HISTORY OF EMMOTIONAL COMMON SENSE

Looking at the world around us reveals tens of millions of people who are avoidably self-destructive, that is, they have life-styles that lead to suicide, jail, ruined marriage and other relationships, unnecessary failures in school and on the job, etc.

Some of the concepts evolved from personal experiences, when I became aware of some of my own self-destructive goals and values. Personal psychotherapy and experiences in performing psychotherapy for others also clarified my understanding.Important theoretical concepts include: the Freudian unconscious and transference of feelings; Adler’s ideas about style of life and fictitious goals; the effect of early fantasies and experience with our parents in forming image and self-concepts that subsequently affect us (Harry Stack Sullivan and Melanie Klein); the concept of role playing developed by Jacob Moreno.

Finally, leadership of many human relations workshops and larger goal directed participation-discussion groups have been useful in helping to understand the problems that people have in today’s society, and to learn successful self-help techniques for overcoming them.