From Psychotherapy to Psychopoetry

What follows is a collection of thoughts and reflections commenting on thinking and making sense of what seem to be obvious, but is often neglected or taken for granted in everyday life. It was intended that the content of this book would challenge the reader with a somewhat different sense of form and structure, to be able to digest thoughts “translated” from psychotherapy into psychopoetry, and so into an unusual version of “fresh food for thought”.

The “food for thought”, as it was worded, was thought to be mainly exploratory, albeit sometimes self-evident, even seemingly cynical but hopefully helpful, in seven brief chapters reflecting on thinking, choice, life, and so on.

The author who knows nothing about everything, but hopefully something about a little (extrapolated to “more things”), tried his casual, humble best to make sense of non-sense in the hope that it makes sense to you, the curious reader? The bulk of sense-making by the author happened over time talking with troubled people.

This unscholarly little book can be conceptualised as a patchwork of thoughts, reflections and comments, even epistemological in nature (the study of knowledge and knowing), however hopefully ontologically as well (the study of being), and also anthropologically (the study of human nature and humankind).

It is purposefully plainly or even weirdly worded in psychological-poetry format. Hence, the eventual outcome is a booklet of poems with a psychological-philosophical slant, or for the purist poet or philosopher, some psychological philosophy with a poetic slant?

This collection of pseudo psychological poetry and philosophy provides “snapshots” of countless psychotherapy hours with a versatile variety of individuals coming from all walks of life and places on the planet, whilst engaging and reflecting upon how we are troubled by things and trying to make sense of it.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Thinking through CHAPTER ONE: Let’s Think about How we Think about What we Think about

• Thoughts about Thinking when taking Cognisance of Cognition
• When a Thought is only a Thought
• Common Sense or not so unCommon Cognitive Sense
• A Mindful Mentality
• Mindlessness about Moodiness about Moodful-Myths, or Meaningful Mindfulness about Mood
• Stretching the mind from Perception to Perspective
• Think it, Ink it, Read it, Speak it, Believe it
• Really Thinking about the Things

Getting to Know CHAPTER TWO, which is about Knowing, Experiencing and Being, when searching for a sense of coherence?

• Knowing my Knowing
• Quid pro Quo about not knowing
• Knowing why not to make Worry the Main Thing
• Doing the Do’s
• Problem-bias or Positivism-bias
• Authenticity
• The You I Me Mine More Give to Get Paradox
• Society’s Sadly Saturated ‘isms
• Having to Have
• A Sad State of affairs
• Knowing what you Know, or Believing what they want You to Know
• Truthfully Knowing or Unknowingly not Knowing the Truth

It’s Time for CHAPTER THREE, which is about Time and Change, as inextricably intertwined, irreversible and inevitably inescapable...

• It’s about Time for Timeous Thinking about Time
• Change alone is Unchanging as Time Changes all, all the Time
• Reminiscent of “those were the days” when reminiscing in Futility
• A tell-tale sign of Time – as all know “time flies”

The Present presenting itself in CHAPTER FOUR: Not seeing the Present as the Past (the former actually only comprising of “mental constructs” of the latter)

• Is the Past not Past Tense
• What is the Now Presently about
• Coming to Terms with what we have to Come to Terms with
• Regretting and Resenting to Reviewing and Releasing

Reading about resilience about here-and-now reality in CHAPTER FIVE: “Resilience, what on earth is that?”
• Grin ‘n bear it
• If it’s not Fair it’s fairly True to Life
• Fear of Failure
• Fear is a “fabrication” of the Mind
• We’re all in it together alone
• The Harsh Reality of the Real World
• Who Cares
• Why Worry about what you cannot Know or Control
• Drowning in the Depths of the Abyss of Mental Fatigue
• Strong medicine for the sensitive Soul
• Are you Seriously taking yourself far too Seriously
• Society’s Sadly Saturated litigated mentality
• Perceiving Pleasure and Pain Paradoxically
• Happiness – Choice or Chance, Elusive or Inclusive

Making Choices in CHAPTER SIX: Questioning Choice and Choosing the Right Choice

• To Choose not to Choose is a Choice
• To Question or Not to Question
• From Questionable Questions to Answerable Answers
• Asking Why never Answers Why
• Electing to neglect to attend to what to Expect
• Do you Believe what you See or do you See what you Believe
• Synopsis of Questioning to Comprehending

The last Chapter contemplates what Life (and even death?) is about in CHAPTER SEVEN:

• Human nature or Kind humankind
• Caring about the Kindness of human kind despite the Unkind suffering of kind humankind
• The Start Line of our Story Line
• Thoughts about Life and Death
• Perspectives about Dimensional properties about Space and Time
• Nihilism, Randomness, Fatalism, Realism or Spiritualism
• Random Surrealism or Real Religiosity
• “Dis-counting” life’s Burdens by Balancing “re-Counted” Blessings