(Part 1) Why are even simple topics often difficult to discuss, especially if people have different viewpoints? Underlying many confusions and animosities in human interactions in couples and groups is a form of unconscious emotional communication that implies and evokes strong reactions in ways that usually fall outside our awareness. We suddenly feel triggered, trapped, or kidnapped into an emotional reality that we had not intended. This kind of communication may be positive or idealized, as when we fall in love. More often, though, it is negative and agitating as when we feel we MUST protect ourselves by insisting on the faults of another, either someone we know or a stranger who carries an emotional meaning for us.
In Part 2, Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D. and Eleanor Johnson talk especially about the two great categories of human emotions — primary emotions (that we...
Polly and Jill continue their conversation with psychoanalyst Robert Caper (expert on projective identification) about the emotional kidnapping and confusion that occur in unconscious...
When people are preparing to go through a wedding – whether it’s their first or not – they often dream they are dying or...