Attached Link: Resolving emotional issues

That's true about the suicide rate in Japan. For example, kids commit suicide for failing in school... they've disgraced their families. That is why I think there can be 'fault' in that group-orientation. A few years ago some Japanese civilians went to Iraq to try to help out. In the US they would have been considered heros, models of self-sacrifice and compassion, but when they returned home, they were ostricized for 'embarrassing' the country by being individuals. IMHO that's just as bad as the US ostricizing many of our poor for not being able to make it on their own or recover from illness or disaster quickly. That list of perceived necessities is a critical factor. We *must* have the 'stuff.' We 'deserve' it. Advertising and Hollywood take our natural desires and whips them up to where we feel entitled to things. Where is that entitlement found in nature? In nature, the only thing you're 'entitled' to is to *try* for to breath just one more time. I think saying society is *at fault* for many of our problems is inaccurate. However, I agree that society contributes. I have seen that those with positive forces in their lives can resist and overcome the messages Madison Avenue and Hollywood send out. However, it *is* normal to want things. One of the ways a good cognitive therapist will do is help people understand the difference between a want and a 'need.' They'll help you work through the emotional issues (the demand for social acceptance) that can be so destructive. They can teach you to counter the false or destructive messages you hear from society. I've linked to something I wrote and posted in the OT forum a coulpe of years ago (It's on my web site). It's a brief summary of what *causes* destructive emotions - barring chemical imbalance. It's a lot shorter (and cheaper) than the many books on the subject. I speak of anger but the principles apply to other issues as well. They say, for example, that depression is merely anger turned inward... -------- Has it occurred to anyone that women may just inherantly be more beautiful than men? That would lead to so many women creating art with women as the theme. Or maybe males depict what they want while women depict what they want to be????

Before they made me they broke the mold!
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