hopeless Hope
I think that hope has two aspects. This is not about its opposite of hopelessness which conjures up despair and defeatedness, something nobody wants to get stuck in. The point of this is to explore how hope has positive and negative aspects, and to argue that the negative aspect of hope is not challenged enough… Read More
Reality, Fantasy and Politics (v2)
Please see this piece on “Articles” page with the new title The Two Streams of Reality, and Politics
Boundaries with Love – The best way to bring up children
The ideal parenting, and indeed the ideal relational stance generally, is – reasonably consistent boundaries maintained with love. With children this is relatively simple. We insist on our version of what the boundaries are whilst maintaining a loving attitude, even in the face of rebellion of what ever sort. This does not mean that a… Read More
Another look at politics
Another look at politics prompted by George Monbiot’s book – Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis I am very sympathetic to George Monbiot’s ideas in his new book about the need for local community to emerge as a force for social change. How this change needs to come from… Read More
What is Psychotherapy?
To me, the basic premise is that people are good. All our negativity and destructiveness, needs to be understood in terms of compensatory processes emanating from our insecurity, which is, in turn, caused by trauma in its widest sense. Many of our difficulties revolve around our inner conflict, which is the direct result of this… Read More
The hope of Love
In response to the recent trouble in Charlottesville USA from white nationalists, Obama, in a celebrated tweet, quoted this passage from Mandela’s autobiography The Long Walk to Freedom. “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin or his background or his religion… People must learn to hate, and if… Read More
Does God Exist?
This question that has been with me for many years, and has again come into renewed focus, it is, does God exists? It may sound trite and as old as the hills, but it goes straight to the heart of so much of our philosophy and approach to living, and the orientation that therapists take.… Read More
Our need for Philosophy
There was a lovely article today (9th Jan 17) in the Guardian arguing for philosophy to be taught in schools. It is from the point of view of enabling and teaching the young to think in preparation for a working life that will increasingly need flexibility, due to many factors including the computerisation of so… Read More
What a Year!
Syria, the migrant crisis, France’s terror attacks, Brexit, Turkey, Trump, Italy, Aleppo, all against the background of our climate’s inexorable warming and the increase in inequality in many parts of the world, makes for quite a year. The later seems to be partly emanating from the nature of capitalism and how the wealthy have benefited… Read More
Dangers of mindless Mindfulness
The Guardian recently published an article called “Mindfulness therapy comes at a high price for some” about how for some people, their training in mindfulness caused them to suffer real difficulties
More on “The Reality of Being”
Jean De Salzmann’s “The Reality of Being” It is the work of therapy that resolves many of our emotional, and thereby intellectual as well as physical, ‘tensions’. The work of therapy is all about making our suffering conscious. The trauma (pain, distress, fear etc.) we have buried is supported to be faced and accepted and… Read More
‘Problems’ really are opportunities
Because we have consciousness, and therefore choice, we are blessed (or cursed) to be inescapably tied to a developmental destiny, which is towards enlightenment, towards finding our reconciliation with death and therefore life. If we can find our way to participate consciously in this process of life, then every “difficulty” or “problem” becomes a real… Read More
The heart of Christmas
It is the season where we celebrate the birth of Christ, the birth of love. We are invited to open our hearts to the transcendent love that Christ brought. Such love brings meaning, it is meaning. However, we also need to find meaning in our lives even when we are out of touch with the… Read More
Choice – the heart of our creativity
It may seem obvious that choice is at the heart of creativity, after all, our creativity is about our originality, our uniqueness, our ability to make something new and different. But what interests me just now, is how extraordinary this process is.
Reflections on the Gurdjieff Work
I have just had a chance to catch up on a wonderful new book on the Gurdjieff work by Jeanne De Salzmann called “The Reality of Being” (2010). She talks a lot about two modes of being, that of our personal reactive, driven selves and that which is connected to a more “objective” consciousness with… Read More
Separating myself from myself
Gurdjieff made it clear that our first steps towards freedom require us to “remember ourselves” and in doing so “separate ourselves from ourselves”(1973). As I understand it, this means in today’s language to dis-identify with the reactive places we are caught in.
