Yep.
These days mental stlyles are tagged good, bad, orderly or disorderly as in…a disorder.
We all have a mental style. It’s observable. Our styles lend themselves to labeling; he’s uptight, she’s full of herself, he can’t find his way out of a paperbag. She’s moody, he’s OCD, she’s thoughtful, he steps up.
These are just descriptions. They may well be accurate.
DSM 5? Already? Yep.
The diagnostic system in use in psychiatry today relies upon such descriptions. As doctors are wont to do, they move from description to diagnosis, also known as description when you think about it. He’s narcissistic, she’s depressed, he ‘has panic disorder (as opposed to what? Scared?)
Is it Really That Simple?
Is it really that simple? Am I tall, short, blue eyed and OCD? Am I 47, vegetarian and depressed? Am I 15, bored at school and happy bopping around the internet at home? ADD?
Not so Simple-Really
The most important part of who you are is how you think, how you feel, what you have concluded, what you have come to believe, who you love and how you position yourself in our social world.
Your Mental Self is a Wonder of the World
The you reading this, the you who chatted with your friend an hour ago, the you that slept in your bed last night is you experiencing life. The you, that is experiencing life, possesses an extraordinary information processing organ, your brain.
You have experienced your childhood. You have opinions about all manner of things. You are who and what you care about.
The essence of you, the fruit of the activity of your information processing, can be glimpsed with psychoanalysis. All that you have concluded, come to believe and assume can be glimpsed with psychoanalysis. Everyone of us brings something extraordinary to the table in life.
Disorders? Depression? Anxiety?
Simply what happens under particular conditions. Depression and anxiety do not occur in a vacuum. They simply color and/or reflect our experience. Our emotions are separately, and together, messages designed to inform us as surely as hunger, thirst and goose bumps.
‘Symptoms’: an Immune Response
Your mind system is doing it’s best to help you navigate your life. OCD helps. Narcicissm helps.
Psychoanalysis
- Psychoanalytic theory and practice is the deepest and most useful of all ‘therapies.’
- Psychoanalytic theory (updated) provides the basis for psychologically sophisticated parenting. How? It sheds light upon how our mind systems create themselves, from birth.
- Psychoanalysis including self analysis sheds light upon our ‘neuroses,’ our difficulties and our ‘symptoms.’
- Psychoanalysis loosens the structure of our own psyche permitting change. Change may include alleviation of symptoms and the unleashing of intellectual and creative powers.
This is my web site. Explore further or, to begin your own guided psychoanalysis visit: https://homecookedanalysis.substack.com/