Psychoanalysis 💆♂
Gabor Maté on Addiction
The easiest way to understand addiction according to Hungarian-Canadian addiction specialist Gabor Maté is that ‘it is any activity that you have a compulsive relationship with’. You know it's harmful for you in the long run but you do it anyway because you cannot stop.
Who was the real Sigmund Freud?
The Netflix series Freud is entertaining. Its coke-snorting protagonist solves murders and works with psychics. But the series has as much in common with the real Sigmund Freud as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has with President Lincoln.
Repressing Our Problems: Why Do We Do It?
One of the ways in which we deal with our problems is “repression”. It’s a fancy way of saying ‘out of sight out of mind’ but more on the level of your experience, feelings and emotions. What does this mean?
Why is it so hard to see our own hangups and neuroses?
Our inner conflicts and neurotic tendencies are a terrible waste of our energy, and if left unchecked they can corrupt our whole life. But how can we identify and deal with them?
The greatest psychology books…in a nutshell
The great works of psychology make for amazing reading, but some are vast or difficult to read. Here’s a one-line summary of each, taken from my book 50 Psychology Classics ▶️
Why are dreams so strange? Sigmund Freud's surprising answers
Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) is a foundational work of modern psychology, and the first book to really help us understand dreams.