The Perils of Positive Thinking

It flows inexorably underneath the American personality. Look on the bright side. On the sunny side of the street. Let a smile be your umbrella. That positive, can-do attitude has accomplished much. Why, then, do we have so much depression?

There is much value in having a positive attitude, but the whole story is a little more complex.

Today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, The Perils of Positive Thinking.

First, a confession. I'm an optimist. A glass is half full kind of guy. I've always liked to try to see the good in others and in life. When I was doing a lot of seminar and workshop leading a number of years ago with my good friend, Dennis Hilton's company out in Vancouver, I used to use a favorite story:

Two shoe salesman were visiting a village where few people wore shoes. One wires back to his head office, "It's no use selling here. I'm coming home. No one wears shoes." The second salesman wires back to his head office, "Incredible opportunities here. Send more product. No one wears shoes."

All right, kind of corny. But I loved the attitude of the second guy. Still do.

But since coming to study and work with Norberto Keppe's International Society of Analytical Trilogy here in São Paulo, Brazil, I've come to look at this aspect of positive thinking in a new light. Perhaps more accurately, a more sophisticated light.

Nowadays, with all the emphasis on cognitive therapy and behavior modification and even the power of affirmations, there can be a tendency to think that having better lives is simply a matter of progressive re-programming of our attitudes and behaviors. And the current popularity of The Secret and What the Bleep Do We Know propogate this notion further - I can accomplish whatever I want. Giving the idea that through our thoughts or ideas we can change the world.

Austrian/Brazilian psychoanalyst, Norberto Keppe, is quick to remind us of a philosophical point of view though: that our being, who we are, follows action, not thinking. In other words, we are what we do, not what we think. It's our doing that governs our being.

What complicates all this, of course, is that we often do ... unconsciously. I do things I didn't want to do. That's the problem, isn't it? Keppe has managed to map out the human psychic life. Over 50 years of clinical experience on 3 continents, over 40 books on the subject, exhaustive study of all the foundational pillars of philosophical, theological, psychological thought. It's expansive work, I can assure you. I've been studying it extensively for 7 years and I can truly say I feel I've penetrated only a few centimeters below the surface of this. But we will be exposing more of Keppe's work at our World Conference of Analytical Trilogy from Sept. 24 - 27, 2008 in San Diego. More information on that momentous event is available at www.wcatus.org. Including our unveiling of the Keppe motor - a free-energy motor that Keppe has developed from his work in The New Physics. More information on that motor is available at our sister site, www.stop.org.br

But let's penetrate the human psyche a little more today. Keppe's book, The Origin of Illness, really lays out his psychological perspective. Write me if you'd like to know more about that book, rich@richjonesvoice.com

Selma Genzani is a psychoanalyst at Keppe's Institute in São Paulo. She joins me today to throw som elight on the shadows cast by the sunny side up philosophy of positive thinking.

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Tags: positive thinking, free energy motor, beyond cognitive therapy, Norberto Keppe

The Revolution in Science

As we've explored before, it was Aristotle who led the compartmentalizaton of science into all its disciplines. He oriented us away from Plato's more universal perspective to looking down to the senses for understanding reality.

It was a significant mistake, and in case you've never given any thought to how philosophy drives science, strap yourself in. Today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head, The Revolution in Science, prompted by the discoveries of Brazilian/Austrian psychoanalyst and social scientist, Norberto Keppe.

Now this is uncharted territory. Keppe has been working in the field of psychology for decades and has achieved something truly significant. Through his discovery of psychological Inversion, he has been able to finish the mapping of the human psyche.

This is no small feat, of course, and a big statement. But as you begin to delve into Keppe's theories and clinical examples, you begin to make sense of many previously inexplicable behaviors - in yourself and friends and family members, and even in political and social movements and structures. Reading his book, The Origin of Illness, is a treatise on leading edge psychology and it's, frankly, light years ahead of anything else in the field.

Keppe's big discovery of Inversion shows us that human society is upside down. We've inverted our values, our economy works against people not for them, our education system trains us to work for corporations, not to think and develop an advanced society.

All this will be explored at our World Conference of Analytical Trilogy, Sept. 24 - 27, 2008. More information on that is available at www.wcatus.org

And our upcoming teleclass series will explore this in much more detail, too. Write me for information on that ... rich@richjonesvoice.com

This Inversion also affected Aristotle, and the fathers of modern science, Compte, Descartes, Newton, Einstein. Keppe applies his psychological wisdom to science as well to powerful effect. His book, The New Physics, which is available as a downloadable e-book, puts us right side up again, and it's the subject of our program today. Keppean researcher, Cesar Soos, joins us.

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Tags: new physics, science and technology, Norberto Keppe, science and consciousness