Earlier this week, my friend Sherry came over for dinner. After asking all about her trip to Las Vegas and briefly discussing our vacation, I finally got around to telling her of some recent developments in my writing career (more about this in a moment). After a few minutes, she said to me, “So you… Continue reading The Fear of Seeming Narcissistic
Category: Envy and Jealousy
Envy for Your Children
The familiar plot of Cinderella gave me the opportunity to write about shame and narcissism, themes not traditionally addressed by other iterations of this classic fairy tale. Snow White, my current project, allows me to write about the experience of envy and jealousy, usually the most prominent feature of every version of the story: the… Continue reading Envy for Your Children
Envy and Competitiveness
Early in the summer of 2011, not long after we arrived in Colorado, I received an email from our good friends in Los Angeles who also own a cabin down the road from us. They had offered the use of their cabin for one week to the rector of their church, All Saint’s in Pasadena,… Continue reading Envy and Competitiveness
The Oedipus Complex in Divorce Situations
In toxic divorce situations where a vengeful mother tries to turn her son against the boy’s father, it has the lethal effect of confirming his Oedipal fantasies, with lasting damage to the boy’s sense of self and his respect for authority.
Sigmund Freud and the Oedipus Complex
Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex doesn’t get much airplay these days but it’s still a highly relevant aspect of family life and psycho-dynamic psychotherapy.