Unconscious Contracts


Book Description

Originally published in 1987 this highly original work explores how the nature and institutions of society are determined by our unconscious as well as our conscious aims – how individuals join together in ‘unconscious contracts’. The author does this by integrating psychoanalysis and social science to generate a psychoanalytical theory of society. The key to this theory is the interpretation of both psychoanalysis and social science in terms of the interplay between conflict and co-operation. Professor Allingham starts by discussing the workings of the individual mind, and tracing the development of the adult personality from its roots in infancy. He uses this background to show how the group acts as a key link between the individual and society, and the sense in which groups have lives of their own. He completes the theory by demonstrating how the unconscious aims of the members of society are translated, through the various groups to which they belong, into the institutions adopted by society. Finally, as an extension, he explores the nature of the unconscious motives which underlie our conscious social and political attitudes.




The Zero Point Agreement


Book Description

A practical guide to stop searching for meaning by creating meaning from within • Explains how we can only discover who we are by naming what we want to be and taking steps to make it a reality • Offers simple evidence-based methods to generate enthusiasm, creativity, and direct spiritual experience and to co-create with the natural world as our ancestors did • Presents 11 core principles for living life from within, such as how to take full responsibility for motivation and effort, express gratitude, and focus your intention Everyone wants to experience purpose and inspiration in their lives, but the search for meaning often leaves a seeker in the hands of fate. Offering a different approach to self-discovery, one where we create our meaning from within rather than seek it from the outside world, Julie Tallard Johnson shows there is a science behind personal spiritual experiences and creativity. She reveals simple evidence-based methods that can be applied to any situation to generate enthusiasm, inspiration, and direct spiritual experience and transform the inner and outer landscapes of your life. Drawing from the Heart Sutra, the I Ching, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of the Dalai Lama, Joseph Campbell, and the Kadampa master Atisha, Johnson outlines a practice centered on what she calls the Zero Point Agreement--the realization that you are the zero point of your life, that life’s purpose comes from within. She explains how to discover who you truly are by naming what you want to be and taking steps to make it a reality. Providing 11 core principles for the Zero Point Agreement as well as thought exercises, meditations, and journaling practices, Johnson shows how to break free from negative habitual states, liberate yourself from your attachment to the behaviors of others, take full responsibility for motivation and effort, express gratitude, focus your intention, and learn to co-create with the natural world. She also explores how to transform repressed material and how to apply the Zero Point Agreement to heal both personal and global relationships. Revealing how we can tap in to the creative, creational power that lies within and around each of us, Johnson offers a spiritual technology for self-illumination, creative restructuring of your life, and manifestation of your life’s purpose.




Your Resonant Self Workbook: From Self-sabotage to Self-care


Book Description

Practices for well-being, based in neuroscience and geared toward kindness. When we experience trauma or need to find a way to protect ourselves from interpersonal hurt, we make unconscious contracts with ourselves, such as: “I will never let myself get treated that way again” or “I will never forgive myself for that.” But these contracts often result in harmful behaviors like self-criticism, lack of trust, and procrastination. Until we recognize and free ourselves from these damaging contracts, we can never truly heal. Your Resonant Self Workbook: From Self-sabotage to Self-care takes us through the world of relational neuroscience and, using the lens of unconscious contracts, explores how our brains, nervous systems, and bodies react to the brains, nervous systems, and bodies of others. Case studies, resonant-language practice, questionnaires, meditations, and journaling provide readers with healing strategies for uncovering and rewriting these contracts. Following Your Resonant Self, this workbook provides the tools to turn inward with kindness, warmth, and curiosity and create opportunities for self-healing.




On Flirtation


Book Description

This is a book about the possibilities of flirtation, its risks and instructive amusements - about the spaces flirtation opens in the stories we tell ourselves, particularly within the framework of psychoanalysis.




The Perverse Organisation and its Deadly Sins


Book Description

The Perverse Organisation and its Deadly Sins begins by examining the nature of perversity and its presence in corporate and organisational life. Then, four chapters examine the "corporate sins" of perverse pride, greed, envy and sloth, each taking case studies from major organisations suffering their effects. Finally, the book enquires into the nature of the consumer/provider pair as a centrepiece of the perverse cultural dynamics of current organisational life. The emphasis in the book is on perversity displayed by the organisation as such, rather than simply by its leaders, or other members, even though they may embody and manifest perverse primary symptoms to the extent that they at times engage in corrupt or criminal behaviour. What is explored is a group and organisation dynamic, more deeply embedded than conscious corruption. Within the perverse structure some roles become required to take up corrupt positions. They become part and parcel of the way things work. The person may condemn certain practices, but the role requires them. Tensions between person and role may mean that the person in role acts as they would not while in other roles. Such tensions may lead to the dynamics of perversity. This book is important reading for managers, consultants, and all who are interested in the dynamics propelling what seem to be the out-of-control dynamics within contemporary organisational life. It helps us understand how many people in positions of trust may end up abusing those positions. It looks at how we may be collectively perverse despite our individual attempts to be otherwise.




Becoming the One


Book Description

Spiritual writer and founder of Rising Woman, Sheleana Aiyana takes you on a transformational inner-work journey to heal life-long relationship pattens and reclaim power over your life. Romantic relationships have the ability to infuse our lives with the magic of intimacy and connection. But for many of us, that magic is fleeting–over and over, our relationships don't last, or if they do, they fail to make us happy. We find ourselves chasing unavailable love, sublimating our needs in service to others, or trying to save our partners from themselves, all the while abandoning the one who needs us most–ourselves. If you find yourself struggling to let go after a relationship ends, or you keep hitting the same wall in dating and relationships with emotionally unavailable people, this is not a sign that you are broken. It is a sign that somewhere along the way, you learned to sacrifice yourself in order to be loved. In Becoming the One, spiritual leader and visionary founder of the Rising Woman community Sheleana Aiyana offers a roadmap for transforming your relationship patterns to end the cycle of self-abandonment and move into the light of self-discovery. You'll learn to: • build a secure, loving relationship with yourself. • connect with your inner child. • challenge your core beliefs about love. • set self-affirming boundaries. • discover and celebrate your true desires. • recognize red and green flags. Sheleana's revolutionary lessons, based on wisdom from the traumas of her past and years of guiding thousands of women around the world in her internationally acclaimed "Becoming the One" program of spiritual and therapeutic healing practices, teach you to embody the qualities you are seeking in others so that you can become "the one" for yourself. You'll learn how to trust your body, make peace with your past, and clear the path for healthy, conscious love–one that returns the authority to you to choose how to live and whom to love. The desire for love is wired into the very fibers of our being, but before you can create rewarding bonds with others, first you must stand wholeheartedly in self-acceptance. Becoming the One is an invitation to find your way home to yourself.




The Couple Intimacy Workbook


Book Description

Is the intimacy in your relationship as rich as it could be? Expand your understanding of the power of intimacy in couples.Learn new and stimulating ways to interact with your partner to enhance bonding.Explore the possibilities of pushing the limits of six kinds of intimacy.Advance your relationship with exercises you can do together or solo.Relate at a deeper level than you may have thought possible.Recharge passion for your relationship and partner."This workbook encourages us to take a step back and rethink our intentions and help us remember why we love our partners and continue to strengthen our relational bonds." -- Sarah Davinsizer, B.A. "Growing Couple Intimacy is well done, filled with concrete ways for couples to explore and grow individually and in their intimacy with one another." -- Pastor Mary J. Hendricks "A wonderful, practical guide to further develop intimacy, including helpful activities that are both individual and couple focused." -- Melody Ray "Growing Couple Intimacy sums up many poignant topics most humans could use some help with and presents suggestions in very workable and understandable ways. I will be using this workbook in my own marriage. I also believe this will give me another useful tool in my clinical practice." -- Michael Stubler, MA, CRC, LPC "Very insightful and engaging! The exercises help to break down walls and explore intimacy in ways you might not have known existed." -- Chris Schneider, Worship Leader, Manchester, CT "Growing Couple Intimacy is a useful tool that I can apply to individuals as well as couples. I found the practical applications outlined a helpful step towards intimacy growth." -- Nicole Behe, wife and mother Learn more at www.LHPress.com




Into TA


Book Description

Transactional Analysis (TA) has continued to grow and develop ever since its inception by the Canadian American psychiatrist Dr Eric Berne over a half century ago. It has proven itself to be an extremely useful model for human relations professionals working in a variety of contexts and fields, such as psychotherapy, coaching and counselling, management and organisational development, or parenting and education. TA combines an accessible theory on the development of people and systems with a practical approach, centred on the possibilities of change, growth and development. Into TA is a comprehensive textbook of contemporary TA in theory and practice. The first section of the book focusses on theory, presented so that both beginning and experienced professionals will find much of value. TA theory is then further integrated with other current models of psychology, education, and organisational consultation. The second section provides rich and stimulating examples of TA in practice that bring the theory to life.




Psychoanalytic Studies of Organizations


Book Description

This book samples the groundbreaking work that has been developed over the last twenty-five years by psychoanalysts, writers and practitioners associated with the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO). What characterises this collection of original papers is an attempt to look at organizations, groups, teams and organizational role holders using psychoanalytic, systemic and psychodynamic perspectives that collectively eschew superficial, linear, prescriptive and mechanistic views of both the system and the individual within. These papers, delivered as presentations to the Society during the Annual Symposia of the ISPSO from its inception in 1983 to date, collectively form an important commentary on the changing societal dynamics and current preoccupations facing contemporary organizations, their leaders and their workforce. As such, these papers are representative of many that have contributed to, and documented, the development of the thought and praxis from a psychoanalytic perspective and systems thinking over the last quarter of century. Whilst most of these papers have already been published elsewhere, the ISPSO as an organization wished to include them in this volume, recognising their lasting influence and legacy as well as their ongoing impact upon the thinking and the practice of its membership and beyond.




The Psychological Processes of Childbearing


Book Description

Childbearing seems eternal, primordial and universal. Yet human reproduction in the 21st century is in a state of flux. This accessible book highlights dramatic changes that have occurred over the last decades, focusing on both individual and cross-cultural diversity across the now elongated childbearing cycle and the uniqueness of desire and emotional experience. It does so by locating the transition to parenthood in its psycho-sexual and socio-economic context, emphasising interweaving internal/external realities and our inherent interconnectedness with others. Included are conscious and unconscious factors determining beliefs, expectations and parenting practices, and ways in which these are affected by rapid urbanisation, shrinking families, societal instability, HIV, governmental maternity and child care policies, and attitudes of professionals. Drawing widely on empirical and clinical research from disparate disciplines psychoanalytic, neuro-scientific, neonatal, sociological, obstetric, anthropological and midwifery this resource book synthesises these to illustrate a spectrum of processes affecting each person's mental health.