Splitting (along with its companion defense, projection) is one of the primary defense mechanisms; it’s also an indispensable part of everyday mental processes, enabling us to make distinctions and evolve meaning out of our experience.
60 Minutes and Greg Mortenson’s Fraud: The Power of Sentimentality
Greg Mortenson’s fraud upon the American public, recently exposed by Steve Kroft on ’60 Minutes’, catered to our weakness for a sentimental view of the world, with an all-white hero whose saintly deeds evoked a misty-eyed response that made us reach for our checkbooks.
Narcissistic Rage and the Sense of Entitlement
A sense of entitlement, along with the expectation that life should be much easier and less frustrating than it actually is, often lies behind the expression of narcissistic rage, a feature of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder and other superficially discrete categories of diagnosis.
The Role of Helplessness in PTSD Symptoms and Other Disorders
The experience of helplessness in the face of trauma plays a central role in post traumatic stress disorder and the development of ptsd symptoms, but also has an impact on the genesis of other psychological disorders and maladaptive character traits.
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.