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Our brain is a complex machine, an incredibly smart one that tries to maximise our quality of life, by making us more adaptive, learning from our mistakes and mastering the skills we use the most.⁣⁣‘Plasticity’ refers to the ability of transforming itself according to needs, whether they are ours or our environment’s. Our brain isContinue reading “Plastic Brain”

Resilience vs. Recovery ⁣⁣We can all agree that dip might look scary, when compared to an amazingly unaffected straight line. ⁣When experiencing – or even expecting – a trauma, or a struggle of any kind and degree, we can feel as if losing our own grip on reality. We can face apathy, despair, a detachmentContinue reading “Resilience vs. Recovery”

According to a study from Lopez and Snyder (2009) our ability to be resilient derives from a good parenting style: the authoritative one, characterised by “qualities of warmth and affection that also provide structure and support to the child”. So, as often happens, a good attachment – and good relationships in general – seems toContinue reading “Resilience: multi-dimensional”

Here comes our November theme: #RESILIENCE.⁣⁣The word ‘resilience’ is increasingly (mis)used. ⁣Originally, it was defined as the mechanical attribute of an object of⁣ “resuming an original shape or position after compression or bending”, and it has been brought to the psychology world with figuratively the same meaning: the ability to “bounce back”, to be unaffected (orContinue reading “November theme: Resilience”

Today, we talk about denial.⁣ Very similar to repression, it also works by excluding unacceptable thoughts and feelings, but goes further in actively denying them.⁣ “It’s not as bad as it seems” so the event and its consequent emotion are belittled, and assume a different connotation.⁣ A very relevant example is the denial many ofContinue reading “Denial of our time”

The series comes to an end, and together with the last two arguments we also delineate some important take-home messages of the whole book. First, we go back to the statement “It’s better to enjoy than to live”, trying to explore how the desire has in it a dark part that feeds not on wellbeingContinue reading “Eulogy of the unconscious – Part 6”

It’s almost the end of our ambivalence month. We talked, up until now, about the ambivalence that constitutes our roots, the coexistence of opposing realities that can find a space to live together, to keep confronting each other. But some ambivalences are much more urgent. Choosing between two jobs, deciding whether to stop smoking, havingContinue reading “A final reflection on ambivalence”

Today, we explore what it means to adhere to the reality principle, seeing some common solutions of cognitive therapies, and highlighting the stance of psychodynamic ones. This difference helps us understand the theories behind these two approaches, and how they focus, respectively, on normality and uniqueness as a starting point for helping the patient. Then,Continue reading “Eulogy of the unconscious – Part 5”

For M. Klein, being able to feel ambivalent towards someone – or something – was an incredible accomplishment and sign of psychological maturity. The child starts learning about ambivalence during what she calls the ‘depressive position’. Very simply explained, it’s the moment where the child starts peaking into the complexity of human nature. This fillsContinue reading “Replace ‘but’ with ‘and’”

Are we condemned to never overcome our earliest experiences? Did we already form our identity in our first years of life, and everything that came afterwards is just an attempt to make sense of it? Or perhaps, memory is a process in itself. While we remember, we create. The first part leads us through theContinue reading “Eulogy of the unconscious – Part 4”