Ambivalence in both senses of the word — conflicting emotions for the same person, and difficulty in choosing between different options — both reflect idealized expectations and an underlying perfectionism.
Category: Rules of the Road
Some basic assumptions about human nature.
Ethical Considerations Involved in Accepting Health Insurance
For some of us, completing insurance forms and providing carriers with a treatment plan means the complete falsification of who we are and how we really work.
Defense Mechanisms II: Denial
Like all defense mechanisms, denial has its normal and constructive uses: by denying the awareness of unavoidable death, for instance, we’re able to continue with our daily lives.
The Difference Between Shame and Guilt
While people generally use the words ‘guilt’ and ‘shame’ interchangeably, they actually refer to different experiences. Shame concerns painful feelings about oneself; guilt relates to the hurt or harm one may have caused somebody else and depends upon the ability to empathize. Guilt and shame often occur together.
Psychological Obstacles to Grief and the Grieving Process
Though we tend to talk about grief and the grieving process as a unique category of experience, it also involves painful feelings akin to other kinds of suffering, and we will mobilize our habitual defenses against such pain when it becomes unbearable.