I was about 13 years old and I was training with the junior team after school. We were playing a short game into the goals at the railway side of the field. I was in corner-forward when the ball came to me. I turned and took a shot – it went wide. The coach looked […]
Sunday Letters
Welcome to the Sunday Letters archive. Here you'll find all editions of the newsletter from 2015. Sunday Letters is a conversation I'm having with myself. It attempts to address the psychology and philosophy of living the good life in the face of rapid technological change. It is the pursuit of an answer to a question. Thanks for being here.
Carl Rogers on The Resolution of Internal Conflict
American psychologist Carl Rogers was one of the founders of the Person-centred Therapeutic Approach in psychology and a founding father of Humanistic Psychotherapy. Rogers was aligned with Maslow’s concept of the self-actualising person and suggested that for a person to recover from internal conflict, they require an environment of genuineness, acceptance and empathy with both […]
Whitehead: The Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness
I watched The Truman Show for the second time in a couple of days this evening. It was released in 1998 – imagine that! It’s such a great movie with an excellent script and actor in the leading role. Carey understood the metaphor. He knew what the movie needed to portray, I would argue, because he perhaps had already lived it. Or maybe he was living it. Either way, he played the part well. I believed him. The story attempted to show the thinness of contemporary life, the deception of the firework display, and the fallacy of misplaced concreteness
Taking Score Too Soon
When the task becomes a toll on us, when we find ourselves taking score too soon and realise we don’t have what it takes, we lose enthusiasm, become discouraged and often give up. We’re caught in time. To achieve the result requires too much effort and so it’s not worth the time to learn the […]
On The Merits of Introversion
In the world of the extrovert, introversion is undesirable. At worst, introversion is a distinct disadvantage. The extrovert’s world is bright, noisy and stimulating. It dictates to us, demands our attention and more often than not, distracts us from things of true value. Things like time with family, time alone with our thoughts, and the benefit of doing things for no materially valuable reason. It’s an effort not to succumb to its lure. So much so that many of us relate being busy with personal value and worthiness.
On The Slavery of Work
Oh, the slavery of work! We either love it or hate it, and often both impressions exist side by side. It pays the bills and provides for some of life’s greater pleasures, yet it commands our time and attention. Work helps develop our minds and distinguishes us within the social order, yet it takes us away from the ones we love. It is a labourious drudgery, and yet it can bring us immeasurable gratification and happiness.
Building Resilience In Turbulent Times
I’ve been researching lots recently on resilience; the process of building resilience, what resilience is, what resilience is not and so on. I’m writing an extensive piece on the topic and so I want to share some of those findings with you. I also want to share some of my personal findings on the psychological […]