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“In order to create the greatest change in your target’s attitude, you need “insufficient justification”—your incentive must be small or nonexistent so that your target attributes his compliance toward a genuine desire to comply, not toward a desire to receive the external reward.”
― Methods of Persuasion: How to Use Psychology to Influence Human Behavior
― Methods of Persuasion: How to Use Psychology to Influence Human Behavior
“Jung observed that everyone has a pathological secret, something so scary, so shameful perhaps, so humiliating, that one will protect it nearly any cost.”
― Hauntings: Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives
― Hauntings: Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives
“I love Voltaire’s observation that “History never repeats itself; man always does.”
― The Psychology of Money
― The Psychology of Money
“These four questions that never go away are:
1. Why are we here, in service to what, and toward what end? (the cosmological question)
2. How are we as animal forms, empowered with spirit, to live in harmony with our natural environment? (the ecological question)
3. Who are my people, what is my duty to others, and what are rights and duties, privileges, and expectations of my tribe? (the sociological question)
4. Who am I, how am I different from others, what is my life about, and how am I to find my way through the difficulties of live? (the psychological question)”
― Hauntings: Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives
1. Why are we here, in service to what, and toward what end? (the cosmological question)
2. How are we as animal forms, empowered with spirit, to live in harmony with our natural environment? (the ecological question)
3. Who are my people, what is my duty to others, and what are rights and duties, privileges, and expectations of my tribe? (the sociological question)
4. Who am I, how am I different from others, what is my life about, and how am I to find my way through the difficulties of live? (the psychological question)”
― Hauntings: Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives
“John Bradshaw, in his best-seller Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child, details several of his imaginative techniques: asking forgiveness of your inner child, divorcing your parent and finding a new one, like Jesus, stroking your inner child, writing your childhood history. These techniques go by the name catharsis, that is, emotional engagement in past trauma-laden events. Catharsis is magnificent to experience and impressive to behold. Weeping, raging at parents long dead, hugging the wounded little boy who was once you, are all stirring. You have to be made of stone not to be moved to tears. For hours afterward, you may feel cleansed and at peace—perhaps for the first time in years. Awakening, beginning again, and new departures all beckon.
Catharsis, as a therapeutic technique, has been around for more than a hundred years. It used to be a mainstay of psychoanalytic treatment, but no longer. Its main appeal is its afterglow. Its main drawback is that there is no evidence that it works. When you measure how much people like doing it, you hear high praise. When you measure whether anything changes, catharsis fares badly. Done well, it brings about short-term relief—like the afterglow of vigorous exercise. But once the glow dissipates, as it does in a few days, the real problems are still there: an alcoholic spouse, a hateful job, early-morning blues, panic attacks, a cocaine habit. There is no documentation that the catharsis techniques of the recovery movement help in any lasting way with chronic emotional problems. There is no evidence that they alter adult personality. And, strangely, catharsis about fictitious memories does about as well as catharsis about real memories. The inner-child advocates, having treated tens of thousands of suffering adults for years, have not seen fit to do any follow-ups. Because catharsis techniques are so superficially appealing, because they are so dependent on the charisma of the therapist, and because they have no known lasting value, my advice is “Let the buyer beware.”
― What You Can Change and What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement
Catharsis, as a therapeutic technique, has been around for more than a hundred years. It used to be a mainstay of psychoanalytic treatment, but no longer. Its main appeal is its afterglow. Its main drawback is that there is no evidence that it works. When you measure how much people like doing it, you hear high praise. When you measure whether anything changes, catharsis fares badly. Done well, it brings about short-term relief—like the afterglow of vigorous exercise. But once the glow dissipates, as it does in a few days, the real problems are still there: an alcoholic spouse, a hateful job, early-morning blues, panic attacks, a cocaine habit. There is no documentation that the catharsis techniques of the recovery movement help in any lasting way with chronic emotional problems. There is no evidence that they alter adult personality. And, strangely, catharsis about fictitious memories does about as well as catharsis about real memories. The inner-child advocates, having treated tens of thousands of suffering adults for years, have not seen fit to do any follow-ups. Because catharsis techniques are so superficially appealing, because they are so dependent on the charisma of the therapist, and because they have no known lasting value, my advice is “Let the buyer beware.”
― What You Can Change and What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement
Carolina’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Carolina’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Crime, Historical fiction, Music, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, Romance, Science, and Spirituality
Polls voted on by Carolina
Lists liked by Carolina
