It’s 2 months late, but it’s here.
With all the disruption and disturbance this year, I totally forgot about continuing that most splendid of traditions: The most popular blog list.
For the last two years (here, here) I have compiled a list of the most clickworthy articles. This list should come out around the 24th of June to commemorate the first article on this site. Better late than never!
I usually give a brief summary of each of the most popular articles, but there are quite a few repeat offenders. So, this year, I thought I’d give the top 10 list then give a summary of the highest newbies. You can read a summary of the others in the previous years’ lists.
Here’s the new list:
- The Unrelenting Standards Schema (2nd place in Year 1 and 1st last year)
- The Abandonment Schema (2nd place last year)
- The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living, or is it? (Newbie!)
- The Emotional Deprivation Schema – The Emotional Stranger (1st place in Year 1 and 3rd last year)
- Schema Coping 1: Overcompensation and Counterattack (Newbie!)
- The Mistrust and Abuse Schema (6th last year)
- The Social Isolation / Alienation Schema (4th last year)
- The Failure Schema (Newbie!)
- The Self-Sacrifice Schema (3rd place in Year 1 and 5th last year)
- Antifragile V: Break, don’t bend (Newbie!)
The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living, or is it?
An important technique in psychological talk therapies is the Socratic Method. This article talks about the life of Socrates (spoiler alert: he’s sent to death for being a pain in the ass). A transformation occurs when we are asked certain difficult questions. The concepts that contain and restrain our identity liquify and we are free to escape from the suffering associated with maladaptive beliefs and coping styles. I really enjoyed writing this article, I hope you enjoy reading it!
Schema Coping 1: Overcompensation and Counterattack
How did the little man, Napoleon*, find the strength to conquer Europe? People with certain temperaments cope with the little wounds of childhood by going above and beyond themselves. The “defective” child aims for perfection, the unpopular child aims for stardom. Protecting scars from being reinjured by being bigger, more in control or tougher. But sometimes the cure becomes worse than the disease…
Some kids learn, at home or at school, that they aren’t good enough – that they are a failure. This can lead to a gnawing lifelong feeling that failure is ever present and/or just about to occur. But failure is a label and not a reality. Dismantling the schema can lead to freedom.
Antifragile V: Break, don’t bend
This article is one of my all-time favourites!
What’s the cost of being resilient? Resilience means maintaining one’s form under stress – bending back into shape no matter what the difficulty. I work with quite a few tough, resilient individuals. The structures of their identity have persisted through great hardships and yet they are suffering. Breaking of an old identity can make it easier to develop a new social function, and new more adaptive identity.
* I know he was of average height for his time, but go with me