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Special Acknowledgment to Laura Torbet | |
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Acknowledgments | |
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Introduction | |
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A Personal Note ... How the Book Works | |
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Being Human, Being Single | |
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What's Wrong with Being Single? | |
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Singledom: A Neglected Rite of Passage | |
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Redefining Singleness | |
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A Better Way | |
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It's Never Too Late to Be Single | |
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Forever Single | |
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We've Gotta Have It | |
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The Problem with Singles | |
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Finding a Love to Keep | |
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Your Mission: Be Prepared | |
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Forget the Mating Game! | |
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What's Really Going on in Your Relationships? | |
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What's Really Going On in Relationships? | |
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Enter the Unconscious | |
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The Imago: Our Ghost Partner | |
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The Price of Ignorance | |
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Doing It Differently | |
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Exercise: Self-Knowledge Inventory | |
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Learning from Past Relationships | |
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Exercise: Imago Preview | |
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Exercise: Relationship Frustrations | |
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Exercise: Your Unconscious Relationship | |
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The Human Journey | |
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The Cosmic Journey: Yearning for Connection | |
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Clues to Our Connectedness | |
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We Want It Back | |
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The Evolutionary Journey: Yearning for Aliveness | |
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New Mind, Old Brain | |
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The Basic Drives: Safety First | |
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Expressing Full Aliveness | |
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In Quest of Full Aliveness | |
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We Can't Do It Alone | |
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Commitment to Wholeness | |
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The Imago Puzzle I: Childhood Nurturing | |
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Growing Pains: Uncovering the Wounds of Childhood | |
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The Lifelong Pursuit of Wholeness | |
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Becoming a Detective | |
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Different Strokes: Nature vs. Nurture | |
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The Stages of Development: Finding the Weak Link | |
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The Adult Child: Why Is It Important to Know Where We Got Stuck? | |
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Attachment and Exploration: Getting Securely Connected | |
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Attachment: The Struggle to Exist | |
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Adapting to Deficit Nurturing: Coping Mechanisms | |
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The Clinging Child: Fear of Abandonment | |
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The Adult: A Clinger | |
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The Detached Child: Fear of Rejection | |
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The Adult: An Avoider | |
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Interlude: The Minimizer and the Maximizer | |
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Exercise: Was I Wounded at the Attachment Stage? | |
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Exploration: Love Affair with the World | |
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The Distancing Child: Fear of Absorption | |
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The Adult: An Isolator | |
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The Ambivalent Child: Fear of Loss | |
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The Adult: A Pursuer | |
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Exercise: Was I Wounded at the Exploration Stage? | |
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Identity and Competence: Becoming a Self | |
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Identity: "This Is Me" | |
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The Rigid Child: Fear of Being Shamed | |
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The Adult: A Rigid Controller | |
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The Invisible Child: Fear of Being a Self | |
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The Adult: A Compliant Diffuser | |
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Exercise: Was I Wounded at the Identity Stage? | |
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Competence: "I Can Do It" | |
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The Competitive Child: Fear of Failure/Disapproval | |
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The Adult: A Compulsive Competitor | |
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The Helpless/Manipulative Child: Fear of Aggressiveness/Success | |
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The Adult: A Manipulative Compromiser | |
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Exercise: Was I Wounded at the Stage of Competence? | |
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Concern and Intimacy: Moving Out Into the World | |
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Concern: "I Belong" | |
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The Lonely Child: Fear of Others/Ostracism | |
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The Adult: A Loner | |
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The Gregarious Child: Fear of Neediness/Being Alone | |
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The Adult: A Sacrificing Caretaker | |
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Exercise: Was I Wounded at the Stage of Concern? | |
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Intimacy: "I Can Be Close and Loving" | |
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The Rebellious Child: Fear of Being Controlled | |
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The Adult: A Rebel | |
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The Model Child: Fear of Being Different | |
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The Adult: A Conformist | |
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Exercise: Was I Wounded at the Intimacy Stage? | |
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Exercise: Am I a Minimizer or a Maximizer? | |
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Exercise: Identifying the Wounded Child in the Adult | |
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Traumatized Relationships: Legacy of the Dysfunctional Family | |
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A Matter of Degree | |
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It's All Trauma | |
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Shell-Shocked Children | |
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Why Are Only Some Children Affected? | |
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Unexperienced Experience | |
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All Loss Is Abusive | |
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Emotional Abuse | |
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Who's to Blame? | |
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Is the Child at Fault? | |
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Are You from a Dysfunctional Family? | |
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How Can I Break the Pattern? | |
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The Imago Puzzle II: Childhood Socialization | |
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"For Your Own Good": the Messages of Socialization | |
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Society's Child | |
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The Price of Socialization | |
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Shutting Down the Energetic Core | |
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Getting the Message | |
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The Model Marriage | |
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Bullied by Our Beliefs | |
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The Crybaby and the Bitch | |
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Thinking | |
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Feeling | |
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Acting | |
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Sensing | |
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Local Custom | |
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The Whole Self: Missing in Action | |
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Exercise: Your Parents' Marriage | |
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Exercise: What Do I Believe? | |
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Recovering the Missing Self: Love's Agenda | |
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The Hidden Self | |
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The Lost Self | |
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The Denied Self | |
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The False Self: Filling in the Gaps | |
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Is Anybody Home? | |
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Mutilated, but Alive | |
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Falling in Love: What's Lost Is Found | |
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Awakening the Sleeping Beast | |
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Owning the Missing Self | |
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Facing the Truth | |
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Putting Ourselves Back Together | |
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The Big Picture | |
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Exercise: Your Hidden Self | |
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Exercise: Your Lost Self | |
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Exercise: Your Denied Self | |
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Gender and Sexuality: Making Love, not War | |
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"All You Do is Complain" | |
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Rumbling in the Psyche: The Emerging Feminine | |
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Vive la Difference | |
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Physical Differences | |
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Developmental Differences | |
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Hormones and the Brain | |
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Is Culture the Culprit? | |
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Playing Our Roles, Losing Our Selves | |
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Owning Your Contrasexual Self: Swimming against the Tide | |
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Your Partner Is Not You! | |
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Dialogue Is All We Can Have | |
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Developing the "Other" in You | |
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Sharing the Caring | |
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Moving Toward Androgyny | |
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Sexuality: Me Tarzan, You Jane | |
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The Sex-Love Trade-off | |
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Reclaiming Sexual Pleasure | |
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Exercise: Your Gender Energy Balance | |
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Exercise: Your Sexual Self | |
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The Journey of Partnership | |
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The Imago: Recipe for Romance | |
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The Imago: Distillation of Childhood Experience | |
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How Does the Imago Work in Partner Choice? | |
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The Illusion of Love | |
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The Language of Love | |
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The Benefits of Illusion | |
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Love: Nature's Anesthesia | |
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There Is No Love in Romance | |
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Why Is It Important to Understand, and to Modify, the Imago? | |
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Unmasking the Imago | |
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Exercise: Unmasking the Imago | |
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Exercise: Childhood Frustrations | |
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Exercise: Your Unconscious Childhood Agenda | |
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Partnership: the Journey to Consciousness | |
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The Unconscious Relationship | |
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When Romance Dies: The Trajectory of the Unconscious Relationship | |
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This Too Shall Pass | |
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David and Sarah | |
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The Denouement of the Power Struggle | |
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Breaking the Impasse: The End of Bargaining | |
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Becoming Conscious: A Turning Point on the Journey | |
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Owning Our Projections | |
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Commitment to Healing | |
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The Conscious Marriage | |
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Characteristics of a Conscious Relationship | |
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Becoming a Conscious Single | |
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From Insight to Integration: Basic Strategies for Change | |
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Start Now | |
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What's the Rush? | |
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Waking Up Is Hard to Do | |
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Surrendering to Change | |
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Self-Hatred: The Stumbling Block | |
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Creating an Environment for Change | |
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The Benefits of Group Therapy | |
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Utilitarian Dating | |
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When You Fall in Love | |
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"My, How You've Changed!" | |
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New Skills, New Behavior: Steps to Self-Integration | |
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Exercise: My Wholeness Agenda | |
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Exercise: Creating a Safe Haven | |
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Recovering Your Aliveness | |
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Exercise: Your Aliveness Quotient | |
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Exercise: Sources of Aliveness | |
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Exercise: Enlivening Activities | |
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Exercise: My Enlivenment Agenda | |
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Exercise: Owning and Changing Negative Behaviors | |
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Exercise: The Art of Intentional Dialogue | |
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Exercise: Holding Projections | |
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Exercise: Behavior Change Requests | |
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Real Love: Paradise Regained | |
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Safety First | |
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No Strings Attached | |
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Good Intentions | |
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Nature's Grand Design | |
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Notes | |
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Bibliography | |
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Index | |
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About the Author | |
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The Institute for Relationship Training | |