History of Counselling: How Psychology Came Into Being

psychology studies

Psychology has, until recently, tended to focus on psychological and emotional problems and how to deal with these. This article identifies the key schools of thought, whose philosophies are often diametrically opposed.

Getting caught in the problem cycle

Psychology has developed as a science over many years, with many different ways of considering the thought and emotional processes that affect individuals. The field of psychology includes what has been termed 'Applied Psychology' where knowledge is used by individual practitioners such as counselors and psychologists to help people overcome problems and, 'Research Psychology' where academic psychologists focus on experiments and studies into human behaviour by testing out concepts behind psychological theories and human behaviour. These studies are then used in fields such as Counselling, Coaching, Stress Management and Mental Health.

Although some applied psychologists who work with individuals also undertake research, there are many academic psychologists who devote their whole life work to research without ever actually working directly with an individual. The field of psychology is split into many areas such as Occupational Psychology (work related issues for individuals and organizations), Educational Psychology (children and learning), and Counselling Psychology (mental health and emotional factors).

Until recently the whole world of psychology has tended to focus on the emotional and psychological difficulties experienced by individuals, groups and organizations. Research has focused on identifying a problem, working out what has gone wrong and then considering what needs to be done to put it right.

How Psychology came into being

The word "psychology" is the combination of two terms - study (ology) and soul (psyche), or mind. Back as far as 355BC the famous Greek philosopher Aristotle suggested that the heart was the mechanism for mental processes and in 387BC Plato, another Greek philosopher suggested that it was the brain and not the heart. Without knowing it, the thoughts of these philosophers led the way for what would later become known as the Science of Psychology. Psychology attempts to identify the forces at work behind human emotions and behaviour.

As time went by many people made their own unique contributions to the growing body of knowledge about how the mind works, why people behave the way they do, what can go wrong and what can be done to put things right.

There are many 'Schools of Psychological Thought' that have developed over the years and many of these have very different ideas about why people are unhappy and become emotionally or psychological distressed and the best ways of helping such people.

The four main Schools of Thought are
Analytical Psychology
Cognitive & Behavioural Psychology
Humanistic Psychology
Transpersonal Psychology

All of the schools have gone on to develop many different types of therapies that are on offer throughout the world. However, all therapies owe their origins to one school of thought or another.

Over time all of these schools of thought have gone on to refine and develop their understanding of individuals, some have used research far more than others (as is the case for the Cognitive and Behavioural Schools) to underpin their knowledge about individuals, their behaviour and the causes of psychological difficulties and how best to address these.

And now I'd like to invite you to claim your free E-Course "How to Develop your Counselling Practice" available at http://www.counsellingpracticematters.com/

Gladeana McMahon is listed as one of the UK's Top Twenty Therapists by the Evening Standard. An innovator, Gladeana is also one of the UK founders of Cognitive Behavioural Coaching and an internationally published author with over 20 books of a popular and academic nature on coaching and counselling to her name.

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Loneliness - The Stigma of Shame of the Solitude of Grace?

psychology studies

Writers more than any others know by necessity both of the above. It is from where true creativity arises. When the words that are written come from a source beyond one, one finds it impossible to write simply for something to do.

For me and for many writers reading this, a piece of writing, article, letter or essay arises following considerable time spent in gestation. This can sometimes be likened to a descent into the abyss. It's a two- way process as I dive through some painful human experiences into the depth of my soul to discover the truth of a situation, then so my soul source will arise up to meet me. It's like the meeting of old friends who have been separated for aeons. "Oh yes, I remember this feeling of "home"... wherein lays my heart."

In a world where words issue forth in an endless and often mindless stream of trivial and banal comments, sound bites and attempts at communication, it is the true creator's lot to remain silent and carry the stigma and shame of that isolating silence. To an outsider who is not privy to this process it can appear a lonely despairing role. But the process is a necessary despair; only by plunging into the mud and silt of the dense earth can we discover nuggets of pure gold.

When all outer sources fail one, when one appears to go beyond the pale, and friends and enemies alike step worlds away from one it is then that we are forced into this subterranean darkness.

This is one aspect of the multidimensional process. We are here walking upon this Earth but we know we are not of this planet except as a tiny seed of consciousness. And so we can somehow find peace and comfort whether suffering from the stigma of shame or the grace of solitude, it depends which perspective is dominant at the time.

This process is the natural pre-birth phenomena, before we are plunged into the reality of Earth for our lessons on life, where we may if we are so graced; experience the blissful rapture of human embodiment.

You can be broken down and I will hold and love you that way. You can fall apart and I will hold and love you that way.
You can have nothing to offer for now and I will hold and love you that way.
You can be at your lowest ebb and I will hold and love you that way.
You can be depressed, contorted, wounded or distraught and I will hold and love you that way.
I will do this with no insistence that you be fixed. I can accommodate a you that breaks down and is not available for my needs for the time being.
From: When Love Meets Fear

Many Articles on Experienced Spirituality, Multidimensional Reality and Personal Growth can be found on

http://www.multidimensionalreality.com/

including free E-Book upon Request

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Emotional Self-Imprisonment

psychology studies

Just imagine being given a jail sentence merely because we could not handle our emotions. Think of the public outcry! But conjure with the idea of being given a thirty, forty, even a fifty or sixty year sentence! The level of public indignation about our human rights would surely dwarf any riots we have seen. Add a final insult and tag us 24 hours a day to remind us of our emotional disorders, and the fury would erupt. Yet this is exactly what many of us do to ourselves. We impose life sentences of emotional self-imprisonment and tag ourselves!

And the metaphor gets even more real and even more horrifying, the more one dwells on it.

Because of trauma, shock, hurt or abuse, we can and we do sentence ourselves more harshly still. We commit ourselves to solitary confinement, guarding our inner most emotional secrets with a level of zeal and shame with is extraordinary. This personal imposition can also originate from guilt, abandonment, rejection, or from humiliation, bullying or molestation.

Yet in our hearts we know that were there ever to be any appropriate system of emotional courts with judge and jury, none would convict us as severely as we have done to ourselves. None would find our case proved as warranting such a fierce punishment.

But just focus on this metaphor one more time- when we have the highest criminal prison population on record. And now ponder on the fact that a vast number of us - walking the streets apparently free, have nevertheless imprisoned ourselves in unresolved emotions!

And our level of commitment to the sentence can be astonishing. It can involve a vow of silence and secrecy to ourselves - something we determine to take our grave. This we can deem preferable to a mistaken belief that if we unburden ourselves we will be emotionally pilloried until our death by relatives and friends, and that should be avoided at all cost!

More weird, emotionally speaking, even when the underlying cause can have been in no way of our making or our fault, we still seek to deny that to ourselves and then compound the denial by buying deeper into the shame, humiliation and rejection as if somehow we deserved it!

That can set in train yet more entangled and constraining behavioural thinking. We can use this misconceived buy-in as a stick to beat ourselves harder than anyone else with the same knowledge ever would - or should. And why ever do we do this? Because we have let ourselves think it is our just desserts! The 'tagging' is provided by our self-talk which we encourage sub-consciously to reinforce our worst thoughts about ourselves

And paradoxically we can find we draw strength from our apparent courage and fortitude to shoulder it on our own, when few around us would see any sense or justification in that.

I think it is fair to say that Time once was when maybe this emotional flagellation was deemed to be part of being human and living a human life. Not enough was known then about psychology and the impact of our behavioural thinking.

But no more! No longer is that true. Irrefutable psychological and behavioural truths pile up one on top of another - from one research project after another - each revealing to us ever more about our human nature. More welcome still they reveal to us how we can neutralise and re-frame our reactions to horrific indignities we have endured.

The benefits of encouraging ourselves to end our self-imprisonment, to give ourselves emotional parole and to re-configure the emotional memories and patterns are now well documented.

Why? If for no other reason, because we know now it is no longer necessary for we humans to endure it. And nor is it justified any longer to inflict our emotional shortcomings on others, young or old, for them to replicate what we have done and to resort to emotional self-imprisonment for themselves.

So we should at least talk about these things, share them and unashamedly seek help to understand them. We should cherish the reality that none of us are perfect, that we are unique and most particularly we are blessed with the ability to cure ourselves emotionally.

And if that is not enough, then quite simply accept that we do not deserve this toxic form of imprisonment when help is now at hand. There are number of good proprietary self-discovery books and programmes available to find a new level of happiness.

I strongly recommend you look at the Hoffman Process and at a book called "You Can Change Your Life" by Tim Laurence. Alternatively you may find it helpful to read the self-discovery novel. "Squaring Circles" which I have written. It deals with emotional patterning such as this. It is available from http://www.amazon.co.uk/ of from http://www.squaringcircles.co.uk/ in paperback or online through most UK bookshops. I wish you well.

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Split Personality

psychology studies

I am not talking here about Multiple Personality Disorder (otherwise called Dissociative Identity Disorder), or Schizophrenia.

I refer instead to the parts of us that become 'split-off' due to our childhood experiences and the meaning we gave to these, from our under-developed child-brain.

There are two levels of splitting that take place when we believe that we are 'not good enough' as we are.

The first level happens as we learn that in order to be seen as OK and to be accepted within the family, we have to 'wear a mask(s)', and fulfil the 'role' set for us by our family.

These masks might include the 'smiley-face-everything-is-fine-in-our family' mask; the 'I-feel-no-pain' mask; and the 'I-must-be-a-good boy/girl-at-all-times-and-not-be-a-burden' mask.

We may also have a 'role' to play in the family unit such as the Super-achiever, the Caretaker, the Carrier of the family madness/badness, the Sick Patient, and many more besides. All of these rob us of our authenticity and the feeling that we are OK just as we are, and that we are valued and wanted for just being our real self.

Instead we develop a 'false-self' to please other people and to ensure that we can continue to live with them and to have our basic survival needs met.

For too many people these 'masks' become stuck and they forget they are even wearing them; or they fear ever taking off the mask and having to face, and live with, the stranger who lies beneath; or they may have tried and failed to remove the mask - due to pressure from other people who want/need them to keep wearing it!

A second and deeper split occurs as a result of severe childhood trauma, abuse and abandonment; when the real self, hidden behind the false self, steps or falls back even further....from the back-room and down into the cellar.

Often to be banished and forgotten about. This 'prisoner' is condemned to a life of darkness and the struggle to survive emotionally. It lives in shame of it's own existence. It feels like an alien without a true personality or life of it's own. It becomes the puppet for others to use, whether that be within the family, or with partners later in their life and within their inevitably dysfunctional relationships.

'It' observes the unfolding 'drama' of life as if from a distance, without any feeling of deeper connection to it. It is isolated and hopeless. It feels like an 'it'.

Believing itself to be deeply flawed and feeling the pain of rejection ridicule and hostility, it knows only self-loathing and despair.

Any words of encouragement, care, or concern echo around the dank cellar in which it exists. Nothing good can penetrate - the fear of further wounding is so great. Exposure and shame burn like a branding iron telling all of it's failure as a human being.

It abides in a prison cell which is actually locked from the inside, or the door may be ajar but the prisoner dare not try to escape. The dark damp cell is at least a familiar 'home'.

Maybe you have tried - in vain - to have a relationship with a 'Cellar Dweller'? ©

You may have poured considerable effort and time into trying to coax them out and to help them to believe in your honesty and integrity....but to no avail. Maybe you have got as far as marriage to such a lost soul - who went along with the arrangement in order to have some 'comfort' pushed through the bars of their inner prison. If so, you will get little in return as they won't know how to love, let alone how to show it in a way that reaches another's soul.

They may receive your love but not know how to give back anything meaningful of themselves. They may talk at length without really saying anything about themselves or their innermost dreams, hopes, and needs.....because they are detached from these and unable and unwilling to take the risk of possible rejection by anyone. They have already profoundly rejected themselves.

It seems obvious that they should simply realise that they are now an adult, and that they can change their thought processes, and consequently their feelings and behaviours. However their detachment from life and their self-loathing is so deeply ingrained that any such wise words would be wasted on them. They could not penetrate their protective armour.

They may fear the prospect of living and dying alone, and so form an 'entanglement' with someone - rather then a real relationship. Very few people would settle for the little that the Cellar Dweller can give to a relationship...perhaps only another deeply wounded soul would accept the profound lack of emotional expression and intimacy.

So, outwardly such a couple may appear to 'function' well, and may even have professional jobs. They may be like 'the parent I never had' to one another. But a 'fly-on-the-wall' would witness two aliens living like magnets emotionally repelling one another, and moving around without actually touching.

Shame is called the master emotion - for it's power to disintegrate our sense of ourself. Only by shining a light and taking away the darkness and shadows can anyone be gently coaxed to come to the edge of their sanctuary/prison in the cellar of their life....like a terrified kitten who dreads the next kick. Many will not take that risk and instead they will play safe and play dead.

Maxine Harley Msc Integrative Psychotherapy - Psychotherapy in Sussex and creator of 'The Ripple Effect' Process and Quantum Psyche Process see http://www.qpp.uk.com/

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Dysfunctional Families: The Autocratic Family

psychology studies

I have found it helpful to talk about families in terms of the ABCs (Attachment, Boundaries and Communication) and the 3 R's (Rules, Roles and Resulting Relationships). The ABC's of unhealthy, or dysfunctional,families include insecure attachment, poor boundaries (either enmeshment or disengagement), and closed communication. In the case of autocratic families, poor boundaries may be exhibited by the family head who asserts the right to enter any room of the house at any time without knocking, depriving the rest of the family of any sense of personal space or privacy.

Autocratic families may seem relatively innocuous in comparison to alcoholic or abusive families but they display similar patterns of dysfunctional rules, roles and resulting relationships. The rules in an autocratic family may include not talking back-a child may not address an adult in the same tone with which the adult addresses the child-or not talking at all, in the sense that conversation involving a democratic give-and-take of opinions is frowned upon. There may be unspoken rules against showing, or even talking about, emotions. This often means that the autocrat's problems in dealing with emotions get passed on to the children.

Children in an autocratic family seem to display a number of distinctive roles:

The Rebel may continually confront the autocrat without ever achieving victory, often the case when the autocrat is simply too strong. The Rebel may continue, even into adult life, with the attempt to win acknowledgement, acceptance, or approval.

The Peacemaker accepts autocrat's authority and urges others to do the same. The Peacemaker may enter adult life lacking a healthy sense of self-esteem and depending on others to make all the decisions.

The Fugitive avoids confrontation by keeping out of sight. As an adult, the Fugitive may visit as infrequently as possible and for as short a time as possible. This refusal to engage may appear on the surface as a successful escape from the autocrat's authority, but may be accompanied by problems in forming intimate relationships.

Adult children of an autocratic family may experience difficulty expressing emotions and reading other people's emotions. They may display low self-esteem, relying on the opinions of others to define their self-image or failing to pick up on conventional social signals. As in the case of children growing up in abusive families, the children of an autocrat, determined to avoid that distasteful trait, may instead become an excessively permissive parents. Personal or family counselling may be required to break the dysfunctional pattern that passes from one generation to the next.

Arthur Wenk, a psychotherapist practicing in Oakville, Ontario, combines cognitive-behavioral therapy (discovering techniques for producing immediate changes) with a psychodynamic approach that helps make changes permanent by addressing the root causes of mental health problems. Art is certified by OACCPP (the Ontario organization for psychotherapists) and EMDRIA (the EMDR International Association). Art's website, http://www.arthurwenk.com/, contains one-page summaries of recommended books on personal growth, brief explanations of common mental health issues, and lectures on parenting, the psychology of families, and the functioning of the brain.

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An Approach to Psychological Counselling

psychology studies

Many forms of psychotherapy today are being offered; although it must be confessed that the most used form is an eclectic form made up from aspects of various cognitive-behaviour techniques plus procedures taken from other therapies.

In any case, cognitive-behaviour therapies presuppose that psychological disturbance can be ameliorated by modifying the irrational/illogical/unscientific thoughts that the person automatically thinks about certain situations.

It is true that irrational thoughts such as 'everyone hates me', 'I can't cope with my life' and 'I hate myself' may accompany negative moods. However, their mere presence is no guarantee of their causative status and efforts to demonstrate causation founder on the rocks of the sheer complexity of human experience.

Frankly speaking, psychologists cannot control all necessary variables in studying human functioning and if they were able to exercise such control their research would be of human beings that do not exist in this present world, beings stripped of their essential humanity.

Efforts to argue that when clients are taught to modify their thoughts that their distress diminishes must indicate that the 'problem' was bound up with irrational thoughts in the first place are not convincing. In all forms of cognitive-behaviour therapy much more is involved than just teaching clients to think differently. For human interaction always involves more than just thinking.

Moreover, cognition itself is more than 'just thinking rationally or logically'. Cognition involves the broad area of knowing so it can also be connected with imagining and willing.

Attachment Phenomena

Undeniably, humans are attached to their mothers from their earliest time of existence. After birth, attachment behaviour can be observed throughout life.

Humans are born into an attachment matrix of some type and to some extent, the quality of that attachment continues with them unless effective therapeutic interventions occur or other life-events profoundly modify that attachment type.

Four types of attachment types have been identified: secure, anxious-preoccupied, dismissive-avoidant, and fearful-avoidant.

The first type of attachment pattern is found in positive mother-child bonds where the child is said to have found 'a secure base'. The person emerging from this type of attachment will tend to find it easy to establish relationships throughout life.

In the second type, the anxious-preoccupied one, the child tends to be 'clingy' and to grow up that way. On growing up, they will confess to wanting close relationships with others but fear others don't want the same closeness to them. 'Do you really love me?' they ask.

In the third type, the child and then later the adult will pride themselves on their independence and their ability not to want intimacy with others. Such an outlook can lead to problems in intimacy relationships such as marriage.

In last category we find those who are highly ambivalent about relationships; they desire close relationships but are fearful that they will be hurt by rejection or abandonment.

Therapy

During childhood it is hypothesised that the child builds up 'a working model of attachment' with the primary caregivers so as to predict what will conceivably happen if the child does such and such.

This type of therapy can be used with children and parents. It is also being used with adult clients in romantic relationships particularly those with difficulties involving infidelity.

However, to this point my experience only stretches to using it as way of understanding why certain clients act the way they do. (Interestingly, the above categories bear some resemblance to the personality types identified by the famous early psychoanalyst, Karen Horney.)

Dr Ian R Ridgway is a Christian psychologist with 20 years experience in counselling and tertiary teaching. He relates the Christian faith to his vocation to assist others by developing a quality relationship built on trust and unconditional acceptance of the client (though not necessarily of all s/his behaviour). He provides an individual professional service as set out at http://psy-services.yolasite.com/

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God: A Logical Counter

psychology studies

God and Psychology

Recently I was discussing God with one of my friends who is of the opinion that people only believe in religion for 'psychological' reasons: i.e. because their parents were religious, because they grew up in an environment of Christianity, or because they were brainwashed by charismatic and rhetorical speakers. He also thought that Christianity naturally promotes racism, hatred and inequality. I however, being Christian myself (Quaker to be more precise) think that this is unfair, and doesn't consider both sides of the argument.

Now, before I begin I must freely confess that both my parents are Christian: I'm not going to try and hide that to make my opinion appear more objective, those reading this may well think 'aha, he himself grew up with it and knew no better,' Believe this if you want, but understand that if you believe we all hold beliefs because of psychological factors, then atheism is also a belief, and therefore subject to psychological explanation. I once knew a man that ardently declared his atheism. When I got to know him better, he revealed that his father had been Catholic, and had beaten him very often in his youth. He tells me I only believe in God because of psychological reasons... Yes, we are all subject to psychological factors which influence decisions, but becoming atheist does not grant immunity from this very basic human condition.

I hope that the arguments I use will be considered objective, logical and rhetorical, because I believe, contrary to much atheist thought, that religion is logical.

Returning to the debate with my friend, his first line of argument was to suggest that Christians promote inequality. My counter is simple: yes, it is true that many 'Christians' have engaged in warfare under religious pretences, and committed atrocities in the name of God. Does this mean they are Christian? No. People who believe we are not equal obviously aren't true Christians. If I told you I was a scientist and never performed a single experiment but rather threw random chemicals together into a pot, would I be a true scientist? No. Similarly rejecting something because it has previously generated negative experiences or events, is not a ground for discarding it. Scientists created the nuclear warhead, not Christians, but do we attack science as being inherently immoral? No. Science has given man the terrifying ability to push a button and instantly destroy thousands, if not millions, of human beings. Yet do we decide to give it a rest? No. We accept it has drawbacks and terrible potential, but it also creates liver-transplant machines and intravenous feeds which save lives. Do we call for the abolishment of politicians because they start wars? No. Human beings can always twist and misuse ideas to their own ends, religion is the same. Just because a body of people have misused to it to, as my friend quite rightly says, promote inequality, sexism, and dictatorship, does not mean that religion as a whole is evil.

True Christianity promotes loving your neighbour as yourself. Jesus marks this out as the most important commandment, because from it all other commandments naturally follow.

In Galatians it says: "...we are all one," therefore people that make arguments against Christianity as promoting inequality:
a) haven't read the Bible
and
b) are obviously unable to separate individual faith based on evidence, understanding, experience and love from organised religion.

His second line of argument was to suggest that though the Bible does have moments where it seems to be promoting morality, at the same it contains "rape, child slavery and sexism" and promotes these alongside it.

Firstly, rape, child slavery and sexism exist in many modern films: that doesn't mean these things are 'promoted'. Does Orwell's 1984 necessarily say that Communism and Oligarchical Collectivism are a good thing? No. The Ten Commandments expressly forbid murder and the disrespect/harm of others and this message is further enforced in the New Testament.

My friend was right about one thing though, yes, the Bible is in part a product of its time. Things were different then, and so naturally approaches to overcoming problems were different. For example: in the Old Testament we see polygamy and incest is accepted in some cases, whereas in the New Testament it is not. Consider then that in the Old Testament the population of the whole earth could be numbered in thousands. Measures were required to ensure the human race survived, but often even then polygamy, or extra marital sex was only as a last resort, for example: if the wife was infertile. Incest was also not necessarily the same thing that it is today, the blood was probably purer and would not lead to deformity, damage, or mutation as it does now. Scientists believe it would have taken eight people to populate the world today (bearing in mind there are eight people on Noah's ark). Out of eight people there is only so much that can be done before inbreeding inevitably occurs. We are all related therefore, however distantly. But coming back to my friend's argument: he is right, the Bible is partly a product of the circumstances in which it was conceived.

But, it also goes beyond this. Just because something is written two thousand (roughly AD 10-30 - The Jesus Papyrus) years ago, it doesn't mean that it is outdated or that its principles become irrelevant. Psychologists use the works of Freud, Jung, and even more ancient philosophers: does their work become irrelevant just because time has passed? No. True, some ideas that were contemporaneous may now be less relevant, but others have become universal truths. Allow me to very simply demonstrate a universal truth from the Bible that anyone can accept, atheist, Christian, or of any denomination or belief. The Garden of Eden is frequently disregarded as being absurd, impossible, and convenient. Here's my theory: The Garden of Eden is a metaphor, and it's a brilliant one at that. It's a metaphor for the human condition that has retained its hold on the imagination since it was written. Human beings are obsessed with what is forbidden. Humans beings are obsessed by knowledge: just look at science: does the unethical nature of their practices stop them pursuing secrets ardently to their culmination? No. And I'm not criticising science here: I follow the science articles in The Week avidly to see what the next discovery will be. We also see everyday that people fall prey to the promise of power, they make deals that they shouldn't, they make choices that they even know they shouldn't: but the power is just too tempting.

It's a metaphor for puberty as well. Children aren't ashamed to be naked and free. They aren't ashamed if they speak what they feel honesty.
"I want a toy!"
"No it's mine!"

They aren't afraid to ball in tears in front of a crowd of people and they never make apologies for being who they are. Then with age comes wisdom, and 'knowledge of good and evil': of embarrassing secrets, of our own bodies. People want to cover themselves up because they're afraid 'I'm not ripped enough' or 'my bum's too big' etc. Knowledge brings shame, alongside the gift of reason and enlightenment.

It's also about a man's obsession with women. People often say that it's sexist because Eve takes the fruit first. That's one way to look at it: but who's the bigger fool, the fool, or the fool who follows? In Paradise Lost Milton paints a picture of Adam as uxorious to the point of self destruction. Adam chooses to take the fruit because he can't live without woman, without Eve. So it's also a story about love. Human love that is so powerful it causes them to defy the divine, and who hasn't felt their love for someone is causing them to fall? That our addiction to someone is almost unhealthy? That is doesn't make sense? Adam gives us paradise for Eve, and isn't that the case of most people: they sacrifice something to continue or further a relationship?

You don't have to believe in God or in the literality of the Garden of Eden story to see that this book is profound, and full of profound teaching. Atheists often cannot understand how someone can turn to the Bible for guidance, as they view it as ignorant, but if you read the Bible you begin to see that there are numerous examples of acute observation of human nature, and of the way the world works. There is a famous line which states someone who commits sin will not only be cursed but for ten generations after their family will be cursed. Is this a harsh punishment from an unjust God (as atheists like to argue) or is it actually an observation that someone prone to behave badly will probably pass this on to their children, who in turn will pass it on to theirs, making it a hard cycle to break from.

Therefore I disagree with the views that the Bible doesn't make sense and is ignorant, which is obviously a stance I'm expected to take. But looking at it from what, to me, is a logical perspective: there's more psychological insight into human beings in that one exceedingly story, than in all of Freud and Dawkins put together.

I apologise if I offended anyone reading this article, unlike aggressive atheism I am perfectly fine with acknowledging many people have differing views from me. I intend no disrespect, and have been motivated to write this counter argument because of the numerous attacks upon my own system of belief: which is one of loving others, caring for others, striving for friends and family, upholding moral principles, and humbling before a being infinitely greater than I am.

Thank you for your time,
Feel free to post responses and comments.

Joseph Sale is a Creative Writing Student at the University of Birmingham and the author of two books: 'Dark Age Heroes' and 'Z.A'

To find out more about him and his work you can visit his website at: http://www.taliesinbooks.com/

Alternatively you can follow his Twitter feed at: josephwordsmith

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The Psychotherapy of The Unconscious Mind and Extroverted Psychological Types

psychology studies

Carl Jung discovered that all human beings belong to a certain psychological type, which is defined by an introverted or extroverted attitude. Each psychological type works based on only one psychological function completely developed, and on another one half-developed.

Our four psychological functions are: thoughts, feelings, sensations, and intuition.

All psychological types are absurd and must be corrected. They must develop both attitudes; introverted and extroverted. They also have to learn how use their four psychological functions at the same time.

Extroverted types are very superficial and materialistic. They don't easily become mentally ill like the introverted psychological types, but they are ridiculously materialistic in all matters. They cannot understand that there is also a spiritual reality, and that there are more important issues in life than the material ones.

Extroverted psychological types based on feelings simply follow the opinion of the world. They are people without a clear personality. They are unable to make logical conclusions independently of their feelings.

Extroverted types based on thoughts are true guardians of the laws already pre-established by the knowledge of the world.

You simply have to agree with them because there is no way you may ever make them agree with you. In case you have a different opinion, a different knowledge, or another vision of the world, you have no chances to ever convince someone who belongs to the extroverted psychological type based on thoughts that you could be right and he/she could be wrong.

The extroverted psychological type based on sensations is a predominant one in our world. Those who belong to this psychological type care only about having material pleasures. They are immoral and indifferent.

Their indifference to justice is disgusting. They are unable to understand the meaning of spirituality or abstraction. Everything for them has a material and obvious explanation. Those who belong to this psychological type rule our world, along with those who belong to the extroverted psychological type based on thoughts.

The extroverted psychological type based on intuition is a constant pursuer of new opportunities. Those who belong to this psychological type cannot work long in the same project. They have to constantly look for something else.

This is why they don't reap the benefits they could have from their initial effort. For example, they build a successful new business, but they have no patience to keep working on it. They are always looking for better opportunities, and never developing their initial projects.

Those who are extroverted seem to be balanced according to the judgment of the absurd modern civilization, which works based on selfishness. However, the truth is that extroverts are too far from sound mental health.

The fact that they don't become neurotic as easier as those who are introverts doesn't mean that they are more balanced. It means that they their immune system is more resistant to craziness than the immune system of the introverted types.

However, since everyone inherits craziness in their brain, as I could discover after continuing Carl Jung's research, all psychological types are absurd. In a few words, everyone needs psychotherapy. This is why the divine unconscious mind that produces our dreams and possesses undoubtable wisdom sends us information and guidance in our dreams.

If you want to acquire sound mental health and also protect the mental health of those who are around you, you must pass through a process of psychotherapy through dream translation. You only have to write down your dreams in a dream journal and translate their meaning according to the scientific method of dream interpretation. Carl Jung discovered the only right method of dream interpretation as I prove with my work, and I simplified his method for you.

Now you can understand how to triumph over life's challenges without making mistakes and suffering. The unconscious guidance in your own dreams will help you understand how to successfully transform your personality and achieve your goals. The unconscious psychotherapy is safe because it is based on sanctity. You are cured by eliminating your wild nature and learning how to be wise.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung's research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.

Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com/

Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

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A Different Dimension Behind Dreams

psychology studies

Through dream translation according to the scientific method you find explanations for the meaning of life and for the meaning of death. You also understand how to cure a mental illness, or how to prevent a mental illness before becoming mentally ill. You also understand that evilness and craziness are synonyms.

Therefore, the religious mystery of all religions is scientifically explained in dreams. The unconscious mind that produces your dreams is God's mind. God is saintly and wise as described by all religions of the world. Now that Jung's discoveries and my discoveries help you completely decipher the symbolic meaning of all dream images, you can have a direct communication with God.

Today you can have a special knowledge that various past civilizations that believed in the importance of our spiritual reality had. At the same time, you can have many scientific explanations about the functioning of your brain. The interpretation of the meaning of dreams gives you numerous alternatives.

You are probably impressed with the technological progress of our civilization. You certainly believe that our knowledge surpasses the knowledge of previous civilizations. However, the truth is that the wisdom of ancient civilizations that paid attention to the meaning of dreams could help them more than the technological progress of our historical time can help us today.

The knowledge of the world is related to your material reality, while the most important matters of the human life don't belong to the material dimension. You must pay special attention to the different dimension existent in dreams.

Your dreams are not only images and scenes that work like psychotherapy. They give you information about things that you could never learn otherwise.

For example, dreams about dead people give you information about the people you lost, especially if you loved them and you cannot accept their death. However, you have objective information about dead people in dreams only when these people are very important for you.

Dead people in dreams usually have a symbolic meaning. They represent parts of your own personality that have a negative or positive meaning, depending on the characteristics of the personality of the dead person who appears in a dream.

Dead people in your dreams cannot serve as an example to be avoided or to be followed. Your behavior already is like their behavior.

In other words, they are not dead parts of your personality, but parts that characterize your behavior because you didn't pay attention to their mistakes, in case they are negative. The example of the dead people couldn't help you avoid repeating their mistakes. If they are positive, this means that you are imitating their positive behavior because you admire their qualities.

This double dimension in dreams gives them a power that you cannot find in any technological creation. Your dreams create a bridge that unites you with God, and at the same time, they cure your mental disorders and physical diseases. Dream therapy works like alternative medicine, the same way it works like psychotherapy.

Your physical health depends on your mental health. Everything in your life is related to your mental health because your psychological and spiritual transformation is your mission in life. You also have the moral obligation to help the world find peace and happiness. Your sensibility and your sensitivity must help the world find solutions to all problems.

Today you can understand the scientific explanations to all mysteries related to the functioning of the human brain thanks to dream translation. These explanations prove that sound mental health depends on sensitivity and goodness. The same scientific explanations help you find explanations for all the mysteries contained in the religions of the world.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung's research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.

Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com/

Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

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Defense And Adaptive Mechanisms Of The Dissociation

psychology studies

Dissociative protection, like other defenses is the best possible adaptation of the immature organism to the particular situation. Then in later circumstances, they become automatic and therefore maladaptive (by influencing the formation of a neurosis or depression). Some dissociative individuals, according to psychology and psychotherapy, and adulthood keep dissociation forever - after the initial injury, the other in the event of termination abuse, reach for a long time or a fine collaboration of different personalities, and their dominance in the subjective world of one's own "I "("host personality").

The typical (for a psychologist) is to stop the apparent dissociation (dissociative neurosis) when the patient leaves his family, which was brought up, and display it again when their son or daughter reaches the age at which parent is the first time subjected to violence. (This connection is not recognized.) Another common trigger of dissociation in adults is the meeting with any circumstances that enliven children's trauma. Carefully gathering a history, a psychologist can find a lot of small examples of dissociation throughout adult life of the patient. But in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis he is usually led to some dramatic and maladaptive dissociative reactions - the loss of significant periods of time, the stories of others on matters about which the patient does not remember anything, and so on. Phenomena such as these allow the psychologist-psychoanalyst Klaft to talk about "windows that contribute to the diagnosis" (on the advice of a psychologist) in the dissociative states.

Dissociation - a strange "invisible" protection. When one "I" or other system of "I" speak in a gentle way, none of those around the patient notices the dissociative process. Many therapists believe that they have never come across "multiple" personalities, as they expect a client psychological counseling he will announce its multiplicity, or show a dramatic alien to the other part. Sometimes it happens (in fact, it happens more often as the demystification of dissociation), but usually indicate the multiplicity is much thinner. Even when therapy appears quite another part of the identifiable person (such as a frightened child), the therapist ignorant, honestly trying to provide psychological support, will tend to read the changes in a patient not in terms of dissociation (as, for example, as a transitory phenomenon of regression).

The exact assessment of dissociation hinders its discretion. Psychoanalysts have to advise the spouses of people with dissociative psychology, who, with full awareness of the diagnosis of his partner, made comments like: "Yesterday, she said the opposite". Knowing the fact that the last person said, as she was someone else completely pales against the backdrop of her own perception, both yesterday and today I spoke with the same individual. If even an intimate partner does not notice signs of dissociation in humans with recognized, diagnosed disorder in the form of multiple personality, it is easy to understand how blind can be ignorant professionals. Dissociate people know how to "cover up" their standard deviation. Even in childhood, they develop a technique of evasion and fraud, and are constantly accused of "lying" - there are things that they do not remember. They suffer from the terrible violence (causing stress and depression) at the hands of people who would have to defend them, and therefore do not trust the authorities and do not come to the office of a psychologist with the expectation that full disclosure will only benefit them.

The assessment of the circumstances depends on the method of determination of dissociation. In addition to the "classical" multiple personality, a condition called now "DDNOS" (dissociative disorders, nowhere else does not differentiate, DSM), in which the other person is, but does not grab control of the body. There are also other dissociative phenomena - depersonalization, the third frequency of psychiatric symptoms after the depression and anxiety (fear). Depersonalization or presumably can be quite frequent and lengthy to be characteristic.

Therapist B. Brown offered an useful conceptualization - BASK (an abbreviation of the English words: Behavior, Affect, Sensation, Knowledge - behavior, affect, sensation, knowledge). With it, Brown has given the status of the concept of dissociation rather super ordinary category than the peripheral protection, as it is conceived by Freud. His model includes many of the processes, which often occur together, but not always treated as family. According to Brown, the dissociation occurs at the level of behavior - as in paralysis or self-inflicted in a trance, at the level of passion - as in the action "with a charming indifference," or when you save the memory of the trauma, without any feelings, at the level of experience - both in the conversion of anesthesia and "body memory" of the abuse or at the level of knowledge - as in the states 'fugues' or amnesia (cf. Freud's ideas about early childhood amnesia).

BASK model considers repression auxiliary to dissociation, and places a number of phenomena that were considered particularly hysterical (as did Freud), the dissociative domain (level). It also binds to the historical trauma, many problems that were considered exclusively an expression of intrapsychic conflict. Therapists engaged in counseling with patients with dissociative character, these formulations are very useful clinically, and those who work with other people, believe that they increase their sensitivity to dissociative processes occurring to each of them.

Psychology of Everyday Life
http://www.freud-sigmund.com/

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Abnormal Psychology: Definition and Treatments

psychology studies

The behavior of people can be fascinating. Psychology is the branch of science that aims to understand how the mind and human behavior works. Throughout the course of time, patterns have been detected and psychologists are able to determine what normal human behavior is and what is deemed to be abnormal. The branch of psychology that deals with this unusual pattern of though, behavior or emotion is termed as abnormal psychology.

When dealing with something that is abnormal, we should first define what this means so that we can have a better understanding of this concept. Abnormal usually indicates something that falls outside the norm. Norms can still be further separated into particular groups such as gender or age. Human behaviors can then be calculated statistically and those that fall under the middle of a bell-shaped curve are known as the average, and this is what is referred to as normal. Those that fall at the ends of the curve are those that are considered to be abnormal.

Now just because something does not fall under the normal, it doesn't automatically mean that it is bad. Those that fall under the more positive side of the curve, such as people with very high IQ are considered abnormal but it is not really a bad thing as these people are considered as geniuses. But when dealing with abnormal psychology, this refers more on behavior that is distressing and can cause disruption in one's functioning. Such troubling behavior may require intervention and this is where psychologists and psychiatrists are needed to help restore functionality. Another reason why there may be a reason to intervene is when people start violating social norms. This is when a person violates what is commonly deemed as acceptable in a particular society. Behavior that may be incomprehensible, or make other people feel uncomfortable or threatened may fall under this category.

There are different approaches that you can use in abnormal psychology, and it is usually best to make use of all types of approach when it comes to treating patients. The first is the behavioral approach which focuses on reinforcing positive behavior while discouraging maladaptive behavior. Another approach is the medical approach which focuses on the biological cause of the illness. This involves understanding the cause of the disorder, possibly related to genetic reasons, chemical imbalances in the body, infections and physical causes. Treatment for this approach tends to use drugs to control the patient's symptoms and combined with psychotherapy. The last approach is the cognitive approach which tries to understand how thoughts and perceptions are towards psychological disorders. This method focuses on trying to change the patient's thoughts and this is done by using behavioral cognitive therapy.

There are a lot of other disorders that you will encounter if you study psychology. You will come across disorders such as mood disorders, adjustment disorders, anxiety disorders and many more. If you are interested in this topic, taking up a course in abnormal psychology may help you understand more about these disorders and how you may be able to help and treat these people.

Lifestyle Learning Direct provides the complete distance education solution by offering online and correspondence courses from The Sackville Academy, The Writing School and Lifestyle Learning Online

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Dream Interpretation - Walking and Leaping in Dreams

psychology studies

You dream because your mental stability is constantly threatened by the craziness contained into your wild conscience (anti-conscience). The unconscious mind that produces your dreams tries to protect you mental stability from the attacks of your wild side, which is constantly trying to invade your human conscience and generate a mental illness.

Even if you'll never completely lose your mind, you are still influenced by the absurdity of your anti-conscience in many ways. You have to understand what is happening in your brain and psyche so that you may be able to control your behavior.

The unconscious mind gives you behavioral lessons, and logical lessons.

For example, if instead of normally walking in a dream you are leaping like a frog, this means that you are not making a research the way you should. When you are walking in dreams this means that you are trying to discover something important. You are looking for the truth. Walking in dreams means researching and discovering.

If you are leaping instead of normally walking, this means that you jump from one point to another. You want to get to the next point very fast.

This means that you are not a good researcher. You want to jump important lessons. You have to walk step by step all the difficult steps of your long path in order to discover what you are looking for. If you'll try to reach the end very fast, you won't learn all your lessons, and you'll miss important details.

This simple dream already was an important warning. You have to be patient and cautious in your research.

The continuation of Carl Jung's research proves that many past civilizations that gave importance to the meaning of dreams and respected the unconscious guidance could understand the dream language. Native Americans were completely guided by the unconscious wisdom in their dreams because they possessed a special virtue, which enabled them to have a spiritual communication with the unconscious mind.

My work creates a bridge between science and religion. Even though the atheistic and materialistic mindset of the current civilization tends to believe that science and religion are totally different matters, the truth is that they are closely related. All religions work like psychotherapy.

All dreams work like psychotherapy too. We need psychotherapy because we are absurd animals. Our tiny human conscience must evolve if we want to become really human.

We must learn how to eliminate our wild nature and find sound mental health. The unconscious mind sends us many dreams in order to help us eliminate our anti-conscience through consciousness.

Consciousness means wisdom and sensitivity at the same time. Consciousness means light. When you are a conscious human being you can see your reality as it is, without illusions. You can also feel your reality. You are not disconnected from your objective reality like you do when you are mentally ill.

Your sensitivity is as important as your reasoning.

You must walk carefully in a dream, and pay attention to all dangers. The process of consciousness is a serious matter. When you are walking in a dream you are trying to discover something. You are trying to understand the meaning of a mystery. This means that you will acquire consciousness of the importance of this mystery. You will understand what is behind its appearance. This is an important discovery.

If you are carefully walking in a dream this dream image has a positive meaning because it indicates that you are evolving and learning. You are researching and discovering more because you have the right attitude.

The unconscious mind teaches you that you must always be very careful and pay attention to all dangers. This is how you can avoid all misfortunes. Patience and caution are indispensable if you want to find peace and happiness in life.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung's research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.

Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com/

Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

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Dysfunctional Families: The Alcoholic Family

psychology studies

I have found it helpful to describe the psychology of families in terms of the ABC's, where the letters in this case stand for Attachment, Boundaries and Communication. Unhealthy, or dysfunctional, families generally include insecure attachment, poor boundaries, and closed communications. (Those interested in learning more about attachment may wish to consult Jeremy Holmes' book, The Search for the Secure Base: Attachment Theory and Psychotherapy. London: Routledge, 2010.) As a subheading one can talk about the three R's, in this case, Rules, Roles, and Resulting Relationships. Let us observe how these characteristics operate in the alcoholic family. Most alcoholic families maintain three basic rules:

The Rule of Silence forbids not only talking to people outside the family but also to talking to members of the family itself. Children raised in this system may experience difficulty expressing themselves for the rest of their lives.

The Rule of Denial requires children to ignore the behavior of the alcoholic and pretend that nothing is wrong. Children raised in these circumstances learn not to trust either themselves or others and never learn to honestly express emotion.

The Rule of Isolation separates the family from the community and isolates individual members from each other. Children raised in this environment have difficulty forming intimate relationships.

The Rule of Denial leads children to adopt various roles as a way of deflecting attention from the alcoholic. These roles may include:

The Golden Boy (or girl) who tries to make family look good by achieving success in school or work

The Scapegoat who diverts attention from the family by getting into trouble

The Peacemaker, or Placater, who tries to reduce conflict in the family by smoothing things over

Growing up in an alcoholic family can have devastating consequences. On an emotional level, resulting relationships tend to be marked by numbness, distrust, resentment, shame, and helplessness. The mental processes of an adult raised in these circumstances reflect confused thinking, hypervigilance and a tendency to think in absolutes. The actions of such an adult tend toward crisis-oriented living, manipulative behavior, and problems with intimacy.

If you have been raised in an alcoholic family, these observations may sound distressingly familiar. You may find guidance in Wayne Kritsberg's book, The Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome: A Step-by-Step Guide to Discovery and Recovery. New York: Bantam Books, 1985. Alcoholics Anonymous conducts various programs for children of alcoholics and you may find additional support there.

Arthur Wenk, a psychotherapist practicing in Oakville, Ontario, combines cognitive-behavioral therapy (discovering techniques for producing immediate changes) with a psychodynamic approach that helps make changes permanent by addressing the root causes of mental health problems. Art is certified by OACCPP (the Ontario organization for psychotherapists) and EMDRIA (the EMDR International Association). Art's website, http://www.arthurwenk.com/, contains one-page summaries of recommended books on personal growth, brief explanations of common mental health issues, and lectures on parenting, the psychology of families, and the functioning of the brain.

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Self Reliance

psychology studies

Self-reliance is an inner state of knowing that you are robust, resilient and resourceful enough to tackle the challenges and difficulties that life will inevitably throw at you.

It is formed from the meaning you have given to your own life experiences, which in turn then overlay your innate personality; as well as from what you have seen 'modelled' by the self-reliant people you have had contact with.

With the right circumstances and guidance we can gradually develop those all important characteristic traits of courage, competence, determination, persistence, tenacity, and resilience.

We must learn not to allow our setbacks, disappointments and failures to reinforce any negative beliefs we still hold from childhood. Instead we should rationally evaluate any negative experiences - free of their emotional components - and see what we can learn from them; and what we might want to change about ourselves to enable us to better handle such challenges in the future. If we find that our plan or strategy was flawed in some way - we can then create effective ways to change it!

It can be hard to overcome our early emotional wounds, but if we can see them as the learning opportunities they are meant to be, we can grow and become more of a robust, realistic and grounded Adult, who can 'take care of the business' of life.

Our new-found inner strength will then buffer us against future storms, as we accumulate more opportunities to become greater than we were.

Otherwise our old 'programming' and 'script' will just keep repeating themselves over and over again, and keep us stuck in the old drama of our life.

As we become more able to think, plan and take appropriate action for ourselves, we don't need to rely upon a 'life-coach' or 'cognitive-mentor' to do our common-sense functioning for us. With our own Ego-Strength we can take care of our own needs and carry out our plans, and reach our goals with persistent effort.

As we develop into a self-reliant adult we can, paradoxically, become a more reliable person for others too. We can also have better relationships, because we are not looking for the other person to validate us or prove their love for us. As we calm and soothe our own emotional state and choose to shift gear into our sensible reasoning and rational Adult, we can actually then loosen up to become more playful and intimate. This is because we dissolve the 'neurotic' neediness and game playing that is so common in many relationships.

As a parent we can greatly assist our child's sense of self-reliance - something which they are usually pushing to have from an very early age anyway! We can offer them graded challenges and opportunities to learn new skills and talents - which don't have to be expensive.

We can support and encourage their emerging sense of self-worth and esteem; by giving appropriate and well-timed praise in an honest and empathic way - without any sarcasm or back-handed compliments; and certainly not by using ridicule or any form of put-down to the sensitive soul of the child.

Negative behaviour should be called just that and separated from the positive goodness of the child themselves. Some bad behaviour should simply be ignored - as long as it isn't dangerous to anyone in any way. Smothering over-protective parenting, whilst well-meaning, robs a child of the ability to form and adhere to necessary boundaries in their life, or to tackle any challenges head-on.

Learning to delay gratification is also important, but it becomes harder in modern times when the media brainwashes us into thinking that to 'be somebody' you must 'have it and have it NOW!' The sense of personal achievement from working towards, and attaining, a goal can be lost by the premature satisfaction of a desire.

As a psychotherapist I have worked with many people who didn't have the chance to develop self-reliance because their early lives were dominated by chaos and fear; and they must then try to develop a sufficient sense of Adult self-reliance at a much later time in their life, in order to function better in the world.

Other clients had parents who's own narcissism meant that the client grew up with the expectation that they must succeed, perhaps academically or in sports/drama etc. so that their parent(s) could bolster their own fragile self-esteem with the glory of their 'perfect' offspring's achievements. Individual personality development in the child then becomes stifled, as does the ability to rely upon themselves and direct the path of their own life.

By contrast, other clients have reported having had a good/great/ideal childhood - which sadly had not prepared them for the trials and tribulations of life....they had no skills with which to regulate their emotions or deal with a later life crisis - such as redundancy, divorce, business failure, being burgled or defrauded etc. - and they were completely thrown of balance by circumstances that a more self-reliant and resilient person would be better equipped to deal with.

You are the only one who will never leave you, so you might as well be sure that you can at least rely upon yourself.

We live in a 'something for nothing culture' nowadays that relies upon the goodwill, duty, pity and support of other people, or the State. This dependence does not develop an individual's character or enhance their personality.

Believing in yourself and your ability to create your own Life of Choice prevents you from quitting.

Repeating your positive intentions, with heartfelt feeling, has been proven to bring about positive and tangible results.

It's never too late to learn how to change and to be better than you used to believe you ever could be!

Written By Maxine Harley Msc Integrative Psychotherapy - Psychotherapist in West Sussex and also creator of 'The Ripple Effect' Process and Quantum Psyche Process see http://www.qpp.uk.com/

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Dream Interpretation - The Meaning of Garbage in Dreams

psychology studies

You'll perceive that the difference between the scientific method of dream interpretation and all the false methods of the world is mainly the fact that when you learn how to translate the meaning of reams according to the scientific method, you understand the words of the divine unconscious mind.

The wisdom contained in the dream images is extraordinary. You can perceive that the unconscious messages are superior because they are not the result of human suppositions. The unconscious words enlighten your existence. You understand what is happening to you. You understand what to do in order to solve your problems.

I will give you an example from a dream dreamt by one of my patients. She follows the unconscious guidance with gratitude. This is why she is evolving day by day.

I cannot publish her entire dream or tell you details about her case because my translations are private. I will publish only two sentences of one of her dreams in order to give you a practical lesson.

'My daughter and I are dressed-up and walking to a formal dinner. I realize I'm dragging a garbage can. I tell my daughter, "What am I doing with this garbage? I should have disposed of it before."'

Dream Translation:

'My daughter and I are dressed-up and walking to a formal dinner.'

Your daughter represents your moral image, and you represent your ego in dreams.

The fact that you were well dressed and walking to a formal dinner indicates that you are being prepared for a very important event, which will soon happen in your life.

The dinner represents food for your psyche. In other words, it represents psychical energy for all the parts of your personality. You will feel rewarded.

'I realize I'm dragging a garbage can. I tell my daughter, "What am I doing with this garbage? I should have disposed of it before."'

The garbage can represents what is immoral. This means that you are not getting prepared as you should. You are carrying your immoral tendencies with you.

Your ego understands that this immorality shouldn't follow you and that it goes against your serious moral image.

In order to understand the meaning of dreams you must follow the logic of the unconscious mind. You also have to understand that everything in a dream has a symbolic meaning.

For example, the dreamer's daughter represents her moral image. Her moral image is what she shows to the world about her personality.

She has a mature moral image because her daughter is a mature girl. The dreamer is also a responsible person. Her maturity is visible. Therefore, she has a positive moral image.

However, she is dragging a garbage can. Garbage represents immorality in dreams.

This immorality doesn't fit with her mature moral image. It is the result of the influence of her anti-conscience.

The anti-conscience is the main topic of most dreams. Through dream translation you learn how to eliminate the absurd wild conscience you have inherited.

The unconscious mind purifies your spirit the same way it helps you pass through a process of transformation that eliminates what is negative from your psyche. Purity and wisdom help you have a clean conscience.

The dreamer of my example must eliminate her immoral tendencies in order to get prepared for an important event in her life. The unconscious mind always eliminates our immoral tendencies because immorality leads to craziness.

If you are immoral and you accept to be evil in certain circumstances, you will lose your human conscience. Your anti-conscience will gradually destroy your capacity to think logically and your sensitivity. You'll become cruel and disconnected with the external reality.

Immorality is in fact an animal reaction; it is not a human reaction. Even though the irrational animals are not immoral because they don't know what morality means, immorality is an animal rational reaction in human beings.

The dreamer of my example has a mature moral image, but she is dragging the immoral tendencies she has inherited into her anti-conscience. This means that she must eliminate her absurd immoral tendencies because they are preventing her from getting properly prepared for an important event in her life. This event demands from her purity and wisdom.

There is a relationship between her behavior and the event she expects to see happening in her life.

In other words, the successful preparation for this important event defines her destiny. She cannot bring with her the immoral tendencies she has inherited into her anti-conscience and see this important event happening in her life. She has to pass through a process of psychotherapy and learn how to respect the human body. Only then will she finally see the important event she desires happening in her life.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung's research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.
Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com/
Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

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Dreams About A Ship and An Anchor

psychology studies

The anchor is a rare dream symbol, which appears in a dream only when the dreamer follows dream therapy for a certain period of time. The anchor has two different meanings depending on the dream story.

The ship in dreams represents a long journey of studies and preparation.

The sea represents craziness. There are numerous invisible dangers hidden in the vast ocean, the same way that there are numerous invisible dangers hidden into your anti-conscience.

Your anti-conscience is your primitive conscience, which didn't evolve like your human conscience. It occupies the biggest part of your brain the same way that the sea occupies the biggest part of our planet. You ignore how dangerous the anti-conscience's content is, the same way you ignore how many dangers are hidden into the dark region of the sea.

When the anchor is near the beach it has two different meanings in a dream. It represents salvation when you have arrived from a long trip. It also represents safety because the anchor doesn't let you get lost in the ocean. In other words, the safety given to you by the protection of an anchor represents your salvation from craziness. Therefore, when you'll see an anchor in a dream after making a long research about an important matter, the anchor has a positive meaning.

It means that now you know that you are absurd and that you must tame your anti-conscience. You are not indifferent to its existence.

You are the human being concentrated into the human side of your conscience. You have to tame your huge anti-conscience and transform it into a human being by obeying the unconscious guidance in your dreams.

A dream about an anchor before your journey of self-discovery through dream interpretation indicates that you are not accepting your mission. The anchor is holding you at the beach. You have to travel.

You have a lot to discover about yourself. The anti-conscience is your evil, immoral, violent, absurd, cruel, and indifferent personality. It has an animal and dangerous nature. Your anti-conscience is your worst self. Carl Jung named it 'shadow' when he discovered the existence of a negative content inside the human psyche.

I changed the description of this negative content because I continued Jung's research, discovering that the anti-conscience that is our huge wild conscience, which is still alive in our brain. It is a lot more than merely a shadow.

Our anti-conscience works against our conscience. It is constantly trying to destroy our human conscience and imprison us, the human beings concentrated into the human side of our conscience, into the labyrinth of craziness.

The word 'anti' in Greek means against, contrary. I used this definition because my description is psychiatric. The anti-conscience is our satanic conscience, which is schizophrenic because it couldn't find peace. It refuses learning and changing its behavior. This is why it remains in a demoniac condition, without any evolution.

You, the human being concentrated into your human conscience must oblige this monster to change its behavior.

You live in order to transform the satanic content you have inherited into your brain into a positive content that will respect human rules. This is how you'll get rid of all mental illnesses and physical diseases, you'll find sound mental health, peace and happiness, and you'll help the world find salvation with your work and your example.

You have to accept learning the truth and you have to accept transforming your personality.

The anchor can be a positive dream symbol only if you'll accept the challenge and study the human mind through dream translation. You must face craziness and fight the demon. You cannot be a passive observer of the destruction of your human conscience by your wild side.

You should follow dream therapy. The unconscious mind will show you the way out of this situation. The unconscious mind that produces your dreams has a divine origin and works like a psychotherapist and spiritual guide. This means that you are protected by the unconscious sanctity. In other words, you can completely trust the dream messages.

You must learn what exists inside you and fight all the absurdity you have inherited before being a victim of your terrible anti-conscience. Don't refuse to make a long journey inside your psyche and discover who you really are.

You'll understand if the anchor has a positive or negative meaning if the anchor will appear before or after the ship in a dream. When the anchor appears before the ship, it has a negative meaning. It means that you refuse to pass through a process of transformation. You don't want to learn anything and tame your wild side.

You are irresponsible and inconsequential. You must make this trip because it is your salvation from despair.

If you'll have a dream about an anchor after having a dream (or a series of dreams) about the ship, the anchor has a positive meaning. For now on your life will be totally different. Now you know how to control your behavior.

However, if the anchor will appear in a dream while you are in an island and your ship or boat is near the beach, this means that you are in a dangerous position. If the anchor will appear in the middle of the ocean it indicates great danger because you are never protected in the sea. Remember that the sea means craziness. The sea always has a negative meaning in dreams.

The anchor can be a positive dream symbol only if you'll carefully analyze the content of your psyche and transform your personality before having a dream about it. The anchor has a positive meaning when it represents the end of your long studies about a certain matter; which is always related to your evolution.

Christina Sponias continued Carl Jung's research into the human psyche, discovering the cure for all mental illnesses, and simplifying the scientific method of dream interpretation that teaches you how to exactly translate the meaning of your dreams, so that you can find health, wisdom and happiness.
Learn more at: http://www.scientificdreaminterpretation.com/
Click Here to download a Free Sample of the eBook Dream Interpretation as a Science (86 pages!).

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Mental Health - How Crazy Are You?

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We are all crazy - in someone else's eyes, and judgement!

We tend to think of mental illness as a description of profound psychiatric problems with a specific diagnosis, as categorized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. These diagnoses usually have a corresponding pharmaceutical drug, or cocktail of drugs, as 'treatment' - although other methods such as Electro-Convulsive-Therapy still exist.

We have come a long way from the bedlam or asylum days of the past and yet mental illness is still rife in every society.

Lack of basic needs, such as adequate nutrition, care, shelter and education; and prolonged drug and alcohol use, and exposure to violent traumas, all exacerbate the onset and ongoing state of mental illness. Sadly these factors are common everyday experiences for a large and neglected sector of our society.

In recent days (March 2012) news reports in Britain have spoken of the intentional torture and murder of children by relatives who believed them to be witches who are 'possessed by evil spirits'. This seems crazy to most of us, and yet is a prevailing belief in parts of Africa.

Cultural differences bring with them beliefs and behaviours that others cultures judge as 'crazy'.

We live in a crazy world, where, surely all of the following could be deemed to be insane/crazy;

Racism - and discrimination, oppression and violence against another person, simply because their ancestors originated from a different continent. According to the experts, we ALL originated from East Africa anyway!

Homophobia - and violence against a person who has different preferences and needs.

Fundamentalist religions - whose followers threaten death to those who do not follow their code of behaviour and societal norms; or to those they deem as having insulted a prophet or leader.

Cultural norms - such as the stoning of women accused of adultery, the chopping off of a thief's hand, honour killing, and arranged marriages.

Slavery - the domination of, and cruelty towards, another human being.

Human trafficking and exploitation

Female circumcision forced upon young girls

Preventable diseases and poverty - whilst wealth exists elsewhere in the country.

Corporate greed - and the psychopathic personality traits of the few who control the flow of wealth in Western society.

Cruelty to children - particularly in the 'feral underclass', as they have been described in the media; children taught to cage-fight with one another for the 'entertainment' of the so-called Adult spectators.

Paedophilia.

Foreign aid - sent to countries with already enough wealth of their own for Space programs, or weapons designed and intended for war.

Destruction of much of the planet - fuelled by selfishness, greed, ignorance and arrogance.

Cruelty to animals - dog-fighting, badger baiting, fox-hunting; and 'festivals' where animals are sacrificed for 'pleasure/fun'.

Gender selection - the killing of newborns because they are the 'wrong' gender.

Huge Government waste - Unnecessary Quangos, consultants, independent reports/enquiries; moth-balled projects, and outright fraud.

Prohibition of contraceptives - by certain religious 'leaders' despite the prevalence of AIDS, HIV, Sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies.

Space travel - whilst people are starving and without basic medical care.

Excessive Legislation - such as Health and Safety rulings which have resulted in death (the recent media reports regarding emergency services being unwilling, due to the prevailing Health and Safety rules, to rescue a person who drowned in a few inches of water.)

Cyber-bullying.

HOW CRAZY ARE ALL OF THESE?!

They all show a lack of empathy, compassion, care or concern for the health, safety of well-being of others.

In some of the examples above, there is also a 'projection' of badness onto a 'victim', be it an individual, group, class, or culture/society. This projection is then used as a form of justification for, and a normalising of, crazy and cruel behaviours.

This is accompanied by a ruthless selfishness that says - "I matter more than you, I have the right to use and damage/destroy you."

We become de-sensitized to much of what we hear about in the world, because we simply cannot absorb it all and cannot do anything to prevent such crazy things from happening.

Having worked as a psychotherapist with some individuals who have committed assaults, even murder; and having all too often heard of intense cruelty having been inflicted upon a vulnerable child, by a parent/caretaker; I wonder why we don't scan the brains of the perpetrators and find out 'why' they do what they do - and then to give them the effective treatment, wherever it is possible, for those areas of the brain that are just not working properly.

The behaviours of such people, with deficits in their brain's functioning capacity, has far-reaching consequences.

Babies are born to parents who's brains are not fully functioning; and this is passed on to the baby; as well as inadequate nutrition to enable the baby's brain to develop properly. Damaged children become damaged adults who find other damaged adults and pass on their damage to their offspring...and the cycle continues.

Most people exhibit neuroses of some sort, as well as mild 'personality disorder' traits. These may go unnoticed in the crazy world that we all inhabit.

So, what does good, robust mental health look like?

I think it includes the following:

Emotional stability and self-regulation

Rational thoughts, and an ability to control and disarm any irrational thoughts

Positive self-esteem and body image

The ability to withstand challenges and criticism

Not allowing the past to negatively affect the present or future - by therapeutically healing the past

Showing genuine care and compassion towards children, animals and the vulnerable in society

Having a sense of empathy and sympathy towards others

Congruence - what is felt on the inside is portrayed sensitively and assertively on the outside

Authenticity - being 'real' and genuine, and only wearing a 'mask' by conscious choice and for a short time, for a specific and valid purpose.

Let us not forget that our brains are not fully developed until we are about 25 years of age - and that they then have what is called 'plasticity' which allows the brain to change, and increase neuronal connections and pathways, in response to our physical and emotional needs and experiences.

It's never too late to learn a better way of relating to yourself and to others.

Profound mental illness and retardation are best treated by the psychiatric experts; but for the vast majority of us having mild personality disorder traits and neuroses, there is a way to 'fill in the gaps' - with psycho-emotional education and integrative psychotherapy, and by revising our negative and restricting sub-conscious belief system.

Then a crazy world becomes a little less crazy, each time someone takes responsibility for, and finds the right path towards, healing their own psychological and emotional wounds.

This article is by Maxine Harley Msc Integrative Psychotherapy - Psychotherapy in Sussex and creator of 'The Ripple Effect' Process and Quantum Psyche Process see http://www.qpp.uk.com/

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People See What They Want to See Online

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How quickly do you reckon you can spot a word, any word? How rapidly do you think you can tell the difference between two very similar words, such as bateau and gateau? Do you think you could spot the difference between such words even if you were not given the chance to read them? The truth is, we are much faster at reading than we think and we can, in fact, tell the difference between very similar words in fractions of a second. Indeed, research shows that we can spot the difference between similar words FASTER than it takes us to read the individual words themselves.

So, what is going on inside our heads? How come we are so good at spotting words? The answer is in a psychological concept known as priming. What this really means is your brain is essentially pre-programmed to produce a particular response. For instance, if I were to tell you that the most popular colours of websites were blue, black and yellow and then if I asked you what colour would you like your website to be in, the chances are you would respond with either blue, black or yellow. Your brain knows these are the popular colours, so your decision is based on this primary information. If, however, I did not tell you about popular colours of websites and simply asked you what colour you would prefer, the chances are you could say any colour. That's because now your brain has a free choice.

Priming is often the reason why magicians can do what they do so well...! They essentially force our brains to  think along particular lines. If we were not primed by what the magician says or does, we would have a much more free interpretation of their activities and so we might see how they pulled off the trick...!

Similarly, you see priming effects in advertising. Posters down the road from your nearest fast food restaurant will show you the latest ice-cream creation. When you get into the restaurant and they ask, "is there anything else you would like, perhaps a dessert?" your brain is already in "ice-cream mode" and so you say "yes, I'd like a raspberry ripple please". Without the advert down the road, you are much more likely to have said "no thank you".

Research has shown the priming effect occurs throughout our daily lives. When you are hungry, images of food that you see online, or in magazines appear brighter and you pay more attention to them than when you see the same pictures and you are not hungry. Our brain has told us we are hungry, it has primed us to be aware of food.

This effect is also shown in recent research looking at words, like bateau and gateau. Hungry people were able to spot the word gateau at lightning speed - much more easily than people who were not hungry. Again, the brains of the hungry individuals had primed them to be on the look out for food. But what this research shows is that this priming effect extends beyond pictures into printed words or words on-screen.

Online this can have a significant impact. When someone is searching for a word or phrase they will instantly spot that phrase in the search results. It means for website owners that the phrasing of their page titles is absolutely crucial. If you do not serve up what people are looking for - exactly - then you will not be able to benefit from the effects of priming. People will not even see your website, even if it is number one in the search results.

Graham Jones is a psychologist who has investigated the way people use the Internet. His research can help you make the most of the Internet, particularly if you are hoping to make money online.

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How to Find A Psychologist

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Once in a while we are asked why we call our selves 'Private or Independently Practising Psychologists, therefore I thought I would spend some time to explain this for EzineArticle readers:

Similar to Doctors, you'll discover a variety of psychologists, some work with a government organisation just like the NHS along with other working individually (or both) but they need to feel the same rigorous training schedule to obtain the title of 'Chartered Clinical Psychologist'.

Chartered Clinical psychologists can cope with an in depth scope of concerns for example stress, anxiety, relationship problems, depression, learning disabilities, family problems and may also specialise in areas for example education, dyslexia etc. In addition to clinical psychologists, you'll discover educational psychologists, Neuropsychologists (who identify injuries associated with your brain), Occupational psychologists (the kind seen in Corporations frequently during the time of recruitment and redundancy), Forensic psychologists (who help with the court proceedings in the court, criminal behavior, etc.), Sport psychologists (although rarer, they use they and them psychologically focused), and finally Health psychologists (helping people to give up smoking, alcohol, drugs as well as altering the way in which people look at illness or their own health) these psychologists made a decision at the outset of their careers to think about a particular path/speciality.

Private psychologists can sometimes get more versatility inside their approach in comparison to public sector employed psychologists, it isn't that they're missing any qualifications, however their time is seriously restricted regularly to tight structural programs. However, When you're paying for a private psychologist you will probably be seen in your time scale and treated at your convenience inside your environment or school, home or workplace.

Sometimes you will find special cases that you want more sensitivity, clients that need more participation, and that level of involvement is some thing that you should be always hopefully experiencing from private psychologists. From time to time, one does not wish to be very straight forward or direct with just any clinical psychologist and so you can take things at a pace you are comfortable with by visiting a familiar private psychologist..

A HPC registered 'Chartered Psychologist' wouldn't risk supplying details about patients or breaking their trust as it can certainly have lots of implications on their own reliability as well as their status.

Now you know the different kinds of psychologists there are, let's move on to how to find a psychologist. Psychologists probably won't be difficult to find, however you need to be mindful of their level of qualification and ensure they have the correct indemnify insurances and HPC registration etc. You may research with The British Psychological Society as they have a whole listing of chartered psychologists and you can enter information like the kind of problem (broadly speaking of course) you have, plus your location and you will receive a list of names that you could go to. Also you can ask your family doctor to refer a psychologist to you, you can even ask your friends and family (there is no need to be shy about it, a lot of people visit the psychologist for one reason or the other). You can even ask the psychology department of your school or university and even your school or your child's school for the matter!

Most Chartered clinical Psychologists possess a broad spectrum of training, they can refer you to other professionals or they might specialise in your concerns. Yes - there are costs involved unlike GP referrals, however these costs are small when your well-being or your family's is under concern. Waiting 1-10 months to see somebody can sometimes be detrimental or unnecessary.

I really hope this informative article has helped you with your journey to Find a Psychologist.

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