Friday 15 November 2013

Self-defeating Behaviours - Repression & Addiction


     According to Buddhist psychology, we're all addicted to material things, our likes & dislikes, our opinions, etc, but most importantly, to our concept of self. It can take many years of reading and meditation just to get an inkling of the depth of these addictions.

     "For generations, psychologists thought that virtually all self-defeating behavior was caused by repression. I have now come to believe that addiction is a separate and even more self-defeating force that abuses our freedom and makes us do things we really do not want to do. While repression stifles our desire, addiction attaches desire, bonds and enslaves the energy of desire to certain specific behaviors, things, or people. These objects of attachment then become preoccupations and obsessions; they come to rule our lives.
     The word attachment has long been used by spiritual traditions to describe this process. It comes from the old French a-tache, meaning "nailed to." Attachment "nails" our desire to specific objects and creates addiction. In this light, we can see why traditional psychotherapy, which is based on the release of repression, has proven ineffective with addictions."

       May G. "Addiction and Grace. Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions." HarperCollins, NY, 1988. 


     See also: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/07/361-beyond-stress-management-resilience.html

Stan W   www.dpreview.com
 

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