The Depth Psychologist on David Godot

Holding the Pen Lightly: On Getting Things Done When You Don’t Really Exist

Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me — the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself when destroyed by living. That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art.” -Anaïs Nin — The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 5: 1947-1955

On Thinking in Public

Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“Admit it, you aren’t like them…” -Timothy Leary

We live in an age of isolation.

We have all the technology needed to share ourselves freely across time and space, but lack the cultural preparation to be able to do so.

As I write this, my own thoughts are wanting to habitually reserve, edit, and censor themselves for you. There’s an impulse to give you an objectified form of myself: Doctor So-and-So, Expert in This-and-That. Personal savior for whatever neurosis du jour is occupying the attention spans of the desperate and lonely masses. Inspirational guru plucking wisdom from the ages and delivering it in digestible nuggets to hold you up as you carry yourself through these trying times. Untamed mystic calling out from the wilderness.

An Egodynamic Model of Hypnosis

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Hypnosis is a spooky phenomenon. Through mechanisms that are not fully understood, this technique allows seemingly impenetrable barriers to be bypassed: repressed material can be recovered or manufactured; moments of imprint vulnerability can be relived and rewritten; psychological and physical symptoms can be alleviated or created; even involuntary physiological processes can be dramatically modified. In this article, we will explore hypnosis from a psychodynamic perspective in order to gain insight into the phenomenon’s effects on defensive functioning, and vice-versa.

Repressed Memory Phenomena

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 00:00:00 +0000

The issue of repressed memory is surprisingly heated, and comes loaded with the weight of several fundamentally different conceptions of the human mind. The real issue, hidden away in the word “repressed,” is whether a memory once repressed can be unleashed, or “recovered.” Thus we find ourselves in the awkward scientific predicament of having, for each paper published presenting evidence of repressed and recovered memories, at least a few papers published expressly to disclaim it. This article will attempt to make some sense of the available literature, drawing in alternative paradigms in addition to empirical studies.