The Oedipus Complex

Being the Location of Our Own Well-Being: An Investigation

How is one to go about writing about something that he doesn't understand? Something that he hasn't experienced? Further, how is he to go about teaching it, living it, creating it, instilling it - in himself and, to the degree that they are receptive and interested and willing and committed - others? The more I taste, however faintly, however discreetly, however fleetingly, Bruce's view of the world, the more I realize how completely foreign it is to me. And, I presume, to much of, the vast majority of, our culture. When I taste it, I like the flavor. But then I spit it out. If I swallow it, it only seems to be in small amounts; amounts that are then fully absorbed by the normal, habitual, familiar processes of my mental and emotional tract. Words can be written so simply, so effortlessly, and then go off utterly uncomprehended but nonetheless loudly wielded by those who come across them. I know, because I am one of the word-sword bearers. There are fundamentally...

Today, a couple of things happened...

Today, a couple of things happened that I didn't like. First, I had a difficult session with a couple I work with. Second, bitcoin surged and I was left on the sidelines. And when those things happened, I quickly went to the places that I go to when things happen like that. I had thoughts of whether I should be a therapist, of if I’d chosen the wrong career path, of what a sorry excuse for a person I must be, of everybody else in the world basking in the glory of bitcoin money while I stand sorry and empty-handed on the sidelines, of whether I should be living somewhere else. The usual. And, this time, I saw that I went to those places. Those self-absorbed places that make the world small and turn me into the focus of the world and make me feel bad to boot. You see, generally I don’t see that I go to those places. I just go to them. And then I live out of them. I live out of them without really realizing that I’m living out of them. And, if I do realize it, t...

Bruce-ism #2 (On Emotional Reactivity)

A view to consider is that any emotional reactivity I experience is best related to as 100% about my relationship with my own core, life-long vulnerabilities. - Bruce Tift I love Taylor Swift. She has a lot of great songs. She also has at least one terrible one . The chorus to the atrocity in question goes something like, "Look what you made me do. Look what you just made me do. Look what you made me do. Look." It is very bad. But, it does illustrate (repeatedly and annoyingly) a pervasive attitude that plagues us moderns; namely, the view that other people make us feel and do whatever it is that we feel and do. "I didn't want to, I wasn't going to, I wouldn't have, but... Well... YOU. You did that thing, and now I have to do this thing. This thing that, by the way, I swear is very unlike me to do." It's dramatic. I guess it's compelling. And it certainly lets us off the hook. The moment I make you out to be responsible for my behavior, I can a...

Trevor Brown

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