The Buddhist’s First Noble Truth necessary on the path to liberation is that ‘Life is suffering.’ Similarly, philosopher Martin Heidegger stated, “The soul’s greatness takes its measure from its capacity to … be … at home in pain.” According to therapist Alfried Langle we suffer for many reasons. He suggested that all possible forms of […]
Our Inner Masculine & Feminine Energy
All people contain both masculine and feminine qualities. Masculine traits include planning, order, accomplishments, competition and linear thinking. Feminine qualities include spontaneity, non-competiveness, intuition and looking relationally at situations. As children we learned, mostly by our parents, to act, believe and feel based upon the values given to feminine and masculine qualities. We were taught […]
Acceptance is key to change
Acceptance means seeing situations and people, including ourselves, as they actually are. However, situations are often difficult to accept (e.g., medical diagnosis, the end of a relationship) and demand the acknowledgment of potential and real losses, feeling the accompanying grief, and taking action to move forward. We sometimes spend much time and energy resisting and […]
False and True Selves
‘True self’ and ‘false self’ are terms introduced into psychotherapy by D. W. Winnicott in 1960. The true self describes a sense of self based on spontaneous authentic experience and a sense of “all-out personal aliveness” or “feeling real.” The false self is an ego defense designed to protect the true self by hiding it. […]
Jungian Types (part II)
The sensation function emphasises perception using the senses. It notices details, likes to know how things are made and how they work, and likes to see the whole picture. This thorough and precise process of gathering information requires patience (which is frustrating to intuitives). Extroverted sensates place value on external objects and have a keen […]
What’s Your Jungian Type?
We’ve previously looked at the concept of introversion and extraversion as two basic ways people relate to the world. Jung also distinguished four typological functions: feeling, thinking, sensation and intuition. These functions represent the way we perceive and process internal and external information. Thus, when paired with extraversion/introversion, there exist eight distinct personality types: introverted […]
