There ARE no demons or devils. There are people and there is Spirit.

[pennyplant]

Hoppy--I am hard on myself, but I used to be much, much worse.     This is the new and improved version.  Plus, I was pretty depressed this weekend.  Slowly climbing out.

Bean--Thanks for the chocoloate chip cookie--my favorite.     Also, I can identify with this:

"And so there are often long periods in [therapuetic work] [in which there is a dependence on] compulsion to repeat..for this repetition is the only manifestation of the true self."

So it could be healthy for you to both 1) have very little to say and 2) behave the way you did with your Mom. Sometimes, just because it doesn't feel good, doesn't mean we're not making progress.

bean

I have wondered why I write things out, read them many times, go over in my mind the things that make me sad or hurt.  It makes sense when you put it this way.  I figured I was making progress so wasn't too worried about the way I go about it.  But it is such hard work.  Discouraging sometimes.  The only way I can tell sometimes that I'm making progress is that the compulsion to repeat lessens over time, especially if I have given myself permission to "indulge" in it.  Repressing it makes it more out of control.  That afternoon with my mother I kind of knew what I was doing was hurting me, but I felt like I was in control of it and I didn't really believe the things I was saying about myself--it really was like a script not like an expression of my real opinion of myself.

Portia--thanks for the titles and the websites.  Both Miller and Rowe sound interesting and helpful.  Yes, we Americans do like quick fixes.  Will we ever learn?!?  Maybe some day.....  And we also say "pulling my leg" here.  Hee hee, wonder what the history of THAT phrase is.....

Pennyplant

[Portia]

Hi Moon, no, I won’t talk about Hitler and demons in the same breath, but Hitler is one of (if not the ultimate) examples of childhood cruelty being acted out by the child as adult.

As Miller says in this article: http://www.naturalchild.com/alice_miller/adolf_hitler.html

“Like every other child, Hitler was born innocent, only to be raised, as were many children at the time, in a destructive fashion by his parents and later to make himself into a monster. He was the survivor of a machinery of annihilation that in turn-of-the-century Germany was called "child-rearing" and that I call "the concealed concentration camp of childhood," which is never allowed to be recognized for what it is.”

Very informative reading but hard-going.
((((((Moonlight))))))

PennyP, pulling my leg, I wonder where it comes from? ....
Now I’m gone....

[moonlight52]

Hi Portia    I see connection .  thanks I will read Miller Hard going stuffs ok
  moon

[reallyME]

Portia, I would like to know more about Adolph's upbringing.  I'm going to do the research.  Always knew there was a childhood connection.

~ReallyME

[lofmany]

write,

kind of wondering if you might share what you think the forces are that one can best tap for the best fulfillment...
in terms of within the realm of the physical material and what might lie beyong that one can tap into in a fullfilling positive way.

Personally, I believe in intelligent design as being more scientifically feasible than the other options .

Here is a paste of a review of a book by a m.d.    The book is about his experiences in treating multiple personalities.
Book Description
Join Dr. Allison on his continuing journey into the bipartite human mind, where demons frolic and angels do not fear to tread. In the first edition of this book (1980), Dr. Allison told astonishing stories about his dissociated patients' parading alter-personalities and other psychic beings before him. Now, in this 15-year follow-up, he answers many of the questions that intrigued him then. In doing so, he opens up new vistas for students of the human psyche.

Dr. Allison's discovery of the Inner Self Helper, or ISH, has illuminated the spiritual aspect of the human mind - an aspect feared and thus ignored by others in the field. In fact, guided by his multiple-personality patients' Inner Self Helpers, the author successfully "exorcized" thought- forms masquerading as evil demons. This permitted him to get back to doing the essential hypnotherapy. Only by understanding parapsychological forces as well as his patients' deepest fears and hatreds did he shepherd ma! ny of them back to psychological wholeness. This book describes the inner Self Helpers and tells how they operate - and how their protective energy can be tapped in an alliance beneficial to the patient.

About the Author
Ralph B. Allison, M.D., a retired Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, was educated at Occidental College, UCLA School of Medicine, and Stanford Medical Center. In 1995 he was honored with the Cornelia B. Wilbur Award of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation(ISSD); the Society noted his "relentless efforts, perserverance, and determination in studying, diagnosing, and treating patients with dissociative disorders." Now living in Los Osos, California, Ralph Allison studies, teaches and writes about how the two parts of the human mind really operate.