On Saturday, I made a short new video, making use of what I’d learned in media training. I felt very good about that video because I’d confronted some underlying shame and the related wish to remain invisible — that is, relying on a blank facial expression and little modulation in my voice in order to […]
Diary of a Shame Attack Read More »
When artists use their medium as an attempt to escape from internal “ugliness”, performance anxiety may reflect the fear of being exposed, their true damaged self becoming visible to the audience.
Performance Anxiety and Shame Read More »
Mindfulness meditation techniques are a useful adjunct to psychotherapy, allowing you to see your defense mechanisms in action and to disengage from them, rather than a replacement for it.
Anxiety Symptoms, Mindfulness and the Enlargement of the Self Read More »
Sometimes anger can have a “hardening” effect, working as a kind of defense to ward off other painful feelings such as fear, exhaustion or emotional thinness.
Not Your Usual Anger Management Techniques Read More »
Many of us have a fear of change because of it presents us with unfamiliar and unpredictable emotions, and also because change makes us aware of the passage of time, linking up unconsciously with the idea of death.
The Fear of Change Read More »
Extreme self-conscious and performance anxiety (or stage fright) involve the projection of your internal critic into an external audience of observers, each one of them as critical as you are.
Self-Consciousness and Performance Anxiety Read More »
A discussion of three underlying dynamics in clinical depression: unconscious rage, a drastically fragmented self and toxic levels of shame.
Different Types of Depression Read More »
A discussion of one particular form of artistic inhibition, where artists misuse their art form in order to deaden unbearable emotions. Great works of art have dimension; they contain and express vital human truths. Unsuccessful works of art created in this defensive manner instead deaden emotion, rendering it “flat”, “two-dimensional” or lacking in depth.
Art and the Dread of Experience Read More »
Growth and psychological transformation stir up existential anxieties about what it means to be alone with personal responsibility; they also make us aware of the passage of time and the inevitability of death.
Existential Aloneness Read More »
A mental inability to bear intense emotions often lies at the heart of anxiety attacks and disorders, where the person experiencing anxiety feels threatened by (and in danger of disintegration under the pressure of) emerging and unknown emotions.
Insufficient Mind in Anxiety Attacks and Disorders Read More »