Dr. James Hollis

Thirdly, we have dreams which comment.

Fourthly, most importantly, is the question of meaning.

If what we're doing is meaningful, as understood by the psyche, it will support us, even in the face of suffering and sacrifice and so forth.

If what we're doing is wrong, as seen by the psyche, then over time it begins to pathologize.

So you take that word psychopathology, literally from the Greek it means the expression of the suffering of the soul.

which I think is revelatory, the expression of the suffering of the soul.

Now, that seems to me obligatory to take seriously.

If my soul, and again, that's a metaphor, you know, people look for the soul throughout history, and you can't find it in the pineal gland, for example.

The soul is a metaphor for the organic wisdom of that natural being that we are.

The soul is a metaphor for this purposeful expression of the organism.

It is purposeful.

In other words, a question that occupies all of us in childhood and throughout the first half of life at least, if not an entire lifetime,

is what does the world want of me?

What do my parents want from me?

What do my school teacher want me?

What do the playmates expect of me?

What does the partner want from me?

What does the employer want?

All of these are reality-based encounters with the demands of the environment.

And part of what we have to do is develop enough ego strength to create a provisional sense of self and a provisional functional self to deal with those expectations.