Open-Secrets

Tag: freud

  • Ego Defenses

    Ego defensesWhat are some ego defenses?

    This is not your ordinary Freudian list of ego defenses. Freud’s list of ego defenses looks something like this:

    • Denial, Repression, and Suppression
    • Displacement and Sublimation
    • Projection and Intellectualization
    • Rationalization
    • Regression
    • Reaction Formation

    The difference in these two lists of ego defenses is that one concerns itself with the ego’s defense against anxiety seeking equilibrium for an ego sense of self, while the other list is more oriented around the ego defending itself from the intrusion of Being.

    Rare is the teacher that can take a student beyond the anxiety and terror of ego dissolution and into the emptiness that offers the opportunity for one’s true nature to arise.

    Just this past week, while attending some advanced training on narcissism, I got wondering about pain (emotional and psychological). Why do we avoid it? Exactly what is psychological and emotional pain?

    It’s said that all emotional and psychological pain is caused by separation from Being.

    It all boils down to – Who are you taking yourself to be?

     

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  • Ego Ideal – Is There an Ideal Ego?

    Ego-idealOh, the ego ideal! What misery this little psychodynamic bug-a-boo causes us.

    What is ego ideal?

    Early on, Freud used both expressions ‘ideal ego‘ and ‘ego ideal’. Later, Freud (1921), (1923) abandoned the use of ‘ideal ego’ using the term ‘ego ideal’ which then became integrated into the term ‘super-ego’.

    The ego ideal is the standard which the superego uses to continually beat the crap out of us. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t! There is no pleasing the superego.

    What is really tragic about the situation is that most of us are being constantly tortured by the anti-libidinal force inherent in the superego while we try to effect an extreme makeover of themselves to become their ego ideal. All of this to finally get the love, acceptance, peace or understanding we deeply crave.

    The ego ideal is deeply intertwined with the punitive part of our consciousness. The righteous have used this in the name of God, country, and the common good to beat, batter, and bruise others for their own good.

    Taking the time to observe our minds and constant self-chatter reveals how much demeaning comparison is active in our daily lives.

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  • Grok Your Life

    Life is journey, or so they say. I tend to think of it more as a process of understanding that is fueled by revelation and discovery.

    What is Life – a big question many have pondered, debated, argued and fought over. Let’s leave that one for another time. What is our life? What is our life about? What is the focus of our life? What do we want from our life?

    Is our life just a stream of events or circumstances? Even if we see our life as a cradle-to-the-grave series of events, what connects the dots? Well, we do. but is our life merely a continuum of bumbling, stumbling happenstance?

    So, maybe the question could be – what is the organizing principle of our life? Where are we coming from? What are we attempting to get, accomplish, understand or grok?

    Do you know this word – GROK?

    Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because we are from Earth) as color means to a blind man. – Stranger in a Strange Land

    I think this word helps to discriminate how people are oriented. Most offspring of this modern age are conditioned to consume experience – running from one experience to the next only to gobble or slurp something down.

    A few still aspire to the Greek aphorism Know Thyself.

    My experience is that many people feel that knowing themselves is too analytical or takes too much effort. Knowing one’s self is more about grokking and less about Freud. Too much effort? – possible translations: I’m lazy, boring or not worth the effort of knowing.

    There is also a very large segment of the population suffering under the delusion that they already know themselves. Asking these knowledgable souls about their motivation, actions, reactions, thoughts, feelings, and etc. is like – well, you know. (It is the rare individual these days that can speak three sentences without using those three words – like,you know – half a dozen times).

    Well, you know – folks that suffer under the delusion of knowing themselves generally answer questions about themselves by quoting history, the party (family) line, or simply stating – that’s how I am. All in all a perfect illustration of not knowing one’s self.

    Knowing one’s self is less about details and specifics as it is about grokking. Gestalt can be viewed as a part of the total grokking process.

    So – less thinking and more grokking.

  • Ignorance is a Rut in the Path to Enlightenment

    Bullheaded

    So, we’re seeing here that the most elementary, most external requirement for growth is the willingness to let go of what you believe should happen, what you believe things should be, what you believe will make you happy.   –   A.H. Almaas

    How many ways are there to express ignorance or stubbornness? How often do we find these two traits in the same person?

    Very few people are capable of learning physics, chemistry or any other advance subject on their own. Few would even attempt to do so. It’s common sense to seek guidance and instruction when delving into something complex or subtle.

    It’s interesting how many of us, on the spiritual path, think we can do it on our own. I’m not talking religion, dogma or doctrine here. I’m talking about one of the most complex and subtle realms of exploration one can engage. And yet, many of us believe we can do it ourselves – we believe we know what direction we need to go. When it comes to inner growth, everyone all of a sudden seems to be a class-a psychic.

    Freud proved that ego is first and foremost a defensive structure, a coping mechanism. It is a universal phenomenon that the mind that the ordinary person identifies with is fundamentally a “groove machine.” It keeps running in the same circles and will continue to do so even when we believe we are going in a different direction.

    That’s why it usually takes a great deal of suffering or something radical to wake us up. The ordinary mind is not going to leave its rut until it becomes so painful that change is not an option.

    Think this is not so? The biggest rut is believing that we are separate individuals. The number of people challenging or giving up this fantasy are few indeed.

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