When people enter psychotherapy, even if they’re desperate and deeply in need, they don’t fully reveal themselves in the early phases of treatment. As in any relationship, it takes time to develop enough trust so you feel safe making yourself vulnerable. A prudent reserve makes sense: how can you be sure the stranger sitting in… Continue reading Keeping Secrets from Your Therapist
Category: Sexuality
Why Sex Matters
One of my colleagues recently told me how dismayed she was that so many of her clients in long-term relationships or marriages seemed to have given up on sex entirely, or had passionless, unsatisfying sex a couple of times a year at most. (She herself has been married for more than 20 years and has… Continue reading Why Sex Matters
How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
It’s no secret that most people make and then break their New Year’s resolutions, and there’s plenty of Internet advice available on how to avoid such a disappointment: start small, make a detailed step-by-step plan, surround yourself with positive re-enforcement, etc. These are worthy suggestions, though they ignore the unconscious reasons why we often fail… Continue reading How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions
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.
Freud’s Theory of the Id, Ego and Superego: Lost in Translation
Good things about the superego, and how it came to have a bad rap.