Learn Your Parents
Skills to help discover their identities and learn a whole lot more about yours.
On the chess board that is psychotherapy, I was never surprised when (no matter what the topic) my patients were always only one or two moves away from the King or Queen. Or, to quote an old maxim, “If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother.” We are well versed in their positions and their powers. We know the contents and margins of our lives with them.
But we know far less about them “off the board.”
And what we know of them before we entered their lives is usually confined to the facts of history, not a sense who they were as living, thinking, feeling human beings — well before they were Kings and Queens.
For some of us, growing up with our parents was like swimming in poison. We have either transcended this, or are still stuck with the crushing templates imposed on us that call the shots in our lives, even now.
Or, maybe we see them as basically benign beings, but rather clueless, to be cheerfully indulged. If we were lucky enough, we count ourselves loved and connected, even if our parents drive us crazy on an hourly basis.
Identity
We are consumed by the quest to know ourselves, improve ourselves, satisfy, and protect…
