Neuroses appear when we are confronted with destructive, contradictory or simply very unusual experiences that our mind is unable to cope with. These experiences go into the unconscious. Neurosis is the way in which the "material" suppressed in the unconscious makes itself felt when it breaks through the covers of the protective mechanisms of our psyche. In everyday life, neuroses are ordinary negative experiences that manifest themselves in an intensified and obsessive form. The neurotic is a typical soap opera character, who, instead of healthy relationships, has love hysteria, instead of real achievements, self-affirmation, and instead of sanity, infantile selfishness. In general, neurosis is such a normal state of a modern person.
Freud's neuroses
It is believed that the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud was born thanks to the insight that overtook him during a session of hypnosis. This session was conducted by Freud's teacher, Jean Martin Charcot. Freud watched as a hypnotized person was given the command - upon awakening from hypnosis - to open an umbrella. The action with the umbrella took place indoors and therefore looked especially meaningless. Sane after completing the hypnosis, the person would open the umbrella, and when asked about the reason for this action, there was always a “rational” answer. A person, for example, could say that “it is flowing from the ceiling,” or that he is checking the performance of an umbrella. Freud realized that people periodically perform actions without realizing the true motives for their commission. At the same time, we all find a "rational" explanation for such actions,in which we ourselves can be sincerely confident. Freud called this mechanism of psychological defense "rationalization."
A person a priori is not able to understand life with his mind, because our mind is only a small fraction of life. But the mind itself at the same time can sacredly believe that "everything is clear" and "there are no miracles." This is the manifestation of the mechanicalness of the mind. All "incomprehensible" processes are displaced into the unconscious. The task of the mind in this case is only to find a suitable rational explanation - self-deception, which we buy into. Kind of like: "everything is clear - you can calm down and move on." A person is not able to perceive a miracle because he is not ready to digest it, because a miracle can traumatize his psyche. Everything too unusual and unusual in our life is replaced by rationalizing explanations of the mind. Therefore, our life is so normal, so gray and familiar. We just don't notice life. We are not aware of what is happening. We sleep in the dreams of a mind that "knows"and who by his knowledge deprives us of the truth.
Another psychological defense mechanism that I talk about in almost every article is projection. Its essence lies in the fact that a person is inclined to ascribe to other people, or external phenomena, what is happening in his own mind. For example, if a person is in a bad mood, he sees the world as gloomy, and if it is good, then in rainbow colors. The world itself does not change, it remains outside the mind. They change - the projections through which we look at the world.
Freud and his followers believed that a person "rationalizes" and "projects" only occasionally, being in a state of neurosis. However, in my subjective opinion, a “normal” person does this almost continuously. We live without noticing life. All we know is our projection and rationalization of life. We do our best to protect ourselves from the awareness of our own being here and now. And "rationalizations" and "projections" according to Freud are cases when self-deception is so obvious that it is simply difficult not to notice it. When, seeing white, a person says “black”, and looking at “black” begins to explain this by the fall in the dollar rate, the mechanisms of self-deception of the psychological self-defense of the mind reveal themselves with all evidence.
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Neuroses of "healthy" people
Freud believed that unconscious "material" remains unconscious because we continuously expend our psychic energy to defend ourselves against this "material." We spend energy on blocking and suppressing painful impressions, forcing them into the unconscious. Hence the corresponding mechanisms of psychological defense take their names: "suppression" and "repression". When, according to Freud, the repressed material becomes available to consciousness, psychic energy is released and the ego can use it to achieve "healthy" goals. In other words, getting rid of neuroses, we, among other things, can replenish the reserves of vital energy, which until now was wasted on suppressing these neuroses in the subconscious. Plus, the elimination of "blocks" of consciousness, and the release of neuroses, expands consciousness and increases our intellectual abilities. However, not everything is so simple here.
"Blocks" of consciousness, or otherwise - the mechanisms of psychological defense - this is not some kind of mistake of nature, from which it is definitely necessary to get rid of. They help us adapt to the current life. Blocks protect our helpless ego from unconditional reality, and help "get along" with repressed experiences. Their global destruction is fraught with a rapid collapse of the roof and a split of the psyche. However, as noted above, the “payment” for such a “roof” is a stop in development. Psychological "problems" are part of our growing up. The mechanisms of psychological defense, suppressing uncomfortable for the ego experiences, block our development. Blocks constrict consciousness and limit perception. Instead of our guardians, psychic defense mechanisms become our overseers. How to be?
It makes sense to work with those "blocks", the manifestation of which worries at the current moment of life. That is, we should not rush headlong into the abyss of the subconscious, recapturing all possible psychic territories from it, according to Napoleon's principle: "The main thing is to get involved in a fight, and then it will be seen …" In such a "fight" it is too easy to lose your head. Something similar happens to people while using psychotropic drugs. Consciousness under psychedelic drugs emerges chaotically in worlds beyond the ordinary mind. It can be interesting and exciting, or it can collide with such layers of the unconscious, from which a person will then shy away from all his life. It is worth mastering the techniques of “dissolution”, using which we do not open the subconscious mind chaotically, but work with what is already manifesting in our life. That which has already been manifested is a step,which we are working on. And in front of the locomotive - running is simply unsafe. On this path, we gain patience, maintaining the understanding: "This is not such a reality, but a temporary experience."
Psychoanalysis proposes to make the material displaced into the unconscious accessible to consciousness. Through exacerbation, we experience a repressed experience and free ourselves from neurosis, releasing psychic energy for further growth. And here, I dare to assert - the same is offered to us by the spiritual and esoteric teachings. For example, in tantric teachings, an advanced sect adept is asked to contemplate pain, which, during one-pointed contemplation, begins to dissolve. Between the combustion of karma in Hinduism and the liberation from neuroses in psychology, a completely rational equality can be put. Our worldview is just a way to rationalize unconditional reality. And the more familiar, correct and normal knowledge seems to us, the more clearly our rationalizing self-deception is manifested in it.
This is one of the reasons why I still do not want to call myself a psychologist. It is too obvious that psychology, as well as various spiritual-esoteric teachings and other sciences, is just a way of the mind once again to commit this greatest self-deception - to make the unconditional transcendental reality familiar and understandable.
Adler and Horney's neuroses
Freud's student, psychologist Alfred Adler, viewed neuroses as "a strategy for self-defense of the ego." In everyday life, neurosis acts as an excuse, or a kind of "alibi" that protects the "prestige of the individual."
So, for example, instinctive animal drives are overgrown with glamorous effects and all sorts of "rational" explanations. In this respect, neurosis becomes a way of "growing up" and "developing" a neurotic. Pay attention to the quotes. Instead of real development, the neurotic is content with ostentatious development, when success is not so much achieved as is portrayed. And if life disturbs his illusions about his own "greatness", the neurotic experiences neurosis. The neurotic lifestyle is characterized by: self-doubt, low self-esteem, selfish goals, increased vulnerability, anxiety, communication problems, etc. Adler identified three main life "tasks" in which neurotic conflict is highlighted: work, friendship and love - the most important and are often the most problematic areas of life. According to Adler, the main causes of neurosis come from our childhood. Among them:physical suffering, being spoiled, overprotective, or vice versa - ignoring and rejection.
Psychologist Karen Horney believed that, unlike healthy people, a neurotic depends on someone else's opinion, on a partner, on his "modesty", pride, power, prestige, fame, ambition, etc. Dependence on someone else's opinion leads to the fact that a neurotic needs in positive assessments and approval of others. The neurotic overestimates the importance of relationships, and is extremely afraid of being abandoned, therefore, sometimes tends to avoid relationships altogether. The neurotic often needs protection and patronage. The neurotic shows excessive modesty and insecurity, therefore he is afraid to openly express his thoughts. At the same time, the neurotic needs power and prestige to become an object of admiration. The neurotic is afraid of criticism, so he avoids making mistakes and failing, as a result of which he is inclined to shy away from new beginnings, getting stuck in a comfort zone. As you can see, based on these signs,there are practically no healthy people in our society. As psychologists like to say: "we all come from childhood."