fantasy of growth in therapy

the fantasy of growth that you find in therapy, and also in New Age thought, doesn’t include this awkwardness … when we look at people going through that, we usually don’t say they’re growing, we usually consider them out of it … during such a time one certainly doesn’t feel more powerful in the world … it is a romantic, harmonious fantasy of an ever-expanding, ever-developing, ever-creating, ever-larger person—and ever integrating, getting it all together

if you don’t fulfill that fantasy you see yourself as failing … an idealization that sets you up to fail … you’re constantly comparing yourself to the fantasy of where you should be on some ideal growth scale.

the fantasy of growth, the fantasy of the everexpanding, ever-developing person—which is a very strong fantasy out there right now, especially among the educated, and among all those buyers of self-help books — doesn’t take changelessness into account at all … fed by many sorts of therapies, can’t help but make people feel more like failures in the long run … in turn, can’t help but increase the general feeling of powerlessness … a pretty vicious circle.

growth project of therapy

linked mentions for "fantasy of growth in therapy":

1. idealizations of growth family and relationship
   the ideal of growth makes us feel stunted; the ideal family makes us feel crazy … We have these idealizations that make us feel crazy, even though
   
2. growth project of therapy
   growth a huge part of the project of therapy, but the very word grow is a word appropriate to children. After a certain age you do not grow. You
   
3. therapy wordly skills and power
   Explores the contrast between therapy's focus on inner growth and the lack of worldly skills gained, questioning the assumption that personal development directly translates into external power.
   
4. collective obsession with growth
   Curious and perhaps not very subtle correlation between Hillman's words on our obsession with psychological growth and the GDP of economics.