The Essence of In-Depth Psychology
Author: Peter Michaelson

The best psychology frees us from emotional and behavioral problems. It teaches us about a hidden, inner agenda that works against our best interests.

In a sense, we have to become smarter, or more conscious, so that we don’t unknowingly participate in, or contribute to, our own failures and unhappiness.

In The Book of Thomas the Contender, discovered in the Middle East in the last century, Christ is quoted as saying to Thomas: “He who has not known himself has known nothing, but he who has known himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge about the depths of the all.?

In-depth psychology penetrates into the hidden niches of the psyche, to reveal what people are often reluctant to see in themselves. We can’t see and feel how beautiful we are until these hideaways are exposed.

I teach that we all have emotional attachments (or unconscious addictions) to unresolved feelings and experiences from our past. Even though we dislike or hate feelings of being refused, controlled, criticized, and rejected, we have not freed ourselves from our emotional investment in these feelings.

Through our reactions and defenses (blaming, excuses, anger, judgment and retaliation), we cover up an awareness of our attachment to these feeling and our temptation to indulge in them.

These attachments not only cause misery but also limit us. We identify with a limited sense of who we are--a false self--and we are blocked from the inner knowledge of our True Self, our magical, mysterious, and magnificent essence.

We often identify with our body, our mind, our ego, our accomplishments and roles, the material world, and even our pain. Thus we are impeded from entering into the reality behind the world of form, where we discover that we are each a unique expression of divinity awakening to itself.

Also blocking Self-realization is our entanglement with self-aggression. I teach that we all have self-aggression, an inner negative energy that we experience (in varying degrees) as self-doubt, self-criticism, self-condemnation, self-rejection, and self-hatred. All violence is an acting out (or an externalized rendition) of this self-aggression. The more conscious we become of this, the less we are fearful, defensive, reactionary, and passive.

The passivity created by our inner reaction to self-aggression undermines our self-regulation and ability to act in our best interests. We learn to neutralize the self-aggression by seeing into its falsity and ruthlessness.

We can’t jump into the Light until we take the hero’s journey into the dark underworld of the psyche. Many of you have already done good inner work. But you might want to consider working at a new depth and intensity.

Whatever you decide, please remember that the inner journey is more like an adventure and a fulfillment than something to dread. Consider too that at no time in the future is it likely to be easier than right now to begin or renew your quest.








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Peter Michaelson is an author and psychotherapist licensed in New Mexico. Information about his books and services is available at www.QuestForSelf.com

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