MISCELLANY

What’s The Most Painful Thing You’ve Been Told?

Trauma is often thought of as an horrific experience. There are however differing types and degrees of trauma and the above clip illustrates how a throw-away comment can sear itself into your mind and eat away at you.

Happiness

One of the foremost contemporary psychotherapists, Adam Phillips eloquently argues against our current preoccupation with happiness. He describes how, in earlier periods in history, we functioned along the lines of an unwritten instruction to “be good”. This has been replaced with the injunction to “be happy”, an associated phobia towards frustration, and the development of unrealizable idealizations. 

The Meaning Of Life

The British philosopher, Anthony Grayling, suggests there to be no magical meaning of life that is waiting to be discovered. Instead, he proposes that “the meaning of life is to make life meaningful”. He encourages us to “find something” or to “create something”, although he also emphasises that this need not be the next best American novel. Further, he emphasises the palliative nature of human affection and the little things in life. 

Paranoid Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia represents a break with reality. Psychotic episodes may temporarily accompany mania or substance use, but schizophrenia is an altogether different type of animal. There are no doubt biological underpinnings to the condition, although psychological factors are often at play. For example, schizophrenia could be viewed as the ultimate defence - it is for the most part impenetrable. At the same time, it is essential for those affected by the condition to find a way of engaging with their mental state. This reflects in organisations such as The Hearing Voices Network which encourages the development of a relationship with the voices, visions, or other unusual perceptual experiences.