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Apr 11, 2022Liked by Barry Brownstein

That Heinlein quote about man being a rationalizing animal is very apt. Jeff Goldblum's character in The Big Chill claims that rationalizations are more important than sex, and when his friends all disagree, he says, "Oh yeah? Have you ever gone a week without a rationalization?" Closely related, the psychiatrist Fritz Perls once quipped that most people who go into therapy do so to "polish their neuroses."

You and Perls both stress that awareness is the key to mental health. Once we clearly see (the word is not adequate: we deeply experience) that we're hanging on to a mental habit established long ago that is no longer useful, no one needs to help us let it go. Conversely, until that gestalt is achieved, no amount of force, external or internal, can break the chain that binds us.

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deletedApr 12, 2022Liked by Barry Brownstein
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