The Unexamined Life.

In today's blog, I am going to add my "two cents" on the subject of "the unexamined life." Socrates, is reported to have said, among his last words before drinking hemlock, in carrying out the death sentence he had been given, "The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being."

OPPapers.com, "Research Papers and Essays for All," claims a collection of 200,000 papers written examining the merits of Socrates' statement. I am not about to read them, or review them, I assure you. However, I, in essence, in this blog have been encouraging you to do, in my own way, what Socrates was encouraging his students to do. In my long experience, few individuals examine any part of their lives.

A digression.

One might argue that the many individuals who have participated in "therapy" or "counseling," or, the peak, Freudian "psychotherapy", are examining their lives. In actuality they are being indoctrinated into the theories regarding human behavior which have been ingested by the particular therapist or counselor. I write this as someone who has a Masters in this field, as well as someone who has examined many of the theories in existence.

There are only a few therapies which I consider potentially able to help individuals examine their lives in ways which do not contain a set agenda of beliefs regarding why you do what you do. In these blogs, I have offered various ideas which I hope might make you think about who you are and why you do what you do.

I am not suggesting that Freud, Jung, Reich, Skinner, Piaget, Rogers, and the many others who have developed various theories regarding human development, behavior, and the working of the psyche have deliberately set out to mislead anyone; they have done their personal best to understand human behavior. (I remind you, however, that psychology--derived from psyche--is the study of that which they deny the existence of. Only Jung, of all the founders of theories of human development and psychology, believed in the existence of the human psyche/soul.) However, all of these people have been influenced by their peers, including Jung.

Freud, for example, before developing his Oedipus Theory of development, put forth the theory that much of the psychological problems he was seeing in women were caused by early sexual abuse by the men in their lives; either relatives or men of their acquaintance. The primary recipients of Freud's psychological practice, were females.

This theory met with such vehement rejection by his (male) peers, that he dropped that idea, which was based on his therapy practice, to go on to develop his distorted Oedipus Complex ideas about childhood development, primarily of boys, later expanded, at Jung's suggestion, to included girls--the Electra Complex.

Many of these selfsame fathers of psychological theory, themselves, either believed in, or practiced sexual involvement with clients, including Jung. In other words, they would be arrested and prosecuted under today's laws regarding abuse of a position of authority and sexual abuse and/or harassment.

To return to my main topic.

The Greeks sentenced Socrates to death for encouraging young men, (his students) to do what I have been encouraging you to do. You will recall that I, also, have been writing that you should "question authority," as well as question what you believe. Socrates was also asking them to think and reason for themselves, rather than to accept the beliefs of that time.

The fact that Socrates was sentenced to death for this great "crime," (although, he could have chosen exile instead) goes to establish that those who decide what we are to know and believe have been doing this since the time of the ancient Greek civilization. In actuality, it has been going on far, far longer.

In doing research for this blog on the statement, "The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living" I came across material by Karl W. Palachuk. I have not read his material as yet, but it seems he has been expounding along a similar line. A quote from him: "The hardest thing about examining your life is getting started." He has written a book called, Relax, Focus, Succeed. You can read more of his material on this subject at: http://www.relaxfocussucceed.com/Articles His article, "Know Yourself" can be read here.

If you check these out, Mr. Palachuk will, I think, reinforce some of what I have been writing. I have not, however, found anyone who understands the degree to which we, as individuals, have been programmed and conditioned to believe what we believe. He does state, unequivocally, that it requires some work and time on the part of anyone seeking to "know themselves." I plan to order his book to check this out for sure.

I end this blog.

Shirley Gallup