On spending a day recently reading one of Saturday’s national newspapers, I was overwhelmingly struck by how at both national and international levels – across all public and private organisations – everybody is struggling with truth and how to find it. The Wikileaks phenomenon provides a startling reaction to the publication of truth and – even though intuitively people know the truth sets one and potentially others free – the efforts to ‘shoot the messenger’ have been frightening. The originator of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has received numerous death threats and has gone into hiding. US Internet providers ditched the site in the space of two days. The French Government attempted to ban French servers from hosting the trove of leaked data.
Read moreFacing Up to Facebook
I have had many invitations to be a member of Facebook but from the very beginning of its inception I had a huge resistance to it. Since the days of Socrates’ call for individuals to ‘know self’ there has been a philosophical, psychological and spiritual momentum in that inner direction. Both Buddha and Christ call on us to ‘love self’ and, indeed, there are ancient Indian and Chinese texts that announce that ‘it is the Self that should be known and it is the Self that should be loved.’ Lao Tzu, the Chinese sage claims that ‘it is wise to know self and learned to know another.’ Rumi, the thirteenth century Sufi poet, wrote that ‘a person only becomes an adult when he takes responsibility for Self and for all his own actions.’ In more modern times, psychologists like Carl Jung, Roberto Assagioli, the founder of Psychosynthesis and many others urge us to take the longest and most exciting journey inwards to Self. It is my belief that Facebook has become the greatest distraction from that most important interior work.
Read moreThe Face of Kindness
In the book The Road Less Travelled, Scott Peck starts the book with the line: ‘Life is difficult.’ I recall my response to it was that ‘Life is challenging, not always difficult, indeed, sometimes, joyful, mystical and transcendent’. But is it not also a reflection of the reality of human living to say that ‘Everyone suffers.’ As children, we suffer harshness, irritability, aggression, violence, sexual abuse, comparisons, ‘put downs’, emotional abandonment, social ostracisation, bullying, passivity, injustice, being labelled, ignored, exiled, demeaned and lessened. The responses to these sad experiences is to become fearful, depressed, withdrawn, delusional, illusional, perfectionistic, success and work addicted, addicted to substances, obsessional, compulsive, controlling, rebellious and passive. Unless resolved, we bring our defensive responses to suffering into our adulthood and, sadly, in turn bring suffering to others.
Read moreA Life Examined
It was with regret that I missed attending a unique ‘recovery’ conference at UCC on Wednesday, 10th November last. The fact that the conference was held in honour of the late Dr. Michael Corry, Psychiatrist and Humanistic Psychotherapist is also a source of regret for me. For as many years as I can remember during my thirty years working as a clinical psychologist Michael Corry passionately and compassionately spoke and wrote on the need for an understanding of and a psycho-social approach to individuals who presented with profound inner turmoil. His partner and colleague Dr. Aine Tubridy thankfully echoes his words when she said at the Conference that “it is time to recognise mental health problems come as a result of trauma, lack of love, difficult childhoods and situations and not because of a ‘broken brain.’ People with mental health problems need compassion and love and not a system based on fear and medication.”
Read moreOn Being a Realist
Following a talk recently on Managing from the Inside Out, the person who had introduced me to the audience and organised a question time, said ‘you’re an idealist, aren’t you?’ I responded ‘on the contrary, I’m a realist but I live in a world where many people confuse illusion with reality’. For example, the most common illusions are:
- Money brings happiness (the American dream)
- Success brings happiness
- Marriage brings happiness
- Achievements bring happiness
- Ideas bring happiness
- Wealth brings happiness
- Power brings happiness
- Celebrity brings happiness
- Religion brings happiness
- Work brings happiness
- Possessions bring happiness