MB Civic

psychotherapist and university professor Gustavo Beck in Adbusters ..

It is common that a patient who comes in suffering from depression is actually experiencing an identity crisis that threatens their marital illusions, professional goals, political convictions or social status. That is what characterizes the start of Depth Psychotherapy: a crisis in meaning, a structural crack in our individuality. Suddenly, whether we realize it or not, the system that supported our identity – that validated our self-image and gave coherent sense to our thoughts, feelings, and actions – breaks down. It becomes insufficient or outdated. But this breakdown can’t be processed or even experienced in its entirety by our conscious ego; it is simply too complex, too painful, and too threatening. Psychologically speaking, this is why we generate a symptom: to have something that is painful enough to get us moving, but bearable enough to allow us to move. In the case of Occupy, the economic strife of the 19 percent that stands between the top 1% and the bottom 80 percent – the middle class, who is uncomfortable enough to notice something is wrong, but comfortable enough to do something about it – is the symptom … It is important not to confuse the symptom with the spirit of psychic (or social) movement. The symptom is what detonates the movement in a conscious level. It triggers deliberate protest and reflection. But the movement that is taking place is much more complex than the housing crisis, unemployment, or drug dealing. The abuse of the top one percent and the problems of the first world middle class is what started the movement, but the spirit of the movement involves an economic system that includes every inhabitant of the planet. Not everyone occupies, but everyone suffers the consequences of financial oppression. The unseen bottom 40 percent, however, cannot protest, essentially because they live in survival mode. If Occupy is to be truly revolutionary, then, it has to reach the usually hidden social consequences of our financial system. If this movement is to truly move us, it has to operate both within and without – it has to awaken both an emotional and sociopolitical movement in all of us who participate in it. The entire psychic economic system has to be examined – individually and collectively

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