The Black Box.

  Autumn Equinox 2024 . Updated Summer solstice 2025 . This blog begins on Glastonbury Tor .  High up - you can see for miles! It is understood as a magical place, the meeting point of many energy lines and forces. Many people come to stand there together.  No one single belief system rules, it is free and open to all.  Welcome! When I wrote the first post of this blog  I was in recovery from the therapy I left therapy feeling powerless, and silenced.  Again. During the gaslighting  that ended just two months before I started therapy, I had needed to ignore all and any thoughts or feelings that contradicted my husband's version of reality. If I allowed myself to take my thoughts and feelings seriously, I would try to find out the truth. And when I did that....let's just say it really wasn't worth it. The response from my husband would leave me wracked with pain and self blame.  This ended of course once I found out that he had been lying to ...

So I'm fascinated that my thing about Factor X and 'the compelling explanation' brings me back to Freud. I admire him. I'm grateful to him. But I don't like him! I see Herr Freud as Eros's pornographer, unlike Jung, and Hillman, who work from an older symbolism, with awe and wonder. Nevertheless, Freud stands behind modern day psychotherapy, and he certainly had encountered the process I'm seeking to unravel. So, let's go back!  When Freud was listening for the client's 'Factor X' he heard a lot of compelling explanations. Unfortunately Freud thought he knew what Factor X was, because in his view it was always the same one. Freud understood that the client's symptoms or compelling explanation was caused by the client's feelings. Or rather, the client's confusion and compelling explanation was an effect of the client blocking recognition of those feelings. Freud understood that Factor X  was like a rock under the river, causing ...