Good Psychotherapy Is Not “Cognitive”: It’s An Experience
Dave: I have been thinking, “There is more to life than Trump.” So I am going to get off the
Category: Dave Keith
THE “DUMBING DOWN” OF OUR CULTURE AND OTHER EVENTS
Lack of curiosity is a dangerous thing–in medicine, therapy, culture. Trump’s manner of speaking certainly promotes “not knowing what you don’t want to know”. He is a disturbing model for over-simplified explanations and sneering at complexity or any level of sophistication or subtlety.
Unconscious Family Patterns: A Woman Learns To Be Sick
Dave: I have a long interest in patterns of illness in families. Much of my clinical work is involved in
“Self-Questioning”: An Important Ingredient In Family Health
Here are my reflections on a rather subtle, yet insidious family pattern characterized by invisible (unconscious) demands for false togetherness, the demand that all family members pretend to think the same. This enforced “togetherness” has a formidable, unyielding tone, suggesting it is not to be questioned.
Beneath the Mask of Family Unity: A Case Story Continued
Here is a second session from the family with “enforced togetherness” where one member is what I call “insane”; locked inside sanity, locked in unbending, pathological sanity.
The Mask of Family Unity
Enforced “togetherness” in families, though largely unconscious, emerges in the way a family tells its story. It is not a unity which augments family spirit, it restricts. The restriction serves a purpose for some. The need for protection is motivated by a history of trauma or too much despair. But often a family member, usually a child, may be sacrificed to maintain this appearance of group unity.
The Mask of Family Unity: A Case Story
Here’s a first session with a “misbehaving” boy that reflects the corrosive effect of “enforced unity” in families
The Many (Hidden) Faces of A Family
ADHD in Kids: Our family therapy view of behavior problems in kids looks at some of the hidden pattern in parenting that can contribute to these problems. Good to know. Then change is possible.
Defiance in Families: Rebellion in the Name of Health
Defiant kids, angry kids, crazy kids, are a byproduct of family interactions, and simultaneously a byproduct of the family’s interaction with the culture.
The Energy Of Eroticism: Aging, Compliance and Marriage
“Compliance carries with it a sense of futility for the individual and is associated with the idea that nothing matters, life is not worth living…”