Ruminations Psychology Quotes

I've always been interested in intellectual history and in psychology, and anxiety is obviously something that's been a big part of my life. ~ Scott Stossel

A relationship is the union of two psychological systems. ~ Sharon Salzberg

If a mother cannot meet her baby's impulses and needs, [quoting Donald Winnicott] 'the baby learns to become the mother's idea of what the baby is.' Having to discount its inner sensations, and trying to adjust it its caregiver's needs, means the child perceives that 'something is wrong' with the way it is. Children who lack physical attunement are vulnerable to shutting down the direct feedback from their bodies, the seat of pleasure, purpose, and direction. ~ Bessel A. Van Der Kolk

At the end of our conversation she (Martha Stout) turned to address you, the reader. She said if you're beginning to feel worried that you may be a psychopath, if you recognize some of those traits in yourself, if you're feeling a creeping anxiety about it, that means you are not one. ~ Jon Ronson

I believe that today we're facing a psychological epidemic, one in which people no longer realize it's okay for things to suck sometimes. ~ Mark Manson

Progression and regression go hand in hand with mental health. It is a tough illness. You often take one step forward and ten steps back. ~ Theresa Larsen

He is not prone to remember evils, since it is proper to a magnanimous person not to nurse memories, especially not of evils, but to overlook them.

He does not speak evil even of his enemies, except when he responds to their wanton aggression.

He especially avoids laments or entreaties about necessities or small matters. ~ Aristotle On The Megalopsychos

This is my life's work. It is a user's manual to the human being, a parenting book ... and how to be the best you can be. ~ Faye Snyder

I think Buddhism should open the door of psychology and healing to penetrate more easily into the Western world. ~ Nhat Hanh

Anyhow, he asks himself, what is an intimate secret? Is that where we hide what's most mysterious, most singular, most original about a human being? Are her intimate secrets what make Chantal the unique being he loves? No. What people keep secret is the most common, the most ordinary, the most prevalent thing, the same thing everybody has: the body and its needs, it maladies, its manias - constipation, for instance, or menstruation. We ashamedly conceal these intimate matters not because they are so personal but because, on the contrary, they are so lamentably impersonal. How can he resent Chantal, for belonging to her sex, for resembling other women, for wearing a brassiere and along with it the brassiere psychology? s if he didn't himself belong to some eternal masculine idiocy! They both of them got their start in that putterer's workshop where their eyes were botched with the disjointed action of the eyelid and where a reeking little factory was installed in their bellies. They both of them have bodies where their poor souls have almost no room. Shouldn't they forgive that in each other? Shouldn't they move beyond the little weaknesses they're hiding at the bottom of drawers? He was gripped by an enormous compassion, and to draw a final lune under that whole story, he decided to write her one last letter. ~ Milan Kundera

Toxic relationships are like a good pasta that has been overcooked. ~ Asa Don Brown

Our practice rather than being about killing the ego is about simply discovering our true nature. ~ Sharon Salzberg

But there is no energy unless there is a tension of opposites; hence it is necessary to discover the opposite to the attitude of the conscious mind. ~ C. G. Jung

The challenge of abating one with a genuine ego problem is to not try to put him down. Any and all antagonization, in his mind, is merely compensated for by his own descriptions: his feelings of persecution by the envious and his ideals of worth. Arguably, the genuine ego is more of a circumstantial defense mechanism rather than a steady arrogance in need of starvation. ~ Criss Jami

The psychology of committees is a special case of the psychology of mobs. ~ Celia Green

Neither our psychology nor that of the unbelievers can impart life to them. Unless the Holy Spirit Himself performs the work, all is vain. ~ Watchman Nee

Monotony collapses time; novelty unfolds it. You can exercise daily and eat healthily and live a long life, while experiencing a short one. If you spend your life sitting in a cubicle and passing papers, one day is bound to blend unmemorably into the next - and disappear. That's why it's so important to change routines regularly, and take vacations to exotic locales, and have as many new experiences as possible that can serve to anchor our memories. Creating new memories stretches out psychological time, and lengthens our perception of our lives. ~ Joshua Foer

Studying neuro-linguistic programming is what teaches you how to implant and extract thoughts. Mixing psychology, hypnotism and magic somewhat goes into this area called mentalism, which is what I mostly do. It's magic of the mind. ~ Keith Barry

Reading has been proven to sharpen analytical thinking, enabling us to better discern patterns – a handy tool when it comes to the often baffling behaviour of ourselves and others. But fiction in particular can make you more socially able and empathetic. Last year, the Journal of Applied Social Psychology published a paper showing how reading Harry Potter made young people in the UK and Italy more positively disposed towards stigmatised minorities such as refugees. ~ Hephzibah Anderson

[T}he sexual act without love never bridges the gap between two human beings, except momentarily. ~ Erich Fromm

I published in 1978 a report on dreams in the Journal of Clinical Psychology. It was the first study of its kind to demonstrate that it is possible for people to make constructive use of their dreams to improve their lives. ~ Henry Reed

The psychological theories that inform day-to-day business practices are comprised mostly of folk-psychology, fads, and myths. ~ Paul Gibbons

You are the average of the people you spend the most time with. And that's why it's not always where you are in life, but who you have by your side that matters most. Some people drain you and others provide soul food. Spend more time with nice people who are smart, driven and open-minded about personal growth and opportunity. There's no need to rush into a relationship you are unsure of, or socialize with those who hold you back. Be sure to get in the company of those who feed your spirit, and give the gift of your absence to those who do not appreciate your presence. ~ John Geiger

You can see the rider serving the elephant when people are morally dumbfounded. They have strong gut feelings about what is right and wrong, and they struggle to construct post hoc justifications for those feelings. Even when the servant (reasoning) comes back empty-handed, the master (intuition) doesn't change his judgment. ~ Jonathan Haidt

No amount of therapy, dream analysis, word association, experiment or brain-scanning can recover a person's 'true motives', not because they are difficult to find, but because there is nothing to find. It is not hard to plumb our mental depths because they are so deep and so murky, but because there are no mental depths to plumb. ~ Nick Chater

Flattery is useful when dealing with youngsters. ~ Isaac Asimov

... everything based on arguments involving the 'is' of identidy and the older el (elementalistic) 'logic' and 'psychology', such as the prevailing doctrines, laws, institutions, systems. , cannot possibly be in full accordance with the structure of our nervous system. This, in turn, affects the latter and results in the prevailing private and public un-sanity. Hence, the unrest, unhappines, nervous strain, irritability, lack of wisdom and absence of balance, the instability of our instituitions, the wars and revolutions, the increase of 'mental ills, prostitution, criminality, commercialism as a creed, the inadequate standards of education, the low professional standards of lawyers, priests, politicians, physicians, teachers, parents, and even of scientists - which in the last-named field often lead to dogmatic and antisocial attitudes and lack of creativeness. ~ Alfred Korzybski

When you realise the difference between the container and the content, you will have knowledge. ~ Idries Shah

Experiences that we remember intrusively, despite desperately wanting to banish them from our minds, are closely linked to, and sometimes threaten, our perceptions of who we are and who we would like to be. ~ Daniel L. Schacter

We tell ourselves our own stories, selectively, in order to keep our sense of self intact. ~ Robert Stone

It is noted that from 1967 to 1995 essays on negative emotions far outnumbered those on positive emotions in the psychological literature. The ratio was 21:1. Even those supreme perpetrators of pop nihilism, The New York Times and The Washington Post, have a better ratio than psychological literature. They average 12 negative stories to every one that might be construed to be non-negative. Many of their non-negative stories, however, cover success in sports and entertainment.

I demand that the purveyors of despair who pretend to be dispassionate observes of the human condition go ahead and disclose that the 10 most beautiful words in the English languages are chimes, dawn, golden, hush, lullaby, luminous, melody, mist, murmuring, and tranquil; that Java sparrows prefer the music of Back over that of Schoenberg; that math experts have determined there are 1/96 trillion ways to lace up your shoes; that the Inuit term for making love is translated as 'laughing together in bed;' and that according to Buckminster Fuller, "pollution is nothing but resources we're not harvesting. ~ Rob Brezsny

Freedom of speech does not guarantee you a platform from which to air your opinions. You may hold trenchant views on a number of subjects but the fact that The Times won't print your ruminations doesn't mean you are being oppressed...While freedom of speech gives you the right to dissent and, yes, to offend, it does not give you the right to abuse. ~ Billy Bragg

Crowds are somewhat like the sphinx of ancient fable: It is necessary to arrive at a solution of the problems offered by their psychology or to resign ourselves to being devoured by them. ~ Gustave Le Bon

Baseless victimhood is usually the last stage before outright aggression. ~ Stefan Molyneux

The Goth boy stares at me, and I give him a what-are-you-looking-at stare right back.

"I'm dead," he says in a dull monotone.

"Pardon me?" Adriana asks, but he keeps staring at me.

"You're dead, too. Look at your veins. They're blue." He points at my forearms where dark veins run their lengths. "You're rotting like me."

I glance to Adriana, hands clasped and praying that she won't leave me here.

Adriana's stopped crying now and squints at the boy before standing to pull closed the curtain that rings my cot. "Crazy," she says with an uncertain smile. "You're not rotting."

. . . ninety-nine, one hundred . "No," I reply. "But I will if you leave me here. ~ Michael F. Stewart