"He sido un hombre afortunado en la vida, nada me ha sido facil." "I've been a fortunate man in life, nothing has come easy"
Sigmund FreudRead
The ego refuses to be distressed by the provocations of reality, to let itself be compelled to suffer. It insists that it cannot be affected by the traumas of the external world; it shows, in fact, that such traumas are no more than occasions for it to gain pleasure.
Interpretation
The ego protects itself from external pain and trauma, seeking pleasure instead.
This quote by Sigmund Freud highlights the nature of the ego in the face of reality. It suggests that the ego is resilient and will not allow itself to succumb to distress from external challenges. Instead, it views traumas not as sources of suffering, but as opportunities for amusement or enjoyment, thereby reinforcing its own sense of power and control over the self and the environment.
In practice
In a psychology workshop discussing the nature of the human ego.
"He sido un hombre afortunado en la vida, nada me ha sido facil." "I've been a fortunate man in life, nothing has come easy"
I take up the standpoint that the tendency to aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man, and I come back now to the statement that it constitutes the most powerful obstacle to culture.
One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.
We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love, never so forlornly unhappy as when we have lost our love object or its love.
I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.
The tendency to aggression is an innate, independent, instinctual disposition in man... it constitutes the powerful obstacle to culture.
Many people suffer all their lives from this oppressive feeling of guilt, the sense of not having lived up to their parents' expectations. This feeling is stronger than any intellectual insight they might have, that it is not a child's task or duty to satisfy his parents needs. No argument can overcome these guilt feelings, for they have their beginnings in life's earliest periods, and from that they derive their intensity and obduracy.
Sadism is not an infectious disease that strikes a person all of a sudden. It has a long prehistory in childhood and always originates in the desperate fantasies of a child who is searching for a way out of a hopeless situation.
Neurotic behavior is quite predictable. Healthy behavior is unpredictable.
The truth is, bad things don't affect us as profoundly as we expect them to. That's true of good things, too. We adapt very quickly to either.
There are absolutely ways to manipulate behavior, because our behavior is endlessly being manipulated by the world around us.
The only possible recourse a baby has when his screams are ignored is to repress his distress, which is tantamount to mutilating his soul, for the result is an interference with his ability to feel, to be aware, and to remember.
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