With love's light wings did I o'er-perch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out—Shakespeare   I have had the interesting pleasure of being part of an organization that examines group behavior. We have recently been talking about the relationship between the various affiliates and I have noticed that it has been a real … Continue reading Putting up walls

You could not step twice into the same river — Heraclitus This time of year is a stressful time for many. There seems to be an effort at this time of year to recreate a feeling from a time gone by. This seems to be a source of great stress both in the frantic energy … Continue reading What is remembered

We think we know. We think we are free to make up our own mind. We think the choices we make are of our own free will. Is it true? Our unconscious mind is a power thing. It is multifaceted, complex, always at work, and looking and thinking about things about which we are hardly … Continue reading The freedom to choose?

Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities.—Voltaire Early psychoanalytic theorists struggled with the human behavior of self punishment. Freud developed the idea of the "death instinct" because he really struggled with the notion that anyone would do anything to harm themselves. In his mind, there must be some drive or force that compels a person … Continue reading The need to be punished

I was thinking about why we live in a world where people are constantly making decisions that end up affecting them in a negative way. For example, what drives a person to make a voting decision that will bring a person into office who ultimately undermines the interest of the voter who put them there? … Continue reading Depression and the modern world