I was reading my colleague Lynne Holdem’s Blog on guilt and forgiveness this afternoon and as Lynne referred to a conversation we had a couple of years ago I thought I would comment. As it happens I had been reading the first chapter of Roy Schafer’s book “Bad Feelings” (2002) and also a paper by […]
Bad Feelings
A feeling can't be "bad" and there is no such thing as a negative feeling! When a feeling is not permitted to be available to our consciousness it does not go away! It remains unconscious and seeks a channel into consciousness. Hence many women complain that when they know they should be feeling angry they find they end up crying, feeling sad and depressed. When a man feels sad or scared he may find himself becoming angry. This may explain why our psychiatric wards used to be full of depressed women (now they take pills) and our prisons are full of sad and frightened men.