RE: My YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 5/23/18 12:21 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 8/13/17 10:56 PM

My YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKjqfUCABDEd6i8uQZ0BqTA
Psych Reviews

Hello I'm just starting a rough YouTube channel for Psychology, Philosophy, and Meditation book reviews. I hope you enjoy.

Richard 
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 8/13/17 11:33 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 8/13/17 11:33 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
I saw the other post. I hope the 2nd video is not too quiet. Oh well people can crank it.

Richard
Jinxed P, modified 6 Years ago at 8/14/17 1:14 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 8/14/17 1:14 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 347 Join Date: 8/29/11 Recent Posts
Cool idea for a channel. 
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 8/19/17 6:30 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 8/19/17 3:16 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
I just uploaded a Guided Insight Meditation with Pink Noise. Enjoy!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHTJN2AoVUg

...and a meditation bell with pink noise and no voice-over:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdCe7kmX-L0
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 8/22/17 12:27 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 8/22/17 12:27 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
I have some good ideas of what I want to review for Psychology books, but for Buddhist books I would appreciate it if anybody here has some requests on what they would like reviewed. Any books that are considered more practical, seminal, or books that have different interpretations of the Dhamma?
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Noah D, modified 6 Years ago at 8/22/17 6:20 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 8/22/17 6:20 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1211 Join Date: 9/1/16 Recent Posts
Saints & Psychopaths 
Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree
In This Very Life

id enjoy seeing texts tied to tradition talked about 
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 8/22/17 7:06 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 8/22/17 7:06 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Thanks for reminding me of Saints and Psychopaths. That would be perfect for my Narcissist book review series. I remember that. Lots of covert types out there and scandals. I could probably extend that to other religions as well. 
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 8/31/17 1:39 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 8/31/17 1:39 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
I just uploaded my take on Mahasi noting. I hope you enjoy. Now I'm off to look at Saints and Psychopaths. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OsuiCaTmWE
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 9/17/17 10:39 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 9/17/17 10:38 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
I'm still working on Saints and Psychopaths. That almost needs to be in my Narcissism book review playlist but I'll keep it in the comtemplative section.

I just published my experience with trying to heal co-dependency which I briefly posted in my log before. It focuses on the Grey Rock method of dealing with toxic people. I have a sneaky suspicion though that some of you have some interesting techniques with meditation and Buddhism on how to deal with toxic people that psychologists wouldn't know about. I would appreciate any comments on my channel on what worked for you.

https://youtu.be/j42qqS2aEE4
Testimonial - Recovering from Co-dependency and Toxic People - Ross Rosenberg
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(D Z) Dhru Val, modified 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 4:07 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 4:07 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 346 Join Date: 9/18/11 Recent Posts
Nice, I subbed will check out the videos later.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 7:29 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 9/18/17 7:29 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Thanks. Later in the year I think I will have more time to create more videos but I only have a dozen right now.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 9/29/17 6:47 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 9/29/17 6:46 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Just added Freud's On Narcissism. Lots of insights here into how self-love can go awry, yet Echo is an example of when self-love is too low. Being in the atheist camp Freud and other Neo-Freudians look at religion as an attempt to bring back the fetal experience when all our needs are met. I'm probably going to have to go back to Nietzsche to see how psychoanalysis and analytical psychology was influenced by him.

https://youtu.be/p5bkxLpQ0Qo
Freud - On Narcissism

My subtitles are in English but I can tell I'll have to start translating into other languages since YouTube is so international. That's a whole pile of work. emoticon
Jinxed P, modified 6 Years ago at 10/3/17 2:03 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/3/17 2:03 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 347 Join Date: 8/29/11 Recent Posts
If you are still taking recommendations for books to review. How about mine? emoticonThe Awakened Ape.  It's been on the best seller's list in Buddhism and Theravada for quite some time now. 
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 10/3/17 6:22 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/3/17 6:22 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Sure, I actually bought that one. 
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 10/5/17 1:04 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/5/17 1:04 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Bringing in meditation into your daily life

https://youtu.be/9ESPuWUkjpc

Feel free to comment on methods you use in daily life, since there are so many.

Just finished Saints and Psychopaths. That will be out on the 19th.
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Incandescent Flower, modified 6 Years ago at 10/5/17 8:32 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/5/17 8:32 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 87 Join Date: 10/27/14 Recent Posts
Really enjoyed this review. Thanks, Richard.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 10/6/17 9:49 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/6/17 9:49 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Incandescent Flower:
Really enjoyed this review. Thanks, Richard.

Thank you. The welcoming meditation in particular really helped me in daily life. There were so many little stresses that were unconscious until I started welcoming more irritants to see how far it was possible to improve my moods.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 10/11/17 8:41 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/11/17 8:40 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
https://youtu.be/Lnsfxfy-wS0

Saints and Psychopaths is finished early. It was a fun one to do because of similarities the book has to other books on the cycle of abuse. It's nice to know that evil has a playbook people can read to protect themselves.

Next up is Haiku.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 10/11/17 9:27 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/11/17 9:27 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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https://youtu.be/7J5RPCquQ_I

Haiku - Various Poets

To get the most out of this experience just absorb yourself in the images that your mind naturally creates from the words…
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 10/19/17 8:50 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/19/17 8:50 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
https://youtu.be/jhMNMSP_99Q
The False Self

Researching these last books have been helpful to my practice in that I'm checking to see if I'm trying to avoid the impulses in my body in the practice. It questions what a true self is versus a false self. It's like the self is injuring itself based on the internal criticizer but we have to tap into the body so that meditation actually talks to the self-impulses in the body, instead of a ruminating self based on an unrealstic ideal, and then we have to parent ourselves to get that independent feeling of self-love that isn't narcissistic or co-dependent. Tricky balance.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 10/22/17 1:02 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 10/22/17 1:02 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Meditation and Chronic Pain

https://youtu.be/Zz94iw8ElKY

This was fun to research as I had a headache from sleeping the wrong way and I put attention on it to relieve the solidity of the pain down to vibrations, and there was some good relief. It shows the value of locking your attention on detail so you can increase pleasant perceptions to replace contractions on the difficulties. It also is a reminder that we need to be controlling and creating our happiness instead of waiting for the environment to do that for us.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 11/1/17 8:09 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/1/17 8:09 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Narcissistic Control

https://youtu.be/FU2QdxwVCuQ

This was hard to do because Narcissism is a part of our culture and Sam Vaknin says that it's an adaptation that works well for the world we are in, yet the heart chakra is dead in them. A recent bump into a Narcissist confirmed that hollow emptiness feeling. They are like dead bodies looking to drain you. When you try to talk to that inner child of theirs it's like talking to a dead body.

The last in the series will be even harder if it's considered mostly incurable. It now seems apparent that narcissism and the pathologcial envy it puts out, can take over institutions and regimes like dictatorships. It's more understandable and any left-wing or right-wing opinions are just the narcissist's way of telling you what to hear so they can take power, because it's all the same in the end for them. Addictive power and control and predatory extrinsic motivation, that's what they want. Without checks and balances they would look at moral rules as jokes.

Anyways, food for thought.

Lots of links to books in this one including some fiction books that look at power and control.
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Ward Law, modified 6 Years ago at 11/2/17 9:17 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/2/17 9:17 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 123 Join Date: 9/7/15 Recent Posts
It now seems apparent that narcissism and the pathologcial envy it puts out, can take over institutions and regimes like dictatorships.
Here's a suggested addition to your reading list: 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1897244258/
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 11/2/17 1:01 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/2/17 1:01 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
emoticon It's already on the list.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 11/15/17 7:43 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/15/17 7:42 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
https://youtu.be/UtMADd7ImZ0
Identity and 5 methods for authentic change

This was a Thank You to my 1st 50 subscribers that turned into a longer video about Identity and change. Enjoy!
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 11/27/17 11:12 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 11/27/17 11:11 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Just as promised the last part on the series on Narcissistic Personality Disorder:

Treatment of Narcissistic Personality Disorder - Various Authors (Part 4 of 4)

https://youtu.be/a5rk8PrA1sY

In the beginning we looked at Freud’s contributions from On Narcissism, where we see a self-love aimed at an ego-ideal which makes all important people in the narcissist’s life a means to an end. Achieving the ego ideal. As the child grows up the true self is never developed and a mask used for the public is identified with, which is the False Self. As the False self is challenged in a competitive ruthless environment, the narcissist learns from trial and error how to use politics and leverage to get his or her way. So far we have looked at how inhuman the narcissist is. The robotic quality and lack of empathy, but the narcissist is a person. When someone is far away from the narcissist they can feel sorry for their bad childhood, but when you are a victim it is impossible.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 12/17/17 11:35 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 12/17/17 11:35 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
https://youtu.be/GCxtgwoJmbc
Dependent Co-arising

Hello, Merry Christmas, or Merry Buddha-mas!

Here's my video review of Dependent Co-arising with books authored by Bhkkhu Bodhi, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Darryl Bailey, and Ajahn Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

This one took a long time, but it helped me to understand Becoming, Birth, and Aging and Death better. Fabrications also makes more sense now. I can understand how people need some basic psychotherapy and practices in manners and improved behaviour, just so they can quiet their mind down enough to have strong concentration.

Enjoy!
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 12/26/17 11:37 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 12/26/17 11:37 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
https://youtu.be/KnsNKpTzaIk
5 tips for Healing Faster from Narcissistic Abuse

I just finished a Narcissist Personality Disorder series, but I felt that there was something missing, which is help for the victim. Once victims have had their sense of self conditioned out of them, they have to rebuild it again in order to recover fully. There are lots of trap doors that slow down the healing process. Here are 5 tips for healing faster from Narcissistic Abuse.

1. Change your environment
2. Deal with Shame
3. Manage your anger
4. See your projections
5. Look at your cultural influences


Right now I'm working on Analayo's books and trying to find a story thread to carry the amount of detail that would make it worth it. At that point I want to continue with Freud, Adler, Jung etc and come back to more Buddhist research on the differences between Theravada and Mahayana.

Have a Happy New Year!
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 1/7/18 3:14 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 1/7/18 3:14 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
This is my 1st part in a four part series of Freud. It's nice to now leave behind the 1800's and move into the 20th century as the psychological methods become more and more interesting.

https://youtu.be/vATDWOYuyWw
Studies in Hysteria - Freud and Breuer
seth tapper, modified 6 Years ago at 1/7/18 9:51 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 1/7/18 9:51 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 477 Join Date: 8/19/17 Recent Posts
Thanks for the video.  I like the production values in it!

I have often thought that what happens in my mind as I sit is freudian free association.  My practice has been to just let the nervous system wind down and it seems to follow along my primitive understanding of both free association and catharthis.  Narratives arise, if I let them they run their course and dissapear and then I get a big release of nervous tension.  As this tension level decreases, happiness is more readily available and I act on emotional triggers less often.  Does that match your own experience/expectations at all?  

I also have the profound experiences of oneness and pleasure that seem to lie beyond the neurotic narrative mind.  Is this the realm of Jung and William James, or did Freud write about it as well? 
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 1/7/18 10:29 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 1/7/18 10:29 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
seth tapper:
Thanks for the video.  I like the production values in it!

I have often thought that what happens in my mind as I sit is freudian free association.  My practice has been to just let the nervous system wind down and it seems to follow along my primitive understanding of both free association and catharthis.  Narratives arise, if I let them they run their course and dissapear and then I get a big release of nervous tension.  As this tension level decreases, happiness is more readily available and I act on emotional triggers less often.  Does that match your own experience/expectations at all?  

I also have the profound experiences of oneness and pleasure that seem to lie beyond the neurotic narrative mind.  Is this the realm of Jung and William James, or did Freud write about it as well? 
I'm just learning myself right now. I would say that Freud looks at the ideas popping up as related to survival (the pleasure principle) and aggression that comes up in response to frustrated desires (death instinct). Jung would look at dreams as pushing you towards individuation (my particular path) and that is about developing skills you've neglected thus far. This is of course related to survival. There are so many choices. You can develop concentration so the mind doesn't go all monkey mind on you in the meditative path. You can have the different voices in the dream have their say and see if there's something you can act on to make your life feel more whole. 

For me, it is interesting that our thoughts can make us react emotionally, as much if not more, than real experiences. What you think about affects how you feel and then how you act. Learning to control our consciousness is where our standard of living is, if I'm paraphrasing Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi correctly. 

For me right now it would be Jung's individuation mixed with the self-discipline of Buddhism. You want to achieve goals but you don't want to go after every dream strand in your mind. Certain goals are at the right level for us.
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tom moylan, modified 6 Years ago at 1/11/18 3:53 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 1/11/18 3:53 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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howdy Richard,
i've been away from the forum for a while but am re-engaging with my developmental intentions and came across your channel.

excellent excellent work, thank you!
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 1/12/18 12:11 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 1/12/18 12:10 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Thank you. This site and Personality Cafe have been very encouraging. I appreciate it.

I've started a new website and I hope I can start blogging soon. I need to take some Gotham NY writing courses so I can get the lay of the land for the different types of internet non-fiction writing. I know my transitions right now are based on chapter stops. LOL!

https://richard-bukowski.mykajabi.com/

Of course I'll be writing some books. This is an expensive website, so I may have to move it to a cheaper Blogger option at some point. I found a local artist that is interested in doing a cover and just came out with her book:

https://www.daffodilartcollective.com/projects.html
Fable Me

I also clarified my channel's 3 strands and have 3 intros for each video. The Psychology, Contemplative Practice, and Philosophy videos from now on will have separate intros and slightly different aims, but they dovetail on topics like what the self is.

https://youtu.be/EbksQiBTXDo
Psych Reviews - Intros

Hopefully I can get at least a book out in 2018 or lots of videos going further beyond ancient times. At some point I'm going to have to look at my meditation log and see what could be included in a book, if it's interesting enough.

Richard
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 1/20/18 4:19 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 1/20/18 4:19 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Okay I switched to Wordpress. It took some getting used to, but I like the result better with this Kalium template.

I'll be finally getting back to my Freud series.

http://psychreviews.org/

Let me know if there are any technical difficulties.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 2/4/18 10:47 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 2/1/18 2:19 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Here's a more in depth look at Flow psychology. 

http://psychreviews.org/flow-in-7-steps-mihaly-csikszentmihalyi/

YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpeIf8Zcriw

Part 2 of Freud is taking some time, but I hope to find a story to thread all these ideas that he puts into his topography of The Mental Apparatus. 

Enjoy!
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 2/10/18 12:13 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 2/10/18 12:13 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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I thought it would make sense to describe my initial attitudes towards meditation and how I got into it in the first place. It shows how far I've come and also much further there is to go. There was a time I didn't believe Jhana was a thing at all. Right now going from 4th jhana to 5th is like a big wall, but having those 4 is still a good refuge.

Video:

https://youtu.be/pBAtA2waS0M

Blog:

http://psychreviews.org/jhana/
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 2/15/18 1:30 AM
Created 6 Years ago at 2/15/18 1:30 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 2/23/18 8:59 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 2/23/18 8:59 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Here's my 1st philosophy section video: Bigotry (Envy Part 1)

Blog:
http://psychreviews.org/bigotry-envy-part-1/

Video:
https://youtu.be/MKYBXQLLmqM
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 3/7/18 1:01 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/7/18 1:01 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Hi guys,

This is my review of the Freud classic Totem and Taboo. Despite so much legitimate criticism of Freud there's a lot of good stuff in his books and I can tell that I'll be able to use it as a foundation to understand later clinicians and thinkers.

Totem & Taboo - Sigmund Freud (Envy Part 2)

Psych Reviews blog:

http://psychreviews.org/totem-taboo-sigmund-freud-envy-part-2/

YouTube:

https://youtu.be/aYsiu4v9N6Y
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 3/10/18 5:58 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/10/18 5:58 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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I just want to thank you guys for the support for my blog and channel. I just touched on the 1st 100 subscribers. This video is just a call out for book recommendations on any of the three strands of Psychology, Contemplative Practice, and Philosophy.


https://youtu.be/zewG5JNkKOA
Your book recommendations
Mathew Poskus, modified 6 Years ago at 3/14/18 4:00 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/14/18 4:00 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 230 Join Date: 10/24/15 Recent Posts
Do review on The Mind Illuminated.
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 3/17/18 6:00 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/17/18 6:00 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Great choice!
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 3/17/18 6:02 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/17/18 6:02 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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This was a little exhausting but I finished my interviews with both female and male victims of Narcissistic Abuse. Here are the two blog entries:

http://psychreviews.org/male-victims-of-narcissistic-abuse/
Men


http://psychreviews.org/victims-narcissistic-abuse/
Women
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Richard Zen, modified 6 Years ago at 3/18/18 11:00 PM
Created 6 Years ago at 3/18/18 11:00 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 4/6/18 11:17 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 4/6/18 11:17 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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If there's one area where I find the difference in older and newer traditions of Buddhism is the emphasis on appropriate effort as a part of the practice. This is emphasized in Analayo's Direct Path book.

https://youtu.be/QSA3LznHNQs
Satipatthana The Direct Path to Realization

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/satipatthana-the-direct-path-to-realization-bhikkhu-analayo/
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 4/11/18 9:39 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 4/11/18 9:39 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
For those who are interested in Analayo, there is a tentative book date of Oct 2018 for a Satipatthana Practice Guide. They are asking for donations now, but I'm sure they'll find the money:

To sponsor:

https://www.windhorsepublications.com/product/sponsor-apracticeguide/


Preorder:

https://www.amazon.com/Satipatthana-Meditation-Practice-Guide-Analayo/dp/1911407104/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 4/13/18 1:22 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 4/13/18 1:22 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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This is the end of a trilogy of interviews on narcissistic abuse.

http://psychreviews.org/lgbtiqa-victims-of-narcissistic-abuse/
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 4/15/18 2:12 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 4/15/18 2:12 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
I just cleaned up my first psychology review of Beverly Engel's - Breaking the cycle of abuse. There's also a good link in the video description and blog that has a chock full of insights on the cycle and how it moves from one generation to another via pathological shame.

Breaking the Cycle of Abuse - Beverly Engel

https://youtu.be/PR21xlDFrGw

Blog:

http://psychreviews.org/breaking-the-cycle-of-abuse-beverly-engel/
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 4/21/18 10:33 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 4/21/18 10:33 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Here is a combination of psychology and meditation insights mixed together. His book alerted me to how unrealistic it would be to do mental work without some strain. Some strain is avoidable with meditation practices, but it is not completely avoidable.

Attention and Effort - Daniel Kahneman

Blog: 

http://psychreviews.org/attention-and-effort-daniel-kahneman/

Video:

https://youtu.be/z_6u4EUyTVM
Mathew Poskus, modified 5 Years ago at 4/26/18 5:47 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 4/26/18 5:47 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 230 Join Date: 10/24/15 Recent Posts
Hi Richard, wouldn't be good and helpful to make a video on Dark Night?
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 4/26/18 1:13 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 4/26/18 1:13 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Mathew Poskus:
Hi Richard, wouldn't be good and helpful to make a video on Dark Night?

It is definitely a good idea, but I want to study addiction and withdrawal symptoms to make comparisons. In my experience the Dark Night is mental resistance to maintain addictive behaviour. The brain is getting scared as a survival resistance, but there are many explanations. Freud talks about Cathexis, Mourning and Melancholia. It's probably going to be a highly complex topic as per usual. 
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 5/17/18 1:37 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 5/17/18 1:37 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Just a heads up! I'm finishing a long video on Spiritual Bypassing. It should be out this Friday. I hope to put a light on meditation and disconnection and how it can be the same disconnection as with any other external numbing with addictions or other activities. 
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 5/18/18 2:03 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 5/18/18 2:03 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Spiritual Bypassing and Inner Bonding - Margaret Paul

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/spiritual-bypassing-and-inner-bonding/

Video: https://youtu.be/JVrkwqUdKE8

Have fun Bonding, instead of Bypassing.

What I find interesting, is that meditation can aid connection with the self, by allowing a dialogue with feelings, but also the self can be relaxed in the typical way of meditation. Both options are available. 
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 5/21/18 7:41 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 5/21/18 7:41 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Here's a guided meditation for good measure on Inner Bonding:


http://psychreviews.org/inner-bonding-guided-meditation/
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 1:54 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 1:54 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
June 1st is World Narcissistic Abuse Awareness Day. Despite this being a popular topic, a lot of people still don't believe in this disorder and think these people in their lives are just jerks. Compared to other posts I focused more on childhood influences and some of the popular topics like duping delight and gaslighting.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/world-narcissistic-abuse-awareness-day-june-1st/

Video: https://youtu.be/7_C-P28w058
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Jordi, modified 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 3:44 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 3:44 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 84 Join Date: 9/17/17 Recent Posts
Hi Richard good videos, good work, good resources and information. keep going with this high quality content in youtube emoticon
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 8:14 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 8:14 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Jordi:
Hi Richard good videos, good work, good resources and information. keep going with this high quality content in youtube emoticon

Thanks for the support!
Kuru, modified 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 8:50 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 8:50 AM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

Posts: 62 Join Date: 11/2/17 Recent Posts
Richard Zen:
Spiritual Bypassing and Inner Bonding - Margaret Paul

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/spiritual-bypassing-and-inner-bonding/

Video: https://youtu.be/JVrkwqUdKE8

Have fun Bonding, instead of Bypassing.

What I find interesting, is that meditation can aid connection with the self, by allowing a dialogue with feelings, but also the self can be relaxed in the typical way of meditation. Both options are available. 


Hey Richard, seconding in appreciation for your videos and blog posts. Found this one particularly interesting, in that I can see in myself how I've at times used meditation to do bypassing. Same for your other posts in another thread I saw here about developing a good relationship with oneself and Rob Burbea's imaginal work.

It inspired me to take out Rob's book Seeing that Frees and look into more of his Dhamma talks on the topic. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on how his approach to Imaginal relates to Jung, do you see it as a similar thing in Dharma framework or a separate developmental process?
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 1:00 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 5/28/18 1:00 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Andrew S:
Richard Zen:
Spiritual Bypassing and Inner Bonding - Margaret Paul

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/spiritual-bypassing-and-inner-bonding/

Video: https://youtu.be/JVrkwqUdKE8

Have fun Bonding, instead of Bypassing.

What I find interesting, is that meditation can aid connection with the self, by allowing a dialogue with feelings, but also the self can be relaxed in the typical way of meditation. Both options are available. 


Hey Richard, seconding in appreciation for your videos and blog posts. Found this one particularly interesting, in that I can see in myself how I've at times used meditation to do bypassing. Same for your other posts in another thread I saw here about developing a good relationship with oneself and Rob Burbea's imaginal work.

It inspired me to take out Rob's book Seeing that Frees and look into more of his Dhamma talks on the topic. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on how his approach to Imaginal relates to Jung, do you see it as a similar thing in Dharma framework or a separate developmental process?
It looks like he's trying a different process from Theravada Buddhism and Jung. With Jung you are trying to balance yourself with the perspectives of the different archetypes and take action on it. I'm still working on Burbea's earlier imaginal practices because I want to be sure that I'm doing them properly. Otherwise I can't say that I understand his new process. Right now it just looks like allowing the desire to go where it wants (without acting on it) until it finds something satisfying in the imagination. 

These are extremely difficult skills to learn and even Inner Bonding yields lots of insights, despite how simple it is. For example, putting attention on the body and just seeing how satisfied it is and realizing that it is satisfied, and then going back into disembodied thoughts and finding dissatisfaction and addictiveness there. Internal and external motivation is connected with this and I can see how many areas of psychology will overlap here.

I think it's choice and results ultimately. If it works for you and you feel more and more satisfied then you should listen to that.
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 6/23/18 4:39 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 6/23/18 4:39 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 7/3/18 9:02 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 7/3/18 9:02 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 7/14/18 11:47 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 7/14/18 11:47 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 7/26/18 12:11 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 7/26/18 12:11 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Thought and Meditation - Rob Burbea

The mindfulness of measuring has been helpful. It cooled my brain just a little bit. Every bit helps.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/thought-and-meditation/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/oRM40U46EXI
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 8/12/18 10:59 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 8/12/18 10:59 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Here's a refurbishment of a prior video on Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams to account for the fact that this series is going to be longer than I thought since Freud ideas developed in a scattered way across many books and papers.  

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/dreams-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: http://youtu.be/dIxp32W5ris
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 9/2/18 12:00 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 9/2/18 12:00 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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This was a refreshing challenge on the debate between Determinism and Free will. Later developments on the topic in the 20th century would go into areas where determinism creates the free will we have, but in the meantime these types of thoughts feel a lot like a mindfulness meditation.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/the-psychopathology-of-everyday-life-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/oIc_h2tub5M
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 9/13/18 11:09 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 9/13/18 11:09 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Freud's theory on Humour and Jokes:

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/humour-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/4vHj7aVUQHU
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 9/29/18 6:53 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 9/29/18 6:53 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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This was a long review of Freud's sexual theories, and only part 1. A huge part of it was about early theories of sexual orientation. Some of the ideas were funny due to contradictions, but it was only 1905.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/sexuality-aberrations-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/bYI5Fty3Txg
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 10/10/18 7:24 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 10/10/18 7:24 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Part two of Freud's basic theories on sexuality: Infantile Sexuality. One gets the sense that a parent's influence can last an entire lifetime.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/sexuality-part-2-infantile-sexuality-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/fo_Qn96acj8
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 10/20/18 6:12 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 10/20/18 6:12 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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This post took a lot of listening to complete, but it was enjoyable to listen to the hardcore practice of Thanissaro Bhikkhu. He has a sense of humour that's all his own, but it's a humour that reminds us of death.

Emotional Feeding - Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/emotional-feeding/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/EDgyAPyTM-0
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Noah D, modified 5 Years ago at 10/24/18 1:15 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 10/24/18 1:15 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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I just listened to & enjoyed this one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9VjWDy4g6U.  Good audio & slideshow timing/selection.
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 10/24/18 12:53 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 10/24/18 12:53 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Thanks!
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Noah D, modified 5 Years ago at 10/25/18 7:10 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 10/25/18 7:10 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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The description of stage 10 was funny.  Just the overall "sainthood model" presentation from the book (which I am a fan of) + your calm recitation of it.  I couldn't help but picure the arahant being carried around on a palanquin with an "alzheimer's smile" as I've heard one teacher put it....  
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 10/28/18 12:56 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 10/28/18 12:46 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Noah D:
The description of stage 10 was funny.  Just the overall "sainthood model" presentation from the book (which I am a fan of) + your calm recitation of it.  I couldn't help but picure the arahant being carried around on a palanquin with an "alzheimer's smile" as I've heard one teacher put it....  

I would be a little skeptical of these things, partly because these saints live in a protected environment. I don't think it's possible to be like this and live in, let's say New York, as a stock broker and do this lifestyle. Or to do a fast paced job with heavy mental computation pushing you to burnout, and still be an arahant. 

Next...just because someone says they are at a stage isn't the same thing as doing actual scientific trials and tests to prove it to others. We just have to take their word for it. I would just treat it as a goal or target, and we can appreciate the improvements we get from our subjective experience.

A great documentary that came out recently would help support what I'm talking about is Free Solo. It's about Alex Honnold who did a free solo climb up El Capitan. They tested his amygdala and found it very non-reactive, explaining his fearlessness. Yet when he got a girlfriend, and had cameras watching him, his internal motivation turned to external motivation which started to drain him. He convincingly shows the need for preparation on hard goals that are watched by others as the key to success. When something is so over-prepared it becomes easy. Then the external motivation stress reduces. People can do this without meditation, though meditation would help. Overpreparation is more important with difficult goals. We usually don't stress or worry about things we are skilled at (Self-Efficacy).

Most meditators are probably more reactive to fear than he is, so you can count them out as "unsurpassable." It's a nice goal, and being closer to unsurpassable and farther away from suicide, depression, etc. is worth the effort. Stuff like Shinzen talking about being tortured by terrorists and using his meditation to counter that pain is laughable and shows naivete, or hubris.

Reducing, or even curing depression is impressive enough as it is. No need to be a superhero.
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 11/4/18 2:17 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 11/4/18 2:17 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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This is the first installment of Greek Philosophy. Even though Thales is more of a legend, there's a lot that can be learned about rational thinking vs. mythical thinking.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/the-presocratics-thales/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/4HJswRzqM2Y
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ivory, modified 5 Years ago at 11/6/18 10:55 AM
Created 5 Years ago at 11/6/18 10:55 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 199 Join Date: 9/11/14 Recent Posts
Cool! Funny thing is that I stumbled on your channel a while back but didn't know it was yours. Good stuff man.
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 11/7/18 8:28 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 11/7/18 8:28 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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ivory:
Cool! Funny thing is that I stumbled on your channel a while back but didn't know it was yours. Good stuff man.


Thanks!
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 12/18/18 11:25 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 12/18/18 11:25 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Here's my first case study, Freud's analysis of "Dora". I put everything but the kitchen sink into this one. It will be nice to take a break!

It includes insights in Transference, Countertransference, Bigotry, Sexism, Projection, Mental Peace, Meaning in life, and probably a lot more. LOL!

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/case-studies-dora-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/vAh-cql2DCQ
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 12/29/18 5:55 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 12/29/18 5:55 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Upgrade your New Year's Day resolutions, or Any Day resolutions, with this Guided Meditation. Happy New Year!

YouTube: https://youtu.be/Sdoj1XyB9bI

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/emotional-feeding-guided-meditation/
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 5 Years ago at 12/29/18 10:16 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 12/29/18 10:16 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Oh, that’s you? Cool. I’m already following your channel. :-)
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 1/26/19 3:07 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 1/26/19 3:07 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Here's a review on Freud's Pleasure Principle. It provides a good description of neurosis and how we can turn away from reality.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/0UR4hkbKsJ0


Blog: http://psychreviews.org/the-pleasure-principle-sigmund-freud/
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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 2/23/19 5:25 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 2/23/19 5:25 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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New video on the internal commentator. It's mostly in the Advaita Vedanta style, but that's a good place to start and end for most people. emoticonHappy insights! 

The Commentator:

Blog:

http://psychreviews.org/the-commentator/


YouTube:

https://youtu.be/auejzRGMa9s


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Richard Zen, modified 5 Years ago at 3/17/19 12:29 PM
Created 5 Years ago at 3/17/19 12:29 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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This is the next installment of the Presocratics. Anaximander struggles to find a way to move beyond Thales assertion that water is the origin of the world. There's also commentary from Nietzsche and Heidegger, including some Heideggarian meditation methods that should look eeriely familiar. Have a good Sunday!

YouTube: https://youtu.be/QFNze3P_CIU

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/the-presocratics-anaximander/
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 5/4/19 9:36 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 5/4/19 9:36 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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World Narcissistic Abuse Awareness Day is upon us soon (June 1st).

Please sign up for your free telesummit: 
https://wnaad.com/

Here's my contribution on the clinging psychology of Stalking, which unfortunately many people have to go through.

This is what people don't tell you about when you want to pursue success.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/IhNDMX0s46w

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/stalking/

Practice well!
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Noah D, modified 4 Years ago at 5/4/19 3:38 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 5/4/19 3:38 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Listening to recent vid - This is super interesting , you’re synthesizing a lot of ideas.  Thanks.
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 5/4/19 3:46 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 5/4/19 3:46 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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It's my INFP brain. It wants to know WHY so I sift through a lot of material. emoticon
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 5/11/19 3:50 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 5/11/19 3:50 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Here's a brief review of Freud's theory of Sublimation. It's a defense mechanism, but it can be more than that with the likes of Leonardo Da Vinci. What I noticed is that much of any pleasure is a relief from pain. Pain is required so that the relief of pleasure can be enjoyed. This is a subtle pain though, not a car accident. This is similar to the Opponent-Process Theory that measures excitement and boredom. It is also like Csikszentmihalyi's Flow. It can also be found in meditative Jhanas, where the progressive Jhanas involve less pain and more refined peace.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/sublimation-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/dcht85_CLGo
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 5/15/19 11:17 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 5/15/19 11:17 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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This is a guided meditation inspired by Thanissaro Bhikkhu's talks on Emotional Feeding. It's also tangentially inspired by the recent Sublimation video. It includes grey noise and text.


Blog: http://psychreviews.org/emotional-feeding-guided-meditation-2/


YouTube: https://youtu.be/w8EqmDPQlPg
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 6/24/19 12:09 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 6/24/19 12:09 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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One of the most analyzed psychology cases is that of Daniel Paul Schreber. Included in this analysis are the subjects of Schizophrenia, Paranoia, sexual fluidity, projection, and parenting methods. Of interest to meditators is that concentration in hobbies and interests can quiet the mental voices somewhat, but it's obviously a biological problem that can't be cured as of yet.

Blog: 
http://psychreviews.org/case-studies-daniel-schreber/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/MF_bD7G-lhU


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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 7/12/19 2:28 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 7/12/19 2:28 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Here's a video on many ways one can motivate themselves to get started and why they should try. It includes Freud, Play Psychology, Intrinsic Motivation, High Performance research, and a strong attempt at Heideggerian meditations of Gifting, Thanking, and Love. Enjoy!

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/how-to-motivate-yourself/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/TliZGrddzsA
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 8/10/19 10:31 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 8/10/19 10:31 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Childhood phobias, triggers, and the danger of brainwashing. 'Little Hans' and Freud. For meditators you can start to see an early map of mental objects of imitated people in our minds, which is a great place to start relaxing those negative faces and personalities that are imitated into the mind.

Blog: 
http://psychreviews.org/case-studies-little-hans-sigmund-freud/


YouTube: https://youtu.be/pD0BdzAduK0
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 8/15/19 1:18 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 8/15/19 1:17 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Improving concentration with lots of advice from Gangaji, Pema Chödrön, Leonard Jacobson, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Amy Aubry, Georgi Y Johnson, Renate McNay, Mariana Caplan and Rob Burbea. It's also a recap of a lot of my recent videos. It's heavy on Mahayana styles for those who care.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/improving-concentration/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/33_b8yKWTFs
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 8/18/19 5:20 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 8/18/19 5:20 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Quick tip on Dukkha: https://youtu.be/9kAlGO7Dwls
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 9/20/19 3:00 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 9/20/19 2:59 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Here's my response to the allegations against Culadasa from Dharma Treasure regarding sexual misconduct. Though it goes way beyond that! 

YouTube:

https://youtu.be/w9LrDvM2rXQ

Blog:

http://psychreviews.org/scandal-ambivalence-hypocrisy-and-culture/
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 9/25/19 2:40 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 9/25/19 2:40 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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This is a phenomenological study on how Cults work and what to look for when they are influencing you. Like a virus, Cults create fronts to disguise their exploitative agendas. After this video, you'll be able to detect them, even if they are operating in legal operations.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/cult-psychology/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/ywWQLOar5Bo

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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 10/19/19 12:37 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 10/19/19 12:37 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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This is a review of Freud's 'Ratman,' Ernst Lanzer. It focuses on Transference therapy and the roles of emotional triggers, displacement, projection, and perception in our lives. If you have a meditation practice, try to see if you can catch your emotional triggers, relax the reactions, and accept yourself.

Blog: 
http://psychreviews.org/case-studies-rat-man-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: 
https://youtu.be/GdgOgnUv8LU
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 12/23/19 1:41 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/23/19 1:40 PM

RE: My new YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 12/25/19 1:34 AM
Created 4 Years ago at 12/25/19 1:33 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Finally the trilogy is done with The 'Wolfman' Sergei Pankejeff.

It includes difficult subject matter, including internalized homosexual bigotry, Homosexual OCD, Bisexual erasure, Suicide, Incest and the Cycle of Abuse. For those interested in meditation, you may like Part 2 for Psychoanalytic Mindfulness, and Part 1 for Remembering Repeating and Working-through. The remainder of the topics include the usual Freudian Oedipus Complex and Mimetics. There's a smattering of WWI history and a good description, I think, of how violence escalates into war.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/case-studies-wolf-man-sigmund-freud/

YouTube:

Part 1: https://youtu.be/bMCmhDc9j5U
Part 2: https://youtu.be/7Rw0L6x330A
Part 3: https://youtu.be/ywoB8G3UvO4
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 1/1/20 6:48 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/1/20 6:48 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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5 reasons why New Year's Resolutions Fail and what to do about it.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/why-new-years-resolutions-often-fa…/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/tysGZbvJlig
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 1/18/20 7:12 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/18/20 7:12 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Based on Freud’s Love trilogy and René Girard’s meditations, this is an analysis of how relationships, or anything for that matter, can be over or undervalued.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/love-sigmund-freud-and-beyond/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/tVxjMP83ajo
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 1/25/20 10:56 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 1/25/20 10:56 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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With different meditation advice on Transference, Communal Happiness, and Wonder, Xenophanes started moving the philosophical conversation to "the good life." His tone is that of someone who likes good behaviour and memorable social exchanges. If I were to get his MBTI type he definitely likes Feeling Extroversion.

Blog: 
http://psychreviews.org/the-presocratics-xenophanes/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/_QvCD-k0FOg


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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 3/9/20 2:12 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/9/20 2:11 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Blog: http://psychreviews.org/the-jhanas/
 
YouTube: https://youtu.be/8HmTQ-IbQnE

A compilation of the 8 Jhanas and insights from the points of view of many masters and commentators: Adyashanti, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Ajahn Brahm, Leigh Brasington, Rob Burbea, John Butler, Julia Cameron, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Meister Eckhart, Henepola Gunaratana, Martin Heidegger, Daniel Ingram, Ramana Maharshi, Tina Rasmussen, J. Reid Meloy, Rumi, Pak Au Sayadaw, Daniel J. Siegel, Stephen Snyder, Rupert Spira, and Arahant Upatissa.

Stay safe from the stupid virus!
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Papa Che Dusko, modified 4 Years ago at 3/9/20 3:41 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/9/20 3:41 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen:


Stay safe from the stupid virus!

There is nothing safe within the 31 realms emoticon (jusy kidding)

Will try find time to check that vid, thanks!
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Richard Zen, modified 4 Years ago at 3/23/20 10:41 PM
Created 4 Years ago at 3/23/20 10:41 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Papa Che Dusko:
Richard Zen:


Stay safe from the stupid virus!

There is nothing safe within the 31 realms emoticon (jusy kidding)

Will try find time to check that vid, thanks!

I'm more worried about the economy now. So much Samsara!

This video is part of a Freudian exploration of WWI. It will move into Shell Shock/PTSD and then what was learned about the mind after the war.

During WWI, Sigmund Freud was able to stew over his theories, some early criticisms, but he also took stock of the Great War that interrupted everyone's lives. The life that people once new, in what was called the British Peace, the long peace that lasted 100 years, was over. Lives were uprooted, but there was also a lot of optimism on each side. There was a sense of adventure, until one faced reality and saw what adventure really was like.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/war-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/eDgSz9LtjRk
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 4/2/20 1:13 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 4/2/20 1:13 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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War Part 2: Freud reviews The Pleasure Principle, The Reality Principle and theorizes a Nirvana Principle.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/war-part-2-beyond-sigmund-freud-and-beyond/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/sU2cZriJZT0
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 4/13/20 3:52 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 4/13/20 3:51 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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War Part 3: Group Psychology

Freud's exploration of Prestige and how it influences us.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/war-part-3-group-psychology-freud-and-beyond/

YouTube: 
https://youtu.be/Glw3sOeQEng

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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 5/2/20 10:24 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/2/20 10:24 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 5/15/20 1:06 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/15/20 1:06 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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With The Ego and the Id, Freud talked about an expanding Ego-Body-Concept. Now with Otto Fenichel's Narcissistic Supply, what happens when this Ego-concept expands to devour people?

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/narcissistic-supply-freud-beyond/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/P1Mavs4UqYE
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 5/19/20 8:50 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/19/20 8:50 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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The biggest stumbling block in meditation practice is over-intellectualizing it. A way to get over it is to actively search for a concrete self. Failure is an unexpected pleasure.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/mindfulness/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/zbWbm9DxA68
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 5/20/20 8:07 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/20/20 8:07 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Now that the sense of self is seen through, there are glimpses of peace. Thanissaro Bhikkhu talks about how to preserve it.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/how-to-meditate-for-longer/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/DgrhPJC9UAk
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 5/20/20 2:00 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/20/20 2:00 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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In preparation for the impermanence of everything, there is a chance that the mind will breakdown. Shinzen Young describes how impermanence can be fulfilling. Enjoy your practice!

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/mindfulness-gone-anicca/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/jqVkeHw3_3g



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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 5/25/20 3:59 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 5/25/20 3:59 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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After learning about the Buddhist Three Characteristics, we can now put them all together and enjoy things like Forest Bathing. #AfterCOVID.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/oik1gJuQ-Z0

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/forest-bathing-aftercovid/

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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 7/3/20 11:40 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/3/20 11:40 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Heraclitus was a Oneness type that seems eerily similar to Advaita, but with lots of embracing of duality. 

YouTube: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15JZXiHsD6A

Blog:
http://psychreviews.org/the-presocratics-heraclitus/
Sam Gentile, modified 3 Years ago at 7/3/20 2:05 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/3/20 2:05 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Richard Zen:
Thought and Meditation - Rob Burbea

The mindfulness of measuring has been helpful. It cooled my brain just a little bit. Every bit helps.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/thought-and-meditation/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/oRM40U46EXI

I actually discovered this with a google search (was not aware of this thread) and got hooked right away and watched a few more. Great calm voice, very professional production. Super useful!
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 7/3/20 5:29 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/3/20 5:29 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Sam Gentile:
Richard Zen:
Thought and Meditation - Rob Burbea

The mindfulness of measuring has been helpful. It cooled my brain just a little bit. Every bit helps.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/thought-and-meditation/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/oRM40U46EXI

I actually discovered this with a google search (was not aware of this thread) and got hooked right away and watched a few more. Great calm voice, very professional production. Super useful!

Thanks! 
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 7/12/20 1:35 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/12/20 1:35 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Sigmund Freud had a lot of trouble with self-defeating patients, especially 'The Wolfman.' He was influenced to study masochism because of recurring beating fantasies indulged by his patients.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/a-child-is-being-beaten-sigmund-freud/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/g_-_9TgTQWg
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Abhishek Sharma, modified 3 Years ago at 7/12/20 2:20 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/12/20 2:18 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Nice resourceful channel.. you gain one sub emoticon
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 7/12/20 5:40 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/12/20 5:40 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Have fun!
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 7/23/20 11:31 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/23/20 11:31 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Sigmund Freud had a lot of trouble with self-defeating patients, especially 'The Wolfman.' He was influenced to study masochism because of recurring beating fantasies indulged by his patients.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/a-child-is-being-beaten-sigmund-freud/

Youtube: https://youtu.be/g_-_9TgTQWg

Sigmund Freud described Masochism as Sadism against one self, but what is Sadism like when it's targeted outside oneself?

Blog: 
http://psychreviews.org/sexuality-pt-5-sadism-freud-and-beyond/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/dupTkCmIzjs






shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 7/24/20 9:17 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/24/20 9:14 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Richard, I found this core idea really significant: "When one has had a frightening, negligent, or abusive background, the need to recreate those circumstances in order to try to master them psychologically can be both visible and tragic." in Part 4

Of course, this plays out quite visible during dark night stages of meditation, but wow, yes it plays out visible and tragically when the dynamic isn't consciously. When meditators really buy into the need to somehow "conquer" the dark night thier is a tendency to keep recreating the triggers they are trying to conquer and for really obstinate people (like myself) it takes hitting bottom before being willing to consider another approach.

I think that a big part of what gets learned through progressive stages of awakening is an alternative approach to this-versus-that style of mastery. There is an appreciation of a sort of "this AND that" approach which doesn't perpetuate the pattern. It's like we learn to extract the lessons we need to learn from both sides of a fightening situation, both the truth of the fear and the truth of the appropriateness of safety...

One related idea from Ken McLeod's writing... https://unfetteredmind.org/the-warriors-solution-passivity-and-freedom-4/

All reactive patterns have two poles which can be called the expressive and the receptive. The example of abuse, physical abuse makes this quite clear. When a parent abuses a child, strikes a child, that experience is usually so strong and so contradictory to what is meant to be happening in the parent-child relationship that the child cannot experience that event in attention. So something freezes. And the child splits into two. And these become the two poles of the pattern.

The one pole, the receptive, is an identity that forms around the experience of being hit and this becomes the victim. And the victim pattern, as it matures through life, is one of passive, of always trying to please, give away, always protective, defensive, hyper-vigilant, etc, etc. Familiar territory, Arlene? Yeah. Anybody who’s worked in psychotherapy knows this very well.

But the other pole also is planted in the child, and that is the expressive, which is the abuser. Because if you have been on the receiving end of abuse there is one thing that you know how to do, you know how to abuse. You know exactly how to do it. And that becomes a sadistic, dominating, belligerent, so forth. And in life a person will typically flip from one to the other. They will form a primary identity about one, but if they encounter circumstances in which that identity can’t function they will just flip to that other pole, because it’s the same pattern.

Student:

Ken: Circumstances. If you think of the bully/coward, if you challenge a bully they flip into a coward. But if you corner a coward they become a bully. And every pattern has those two poles and they flip. This is why we say, “the opposite of a reactive behavior is still the reaction.”

In the opponent’s world with child we meet what we could not face, dissolve that into energy, unite it with the other pole of the pattern, and dissolve that into the energy which it is and in this way come to experience both in attention. In this exercise we meet and experience what we could not face before, and in doing so that dissolves into energy, which is its nature. That energy is united with the other side of the pattern and we meet that and experience it. And that too dissolves into energy. So in this way we experience both sides of the pattern in attention leading to it’s dissolution.

Richard, does any of the ideas that I'm attributing to KMcL sound familiar to you? I think he didn't make it up, but got it from somewhere else. I've been interested in trying to track the source documents/references for this idea of trauma splitting into multiple views/identities/orientations. 


p.s. lots of great links, including songs, in Part 5! emoticon
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 7/24/20 10:33 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/24/20 10:33 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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Yeah, you're post does remind me of Psychoanalysis, in that the brain is constantly going towards complexes and away from them, and of course the meditative way is to let it dissolve, but I would say from what psychoanalysts point to, they want people to go towards the pain to understand it and to learn to take healthy actions that were inhibited by the complexes.

Naturally one could combine these two approaches by learning to tolerate that feeling of danger and then react with healthy assertiveness that isn't too sadistic or masochistic. 

I'm also working on my nihilistic stage, which was working well with Super-ego problems, but now I see that it's just a stage and one has to face complexes to develop further. Upasika Kee Nanayon's Pure and Simple, with pure noticing, without heavy labeling, may be the way forward.
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 7/24/20 11:46 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/24/20 11:46 AM

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Richard Zen:
Yeah, you're post does remind me of Psychoanalysis, in that the brain is constantly going towards complexes and away from them, and of course the meditative way is to let it dissolve, but I would say from what psychoanalysts point to, they want people to go towards the pain to understand it and to learn to take healthy actions that were inhibited by the complexes.


Actually, I think "going towards pain" is what needs to happen in meditation as well. I don't think the dissolving happens without going towards and inhabiting "pain" consciously. 

Basically, introspection is needed when normal habitual attraction, aversion, and indifference no longer works. The old habits (which may have helped us survive or thrive in the past) just aren't delivering happiness or success anymore. That when we have to stop "taking up" attraction and develop a bit of disenchantment, we have to stop "pushing away" aversion and instead put ourselves in the middle of it, and we have bring awareness to the things we are indifferent to (which often results in a new appreciation of how much "ease" surrounds us, because we're always focused on attraction and aversion and getting pushed and pulled everywhere). When we're able to stay conscious in attention and aversion and indifference without falling into old trances... then the system seems to recalibrate and get the new data it needs for the next challenge or the next stage of life.

The trick really is to go towards pain but not losing "objective awareness" of the pain i.e., without going into the trance again. Then the truth of the complexes are understood, that they are reactive "shortcuts" which sometimes work but mostly just mess up life. And I DEFINITELY agree that the next step definitely has to be healthy actions... otherwise there is understanding without the actual ability to follow through and act. (Lots of people think the insight is enough, but in a certain sense, insight is the halfway point.)

 
I'm also working on my nihilistic stage, which was working well with Super-ego problems, but now I see that it's just a stage and one has to face complexes to develop further. Upasika Kee Nanayon's Pure and Simple, with pure noticing, without heavy labeling, may be the way forward.

Out of curiousity, what flavor of nihilstic patterns? Anger? Aversion? Avoidance? Skepticism? Paralysis? 


Found this text of Pure and Simple, I'm reading it now...
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/kee/pureandsimple.html
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 7/24/20 9:12 PM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/24/20 9:12 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

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It's more like paralysis and habitual loops. I do get projects completed but I think there's more efficiency that can be developed. Of course being an INFP, part of me is trying to develop the barely conscious ESTJ parts. It's like Jung's understanding on how people can flip personality types at middle age, due to boredom.

For example, going to movies was such a thrill, but I prefer to make videos instead of watch them. When I do watch a movie, I can watch it once or twice and never again. The nihilism can lead to those old loops coming back even when they're dull.
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 7/25/20 6:17 AM
Created 3 Years ago at 7/25/20 6:14 AM

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The paralysis side of things is really interesting... Like how some tasks --- or even how thinking in a particular conceptual domain --- sometimes takes waaay too much activation energy to get started. Even if we ultimately get things done or accomplish the goal, it can feel needlessly exhausting or draining and yet, from the outside looking iin, it would seem to be no big deal to have done it.  And so we kinda know something is going on, but because it isn't wildly painful or wildly fearful, its kinda hard to figure out where the actual psychological resistance is, yet there has to be something going on. It can be fun to just dig and uncover these subtle resistances in meditation. Sometimes there's suprising pay dirt -- a pocket of memories or unconscious "strategies" that are kinda shocking when they are seen in consciousness. 

And it's interesting because at this level of subtilty, there are also other dimensions that come into play. Like I've noticed that all responsible people have to periodically go through adjustments where they realize "I don't have to get all of this done right now". While many people wait until a deadline, effective people often have the opposite problem of sometimes working too fast to check off their responsibilities. A lot of effective workers/professsionals will get odd resistances to working that are actually the body/mind saying "it's okay, you don't have to pursue work so hard" and this can be a good kind of adjustment, but it can feel so wrong. I've notice that most people need a friend or authority figure to say "I  know you always meet the critical deadlines. It's okay to let stuff simmer on the backburner for a while, I know that YOU know when it will be appropriate to do the work and even if you wait until close to the deadline, I know you'll get it done." I had a friend do that for me, and I noticed that there was some aspect of my subconscious that did have a good understanding of when things really needed to be done and indeed I could "slack off" more without being irresponsible. But honestly, it took 5 years of trial and error (but most intensely the first year) before I could trust it.

And then there's the dimension of love, creativity, adventure... sometimes the paralysis is due to the heart yearning for something and all we know is "more getting things done" isn't the answer. This can be an odd kind of paralysis where the super-ego might allow us to slack off, but any attempt to explore new things (or the thing we know we want to do, but can't admit it) will instantly be labelled as frivolous. I've recently had a phase of this myself... and turning 50 years old kinda blew the dust off this dynamic and revealed it more clearly. In other words, the reminder of aging and mortality left me with the counter-thought: when on earth do you think you will have time to try these new things out? It's not like you have endless time left.  emoticon  I've made a pact with myself that I'll use the expression "sure, I'll try it!" more this year...

I kinda think that this dynamic ---- the paralysis-adventure spectrum ---- is one of nearly endless refinement. The body/mind needs to conserve energy to better survive, yet life is unfullfilling if we stay in our ruts, and yet nothing masterful is accomplished without putting ourself in a self-selected rut, yet nothing adds creativity than getting out of out of ruts, etc. It's not about choosing only one option, but kind of an artful dance we have to figure out.

(Well, that was a diatribe  emoticon  Anyway, thanks for evoking all these thoughts!) 
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 7/25/20 8:54 AM
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Yes, the PANG of mortality is a big motivator! emoticon
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 8/14/20 1:44 AM
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Well, it's been 3 years, and it's time to say goodbye to Sigmund Freud, though I expect he'll be back since so many other psychologists talk about him.

In this last episode, Freud faces religion, wishful thinking, and the problem of maintaining individual happiness in a world of envy and aggression. Included also are the emotional precursors of Nazism and Communism. He also tackles the age-old question, "What does a woman want?"

YouTube: https://youtu.be/6UhoAdsWkGQ

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/psychoanalysis-sigmund-freud/
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 8/15/20 9:47 AM
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Interesting -- I never quite put together how obsessional = superego, but that makes a lot of sense. Obsession has a high degree of pseudo-awareness but is strangely unobservant; having perceptions filtered through the superego helps explain the all-or-nothing lack of nuance and "obligation" feeling of obsession. 

p.s. this is a very content rich summary -- thank you! --  i can already tell i'll want to read it a few times to reaaly get freud's thinking/model. 
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 8/15/20 10:17 AM
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shargrol:
Interesting -- I never quite put together how obsessional = superego, but that makes a lot of sense. Obsession has a high degree of pseudo-awareness but is strangely unobservant; having perceptions filtered through the superego helps explain the all-or-nothing lack of nuance and "obligation" feeling of obsession. 

p.s. this is a very content rich summary -- thank you! --  i can already tell i'll want to read it a few times to reaaly get freud's thinking/model. 

It's an early personality typology, but Obsessional involves that feeling when we imagine Objects/Entities in our mind and we get the feeling of Others and being watched. He connects this with religious attitudes of feeling an entity is watching you and judging you. Then he connects superstitious rituals with the placating of the internal object to avoid punishment. It's a way to control people without being there. We also can then do weird rituals and connect coincidences to them which reinforce the magical belief. In the modern day would be cults, tarot cards, and the such, where we project that they work and tend to focus on when it seems like they are working and ignore when it doesn't work. The feeling of helplessness keeps people wanting to believe. Heidegger also talks about this in a different way. We avoid being authentic because we have to face our past and our future death when we take responsibility. A lot of diversions, distractions and addictions are there to numb the effect, but if you're meditative enough you can detect that pang of morality before watching crappy TV, playing a video game or just coasting on the internet. It's very powerful and quite unconscious! emoticon

I would add some caveats. Freud squishes psychopaths and narcissists together in the narcissistic self-preservation side, but it's possible to follow an abuser in the mind and think you are doing the right thing. A perfect example is Moral disengagement where the Super-ego excuses let you do bad things with justification and condoning. Watch An Act of Killing and you'll see one gangster dry-heaving while talking about his executions of Chinese communists, while the other guy can talk about it without any bother. Empathy can be involved in the Erotic-Obsessional side, but if the excuses are motivating enough, one can do evil things with empathy.

Carl Jung of course aimed to find a lot more in that Super-ego than Freud did.
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 8/15/20 5:24 PM
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It's really interesting to see all of this in western psychology. I'm seeing links between superego and aversion, id with greed, and ego with fantasy/ignorance --- but don't quote me yet, I'm still thinking this through...  and I want to also think about the three wounding types (shame, betrayal, and abandonment) and see if there is any alignment in these models that use "3" -- maybe not, which would be just as interesting.

How would you say freud squishes them together?  I though there was some separation in the sense of fantasy vs hysteria vs neurotism... but I haven't fully grasped this model yet.
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 8/15/20 10:04 PM
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shargrol:
It's really interesting to see all of this in western psychology. I'm seeing links between superego and aversion, id with greed, and ego with fantasy/ignorance --- but don't quote me yet, I'm still thinking this through...  and I want to also think about the three wounding types (shame, betrayal, and abandonment) and see if there is any alignment in these models that use "3" -- maybe not, which would be just as interesting.

How would you say freud squishes them together?  I though there was some separation in the sense of fantasy vs hysteria vs neurotism... but I haven't fully grasped this model yet.

Narcissists can have a dark Super-ego that they identify with, whereas a Psychopath, including the way Freud describes it, is Ego with an absent Super-ego. They don't have scruples. They're not worried about shame. There's also some later descriptions of Psychopaths from J. Reid Meloy that I still need to understand where the projection is so strong that the Psychopath can attack people while somehow thinking that they are defending themselves.
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 8/16/20 6:35 AM
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Is it possible that I'm not understanding because you are using narcissist in the modern sense and not the freudian sense?

This is somewhat hard for me to truly "get" because I've lived so much of my life as someone with a turbo-charged superego emoticon... actually, I'd say I was somewhere in the erotic-obssessional if I had to pick my patholgy.... and so it's hard for me to understand at a visceral level, but intellectually I can see that freudian narcissists really don't have much superego nor a need for being loved and that's the key diagnostic quality. It seems like the freudian narcissist has an overdeveloped ego that is largely uninfluenced by the "superior other" superego and "need to belong and be loved" of the id. As a result, very cold and singular. 

It seems like a modern sense of narcisist is closes to Freud's Erotic-Narcissist. They are still defining themeselves in a kind of pseudo-relationship. Because they idendify so strongly with something as transient as a sense of self, which we know from meditation is created by conditions rather than being an inherently solid thing,so their sense of egoic self needs constant activity otherwise it goes away --- in the same way that air is there, but we don't feel it without motion --- and so there is a constant using of others to create a sense of self.

I think pure freudian narcissism is the same as psychopathy. A user and lacking any sense of mutuality of the erotic or inferiority of the superego.... rather the erotic aspect becomes the ongoing activity of pleasure-pain manipulation and obsessional/hierarchical aspect becomes ongoing activity of estabishing dominance.

It seems like schizophrenia is more on the narssistic-obsessional side, or perhaps a case of fairly pure obsessional. It seems like in this model that obsessional types are prone to psychosis.

Does that make sense? --- again, I'm still learning Freud's model, so I'm probably missing a lot. 


"
narcissistic type, is mainly to be described in negative terms. There is no tension between ego and super-ego (indeed, on the strength of this type one would scarcely have arrived at the hypothesis of a super-ego), and there is no preponderance of erotic needs. The subject’s main interest is directed to self-preservation; he is independent and not open to intimidation. His ego has a large amount of aggressiveness at its disposal, which also manifests itself in readiness for activity. In his erotic life loving is preferred above being loved. People belonging to this type impress others as being ‘personalities’; they are especially suited to act as a support for others, to take on the role of leaders and to give a fresh stimulus to cultural development or to damage the established state of affairs.”
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 8/16/20 7:56 AM
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shargrol:
Is it possible that I'm not understanding because you are using narcissist in the modern sense and not the freudian sense?

This is somewhat hard for me to truly "get" because I've lived so much of my life as someone with a turbo-charged superego emoticon... actually, I'd say I was somewhere in the erotic-obssessional if I had to pick my patholgy.... and so it's hard for me to understand at a visceral level, but intellectually I can see that freudian narcissists really don't have much superego nor a need for being loved and that's the key diagnostic quality. It seems like the freudian narcissist has an overdeveloped ego that is largely uninfluenced by the "superior other" superego and "need to belong and be loved" of the id. As a result, very cold and singular. 

It seems like a modern sense of narcisist is closes to Freud's Erotic-Narcissist. They are still defining themeselves in a kind of pseudo-relationship. Because they idendify so strongly with something as transient as a sense of self, which we know from meditation is created by conditions rather than being an inherently solid thing,so their sense of egoic self needs constant activity otherwise it goes away --- in the same way that air is there, but we don't feel it without motion --- and so there is a constant using of others to create a sense of self.

I think pure freudian narcissism is the same as psychopathy. A user and lacking any sense of mutuality of the erotic or inferiority of the superego.... rather the erotic aspect becomes the ongoing activity of pleasure-pain manipulation and obsessional/hierarchical aspect becomes ongoing activity of estabishing dominance.

It seems like schizophrenia is more on the narssistic-obsessional side, or perhaps a case of fairly pure obsessional. It seems like in this model that obsessional types are prone to psychosis.

Does that make sense? --- again, I'm still learning Freud's model, so I'm probably missing a lot. 


"
narcissistic type, is mainly to be described in negative terms. There is no tension between ego and super-ego (indeed, on the strength of this type one would scarcely have arrived at the hypothesis of a super-ego), and there is no preponderance of erotic needs. The subject’s main interest is directed to self-preservation; he is independent and not open to intimidation. His ego has a large amount of aggressiveness at its disposal, which also manifests itself in readiness for activity. In his erotic life loving is preferred above being loved. People belonging to this type impress others as being ‘personalities’; they are especially suited to act as a support for others, to take on the role of leaders and to give a fresh stimulus to cultural development or to damage the established state of affairs.”

Of course we are all missing a lot (DSM has more than what Freud would have had experience with). It's a good starting point, but there are degrees of pathology. Schizophrenia is definitely on his obsessional side, but also when he talks about narcissistic-psychoneuroses. There are differences of degrees. A modern day narcissist is often described as someone with a preferred reality that steam-rolls over reality, and people, to find only the parts of reality that confirm the fantasy (Narcissist-Obsessional?). Anything that doesn't is attacked, by the Ego?, or ignored. Narcissists are still in a grip of reality much more so than someone with schizophrenia. Then you probably would have to add paranoia somewhere, probably Super-ego, and all the modern day personality disorder details have to be added. 

Freud also compares the healthy behaviours vs. unhealthy ones (Life Drive vs. Death Drive). Outwardly destructive, and self-destructive behaviours have a dark pleasure to them and would have to be added to all the different types. Drives are another controversial subject, but the dark-side keeps coming back because it doesn't fit well with modern Positive Psychology notions. There are people who love self-development and all the steps on the way, but many people find it daunting, exhausting, neurotic, and want to lash out against it because they are looking for control. emoticon

The brain is the most complex thing we know of so it's only going to get more complicated as I move along. emoticon
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 8/16/20 10:05 AM
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Death drives fascinate me. At the heart of it, I'm somewhat darwinian in the sense that all drives seem like life drives to me, but there are times when the wrong drive is relied upon and becomes counterproductive, like sawing off a branch that you are sitting on. Someone acting out a death drive will feel convinced that their actions are supporting a thriving life... but a person outside their frame of reference can see the reality of it. 

This comes up a lot in buddhist psychology, with the idea of 6 realms. Each one of the realms has it's own internal logic, but has a blindness that maintain suffering. Hell realm being lash out against each other, recreating the harm that they are trying to prevent. Hungry ghosts consume so quickly and mindlessly that they never feel satisfaction. Animals double down on what has worked in the past, and repeat all their past mistakes. Humans invest in their desires, but never question why most desires don't satisfy except temporarily. Titans use their strength and power, but always go beyond their abilities and fail. Gods are so busy maintaining what they have, that they lose track of reality and get blindsided by small, incremental things that are not worthy of their attention.

All of the things that reinforce suffering are perfectly appropriate in other contexts. Protecting from harm, satisfying needs, rewarding routines, creativity, ambition, and appreciation... but in the 6 realms they are focused on a very limited sense of self and there is no sense of interdependence or nuance. So maybe death drives are life drives but ignorantly applied?

People have a hard time seeing/admitting to ignorance. Again, I have a bit of a darwinian view of this. It is energetically costly to update a worldview, so out of efficiency the mind will tend to ignore stimuli that doesn't reconfirm the worldview. This makes good energetic sense. Then there also is a "suffering threshold" which says "reality is differing significantly enough from your worldview, so you need to pay attention, collect new data, develop new models". 

In a way, buddhist meditation is a hack: by focusing on the suffering tone, adult development is spurred onward. It can be quite interesting to see how much development occurs in a decade among meditators versus others in their age group --- it really is night and day. Basically, by intentionally looking for discomfort or ill will within lived experience, the mind has motivation to develop a more real worldview that both sees and includes all of these subtle sufferings that are normally glossed over and ignored by most people. At the heart of it is the nature of creating a self, the defense mechanisms involved, and the limitations created by worldviews themselves --- the very meta worldview of someone who has, so to speak, awakened to these things. 


Heh, to skipping ahead to the chase scene.... Any model of psychology you particularly like? Any reading recommendations for me?
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 8/16/20 10:25 AM
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Definitely Buddhism has helped alot with understanding Freud. Libido sounds like jargon to most people but I translate it as craving, though would modify it more like Electricity-Craving. Why Freud is misunderstood is precisely because he's trying to analyze different cravings and how they can be released. People poo-poo him when they make comparisons with Psychiatry, Brain Surgery, and Clinical Psychology. These all have their contributions, but many people just want to understand their cravings, and also those other modalities can have failures and they end up dumping people into taking therapy because there's nothing else they can do.

In regards to Buddhism and modern society, to me the Buddhist understanding is competing with the Self understanding, and it's a difficult conundrum. A lot of the science and technology we enjoy came from the Self side of things and to bridge emptiness with one satisfaction after another is what most of the population will understand and support. Emptiness-Form/Form-Emptiness is a helpful way to avoid false dichotomies. As I expect when I read Jung, I'm going to see that we need appropriate responses to wildly different phenomena and using a "hammer and treating everything as a nail" will have to be abandoned. A lot of good leadership books show how flexible people have to be in business to stay afloat. Personally I like eclecticism and learning from a wide range of areas because of how Darwinian the world is and the need for flexibility and for skills to merge different modalities.

I don't have any specific recommendations, but I'm studying the Opponent process theory, (though this will be awhile before it finds its way anywhere - probably in a video on addictions), which is partially predictive of addictive behaviours. Craving has tolerance, but there's also pleasure in work and the relief when work is satisfactorily complete. It also partially describes how pain/work can lead to the body to do the opposite to heal itself to homeostasis. It focuses more on the pleasure of creativity over pure consumption because the brain provides a downer to bring the high back to homeostasis. It also connects well with Csikszentmihalyi's Flow system, as so many modalities do. But of course it's not perfect and isn't predictive of all things. They did some studies on fitness, but that's a difficult area because people can injure themselves. Finding that healthy sweet spot is going to be individual depending on the people in the study.
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 8/16/20 10:46 AM
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Interesting!

I think the challenge most people have with Jung is they want to create intrinsically real "thing" out of what get's encountered as these raw forces like superego and id become deconstructed into something much more creative, primal, and liminal. All the semi-lucid urges and semi-fantastic images have to be honored as just that, rather than trying to make experience into some pantheon of independent entities.

This can also happen with the woowoo stuff that seems inevitable in medtation, the periods of almost channeled inteligence, encountering other beings within our mind, strange psychic intuitions, and magical synchonicities. These are easy to deal with if they are seen as momentary events consistent with those lables, which have already come and gone so no big deal. But human nature is to cling and reify and so people will always make more of a big deal than is appropriate and will always try to control/own/command these strange "powers". It's a fool's errand but we all need to take the fool's journey. 

Jung's stuff has the potention to break worldviews out of their materialistic/elemental simplicity into something much more organic and creative... or people can freak out when they realize there is no controlling creativity and no guarantees and then they'll come up with a new system that basically shoves all the creativity back into box. emoticon


Cool, I think I'll check out Opponent process theory in the near future! Thanks again for this chat!
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 9/11/20 11:21 AM
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After eroding a pathological Super-ego with mindfulness and concentration one can take advantage of the pleasures of Positive Psychology. For many, this is their stopping point, but for others, there is even more to meditation. Commentary and suggestions from Positive psychology, Upasika Kee Nanayon, Rob Burbea, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, and Adyashanti.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/mindfulness-letting-go/

YouTube: https://youtu.be/iekCpuNqmek
shargrol, modified 3 Years ago at 9/11/20 2:19 PM
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I've already listened to this one and I think it's great. I think people will be interested in how a lot of meditation is explained/understood and fine-tuned through various psychological principles/approaches.

And I loved the framing device of comparing good/bad vacations with the same habits that create good/bad meditations!
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 9/11/20 2:23 PM
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shargrol:
I've already listened to this one and I think it's great. I think people will be interested in how a lot of meditation is explained/understood and fine-tuned through various psychological principles/approaches.

And I loved the framing device of comparing good/bad vacations with the same habits that create good/bad meditations!
It certainly helped me a lot. The visualizing downsides is one of those groundbreaking insights that makes a sudden difference, but I know that everyone's different and react to different details. It depends on what they need.
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 10/19/20 8:03 PM
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Description of a gradual development towards Nirvana. Authors include Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Rob Burbea, Bhikkhu Analayo, Christopher Titmuss, Guang Po, Jeffrey Hopkins, Daniel Ingram, Rupert Spira, Daniel J. Siegel, B.F. Skinner, and Adyashanti.

I took the prior Mahasi noting video and Rob's Seeing that Frees video and added it to this one so that everything is included in one place. I'll probably return back to Buddhist videos, but for now, I'm going to explore some Western religions and see what meditations they have.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/mindfulness-nirvana/
 
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDWIoYQunvQ
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Richard Zen, modified 3 Years ago at 12/19/20 12:41 AM
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Many people look to the East for knowledge of spiritual contemplation and meditation, but the West had its own influencers with similar insights. Parmenides of Elea provided a way of "Thinking" that influenced continental philosophers like Martin Heidegger and is still relevant in today's world of distraction and social control.

Blog: http://psychreviews.org/the-presocratics-parmenides/

YouTube: 
https://youtu.be/dWdVTN5LQKs
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 5/13/21 3:09 PM
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Interesting new layout.

I did a "putting it all together" video on Meditation and included Object Psychology and how it influences our self-esteem. This also connects today to Cancel Culture and Woke Ideology. Meditation is not the only form of healthy replacement pleasure to negative states, but it's probably the most portable. 

Meditation: Taking Stock: https://youtu.be/BD6DA79QnJA
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Stefan Stefan, modified 2 Years ago at 5/13/21 7:42 PM
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A really interesting channel. I liked your chat with Shagrol up there. Interesting videos for sure, I'll put some of my random thoughts here that you triggered. 

I'm not a super huge fan of Freud, but not for the normal poo-pooing reasons most of my fellow psychologists tend to converge on. I believe his theories paved the way for all the discoveries being made today. I find most of his philosophy to be life-denying. Where Freud sees religion as a neurotic expression of a need for parenting, magical thinking, etc., Jung sees religion as an expression of our desire to understand the mystery of life and its assortment of paradoxes. Not that either is necessarily correct as they're mere perspectives, but one seems to be more conducive to forgiving ourselves as a species and understanding that we're all part of the puzzle we're trying to solve. Plus, focusing just on sex (Freud) or power (Alder) leaves out a lot of other instincts that drive us; we're selectively cooperative and competitive when the conditions are right. I also like Jung a lot because he inadvertently discovered Vajrayana Tantric Deity Yogas through his anthropological-cum-psychoanalysis methodology and active imagination practices (my soft introduction to meditation practice). 

For another perspective on Woke/Cancel culture, consider the puritan roots of American culture... It's a fascinating source of psychological discontent in America. Although today it's split off, so I wouldn't say left or right, both sides enjoy cancelling (heresy/inquisition) and engaging in their performative song-and-dance show of "see how much I care about [issue]" (religious rites). I wouldn't even say that narcissism is to blame, but just an innate human desire to self-actualise/self-realise that's maladapted, misfired, or otherwise nurtured in poor conditions. Most people who tend toward violent/extremist ideologies are playing out the conditions they were nurtured in because they're familiar. It's very saddening yet understandable. 

At its root, all social interactions basically boil down to attempts to self-verify (positive feedback that our self-concept is true) and self-aggrandise (strengthen our sense of self). Once we know this, we can understand why modern society is mostly just people bandwagoning their self-esteem to the latest stuff they bought, the latest trend they like, celebrity they enjoy, fad, social media post, or whatever. It's just a never-ending circus of people trying to self-actualise. And, of course, I'm doing this right now. But I'm fairly conscious that I'm just playing a role right now. Relating to politics, meditation is then simply the act of dis-identifying with any one sensation that appears in awareness. Once we learn that they come and go, are made of fuzzy arrangements of ambiguous pixels/vibrations/textures, the mind immediately realises the futility of trying to hold onto any of these sensations for any longer than when they're present. And then we stop being angry, because we realise others are trapped in this mind-prison, slaving away to these random sensations as a basis of being. And we stop trying to bandwagon our self-esteem, because our sense of self changes so rapidly that there's no point to hold on when you're in freefall anyways! Interestingly, there's some emerging research in social psychology showing the benefits of meditation on social identity; basically, people start becoming way more fluid in their identity, far more humanistic in their political orientation (supra-ordinate goals), and begin dis-identifying with shallow signifiers of social identity (skin colour, wealth, attractiveness, etc.). This all adds up to less craving for self-esteem top-ups. 
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 5/13/21 11:07 PM
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Thanks for the reply. Freud is good place to start, and yes he's a die-hard atheist, but some of my favorites like Rene Girard can meld Freudian ideas with Christianity, because mimetics and envy were studied by both ad nauseum. I'm just at the beginning with Jung, though I already studied his Personality Types, he's probably going to look fairly atheistic in his approach to religion, but be more positive towards it. If there's a God it's more alive than the empty rituals he grew up with, and more alive than the emptiness of his father as he struggled with keeping the faith. 

Anyways, have fun with your practice, and Jungian Individuation if you do Active Imagination work. 
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 6/16/21 6:39 AM
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Richard Zen, hope you are doing well.

I'm just writing a quick note on something I found interesting... You mention opponent process up-thread and I had been meaning to read about it. In the interim, I had been studying ways to improve vision and stumbled on this site:  https://gettingstronger.org/2016/03/faq-for-vision-improvement-by-hormetism/   ... and in reading through some of it's pages, I noticed that the basic idea (hormetism) was actually also supported by the idea of opponent process theory.

Just found that interesting and thought I would mention it. 

(As I'm reading about opponent process theory, I'm finding it interesting because it explains the phenominon that always interested me, which is the "baseline seeking" nature of the mind. We seem wired to neutralize stimuli that takes us beyond our baseline mood. Drug addicts and other folks with constant positive stimuli often wind up needing the drug/stimuli "just to stay straight"... in other words the initial easy pleasure quicky becomes adapted to and the absence of stimuli becomes uncomfortable. There seems to be an inherent "neutralizing" compensation that happens on a biological level, even for positive/pleasurable stimuli.  The model explains this well... and the idea that more positive/strength building actions result in the reverse process -- an initial uncomfortable sensation eventual becomes a strength and a positive attitude/mindset -- is fascinating.)
 
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 6/22/21 4:39 PM
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Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, incremental challenges can increase pleasure. Ultimately, it's the Flow system. Things can't be too easy or too hard. The big challenge of course is not doing things that are actually too hard. I find that the spoiledness factor in activities is offset by trying to create new goals and challenges to make a hobby more interesting. Another way of developing is the Jungian way of trying to incrementally add more skills that are stuck in one's shadow, but again one can't bite off more than they can chew.
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 6/22/21 4:40 PM
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Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, incremental challenges can increase pleasure. Ultimately, it's the Flow system. Things can't be too easy or too hard. The big challenge of course is not doing things that are too hard. I find that the spoiledness factor in activities is offset by trying to create new goals and challenges to make a hobby more interesting. Another way of developing is the Jungian way of trying to incrementally add more skills that are stuck in one's shadow, but again one can't bite off more than they can chew. That's the rub.
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 8/5/21 2:56 PM
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YouTube: https://youtu.be/bQpaqqdddzk
Blog: http://psychreviews.org/ikigai/

Before embarking on Jungian Analytical Psychology, there needs to be a warning against too much striving with personality assessments. The best way to individuate, or to develop your MBTI personality type, is to enjoy yourself and to take pleasure while making those changes. That pleasure can be called many things but I grouped it under the Japanese term Ikigai, which roughly translates into "reason to live/exist/be." 

This review goes beyond the concept and drills down into the Psychology of Flow, The Law of Attraction, The Opponent-Process Theory, Meditation, and the challenges we have in being happy while bumping into everyone else.
Sam Gentile, modified 2 Years ago at 8/5/21 3:16 PM
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You need to break uop this page. It is much too long to navigate.

I see you have taken a hardcore turn to the deeply psychological like Jungian Analytical Psychology. This is way over my head. Can you consider episodes that are more Buddhist and tie in the psychology? The perfect episode for me was the one you did on Rob Burbea. Just my IMHO.
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 8/5/21 5:08 PM
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This is more a thread to see what I've done recently. The YouTube channel is more organized, if people want to dig into old videos. This website has changed a lot too in its format, so I would keep it to just what is new. emoticon 

I was already interested in psychology before and posted lots of Positive Psychology on this website before. It's not a "hardcore turn." I'm going mostly in order. I'll probably have to go back to the French school and William James, because of how influential it was to later psychologists.

I'll be taking a break from the meditation side of things because I'm going in order and Jung is next, and probably Adler. I also have Philosophical episodes I'm behind on. There will be some meditation from the Jungian perspective, and he's influenced many including Adyashanti, and it connects with Mahayana more easily. There are those on this website who are interested and some who don't care. That's fine. It's available for those following along. Freud took 3 years, so I'm hoping to do this more efficiently.

The typical meditators who do this are the types who meditate and then they study the brain because Nirvana is not anywhere near their interest. They want Jhanas and then to develop psychological skills and develop more personal character. This is especially true for a lot of Westerners, but I suspect some Easterners are curious.

These trends are in all Sanghas and most meditators have read other psychologists because they often need therapy BEFORE they attempt Buddhism, because what they ignore will interrupt their practice. [Eg. Daniel talks about The Shadow. It would be nice learn from the coiner of the term.] Again this is for those interested. Those not interested can ignore emoticon

The Jungian video here is just a warning about overstriving for those interested in Individuation. The Jung series in proper will be chronological so it will be all explained. Jung fans, from talking to some instructors years ago, have a tendency to overstrive and have trouble getting any pleasure in their developments so they give up, or their Heroic function is overused and tries to pretend it's other functions. 

Posting knowledge about Analytical Psychology is okay, but at some point people have to try this stuff and incorporate it in their habits to get any benefits, as the above video gives instructions on how to do that. There's so much in there that I can easily use it as a reference for scores of other videos.
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 11/14/21 9:50 AM
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shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 11/14/21 6:24 PM
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Halfway through, really enjoying it. Lots of tough love truth in this one!
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 11/14/21 7:41 PM
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Talking about the reality of Enlightenment IN THE WORLD corrects expectations. These realized types show that psychological development is needed no matter where you are on the spectrum.
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 11/15/21 7:55 AM
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Yes, very much so. 

In some ways, it's beneficial to have some of the naive ideals of enlightenment to get us started on this work, sort of like the momentary benefit of transference, but those naive ideals need to be tempered over time otherwise there is all the stuff you talked about. Distorted identities (the no-self self), psychological repression (spiritual bypassing), cult thinking (which was really well described in the video!), etc. that is required to attempt to prop-up these naive/false ideals in the real world.

One of the great riddles for me is whether the obviously false "naive ideals of enlightenment" are worth promoting in the first place --- would people go down this road without some ideal that stoked the ego and offered an easy solution to life's challenges? Or is there a form of more grounded/mature "bait" that would also work just as well?

(It's sort of a moot point because there will always be some teacher/cult selling naive ideals, so there will always be something tempting people along the path in this way...)
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 11/15/21 9:27 AM
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shargrol

(It's sort of a moot point because there will always be some teacher/cult selling naive ideals, so there will always be something tempting people along the path in this way...)

My focus is more on the fact that if people don't know the beginning, middle, and end, meaning they need to be a monastic to really dwell in the Unconditioned (living with little to no conditioning), a lot of people will realize they are wasting their time. People blow decades in the wrong direction only to realize, "Oh, I need to develop general skills, psychological skills. I wish I knew that!" Buddhism is sold even on campuses and people are trying to deal with school and work stress with meditation, which may be better dealt with in developing work skills. It means that any "masters" who are working in difficult complex jobs are developing plenty of positive skills. Skill deficits can't be developed with an extinction practice, and even Metta and Concentration practices don't teach you important things like how to fight, apply boundaries, get involved in politics, etc., for those Cluster B types you will enevitably encounter. It's not going to help you with money, sex, relationships, etc. That's what the left brain is for. This of course makes sense from the ancient perspective of retiring from society.

I'm hoping my video will help some people from being misled and save them time. The fact that masters aren't honest about this should make people livid. People really don't have decades to get this stuff. I especially really hate it when masters say "it's so worth everything you can invest in" to achieve this. That isn't true for most lay people. Certainly calming down with concentration practices helps right away, and does most of what you need to stop acting on impulses, but the next step is actually Becoming and into all those important positive skills. Buddhists want to decapitate Becoming, including the healthy kinds. Negative skills don't add anything. For many people, directing the imagery in the mind and harnessing the energy, to do even responsible things, because responsible things have pleasure too, is where they can feel healthy agency and it allows people to enjoy freedom, which many people don't know how to do that. If everyone did this in the extreme we would be like Tibet with a dictatorship in charge. Dangerous!

Now all the scandals with gurus and leaders makes total sense. They didn't develop enough positive skills. They focused too much on extinction, but it's very debatable that all conditioning stops operating at any point along the way before death. The Path system would have to be scientifically studied and not just believed.
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 11/15/21 6:02 PM
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I come at it from a slightly different but similar angle. Many people's strategy for using meditation practice to improve their life is "I hope this meditation practice fixes my life." This is not a real strategy. A real strategy would be "I will find and use a meditation practice that is designed to fix this specific problem in my life. I will assess whether it is successful by looking for noticible improvements over time. I will work on this until this weak link in my psyche is strengthened. And then I'll work on the next weak link." 

Ulimately, I think the effectiveness of various meditations are up there with other modalities. That's my bold statement. But not in a naive "oh, I'll count my breath from 1 to 10 for 15 minutes a day, well most days, well except when I'm on vacation or traveling for work... and that will fix everything" way. emoticon

EDIT: adding on...

Now that I think about it, all of the meditation supported work that I found valuable also had a "practice this in real life" component, so this is very much in alignment with your idea of the importance of becoming.
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 11/17/21 5:54 PM
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shargrol
I come at it from a slightly different but similar angle. Many people's strategy for using meditation practice to improve their life is "I hope this meditation practice fixes my life." This is not a real strategy. A real strategy would be "I will find and use a meditation practice that is designed to fix this specific problem in my life. I will assess whether it is successful by looking for noticible improvements over time. I will work on this until this weak link in my psyche is strengthened. And then I'll work on the next weak link." 

Ulimately, I think the effectiveness of various meditations are up there with other modalities. That's my bold statement. But not in a naive "oh, I'll count my breath from 1 to 10 for 15 minutes a day, well most days, well except when I'm on vacation or traveling for work... and that will fix everything" way. emoticon

EDIT: adding on...

Now that I think about it, all of the meditation supported work that I found valuable also had a "practice this in real life" component, so this is very much in alignment with your idea of the importance of becoming.
As long as people realize that Becoming, imagery practices, can be used for good, they shouldn't be afraid of it. Certainly meditation can be used in practical ways, but when people take it too seriously, they can overvalue the absolute. I'm sure going to the absolute is deep rest from conditioning and it has its own incredible value, but without the real life applicability it's understandable why people need to go into monastic environments if they want to prioritize the absolute. It's similar to people who live in a religious commune and can't function in a big city and have to return back.
Derek2, modified 2 Years ago at 11/17/21 6:45 PM
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From the Freudian standpoint, meditation is just looking for an “oceanic experience” trying to crawl back into the womb to reexperience a world of stability and gratification on tap.

I've also come to the view that mysticism is essentially regressive. The monastic environment encourages a pretty infantile outlook, depending as one does on others for the basic necessities of life.

But meditation does have some practical benefits. A simple concentration practice (20 minutes twice a day) will make you sharper and more focused as you go about your business. And the awakening that I experienced ten years ago has permanently made my mind much quieter than it ever was before -- an improvement in the experience of life if not the external reality.
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 11/17/21 9:26 PM
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Derek2
From the Freudian standpoint, meditation is just looking for an “oceanic experience” trying to crawl back into the womb to reexperience a world of stability and gratification on tap.

I've also come to the view that mysticism is essentially regressive. The monastic environment encourages a pretty infantile outlook, depending as one does on others for the basic necessities of life.

But meditation does have some practical benefits. A simple concentration practice (20 minutes twice a day) will make you sharper and more focused as you go about your business. And the awakening that I experienced ten years ago has permanently made my mind much quieter than it ever was before -- an improvement in the experience of life if not the external reality.
Which sounds very balanced. Each individual will make their choice, and a good portion of people will be a layperson and enjoy the benefits of a quieter mind and more equanimity. There are also those who want to go into more dream work as well.
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 11/27/21 10:39 AM
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An early influencer in Object-Relations Theory. Freud's right hand man. In his short life he explored the outer relationships we have and how they can morph into internal relationships in the mind. The desire to self-overcome internal voices can extend to overcoming the family and society's restrictions. How can one be free to develop oneself within the social structures we live with?

Blog: https://psychreviews.org/karl-abraham

YouTube: https://youtu.be/vOYSh5eIG30
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 11/28/21 6:04 AM
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The section on mass movements was great.

Related to that, I think, I've been pondering the overarching idea of 'the death drive' or 'thanatos'. Seems like something very essential, this idea of finding satisfaction in being bad, doing wrong, sacrificing the good, making a virtue out of intentional vice. So many social movements have this kind of self-hating at the core, at least it seems to me. Which is why they are flashes in the pan, without longevity...

Seems like the core of it is self-hating the present self and already celebrating the un-earned future self... but un/subconsciously knowing that they haven't earned the future self and so un/subconsciously self sabotaging themselves to resolve the cognative dissonance.

Not sure if thanatos has any utility/place in modern psychology? Or rather than generalizing, is there more utility in teasing out the different manifestations of self-sabotage?
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 3/9/22 11:20 AM
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Sorry, late reply. Yes Thanatos can be reviewed in multiple ways. The way Freud did it was to look at it as a need for rest, like in the Nirvana Principle and ultimately death. The Life Principle, which is bascially the Flow state, is great when you're in a Flow state, but it's frustration when skills and challenges don't match. For many people, that mismatch is normal life and they want rest from it. Without Enlightenment, or even to the level of Equanimity, it's sabotage of endeavour, and removing any negative comparisons with others, is a crude way of gaining blips of rest.
shargrol, modified 2 Years ago at 3/10/22 8:51 AM
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Richard Zen
Sorry, late reply. Yes Thanatos can be reviewed in multiple ways. The way Freud did it was to look at it as a need for rest, like in the Nirvana Principle and ultimately death. The Life Principle, which is bascially the Flow state, is great when you're in a Flow state, but it's frustration when skills and challenges don't match. For many people, that mismatch is normal life and they want rest from it. Without Enlightenment, or even to the level of Equanimity, it's sabotage of endeavour, and removing any negative comparisons with others, is a crude way of gaining blips of rest.
Wow, that crystalizes it for me. The death/sabotage instinct is the way the subconscious "just wants to make the whole thing stop". Makes total sense and explains why the person would be blind to the consequences of their choices, even though it would be obvious for anyone on the outside looking in... For example, I'm imagining the way Hitler thought it would be a great idea to fight a war with Russia in the winter -- it's a perfectly ideal and heroic and glorious way... to self-sabotage. (Sorry to jumping to using Hitler as an example, what a cliche! emoticon )
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Richard Zen, modified 2 Years ago at 3/11/22 9:59 AM
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Richard Zen
Sorry, late reply. Yes Thanatos can be reviewed in multiple ways. The way Freud did it was to look at it as a need for rest, like in the Nirvana Principle and ultimately death. The Life Principle, which is bascially the Flow state, is great when you're in a Flow state, but it's frustration when skills and challenges don't match. For many people, that mismatch is normal life and they want rest from it. Without Enlightenment, or even to the level of Equanimity, it's sabotage of endeavour, and removing any negative comparisons with others, is a crude way of gaining blips of rest.
Wow, that crystalizes it for me. The death/sabotage instinct is the way the subconscious "just wants to make the whole thing stop". Makes total sense and explains why the person would be blind to the consequences of their choices, even though it would be obvious for anyone on the outside looking in... For example, I'm imagining the way Hitler thought it would be a great idea to fight a war with Russia in the winter -- it's a perfectly ideal and heroic and glorious way... to self-sabotage. (Sorry to jumping to using Hitler as an example, what a cliche! emoticon )

A better example if you want is drug addiction. The boredom, which happens outside of drug addiction as well, is so intense, and the withdrawal symptoms/resistance of letting go of the drugs, is so intense, there's a feeling of no way out (only more drugs and withdrawal symptoms), so a person prefers to end it all to stop the striving. The Subject > Object striving needs success all the time and confirmations of success to be seen everywhere, and drugs can be the crutch to bridge the gap. As drugs ruin your success with side effects, then all you have left is the drugs and no perceivable way out of stigma to look forward to for a redemption of more success. Even before the self-sabotage of suicide, there are self-sabotage situations because the brain projects a prediction that they will be rejected, so might as well sabotage and get the rejection over with.
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 5/29/22 11:36 PM
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Like many early psychologists, Otto Rank read from philosophy that was already starting to turn inward toward the unconscious, and he was inspired by a certain Sigmund Freud who seemed to have all of the answers. Being in close proximity to Freud by being in Vienna, there was a meeting and Otto's life changed forever.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/UUSwAdvfhM0 Blog: https://psychreviews.org/object-relations-otto-rankp1/

Similar to the Pleasure Principle and the Nirvana Principle, Rank sees how individuals need a balance between desire and rest. He calls the contracted state of desire "partialization" and the completion of a goal or a reunion with oneness being a like a "totalist." Completion, oneness, and totality have a finality to them like death and there is a desire to return to partialization, but too much partialization is exhausting and makes one feel separated and lonely.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/YxfSy4eX5z4 Blog: https://psychreviews.org/object-relations-otto-rank-pt-2/

​​​​​​​
Part 2 has more of the mixture of psychoanalysis and meditation.
shargrol, modified 1 Year ago at 5/30/22 8:24 AM
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Wow, my goodness, Look Back in Anger is such a deep Bowie cut! How did you think to pull that into the essay?

Whoa, nevermind... I'm now reading the whole Bowie section. This is such a treat for a fan like myself...
George S, modified 1 Year ago at 5/30/22 9:25 AM
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The video seems to be based on The Picture of Dorian Grey
shargrol, modified 1 Year ago at 5/30/22 12:44 PM
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Just finished the second essay, The language is a little difficult for me, but inherent in what Rank seems to be talking about is the pain of birth/becoming and the intuition that it ends in death/unbecoming, and so -- in the midst of things -- there is this constrained worldview that needs to exist. In order to create, we need to feel that it is worth it, which requires a kind of suspension of disbelief.

He seems to touch on both the experiential (energetic) aspect of this as well as the social identity aspect of it. There is the somatic pre-tension which seems to proceed creating, as if we know both the value and futility. And in the midst of creating, we have to take the "partial" view that this thing has inherent meaning and needs to exist. But once the act is done, it is done. I also hear in this echos of his professional life, needing to be generative in terms of theory, but then also being exhausted by the creative act/role...

It was very interesting to hear how Bowie had a kind of dual vision about the value of creation. Obviously one of the most generative artist/performers around... but he could also see the ridiculousness of the need.
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 5/30/22 8:46 PM
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Wow, my goodness, Look Back in Anger is such a deep Bowie cut! How did you think to pull that into the essay?

Whoa, nevermind... I'm now reading the whole Bowie section. This is such a treat for a fan like myself...
I knew these stories before so when Otto talks about artists sacrificing themselves for their art, those were made ready for association.
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 5/30/22 8:58 PM
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Just finished the second essay, The language is a little difficult for me, but inherent in what Rank seems to be talking about is the pain of birth/becoming and the intuition that it ends in death/unbecoming, and so -- in the midst of things -- there is this constrained worldview that needs to exist. In order to create, we need to feel that it is worth it, which requires a kind of suspension of disbelief.

He seems to touch on both the experiential (energetic) aspect of this as well as the social identity aspect of it. There is the somatic pre-tension which seems to proceed creating, as if we know both the value and futility. And in the midst of creating, we have to take the "partial" view that this thing has inherent meaning and needs to exist. But once the act is done, it is done. I also hear in this echos of his professional life, needing to be generative in terms of theory, but then also being exhausted by the creative act/role...

It was very interesting to hear how Bowie had a kind of dual vision about the value of creation. Obviously one of the most generative artist/performers around... but he could also see the ridiculousness of the need.
Yeah, all these artists know it's difficult to do jobs like this and stand in front of all these people and get x-ray'd. I think people just know they can do it because their skills match the challenges and each success makes it easier to go into a new direction. Even bands like U2 say "well we tried this 'working' thing..." whereas most people would crap their pants in front of 50,000 people.

I've been secretly venting and seeing what that's like. It does feel like a discharge and a relief cathartically, but it's a little scary. You actually feel closer to a psychopath Id -> Ego with no Super-ego conscience filter, so I think a lot of skill has to be applied to this. You don't want to vent down the street like a homeless person talking to themselves. "Don't go mama! Papa come home!" emoticon I think the insight practice, that Otto calls "don't make pleasure last longer or pain shorten," is still helpful and insight practice is a form of healthy suppression, whereas concentration can be a dull repression, or replacement "ecstacy" as he says. I wouldn't go too much in either direction. 
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 5/30/22 9:02 PM
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George S
The video seems to be based on The Picture of Dorian Grey
Yes, a lot of Psychoanalysts use art and literature for their psychological theories as typical circa early 20th century. There are a lot of parallels of a fear of death transforming into a fear of life, pursuit of short-term addictions, and avoidance of one's potential. 
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 8/23/22 12:45 PM
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Richard Zen
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKjqfUCABDEd6i8uQZ0BqTA
Psych Reviews

Hello I'm just starting a rough YouTube channel for Psychology, Philosophy, and Meditation book reviews. I hope you enjoy.

Richard 
I've moved to Rumble now. https://rumble.com/c/c-1828645

There's less censorship and it already feels good in that I don't have to walk on eggshells with political content now that I'm talking about the workplace and this inevitably means it will go into politics and economics, which means Right Wing politics will be broached. Any left-wing content from Alfred Adler and Harry Stack Sullivan I was never really worried about those topics being taken down LOL!

I'm still a ways away from more meditation topics which will be found in Judeo-Christian and Islamic territory, but I'm sure I'll bump into repackaged meditations in Psychoanalysis like I did with Otto Rank Part 2. Parmenides and Zeno in Philosophy both look like earlier versions of Nagarjuna.
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I'm curious to learn about the censorship you've experienced if you cared to share.

Otherwise : agreed about Parmenides and Nagarjuna.

I love Parmenides. In fact during a recent discussion about his poem, I've been recommended the work of Peter Kingsley on Parmenides, haven't read the books yet but it seems very promising. Might be of interest to you. Edit : Just found his website here .

Kingsley seems to confirm the intuition I've long had, ever since I read Parmenides and Heraclitus, that historical scholarship has misunderstood Parmenides (and probably others) all along, and to trace this mistake back to early as Plato and Aristotle, which would be why it has endured for so long. Another contemporary thinker who has expressed ideas along those lines is Michel Bitbol.

Finally, I haven't had time to listen to your work on Otto Rank, but since I recently spent time diving into transpersonal psychology, I wondered if you were aware that the Grofs based their theories on spiritual emergence in part on Otto Rank ? They mobilize his theories about the importance of the birth experience on shaping the individual's psyche, and consider that many of what we here would call dark night or dukkha ñana experiences in fact relate with the "re-experiencing" of memories of more or less traumatic birth experiences.

I don't think it's necesarily true, but find it interesting. Their explanatory frameworks for the diversity of spiritual experiences draws on various psychoanalytic theories, namely the freudian unconscious for certain types of what they call "biographical" spiritual experiences, Rank's idea on intra and extrauterine experiences for "Perinatal" experiences, and the jungian unconscious for transpersonal experiences.


 
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I didn't get censored yet, but it's political season and Google is going on a "Disinformation" binge. Some conservative commentators were booted off for opinions on 2020 election voter fraud which I'm going to broach on the next episode. I did want to move two years ago but I didn't when I couldn't get subtitles to work, but Rumble allows me to add them now. I might as well move now instead of going through the unplesant experience of getting booted. Like Twitter, the algorithms are not trustworthy because they are manipulated so a lot of the stats related to subscribers, likes, dislikes, etc., are smoke and mirrors. It's like living in Dark City. Probably lots of bots on there like Twitter. I'm very happy my brain can write about whatever I want to now. emoticon The only warning I got on my videos was bashing BLM and ANTIFA on my Sadism video. They called it sensationalism, but YouTube is full of sensationalism, hucksterism, and Bigfoot videos, so they can kiss my ass. emoticon&nbsp;<br /><br />Thanks for the links on Parmenides. That will be interesting, but like most situations, like my review containing a lot of Heidegger, people put a lot of their own takes on what are only fragments.&nbsp;What I do like that is in the fragments is the ability to see other dimensions like different choices giving you a different angle on things, but in the end we don't know what we don't know. Interdependence includes what is mysterious. Contemplating that mystery snaps you out of boredom and ruts and returns a sense of wonder. You can be in Heidegger's The Open and equanimously let thoughts and events come from the concealed to the unconcealed. Some of those things are horrifying of course so it won't be Sean Penn on a beach in Tree Of Life, but I think it's less stressful to have an almost ready stance and expectation that unexpected things can arise instead of being stuck in future narratives and cling to expectations. That relief allows you to use memories and future thinking, but in a less paranoid, or rose-colored way. It might be a fancy way of gaining common sense emoticon<br /><br />When it comes to Transpersonal Psychology I'm bumping into similar areas, but mainly Near-death experiences (NDEs), DMT, and the effect religion has on the survival mind that keeps moving around looking for a safe place, like Heaven. Certainly when you hear well described NDEs, that mention conversations that were witnessed out of body and confirmed by doctors in another room that couldn't have realistically been witnessed, the surivival mind releases a survival stress that was unconscious before, but now released by momentary belief, like it now has something to look forward to in death. Of course, those types have trouble explaining absurdity in life and death, or explaining why people see what they want to see in different religions, or an amorphous spirituality, and DMT can be studied like a meaningless drug that stops operating with the final death of the brain, like a point of no return. Categorized, common, dull, and a terrifying practical joke.<br /><br />For the intrauterine experiences I'm still at the level of Otto Rank where one realizes one is looking for endless womb satisfaction in extrauterine experiences, and one could say that wanting a heaven is wanting to return to an intrauterine state again. Satisfaction and love on tap. To believe in heaven, hopefully not in a dangerous psychotic way, is more freeing than intellectually picking it apart as pointless chemicals leading to inevitable entropy. A lot of true believers are trying to make that balance between faith and navigating reality safely.
shargrol, modified 1 Year ago at 8/26/22 6:25 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/26/22 6:25 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 2344 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent Posts
Interesting. I noticed your last couple videos were constructed differently. It felt like the first half was the psychology-review, and the second half was a contemporary commentary. The tone flipped too (the first half calm and clear, the second half was more intense and frantic).  I can tell there is a core of good intention in the second half, but don't really follow politics and so a lot of the references don't make much sense to me. It felt like a kind of code  (which is one of the things I generally dislike about political speak, the innuendo and simplistic accusations of "the other" and not much multi-variable analysis and problem solving.) The only thing I would say as an outside observer is that I felt like the second half was cryptic/indirect and I wonder if your attempts at "navigating the algorithms" is obscuring what you are trying to say? 
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 1:36 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 1:36 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
shargrol
Interesting. I noticed your last couple videos were constructed differently. It felt like the first half was the psychology-review, and the second half was a contemporary commentary. The tone flipped too (the first half calm and clear, the second half was more intense and frantic).  I can tell there is a core of good intention in the second half, but don't really follow politics and so a lot of the references don't make much sense to me. It felt like a kind of code  (which is one of the things I generally dislike about political speak, the innuendo and simplistic accusations of "the other" and not much multi-variable analysis and problem solving.) The only thing I would say as an outside observer is that I felt like the second half was cryptic/indirect and I wonder if your attempts at "navigating the algorithms" is obscuring what you are trying to say? 
It's going to get more frenetic, though hopefully with some humor, but yes I was a little too cryptic to avoid backlash from the left, which in the end I didn't avoid LOL, and I also added it in Right Livelihood about vaccine mandates, Ikigai on the workplace, and Parmenides a little on the effects of Communism on the mind, because I assumed that everyone was following what I was following: Left-wing cancel culture and the toxic world were were living in already.

Like many people on the right I thought the election was stolen on the morning of November 4th 2020. I used to be pro-conservative in the usual globalist way and when the 2008 crash happened and Obama came in, I lost interest in politics. I realized there was something seriously wrong with Bush on economics, and not the usual stuff the left said of him. It was something else I couldn't put my finger on but it was all around me. For those 8 years I really didn't pay attention to politics at all, including people who warned of Obama's radical past. I couldn't care less. I've been to University and I've seen radicals before but I thought that was in University and when people go to work they drop all that stuff and get into concrete reality, but I was totally wrong.

I also wasn't too interested when Trump was running, and I didn't really think his show was helpful in getting people to understand business, but when the media assaulted him and pushed a Russian collusion, I thought it was preposterous. I always knew about left-wing bias before but this was so unhinged compared to what I've seen before, which was already obvious. It was like hungry jackals. I still lost interest and went back to usual stuff, but by the end of the 2020 campaign I was watching more speeches and realized what globalism did to the middle class and some of the old arguments from Buchanan and Ross Perot about the importance of trade balance that were ignored during the formulation of NAFTA when I was a teen. They were rump party types and nobody listened to them but it started to click.

By Nov 4th, 2020 I was hooked again and went on the election investigation roller coaster ride which still hasn't completed with complete satisfaction. Dukkha? Half the population is watching left wing stuff and half right wing, though I think recently some Democrats are moving more to the right now that more information is unravelling about the vaccine, the 2020 election, and the FBI. A bit like rats trying to escape a sinking ship. Ironically some of the America First lessons come from what moderate left-wing people understood about trade balance and there are weird alliances now between left and right to fight the ruling class. Things are starting to unravel, or should I say: becoming unconcealed, but there needs to be a lot more investigations of the COVID19 origins, FBI bias, ballot harvesting, the World Economic Forum, and the CCP. 

In my opinion, how it connects of course is through Cluster B personality disorders (Ontological Disease), and how that plays out in what people think success is in the workplace and in politics, and the frustrations and human obstacles in work politics that create extreme politics if frustration is too long. It starts in the workplace and expands into Politics proper. People tend to put Politics in a box somewhere else until it's in your face and you're effected by inflation, mandates, and weird land purchases by the super rich to control what you eat. It's so corrupt and so intertwined like a sailor's knot. 

A more personal example is seeing healthy people drop dead after vaccine mandates, usually due to heart inflammation, and people writing it off glibly as SADS (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome). When the first vaccines were coming out I was so excited to get my life back, but I was already watching Bannon's War Room and he was allying with a more left-wing person like Naomi Wolf, which was totally unexpected. I took Astra Zeneca, felt horrible, but recovered. Luckily it wasn't mRNA vaccines which are going to have to be studied for their long term ill effects based on the leaked Pfizer documents. The Fauci emails were covered on the War Room at that early time and just seeing Fauci and Collins bullying their own staff when they said that COVID19 didn't look natural, then Fauci has a talking to them, and they whip out a natural origin paper in only a few days! I decided I wasn't going to get any more COVID vaccines at that point. My Family didn't listen and said "don't listen to Bannon!" Even conservative family members were spouting propaganda like "there's no evidence of a stolen election," though some of them are barely coming around now.

Naomi was called a conspiracy theorist for saying there would be vax mandates, and then they happened. She said there would be politicized police stopping protests, which seemed extreme at the time, but now we are beyond food riots, farmer and trucker riots that were clamped down on. Now she's in charge of lawsuits towards the CDC, and FDA and they appear to be acknowledging those mistakes to ostracize the unvaccined who are now much healthier than the multiple vaxxed. Lots of Freudian displacement, scapegoating, and blame shifting. The Pfizer documents on the trials weren't supposed to be released for decades.

I used to look at the WEF as just a networking place for owners of big business, but then they were talking openly about a Great Reset, not just people like Alex Jones accusing them of that. Elon Musk is openly talking about people needing to get chip implants in the brain so workers "don't forget." Bill Gates makes speeches where he wants us to accept rolling pandemics and lockdowns and having to get jabbed endlessly, like he's making human biology like a computer that needs anti-virus software, except biology is not like a computer.

I mean I could go on and on, and editing is really hard, but how it looks like now is that the CCP corrupted both political parties (which some CCP officials say this openly even in their own videos). While Republicans focused on winning governorships and senate seats, George Soros focused on judges, DAs, and Secretaries of States (who deal with elections). It got to the point where judges are Trump or Obama judges. DAs and Secretaries Of State are Soros DAs etc. BLM riots got paid off by big business, and small businesses were attacked. Lockdowns (which Birx made shocking claims about in her own book no less of lying to Trump to get those lockdowns going) targeted the middle class. Cheap therapeutics were villified, but expensive ineffective vaccines and Remdesivir were touted. Trump was bum rushed out of power with potentially millions of ballots without a chain of custody, and the past 1 1/2 years of purposeful dismantling of a humming economy, incluing an economy that recovered quickly as lockdowns were eased at the end of 2020.

The jury is still out on voting machines, but highly suspect because of their connection to how they were AND ARE used in Venezuela. You see border crossings that increase the supply of labor, making it even harder to achieve middle class status, but the rich benefit from slave labor. If you point that out, you're a racist. Getting married and having children is a rich person's game now. Much of the increase of population comes from illegal immigration in the U.S. If that's not enough, as people get older and remain single and childless, maybe even with reproductive vaccine injuries now, there's a movement for the rich to buy up land and control food supplies. Then they want people to eat horrid bland gross food like bugs and mushrooms, while they have French wine soirees, and even photographed in hypocrisy during COVID so they can feel superior in the comparison to common "riff raff."

It all points to one thing -> Oligarchy. Power is power and left and right doesn't really matter when you have addictions to power and consumption to smooth out any scruples. It sneaks up on you unawares but when the populace starts to wake up, the perpetrators are forced to come out of hiding to counter their resistance. Then you see it. It's the the CCP slave labor fascistic model (in the classical sense) of having political operatives in workplaces, and probably involving kickbacks, that the Bush and Nixon wing supported on the right and the left simply exploits imbalances and tries to radicalize the downtrodden. The powerful on each side end up looking the same, because there are always some people more equal than others. Sure there are cheaper prices for goods under this system, but if you are poorer and poorer, you fall out of the saving class and profits go towards owners, and if you don't own any investments you can't tap into those benefits. Subsistance wages keep you out for the long run.

Oh well. Whatever happens, at least I learned a lot. The video will be half baked because more investigations are needed but it may have a strength in that it will be a mini time capsule of the last 2 years.
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Josef C, modified 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 9:03 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 8:51 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 85 Join Date: 6/16/20 Recent Posts
Looks like a lot of bullshit strung together by paranoia and justified by obfuscating words and concepts. All of the right wing checklist is there, CCP check , Vaccine Mandates check, Naomi wolf check, George soros antisemitic theory check, A STOLEN ELECTION mygod hahahahahahha check , Venezuelan voting machines check , chip implants ala mark of the devil check. The only thing lacking is the satanic pedophiles running washington and I could call you a  random paranoid Qanon follower. On your last paragraph you alluded to investigations , are you an investigative journalist or just reading articles online and saying that you really researched? Ala anti vaxxers who say  that they have done research unlike scientists who do the actual research. 

A wake up call that meditative practices cannot change that we are still human. Still fallible to bullshit. Alas so is life. 
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 9:24 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 9:24 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Josef C
Looks like a lot of bullshit strung together by paranoia and justified by obfuscating words and concepts. All of the right wing checklist is there, CCP check , Vaccine Mandates check, Naomi wolf check, George soros antisemitic theory check, A STOLEN ELECTION mygod hahahahahahha check , Venezuelan voting machines check , chip implants ala mark of the devil check. The only thing lacking is the satanic pedophiles running washington and I could call you a  random paranoid Qanon follower. On your last paragraph you alluded to investigations , are you an investigative journalist or just reading articles online and saying that you really researched? Ala anti vaxxers who say  that they have done research unlike scientists who do the actual research. 

A wake up call that meditative practices cannot change that we are still human. Still fallible to bullshit. Alas so is life.

These accusations are pure slander. You can disagree with Soros actions without being Anti-semitic. Attacking him for supporting defunding the police and increasing violence WHICH KILLS PEOPLE, leaves you open to criticism. He helped the NAZIS before and isn't supportive of Israel as a country so he's open to accusations of Psychopathy. The fact you There are Jewish people who don't like Soros. All the left has is labeling people negative things. Stolen elections are definitely reality and quite normalized. Thank God I'm not on YouTube. I think a lot that you criticize is going to show up as not conspiracy theory etc or paranoid. This will especially be true if Trump is arrested for nothing. The pedophile accusations can be over the top, which I didn't mention anything of, but there's plenty of compromising video of Biden that's even old and any conservative who does 1% of that behavior they would be in jail. A huge portion of your Check stuff is being investigated by the right and if they gain power they will investigate it. I don't have to investigate it. This is why the left wants to arrest Trump and will do anything to keep America First types from taking Congress.

To me the left is now Communist. Especially after Nina Jankowicz and the "Ministry of Truth."
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Josef C, modified 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 9:37 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 9:35 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 85 Join Date: 6/16/20 Recent Posts
With the statements that you are saying you are headed to that direction. Oohhh as if defunding the police is really happening which isnt. Biden actually wanted and probably has increased the funding of the police. So much for the left being anti police.As if the right is not good at labeling things. Does the phrase sjw, groomers, woke ring a bell? The right wing conservatives are a bunch of idiots who are hypocritical and support a fascist like trump. The right is being funded by the billionaires ala The koch brothers and the devoses who want to push thru with their agenda of increasing their wealth.

Trump is a pathetic fascist wannabe who has been in power because of people like you who justify his actions. You are spouting conspiracy theories and maybe you should look into yourself and go out of your bubble before you start posting here about the great reset and chips on vaccines.

Is this the result of years of practice? To end up as a person online talking about vaccines  and stolen elections through venezuelan voting machines?
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 11:51 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 11:48 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 5116 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
A brief comment that includes a "soft" warning - DhO is not a politics-oriented place. The last thing we need is for the bifurcation of political views now prevalent in the US to take root here. So please, both of you, let's just keep things focused on our practice.

If this doesn't stop I'll lock this thread so that you can both chill for a while.

Thanks,

- Chris
DhO Moderator
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 12:12 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 12:10 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
Yeah I mean we won't agree on this. I definitely believe there was already in the past a defunding of police and the harms have already happened in blue states with no bail and repeat offenders let out on the street. The BLM riots are a past history of those policies. I don't think this is even controversial. The only increase is in IRS agents. Biden only likes Police who harass conservatives, and Zuckerberg is already talking about FBI influence in the 2020 election, which was considered a conspiracy theory a week ago but now a mundane fact. A lot of so called conspiracy theories ended up being fact. Using "Qanon!" and "Conspiracy theory" is just to dodge topics.

I don't see Fascism in Trump's policies, unless you think ALL forms of Nationalism are Fascist. That word gets overused. I prefer Nationalism because National politicians are more accountable to the people than the WEF and the CCP. The wall he built is to control illegal immigration. Legal immigration should increase when the economy is good and decrease when in recession. You hire citizens in your own country when there's a recession. Illegal immigration should be minimized. Many European countries already do this. For example, if I want to be a digital nomad in Iceland I have to prove my income is not robbing jobs from people in Iceland. Nobody looks at Iceland as fascist or racist. They want citizens to have better access to jobs than non-citizens, because they pay taxes and use social services when out of work.

The entire racism argument falls apart because we now have Latinos supporting the GOP under Trump more than in the past because a bottleneck is a bottleneck. There are even gays that support Trump, though some try to slur and call them Gay-Cons, almost like they are conning people. Illegal immigrants feel pressure of work competition the same as anyone else which is very ironic. Certainly employers would prefer cheaper labor and don't care about a middle class, and I've already explained how that works above. They are not doing this out of inclusiveness or caring. Certainly child trafficking and Fentanyl are a problem at the border and something should be done at the border. It shouldn't be ignored like it is now, especially with all the deaths. Obviously Biden wants illegals to come in and vote illegally because their policies don't help regular people and they need votes. Biden has a KKK background and said plenty of racist things, even during the campaign, eg. "You ain't black if you don't vote for me" so it's just more projection on Trump, and editing Trump's words to make him look racist doesn't convince unless all you watch is MSNBC and CNN, which is now starting to clean house a little by removing Stelter and stopping CNN saying that stolen elections are a BIG LIE. All you have to do is watch the unedited footage of Charlottesville to see NAZIS and White Supremacists denounced. Why even edit that part out if not being malicious?

The chips thing is out in the open with Neuralink and Musk is on video with what I referenced. Nothing really controversial there. Just pointing at what can be seen. WEF videos are all over the place about controlling and spying on people. It's treated as a regular thing to applaud. Crushing farmers over Nitrogen is simply going to help big agriculture and the CCP does buy farmland and so does Bill Gates.<br /><br />BTW the "years of practice" thing simply means that Buddhist practice should make me left-wing. To me the practice relaxes stress related to Subject-&gt; Object -&gt; Time. You can have whatever beliefs if you want and ignoring controversy, facts and reality because it's unplesant is really clinging and hardly an example good practice. "Oh no! I will be called Qanon if I ask this question?" That's obviously a fear that chills debate, but why should I care what you think? To get positive attention from you? That's just transference.

When Trump was in power there was more peace, jobs were starting to return. Common sense tariffs in response to dumping and tariffs corrects the Bush wing of the party that totally sold the West out. Telling people who lost jobs to offshoring to "code" or to go into professions that will take more years of expenseive education to get into is just not realistic. What ends up happening is they get low paying jobs, get addicted to something, and in some cases they become suicidal. Even Aristotle understood you need a middle class to have a stable society.

The Arizona audit found many bad ballots with no chain of custody. In reality it's not even a complete audit. It's well known that Dominion and Smartmatic are connected with original versions with Chavez and Venezuela, which is openly a dictatorship. Certainly there should be more investigations there and it's hardly even begun. France doesn't need things like fractionated voting and it's a much more believable system so that when people win it can be detected as to why and people can move on to debates. The left has so many bad policies, like CRT and many Democrats voted Red to change that, so no wonder the far left has to steal elections and manipulate. When you have a pResident who does Freudian slips and says they have the best voter fraud system, quotes Stalin "it only matters who counts the votes" and says to "count all votes" not looking at whether they are legal votes or not, the left looks totally corrupt. It's not just in my mind. To assume that all the reporting I'm reading is all fake, and that I need to be a citizen journalist ignores that you would have to apply that to yourself equally with your assertions, which you obviously don't unless you have a citizen journalist website I can peruse.

To even say "to end up as a person online talking about vaccines" as if this is something related to practice. If I have good practice, why should I care that I'm laughable or demonized? Many people who are truthtellers get really bad treatment. I mean you are aware that there are vaccine injuries? Why should I ignore vaccine injuries and the Pfizer documents? How would that be good practice? As expected our views are oil and water LOL! In time more information will come out and stigmatizing views as "extreme" when there are plenty of reasons to ask these questions is just denial. It doesn't feel healthy. If there were any real trials with discovery on voter fraud and explained what the voter demographics were, instead of using Standing and biased judges to throw out real complaints of granny farming etc., lower signiture verification controls, ballots printed on printing paper, Sharpie-gate (which happened again in the Arizona primary) and how we aren't able to see the Dominion code and see if these outside vendors conform to election laws, there would be very little suspicion.

BTW I will be interested in reading more left-wing ideas which I may not like a good percentage of, but I'm sure there are deeper books that may predict the future and have some reality to them. Certainly there's cross pollenation between fears of automation killing work and a need for a minimum income. Yeah that's Elon Musk again. He's targeting healthcare jobs. Where will those workers go? Should we tell them to code?

I don't know. I'm not embarrassed to want a good economy, low inflation, freedom of speech and association, and non-violent protests. The FBI should be prosecuting people equally and even the average person, non-Trump voter, could see Trump's raid as political when Hilary Clinton got off because her intent wasn't malicious enough for prosecution. Extreme is as extreme does.
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 12:31 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/27/22 12:28 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 5116 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
Okay, enough. I'm declaring a time-out for this topic. The energy that gets generated by politics is amazing - but not meant for DhO. I'm locking this thread for a few days hoping that we can avoid a major brouhaha.

- Chris
DhO Moderator
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 8/30/22 2:33 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/30/22 2:33 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 5116 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
I've just unlocked this thread, hoping that no reoccurrence of arguments over politics will take place here. 

Time out is over,

- Chris M
DhO Moderator
shargrol, modified 1 Year ago at 8/30/22 5:54 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/30/22 5:54 PM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 2344 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent Posts
Thanks Chris, I think it was a good idea to hit pause.

Ultimately, these political conversations are so loaded because they mostly are symbolic -- they talk "about" the topic with a lot of big symbols. If Richard Zen ever wants to do a podcast/youtube video on his thoughts ------ not on DhO!!!!! please no!!!!!!!!  ------- i would be really interested in primary sources, raw data, links to original evidence, that kind of thing. I don't mind going outside of my comfort zone on political stuff, but I'll never be interested in broad, symbolic, and emotive arguments, that stuff is more for entertainment/reaction provoking.

But ultimately, I've really really really enjoyed the pure psychology reviews --- to me, that's the real gold.  
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 8/31/22 12:05 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/31/22 12:05 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 1665 Join Date: 5/18/10 Recent Posts
It's a free-association-relief because I have a platform for that now. The workplace and politics affect psychology and I can't see how it can be avoided any longer. There's at least up to part 5 for Fear of Success before I can get to just individual contributors again. There's also an Ego Psychology pathway that's already touched on in Fear of Success. Anna Freud was a big influence.

I probably won't be posting many meditation videos here until I get to Judeo-Christian meditations as well as Islam, unless I find some repackaged version with one psychologist or another. I think the audience wants Object-Relations to go into modern day before I go into Jung and Adler. With a full stream created, people can explore for themselves a giant section of Psychoanalysis while I build another avenue. I'm also behind on Philosophy which is a weak point for me, but there's a very small audience that wants MORE. "Why are people so stupid? Heraclitus is the best! Etc." When I geeked out on the 8 fold path, I could tell that most people just wanted more Freud, etc. Each thought leader has a cult following and they seem to be very monogamous with them. Also, everybody has their stream that's urgent for their own study RIGHT NOW and that meditation stream feels satisfying for me. For others, meditation is something "oriental" and "decadent." For now, there isn't a strong desire to read another 10 meditation books. Seeing what meditation doesn't do and the many frauds helped to let go of hero worship.

The Right Mindfulness review provided the most benefit in meditation for me and Psychoanalysis has helped a lot to remove a need for a mask or persona, and both a candid venting True Self style with Nagarjuna's Self-Object-Time, discharges emotion while smoothing out a sense of grind and they balance each other out., and is pretty much like what Otto Rank explained. 

It's weird not being interested in Nirvana anymore, but maybe at some other time it will feel vital. I think sensitivity to pain has to increase to get there. There's a sense of unmooring or an unbearable lightness of being that needs a push and pull to ground oneself to reality, and feel better. Push and pull can feel good again, and not something to avoid like the plague. Certainly emotions before meditation could feel just like one giant fish-hook you're dangerously caught on, but after meditation it's more like desires aren't so bad, because they aren't so intense and all encompassing. I can be candid with emotion without feeling overly triggered like I need a "safe space." Curiousity and a learning mentality allows you to move in areas of controversy without feeling like there's a problem. It reminds me of when I morbidly laugh at how some doctors can talk about patients like gossiping Hobbits and then say "and then he died" like the pet did something naughty and cute, or the patient was an alcoholic and suddenly became a teetotaller. "And then he took up a hobby."

Probably the best thing about casual practice is to see periods of time when there's a strong craving to eat something when there's no need and to not do anything about it and wait for it to crash on its own. The understanding that it will weaken over time makes it easier to let go because you have past experience with emotional regulation.
shargrol, modified 1 Year ago at 8/31/22 5:56 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/31/22 5:56 AM

RE: My YouTube Channel

Posts: 2344 Join Date: 2/8/16 Recent Posts
For what it's worth, lately I've been reading up on Schema Therapy and I've found it an interesting fairly-contemporarry hybrid model. It's a very practical system, more focused on the things that help patients as opposed to figuring out an "a priori" metaphysics for the psyche. Its creation was motivated by the challenge of chronic BPD/PTSD patients, but the framework also works for others... 

Schema therapy - Wikipedia

What I like about it is that it is more focused on the maladaptive framing (schema) of the patient and doesn't diagnose according to specific behaviors. It recognizes that people may have the same core belief (e.g. "I'm defective") but it could manifest as surrender and accomodating that as an identity, ignoring/avoiding situations that trigger that belief, or overcompensating and seeking out ways to prove it wrong. All three of these behaviors are wildly different but they are being caused by the same schema... and if the core schema isn't challenged, then even if the behavior changes, the chronic problem will persist. It will become expressed differently, but the core wounded belief is still there.

It's a sequential process of developing the therapist-patient relationship, inventorying the maladaptive schemas, assessing the benefits and downsides of those schemas, developing proficiency at detecting when the schema is at play, and using pre-planned approaches for cultivating better behavior. All of the above is fairly close to Cognative Behavioral Therapy, which it grew out of.

But Schema Therapy adds two other aspects of treatment. The first is a lot of visualization and role playing, which helps the patient "see/feel" what it is like to be in the schema and still stay conscious. In many ways, it's similar to exposure therapy for phobias, but the phobias in this case are the very core/primal beliefs/thinking/framing that the patient does which limits them. I guess Gestalt therapy also has this same kind of role playing approach.

The second is "Schema mode" work, which is the way therapists can  practically deal with patients with many maladaptive schema and different manifestations of those schemas. It can be exhausting for the therapist (especially when focused on behavior modification) when the patient keeps switching modes and behaviors. BPD and PTSD is known for this. In Schema Modes, the patient is help to understand how they have different major parts of their psyche, which play different roles. The psychological dynamic is frame in terms of macro modes:

The abandoned/vulnerable/wounded child -- which is the mode/behavior of the patient when triggered by the kinds of experience that originally created the maladaptive schema -- the neglect, abuse, abandonment, etc. Here the mind sees and feels their wounds --- which is very important --- and can realize the maladaptiveness of some their strategies for coping, but it is a very fragile state. The therapist helps show that they aren't broken, but rather they lacked the love, protection, self-expression, etc. that a young child needed. So the maladaptive schema were a way to survive. And the original wounds are not personal flaws, but the logical results of the actions/context of where they grew up.

The angry child -- which is the mode where the patient lashes out against the situation or person that triggers the feeling of being the vulnerable child. Here the mind is clear about justice/self-worth, but it is exaggerated and often not appropriate in real life. But this is the seed of the patient reclaiming their own rights, self-worth, and expression of appropriate needs. Getting to the angry child is often the most critical achievement in the therapeutic progression. It re-empowers the patient. Again, the patient is helped to see that love, protection, self-expression, etc. are appropriate things for a child to want and need... but to find it in non-maladaptive ways. 

Then there is the punative parent -- which is the adult voice in the head which shuts down the child's honest expression of needs and says things like "you're being greedy, you don't deserve that, you just need to try harder" etc. This is a created voice that rationalizes the abuses of the parent, by blaming the child. This part of the mind is simply wrong and the therapist helps the patient clearly see it and defy it.

Then there is the detached protector -- which is the intuitive part of the mind that learns how to survive by shutting down and numbing out. This mode can be confused as being a healthy improvement in BPD and PTSD patients because the patient seems logical and self-regulating in this mode. But actually this is a people-pleasing, therapist-pleasing mode where the patient has shut down their needs/wants and is just saying/doing what others want. In this mode, the patient can rarely say what they want, need, or feel. They try to give "the right answer".  This mode is usually the first mode that presents itself and can take a year to work through in order to build therapist-patient relationship. Only then can aspects of the angry child and vulnerable child emerge.

And finally there is the healthy adult -- which is the voice of moderation, balance, sanity, etc. Initially the therapist provides this "voice" and describes appropriate ways to think/feel/behavior instead of the maladaptive schema, but over time the patient is able to detect and play this role. It is further developed during role playing/imagery, where the therapist for example, might play the role of the detached protector and then the patient would talk to the protector, as the healthy adult, and explain to it why shutting down or people-pleasing is a dead-end way to behave if they want a full life.

ANYWAY, what I like about this therapy is it provides a good framework for explaining/honoring a range of existing self-belief and behaviors, but then very pratically moves the patient through the redevelopment process. It starts with giving them a safe place, transistions to understanding their challenges, gives them tools to make incremental progress, uses limited therapeutic re-parenting, but focuses on realizing core wounding, legitimate wants/needs, and how to pursue them as an adult.


And that's my psychology review! emoticon emoticon 

Schema Therapy: A Practitioner's Guide by Jeffrey E. Young | Goodreads 
Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior...and Feel Great Again by Jeffrey E. Young | Goodreads  

P.S. once you see this framework, notice core maladaptive schemas, and the different schema modes... you see it everywhere! 
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Richard Zen, modified 1 Year ago at 8/31/22 8:49 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/31/22 8:49 AM

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It's one of the modern therapies that's touted for what they used to call Complexes, but I would still focus on a learning mentality with this because a lot of the reason why people don't change, the ones that are capable of change, is because of identity beliefs that literally assume that learning in certain areas is not possible. "This is who I am." It's assumed in these therapies but buried in words like Maladaptive, meaning to not learn and repeating problematic behaviors. Like in my Recidivism review, many psychologists focus not on identity but behavior. The cause and effect of behavior that leads to damaging actions in healthy people at some point leads to a response to avoid consequences and diminish the behavior. Learning. When people are stuck in identities they are stuck in an imitation of a personality or character based on what others told them. Then they imitate that character often with an attitude of dependence, like they can't operate without the authority figure who criticized them. They are behaving As-if, as Helene Deutsch called it. That's why authenticity is being able to see consequences of actions independent of a social filter. The balance is then including social consequences to behavior as another stressor to learn from. A healthy form of socialization that keeps an independent mind. 

The general public tends to focus on identities, and partially out of safety because some people can't change, but the danger is that there are a lot of rejections in society and you gain a bad label that is hard to overcome even if you successfully change behavior. You have to tolerate periods of time of proving people wrong. With the imitation part of the mind the brain can imitate authority figures as if one believes that they know us better than we know ourselves, which again can be true some of the time, but all of the time? This is why sticking with trial and error long enough and repeatedly developing skills, no matter what people say about you, is more important than a momentary a-ha that a schema is problematic. That's why so many people, like The 'Wolfman' didn't improve that much and repeatedly was caught up in the cycle of abuse towards the end of his life. He would proclaim a lot of identity descriptions of himself like it was fate.

Proper functioning is being able to develop DESPITE social stigma, and especially self-stigma. Eg. "Can I see consequences of this goal or desire? Can I avoid that? Does it feel good to avoid that? Can I prove an identity wrong with a different behavior?" Relying on imitation of authority figures is dangerous because they can define you and are only interested in your potential utility. To believe in yourself is to believe in your ability to learn. The fruits of that are impulses to do the wrong thing, or to think the wrong thing, start weakening from a lack of use, so compulsion is less of a factor. Again, only some people can learn because of physical brain differences that can't filter impulses before actions. It's the identity trap. A lot of people know this because when they are dating they have to reject and be rejected many different times so they can learn lessons to make themselves more attractive as a partner, but many people find that a drag and get stuck in development, and repeat the same behaviors that destroyed the prior relationship.
shargrol, modified 1 Year ago at 8/31/22 9:16 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 8/31/22 9:11 AM

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Yeah, for sure, the learning aspect is essential. The individual (or the individual working with the therapist) needs to see the consequences of their identity limitations (many of which are ignored or covered up by story/fantasy) and then learn to imagine and embody other frames and actions which are more true to their actual needs and desires. The idea that schemas can be dispelled by naming, or the idea that there is one cartharic change that fixes everything is clearly just wishful thinking. It takes training, a learning mentality.

It's very similar to how I now view the progression in meditation/awakening. In my own opinion, Nanas and Paths are actually tipping points rather than complete-restructuring-experiences. The new capabilities definitly become possible, but they must be lived and wired-in and the limits found and trained further.

p.s. I really liked how schema therapy uses the idea of "detached protector" as a catch-all for the ways that people give up their power and then create an identity around it. The key thing is how sane and safe the protector mode looks/feels, but this is the mode that really kills any individuality and legitimate pursuit of emotional needs/desires. Indeed, the internal felt-stigmas and external stigmas need to be overcome. (But obviously in an eventual "transcend" sense. There will be felt conflict initially, as a transitional phase, but if the person stays in conflict mode they are probably nor overcoming stigma, but rather overcompensating for stigma and still very much trapped by it.) 
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Richard Zen, modified 11 Months ago at 4/17/23 1:14 PM
Created 11 Months ago at 4/17/23 1:14 PM

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Blog: https://psychreviews.org/the-presocratics-melissus/

Video: https://rumble.com/v2gq916-the-presocratics-melissus.html

This is the last of the Eleatic style One-ness Presocratic Philosophers. Things will get more dualistic moving forward in the honking list of philosophers and writers. I also able to find some similarities between Melissus and Non-dual practice, but of course so much of what was written is compromised or destroyed. It still leads to tension in perception related to forms and names. Francis Lucille is a good translator and I like him even better than Rupert. 

My "practice" now is less like a practice. I still do concentration meditations at times but it's more like a reminder to scan and remove the expectation of needing to do a practice and relax unnecessary tensions. The closest thing to a practice is like how Francis calls it an effortless practice. You basically remind yourself to scan and "put down your briefcase." You try to do everything  you do with the minimum effort, but not zero effort. You save energy.

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