The dissociation is real … if I were to keep a single pig in a dark shed, in a cage so small it couldn’t turn around… Leave it there with the burning smell of urine and poop to have babies that I eat, people would consider me a monster. But if someone pays a large corporation to do this to millions of pigs, that’s just fine, and when I object I am emotionally unstable. Also, if you were to treat a pig beautifully and then kill it to eat, most people would consider that humane … but exchange the pig for a dog … well then again … you are a monster … even though a pig and a dog suffer just the same. People call cultures that eat dogs barbaric but eat animals that suffer just the same, and basically, we are telling other cultures that they are torturing and killing the wrong animals … they should be torturing and killing the animals we do.… racist as well as dissociative. Brenda Dendaas
This blog is about learning to understand all of our feelings and learning to consciously face, feel, and experience all of our feelings within the context of our own childhood. Everything we become and everything that happens to us is connected to childhood. Not every victim becomes an abuser, but every abuser was once a victim of abuse. These are facts. Violence is not genetic; it’s learned. https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-dance-to-freedom-book-reviews.html
Saturday, November 13, 2021
The dissociation is real
Thursday, October 21, 2021
Using our Triggers Productively
"Those children who are beaten will, in turn, give beatings, those who are intimidated will be intimidating, those who are humiliated will impose humiliation, and those whose souls are murdered will murder.
...Children who are lectured to, learn how to lecture; if they are admonished, they learn how to admonish; if scolded, they learn how to scold; if ridiculed, they learn how to ridicule; if humiliated, they learn how to humiliate; if their psyche is killed, they will learn how to kill--the only question is who will be killed: oneself, others, or both." -- Alice Miller, in the above excerpt from Pedagogy Fills the Needs of Parents, Not of Children. From the book For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence by Alice Miller https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2011/01/pedagogy-fills-needs-of-parents-not-of.html?m=1
XB,
You tried to attack and humiliate your aunt and cousin in front of the family, and because I didn’t go along with you and I wrote the words below, you got mad, and things after that spiraled out of control.
This shows
me that you just want to be surrounded by yes people who always agree with
you. And you still don’t understand your emotions when they are triggered by present
events and let yourself compulsively be driven by them.
I wrote: “I
already know that! It's better to let go. One thing I have learned is that
it's not worth fighting over money! At the end of our journey,
we can't take our money with us anyway! What we leave behind, someone else will use our money for good or bad, and we will not have a say in it by then. The reality is, as long as your mother is alive, she's entitled to give her money to whomever she wants, and we don't have to like it! Unless she is declared
mentally insane, she can do with her money whatever she wants...”
I feel like
all the time I've spent with you has been wasted, just like your mother’s money.
Time to me has more value than money!
The aunt you
hate so much is lost and stuck playing the same roles as your mother—those of the hero and the victim. They are one and the same, so if you hate your aunt, you also hate your mother. However, your aunt is not responsible for your childhood traumas—your mother and father are.
You have
made your aunts your scapegoats for your entire life. I'm a little guilty that I haven't tried to explain this to you more clearly before: that you were making your aunts and cousins your scapegoats.
If you were
really smart, you would walk away, let go of your mother and her money, and
let all of them be.
You are at a crossroads and have to ask yourself what is more important to you- your freedom or your mother’s money? If you choose to stay in your mother’s emotional prison to guard her money, you stay stuck, and it can be hazardous and destructive to you both.
You need to stay away from your mother for you to heal and be free. But that’s your choice, and you are the one wasting your life and dying in an emotional prison like most people in our world. Money alone has never saved anyone! If you didn’t make your own money and needed your mother’s money to survive, it would be one thing, but you don’t need her money, and this addiction to money can be destructive to both of you.
This is an
opportunity for you to heal and liberate yourself.
Just like I
wrote in my book on pages 129, 163, and 164:
“The key to
effective therapy is learning how to use your present triggers productively.
They can help us clarify, understand, and consciously feel our intense emotions
within the context of our own childhoods without losing our adult
consciousness. A good therapist can help us regain our adult consciousness if
we lose it and encourage our autonomy, so we can deal with present issues from
an adult perspective.
… Just remember this: If particular
people or circumstances trigger excruciatingly intense feelings inside you,
just keep telling yourself that these are the repressed feelings of the child
you once were. Feelings don’t kill anyone, no matter how intense they are. Only
actions kill. So if you ride your intense feelings into shore, direct them at
the real culprits who
hurt you when you were a defenseless child and avoid taking any actions you may
regret later, you’ll be free and no one will get hurt. As an autonomous adult, you do have some control over the people you let into your inner circle, and
you may have to make some relationship adjustments as you do your emotional
work. I took a lot of extra time to be with myself in solitude because most of
the people in my life just didn’t understand what I was going through. When
you’re trying to resolve your repression, being around unconscious people who
are doing everything they can to avoid their own truths puts you at risk of
relapsing into playing your old roles.”
I wish you
the courage and strength to spend time alone in solitude to face your painful
truths and feel your triggered emotions within the context of your own
childhood.
Sunday, October 17, 2021
Once Again I Became the Target of Someone's Hatred
I became the target of someone's hatred because I didn't join in attacking and humiliating her scapegoats in front of the family group. It makes me sad when people are blinded by latent hatred towards scapegoats. "Those children who are beaten will, in turn, give beatings, those who are intimidated will be intimidating, those who are humiliated will impose humiliation, and those whose souls are murdered will murder." Alice Miller
Friday, October 15, 2021
About Transference
I seem to have the talent of triggering people’s repressed emotions of the child they once were, but handling people’s transference I am not as good as I like to be. It’s never comfortable when people project or transfer into me their repressed hatred of the child they once were at their parents.
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How do you explain to a person that the money is the trigger of the latent repressed hatred of the child she once was at her mother, now, directed at her aunts' --- making them her scapegoats.
https://www.alice-miller.com/en/what-is-hatred/
Sunday, October 3, 2021
What is Hatred ?
Repressed hatred cannot ever be resolved when is directed at scapegoats. Hatred can only be resolved when is understood and consciously felt within the context of our own childhood, otherwise, we will endlessly need scapegoats in our lives to temporarily and superficially alleviate childhood repression.
It's amazing to me how smart people with a DR in front of their name or a Ph.D. at the end cannot understand and make this fundamental connection. And remain stuck lost in projections and transferences their entire lives. The words Alice Miller wrote in the article below are so true:
Monday, September 27, 2021
I Witness these psychological Mechanisms being played Everywhere
“Humiliations, spankings, and beatings, slaps in the face, betrayal, sexual exploitation, derision, neglect, etc. are all forms of mistreatment, because they injure the integrity and dignity of a child, even if their consequences are not visible right away. However, as adults, most abused children will suffer, and let others suffer, from these injuries. This dynamic of violence can deform some victims into hangmen who take revenge even on whole nations and become willing executors to dictators as unutterably appalling as Hitler and other cruel leaders.” Alice Miller I witness these psychological mechanisms being played everywhere. This is one of the reasons most people stayed silent on the sidelines when I was the target of psychological warfare at my job of nine and a half years, if I didn't understand these psychological mechanisms, and I had taken it personally, would have affected my mental health to the point that I would not be here today... understanding these psychological dynamics can save your life -- you might lose money but it will save your life and you stay free.
https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2015/10/enablers-are-just-as-guilty.html
Gabby Petito
The Police body cam video is a great example of how abusers are good at making their targets, the real victims, appear to be the abusers. But now we know who the real victim is. "Physical violence can be testified to be outside evidence: eyewitness, police and medical reports. With emotional abuse, there is no proof. It's a clean violence. Nobody sees anything.
...While the victim dwells on her guilt, the abuser benefits from the situation, making sure to cast himself as the victim.
https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2016/06/for-sociopath-winning-is-all.html
https://sylvieshene.blogspot.com/2017/09/big-cover-up-by-sociopaths-at-my-ex-job.html