Our behavior



Most people do the same, day in and day out, both in our work and out of it. You may like the prepared egg in three minutes every morning – not in two or four minutes. Or maybe you choose, day after day, year after year, for not eating breakfast.

Some of our repetitive patterns are clearly irrational. I had a patient who always wore his left foot first – so compulsively that if, by mistake, he would put on his right foot first, he would stop, take off his shoe, and start all over again with his left foot. I know a woman who stumbles around the dark room to turn on the light – because she does not want to, can not, light the bulb above the headboard. And? The man in the shoe may be a little late for work. The woman may bump into the big toe. How important is that?

None, unless these behaviors are symptoms of something more serious. No, these repetitions, and even these compulsions, do not draw my attention to the question of repetition. What seduces me is detecting the extent of certain kinds of repetitive behaviors that destroy lives, repetitions that drive individuals to the brink of madness, repetitions that can even end in suicide. Many, or most, of these frustrating and

destructive behaviors are almost entirely outside the domain of consciousness. This is what attracts me most.

The Cycle of Self-sabotage by Stanley Rosner and Patricia Hermes

#meumbap personal #flavialippi # aequacao #idhl

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