A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls.
Sam KeenRead
Neurotic identity crises come when our defense mechanisms have been too successful and we're encapsulated in the fortress we have constructed with nothing to refresh us in our solitary confinement. So we play the old movies with their stale fears and their unrealistic hopes until we become bored enough to risk disarmament and engagement.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how excessive reliance on defense mechanisms can lead to isolation and stagnation.
Sam Keen's quote reflects on how individuals can become trapped in their own psychological defenses, leading to a neurotic identity crisis. When one's defenses are overly effective, they might create a personal fortress that disconnects them from the outside world, resulting in a lack of growth and refreshment. The quote suggests that people often cling to outdated fears and unrealistic ambitions, ultimately craving a return to vulnerability and connection in order to break free from their cycle of boredom and isolation.
Themes
IdentityDefense MechanismsIsolationVulnerabilityEngagementFear
In practice
Example use cases
In a mental health workshop discussing the effects of isolation on personal growth.
More from Sam Keen
All quotes →The root of humanly caused evil is not man's animal nature, not territorial aggression, or innate selfishness, but our need to gain self-esteem, deny our mortality, and achieve a heroic self-image. Our desire for the best is the cause of the worst.
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Compassion begins with the acknowledgment of the single inescapable truth that is the foundation for the possibility of love between human beings - an awareness of the tragic sense of life.
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We all yearn to fly. We are creatures of longing. We do not need to [physically fly] to be airborne. What I call the aerial instinct-the drive to transcend our present condition- is the defining characteristic of a human being. We are restless animals, eternal travelers who are forever in the process of becoming. Consciousness itself is a flight from the here and now to the beyond. Our reach always exceeds our grasp, which is what Heaven is for.
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Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administrating stimulants to an exhausted nervous system.
Sam KeenRead
Each day befriend a single fear, and the miscellaneous terrors of being human will never join together to form such a morass of vague anxiety that it rules your life from the shadows of the unconscious. We learn to fly not by being fearless, but by the daily practice of courage.
Sam KeenRead
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