In conversation things can be metabolized and digested through somebody else — I say something to you and you can give it back to me in different forms — whereas you’ll notice that your own mind is very often extremely repetitive. It is very difficult to surprise oneself in one’s own mind. The vocabulary of one’s self-criticism is so impoverished and clichéd. We are at our most stupid in our self-hatred.
~ Adam Phillips, The Poetics of the Psyche
Adam Phillips, 59, is Britain’s most celebrated psychoanalytical writer. He explores in his wide-ranging views in a conversation with Paul Holdengräber as part of The Paris Review’s legendary interview series.
Sources: Quote – Brainpickings. Photograph: Thank you Carol.
I love it when I’m the first to like one of your posts! I feel so cutting edge… 😀
You are cutting edge. Before anyone of us started this cool stuff! 🙂
The student has become the master! I thought of you when I curated this: http://toddlohenry.wordpress.com/2014/06/09/jonesin-for-likes-staying-sane-on-the-internet/
Enjoyed the Jonein’ For Likes. Not sure which part of it made you think of me… 🙂
Yes, David, yes!!! How we can bore ourselves and yet how we hate to bored. Time to offload some of those voices, my friend. I’m trying – and you need to as well.
Workin’ it Mimi. Workin’ it.
So true! The 8-track tape that runs in a continuous loop inside one’s head can be a dreadful bore. You tell yourself (in your more enlightened moments) that it’s talking smack, and yet…..
Smiling. So true. Especially the “yet…”
at times, there is no harsher critic than our own mind.
No one knows our weak spots better than us, and boy, can we pick the scabs…
“We are at the most stupid in or self-hatred.” Unfortunately for you, though fortunately for us, you are at your most creative. Not sure how to reconcile that.
Smiling. I’ve been thinking about exactly that Carolann. Exactly that point. There’s no reconciliation for the hard wiring. I’ve got to take it as it flows. The ebbs and the flows. You nailed it. On the head.