I can’t count the number of times I heard, or read: « I really don’t know why I am so depressed / anxious / in pain ; I was raised by a loving, ordinary family and nothing terrible ever happened to me; the problem is just me”. Or another slightly different version “ I really don’t know why I am so depressed / anxious / in pain; I know my father had quite a temper (read he was physically abusive), or people in my family really knew how to party (read I was brought up in an alcoholic environment),...
Our past
Families and how to survive them
This book has been a favorite of mine for more than a decade. So much so that when I realized I had lost it, I bought it again. It now resides safely in my kindle, this time immune to a future move. Families and how to survive them has been written in a dialogue form between a shrink (Robin Skynner), and an actor (John Cleese, yes the Monthy Python one). It’s mainly about, well, families. From how – and why – people fall in love, to how love relationships work – or not -, and what happens when the children...
The power of denial
I met Liz when I was attending university. We were going to the same courses and living in the same building. We both ended up elected at the board of students and did a lot of work there together. So naturally, we became close friends. This friendship has lasted ever since, over the course of twenty years and innumerable moves for us both – between the two of us, we lived in 9 different countries. When I met her, she came across as a very sweet person, never expressing anger. She was describing herself as easy-going and lacking assertiveness....