Being civilized, I mean. Boundaries, social pretense, independence, weakness, sensitivities, FEELINGS, most especially.

I've been told that I give the appearance of being weak and that my
emotions get in the way of my thinking and that I am so sensitive--never the same thing by any one doctor, however. I've come to the conclusion that some of them may have been projecting their own problems onto their patients. (Must keep the image pristine is the social pretension.)

Most of us have been reared with a smathering of social training, but
it's the little child within who gets the brunt of most of it, in my view.

The truth is the little child within whose basic needs are the same as
the "polished" adult are to be loved, to be respected, to be cared for, to be valued.

They are naturally curious, attentive, believing, and trusting. How
nice to have that within us! However we look at it, it is that little one who is the most appealing of all that is within us. Why is it so hard just to give that little child what it needs?

Why are we so offended by almost everything that is said? Is it that
the child within is so fearful or so insecure or so weak? I really hate
being offensive to anyone and I don't want to be offended, either.

Maybe that's part of what socializing is meant to be. Somehow, that
aspect of "being social" isn't as strong (IMHO) as the need
to want social approval. It's the three basic drives that enter the
equation: the need for power, for reproduction, and for social approval.

Going through the process of sublimating those drives is what religion
is all about. No one can do it all, but most of us try, at least, to harness the weakness in drives that hurt ourselves and others.

It's just all part of life, in my view, and some are way out ahead of others. Basically, that's what this formum is supposed to be about: to support the areas of weakness in all that can be strengthened by that support.

I will tell you that one psychiatrist told me that the view of protecting
people is being way out ahead of many. So instead of letting the little child within suffer with guilt, pain, sorrow, etc., why shouldn't we soothe that child with the same effort we make to soothe others' little child within? That's the real winning aspect of it all, in my view. (And, to reinforce that, I would say that "whatever we do to others we also do to ourselves.")

And it's not unlike part of the religious view of many religions.

"Get thee in to see a psychiatrist" is a well-intentioned helpful bit of advice.
I do and hope others who feel the need of it will do so also. It's
strengthening for the child within, not unlike the confessions in
Catholicism, or in granting of the privacy in a doctor's or lawyer's office, or in sharing of friendship or in undergoing unrestrained emotional breakdowns.

What needs to be forgiven needs to be forgiven; what needs to be helped
deserves it, and what needs to be sought after should be achieved.

It's the drives and their misled efforts that we work on in therapist's care, I think. The child is so open and carefree about that; in other words, the ego
gets in the way so @#$$%much.

I have read that religious conversion is literally "a burning of the ego to the degree that one becomes conscious of"...(sic) an over-riding spiritual guidance.

Hopefully, healthy inner guidance is within all.