#psychoanalysis

To find a mountain path all by oneself gives a greater feeling of strength than to take a path that is shown. ↗

— Karen Horney

#psychoanalysis #life

As adults, we hvae many inhibitions against crying. We feel it is an expression of weakness, or femininity or of childishness. The person who is afraid to cry is afraid of pleasure. This is because the person who is afraid to cry holds himself together rigidly so that he won't cry; that is, the rigid person is as afraid of pleasure as he is afraid to cry. In a situation of pleasure he will become anxious. As his tensions relax he will begin to tremble and shake, and he will attempt to control this trembling so as not to break down in tears. His anxiety is nothing more than the conflict between his desire to let go and his fear of letting go. This conflict will arise whenever the pleasure is strong enough to threaten his rigidity. Since rigidity develops as a means to block out painful sensations, the release of rigidity or the restoration of the natural motility of the body will bring these painful sensations to the fore. Somewhere in his unconscious the neurotic individual is aware that pleasure can evoke the repressed ghosts of the past. It could be that such a situation is responsible for the adage "No pleasure without pain. ↗

— Alexander Lowen

#crying #emotions #feelings #letting-go #psychoanalysis

There is nothing inhuman, evil, or irrational which does not give some comfort, provided it is shared by a group. ↗

— Erich Fromm

#evil #psychoanalysis #religion #religion

I thought foolishly that Freudian psychoanalysis was deeper and more intensive than other, more directive forms of therapy, so I was trained in it and practiced it. ↗

— Albert Ellis

#directive #foolishly #forms #freudian #i

The psychoanalysis of neurotics has taught us to recognize the intimate connection between wetting the bed and the character trait of ambition. ↗

— Sigmund Freud

#bed #between #character #connection #intimate

An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better off not knowing. ↗

— Paul Lynde

#because #better #better off #knowing #lot

On Christmas. "Santa Claus represents God on assistance," said Clyde. "Santa Claus is a negative-idealed god, the pagan god of material worship," Leon stated. "Christmas means the rebirth, regeneration. Some people have Christmas every day. The Christmas tree stands up and either the wife trims it or they trim it together with righteous-idealed sexual intercourse. Or the husband prays to God through his Christmas tree and trims his bodily Christmas tree. Christ-mast; the mast of Christ, the upstanding penis—that's what it means to me." "Santa Claus is a good symbolization for Christmas," said Joseph. "Department stores, shopping, the coming of the New Year. Christmas means better business in the stores. ↗

— Milton Rokeach

#psychoanalysis #santa-claus #schizophrenics #through-the-looking-glass #business

Psychoanalysis is often about turning our ghosts into ancestors, even for patients who have not lost loved ones to death. We are often haunted by important relationships from the past that influence us unconsciously in the present. As we work them through, they go from haunting us to becoming simply part of our history. (243) ↗

— Norman Doidge

#death #ghosts #grief #healing-the-past #loss

Shit on your whole mortifying, imaginary, and symbolic theater! ↗

— Gilles Deleuze

#psychoanalysis #shit #capitalism

My love is something valuable to me which I ought not to throw away without reflection. ↗

— Sigmund Freud

#inspirational #inspirational-quotes #love #lovers #psychiatry