defence mechanism

Fantasy as a defence mechanism

Written by Tony White on November 22, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Movies can be used as a form of fantasy defence. The observer does more than just watch the movie but feels they exist in it. Read more »

Categories: Child ego state, experimentation - Tags: defence mechanism, fantasy

Tony White’s Blog

Relational contact in the Parent interview

on August 14, 2017

Again it will lead to a sense of feeling heard and feeling some level of relationship building with another person. Read more »

Categories: psychotherapy - Tags: psychotherapy

Wall of trivia

on July 1, 2017

It is the Free Child to Free Child interactions that provide for the emotional intimacy between two people. Read more »

Categories: Marriage, relationship - Tags: fear of intimacy, Marriage

How many personality types is the right number?

on June 23, 2017

In reality there are as many personality types as there are people on this planet, over 6 billion. Read more »

Categories: Life position - Tags: Transactional analysis

Goodness of fit in parenting

on June 21, 2017

Of course all parents project onto their offspring and at times identify with personality characteristics in their children. Read more »

Categories: child development, parenting - Tags: child ego state, Parenting

Suicide and the copy cat effect

on June 7, 2017

In essence homicide-suicide is seen as a subtype of suicide. Read more »

Categories: suicide - Tags: homicide, suicide

Hot potatoe as a homicidal act.

on April 10, 2017

Indeed if a rescuer is doing this then they really cannot be seen as a rescuer and would need to be more correctly diagnosed as a persecutor. Read more »

Categories: drug, suicide - Tags: homicide, suicide

Listening to the unconscious in self

on March 22, 2017

In working with enactments the therapist must seek to become aware of their unconscious and dissociated parts of self. Read more »

Categories: Theory - Tags: enactment, games, unconscious

The suicide homicide attempt

on February 21, 2017

2. If things get too bad I will kill myself and others. Read more »

Categories: suicide, Uncategorized - Tags: suicide

Assimilative psychotherapy

on February 2, 2017

At some point one needs to switch from rejecting this part of self to an integration of it. Read more »

Categories: psychotherapy - Tags: psychotherapy

The importance of good Adult ego state in relationships

on January 28, 2017

Revenge, wanting justice to be done, to have my day in court or for things to be made fair are all wishes and desires that reduce one’s ability to drop a feeling. Read more »

Categories: relationship - Tags: Marriage

The politics of diagnosis.

on January 26, 2017

othing has actually changed in Australians. All that has changed is the diagnosis to include more people. Read more »

Categories: society values - Tags: autism, mental health

The executive of the personality

on January 15, 2017

Most efforts are directed at the the executive of the personality, the Child, but still a significant amount of effort is directed at the Parent and Adult influencing the Child’s direction. Read more »

Categories: psychotherapy, Theory - Tags: child development, exectutive of personality

Birth order and personality

on January 8, 2017

Three children is the maximum that one parent can emotionally cover. After that sub groupings amongst siblings will form. Read more »

Categories: child development - Tags: adler, birth order, child development

The prison psychotherapist

on January 3, 2017

Never a dull moment when working in a prison and great training for one’s diagnostic skills of some quite unusual forms of psychopathology. Read more »

Categories: counselling, psychotherapy - Tags: depression, prison, psychotherapy

Process for bereavement in suicide of a loved one

on December 18, 2016

We don’t like it but we can understand the death of a loved one by accident or illness. However the death of a loved one by suicide leaves us more puzzled. Read more »

Categories: suicide - Tags: bereavement, death

Grief is a finite process

on December 16, 2016

Indeed the DSM 5 says if there is intense sorrow and emotional pain for a loved one after 12 months then that is classed as complicated bereavement, a neurotic condition. Read more »

Categories: dependency, grief - Tags: grief, loss

Suicide attempt caught on video

on December 15, 2016

Some fifteen years later he was executed by lethal injection. So he finally did complete the suicide attempt and he got the state to kill him. Read more »

Categories: suicide - Tags: homicide, suicide

The war on drugs! What war.

on December 12, 2016

So if there is a war, as we are told, then the enemy is not doing very well. Read more »

Categories: addiction, counselling - Tags: war on drugs

Dependent drug use and giving up

on December 10, 2016

Most people entering counselling will be most surprised by this and are not expecting the drug counsellor to be of this mind at all. Read more »

Categories: addiction, drug - Tags: addiction, ben cousins, drug use

The anti smoking lobby prohibitionists

on December 5, 2016

But this time is is prohibition by stealth, they have not sought to have tobacco made illegal but they have sought to make tobacco prohibitively expensive. Read more »

Categories: society values - Tags: prohibition, smoking

Four demons I have known

on November 3, 2016

Since that time the work on this concept has continued and the demon like qualities that can also be found in the archetype of Lillith, are applicable to more people but in less pure form as described here. Read more »

Categories: child development - Tags: demon, Transactional analysis

Psychotherapy with the teenage male

on October 26, 2016

Psychotherapy can in this sense be seen as a feminizing pursuit, particularly for the male. Read more »

Categories: child development, identity - Tags: teenager

Radicalisation and the life script

on October 21, 2016

Once upon a time there was thing called the anti war movement, it happened with the Vietnam war. Read more »

Categories: Social development, society values - Tags: radicalisation

My unconscious perceptions of psychotherapy

on October 20, 2016

There were three clients I was making appointments with for the next week and they were all very heavily pregnant women. That was all the dream was. Read more »

Categories: Uncategorized - Tags: dreams, psychotherapy

Games and enactments

on October 19, 2016

A game can then be viewed as an unsophisticated attempt by the person to repair self by bringing unconscious material to the surface. Read more »

Categories: Uncategorized - Tags: games, Transactional analysis

The vagaries of psychotherapy

on October 13, 2016

Eventually he solves his own problem and has a plan for how to deal with it in the future. I have said very little and in essence been a spectator to his own processing and working it out for himself. Read more »

Categories: counselling, psychotherapy - Tags: psychotherapy

The universality of games

on October 9, 2016

If this is true, that could explain why psychological games are such an integral part of the human psyche. Why they are so universal in human relationships. Read more »

Categories: Personality, Theory - Tags: Ego states, games

Suicidal ambivalence and ego states

on October 8, 2016

This shocking effect when a person is deeply in AC just prior to an attempt could have significant implications for suicide prevention. Read more »

Categories: suicide - Tags: suicide ambivalence

Duplex transaction

on September 20, 2016

Despite the reason, we humans can’t keep a secret. We will say it out. The key is for the listener to stop listening and start watching. As a therapist it is certainly better to do this regularly with your clients. Read more »

Categories: child development, drug - Tags: transaction, unconscious

Two types of paranoid thinking

on September 14, 2016

As we know A1 thinking can be magical thinking and this would explain why the paranoid personality can have at times quite bizarre beliefs. Such as thoughts being monitored by people who are not of this earth. Read more »

Categories: child development, ego states - Tags: grandiosity, paranoid

Tony White

TSTA | Psychologist