The etiology of emotion and ossification of self
you can't change people because people don't change
pp. 96-119
in: Man Chung, Colin Feltham (eds), Psychoanalytic knowledge, Berlin, Springer, 2003Abstract
It is not surprising that this chapter's title riles people. Among an individual's cherished beliefs are the beliefs that in fundamental ways relating to character and emotion (1) they are capable of change and, more narcissistically, (2) they are capable of changing others. The strength of these convictions should make one wary. After all, one doesn't really need Freud to tell us that our strongest affirmations are often (not always) our strongest denials (cf. Sachs, 1982, p. 92). On this matter, psychoanalytic theory seems not so much an extension of common-sense psychology as part of it. For psychoanalysis, the strength with which these beliefs are held is indicative of repression — a defensive self-deceptive strategy that serves the ego.
