Top stories published by Self and Other in 2016

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Top Stories published by Self and Other in 2016

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2016

Jason Wheeler, Ph.D. in Self and Other

Dec 16, 2016

Giving and Receiving

It’s a commonplace of Western thinking and morality that it is “better to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). At this time of year, great importance is placed on the giving of gifts. Whole material industries of gift giving have arisen and corresponding social industries commenting on…

Jason Wheeler, Ph.D. in Self and Other

Nov 18, 2016

A Lion and a Cub

How important we can become to other people, and in turn how important others can become to us, is often a surprise. It is also something that one forgets, and must remember to remember. A student I’m supervising in psychotherapy talked to me about ending with her current patients - she is soon to…

Jason Wheeler, Ph.D. in Self and Other

Nov 4, 2016

One Idea May Hide Another

“I’m drawn to complex men,” a patient tells me in a therapy session. “Complex?” Repeating this word shows I have some doubts about it, that I’m not sure what she means. Curious and articulate, she picks up the inquiry: “Men with complex emotions.” She is speaking about her husband…

Jason Wheeler, Ph.D. in Self and Other

Oct 28, 2016

What Metaphors Mean

It’s easy to meet literalness with the same, harder to add something creative. Talking recently to another professional about how to treat people admitted to the hospital with major psychiatric problems, I was startled by her concreteness: “There’s no point talking to them. They just talk…

Jason Wheeler, Ph.D. in Self and Other

Dec 2, 2016

Death by Water

What makes swimmers selfish? Of course, by no means all swimmers and not all the time. Many swimmers are very courteous. But any regular lap swimmer will have met with surprising rudeness in the pool. There are several varieties that seem to turn around a common center. There are the people who cannot…

Jason Wheeler, Ph.D. in Self and Other

Dec 9, 2016

To Do or Not To Do

The chameleon knows that the best place to hide is in plain sight: foreground and background become one; the animate becomes the inanimate. So too in the mind often something conceals something else or becomes its opposite. A joke contains a grain of truth. A compliment covers a denigration…

Jason Wheeler, Ph.D. in Self and Other

Nov 11, 2016

The Mother of No

Of all the factors involved in Hillary Clinton’s failed run for President, her status as a mother may seem minor. But in trying to understand our surprising and complex election result we should do our best to look under all the stones. Clinton’s motherhood was presented in her campaign as a…

2017

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