Author: Matthew M. Sholler

Studying the Unknowable

photo of trees in fog
Nahatlatch Fog by Dru! Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

“The unconscious is by definition unknowable in that once the individual has become aware of a given thought, feeling, phantasy, sensation, or the like, it is no longer an aspect of unconscious experience. The psychoanalyst is therefore in the unfortunate position of being a student of that which cannot be known. It is little wonder that we cling to our ideologies, our patriarchs and matriarchs, our analytic heroes and heretics, and our analytic schools, all of which serve us in our efforts to avoid our awareness of our confusion.”

from The Primitive Edge of Experience, by Thomas Ogden

Dreaming Ourselves into Existence

Winter Dawn from Government Hill by Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

“The work of dreaming is the psychological work through which we create personal, symbolic meaning, thereby becoming ourselves. It is in this sense that we dream ourselves into existence as analysts [therapists], analysands [patients], supervisors, parents, friends, and so on. In the absence of dreaming, we cannot learn from our lived experience and consequently remained trapped in an endless, unchanging present.”

— from Gabbard, G. O., & Ogden, T. H. (2009). On becoming a psychoanalyst. The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 90(2), 311–327.

Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck on embracing multiple models of psychology

image of footbridge through trees
Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve, San Jose, CA

“So science seeks, as far as it might, to penetrate the mystery of the world. And ever so gradually scientists are beginning to become comfortable embracing multiple models. Physicists are no longer disheartened to look at light as both a particle and a wave. As for psychology, models abound: the biological, the psychological, the psychobiological, the sociological, the sociobiological, the Freudian, the rational-emotive, the behavioral, the existential, and so on.

“And while science needs those innovators who will champion a single new model as the most advanced understanding, the patient who seeks to be understood as wholly as possible would be well advised to seek a therapist capable of approaching the mystery of the human soul from all angles.”

— from People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil by M. Scott Peck, M.D.