We live in a culture that values multitasking, and this reality is leading us to know less and less of who we are. The more we multitask, the more we avoid self-reflection.
Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han tells us that wild animals are incapable of having a contemplative life for they have to multitask all the time: feeding, looking out for danger, protecting their younglings, copulating, and so on and so forth. (The Burnout Society)
We live in a culture that values multitasking, and this reality is leading us to know less and less of who we are. The more we multitask, the more we avoid self-reflection.
0 Comments
"[Psychoanalysis] transforms internal reality, exorcises demons, rides dragons..." - Antonino Ferro.
Being recognized is what makes us feel alive.
Being recognized highlights the challenges at the boundary between Otherness and Sameness. At times, we judge others for something we feel guilty of; we attack the other because it is easier than to acknowledge our own guilt or shame. Psychoanalysis is the time when judgment is suspended; therefore, it becomes the time when we can own our failures and have a more balanced perspective of who we are.
To love is to stop looking at our reflection in the mirrors, and actively bring ourselves out there, where the Other is struggling to find us.
We are more than what we are aware of ourselves: there are underlying unconscious driving forces, repressed memories, and primal interactions with others that have shaped our present selves.
Psychoanalysis allows us to examine these forces, memories, and relationships, and make sense of who we are: omnipotent and vulnerable and loving and unforgiving and tender and angry and joyful and sad. Yes, we are contradictory in nature, and what allows for growth and personal transformation is not erasing parts of who we are, but holding together our contradictions. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman |
Mind and Body Wellness ServicesWe are a group of mental health practitioners with experience working with people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, and family structures. Blog Archives
October 2021
|