Reflections

Regarding the self-exploitation in neoliberalism

In the neoliberal regime of self-exploitation one directs the aggression towards oneself. This self-aggressiveness does not transform the exploited into a revolutionary but rather into a depressed.

Byung-Chul Han

 

Regarding holistic and conventional medicine

Holistic and conventional medicines take two different attitudes toward power: active and passive. The chemical treatments of conventional medicine require no conscious participation on the part of the patient, but a holistic technique like visualization is enhanced by an active, involved patient. An energy connection occurs, in other words, between the consciousness of the patient and the healing capacity of the therapy and sometimes even of the therapist. When a person is passive –with an attitude of “just do it to me”- he does not fully heal; he may recover, but he may never deal fully with the source of his illness.

Caroline Myss

 

Regarding happiness

The great German romantic poet Johann Wolfgang Goethe was asked: “Do you consider your life happy?” And he answered: “Very happy! I had a very happy life, but I do not remember any happy week.” Some people are mistaken in believing that happiness is the constant and uninterrupted succession of happy moments. And what Goethe suggests in his answer is that happiness consists of overcoming problems, adversities. There was not even one happy week. Each week, he fought against something. And it was precisely that, considered as a whole, what made his life happy. Happiness does not lie in the collection of happy moments in an exceptional, uniform, and monotonous sense. A happy life is not a life free from worries. On the contrary: a happy life is a life in which we overcome preoccupations, problems.

Zygmunt Bauman