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Discover .Your .Mind
New .Ideas .in .Psychology .and .Idealism

 
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The . Shock . Effect

of . Psycho-Analysis

 

Be prepared for an initially-disturbing aspect of investigating the subconscious mind.

We find it easiest to identify emotions that are very influential in our lives, even when we are not aware that we have them. When I first identified hate in my subconscious mind I was shocked -- it did not fit into my self-image of being a nice guy. It took me a long time to accept this reality. All emotions (with the exception of equanimity) form into pairs of opposites. So if one emotion is powerful in your life, then the opposite member of that pair will also be powerful. If love is powerful, then so is hate.

 

The standard way of handling this difficulty is to split the focus of our emotions. We divide reality up into good and bad aspects. So spiritual people love god (and subconsciously hate the world) ; or we love the world, and hate god (because of the sorrow that exists).

When we do not split the focus, when we alternately love and hate the same issue or the same person, then we have a problem ! - we have to endure an emotional roller-coaster.

The adolescent finds it easy to focus love on friends and hate on enemies, but often finds it extremely difficult to handle his/her love-hate relationships with the parents !

However, hate is essential to spiritual development. When a person goes into deep concentration and contemplation on any topic, the emotion that sustains this absorption is hate. So our evaluation of what goodness and badness means will undergo a re-orientation when we explore the subconscious mind.

 

Ian Heath
London, UK

www.discover-your-mind.co.uk/

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