Your Achilles Eel

Discover and overcome the hidden cause of

negative emotions, bad decisions
and self-sabotage

By Mike Bundrant
Copyright 2013 Mike Bundrant
Edited by Claudia DuFau
Design by Hope Bundrant
You cannot make conscious choices about that which lies
outside of your conscious awareness.
Authors Note
This short book is written as if a hidden and powerful part of your psyche were revealing
long lost secrets. The messages have been laboriously distilled from 25 years of study
and over 10,000 pages of scientific research published in academia.
The subject matter here has been featured in 300 papers published by leading medical
journals. Amazingly, youve never heard of the researcher (See the afterward for more on
this).
Its quite a project to take such data and crunch it down into a single, clear theme that is
entertaining to read.
Of course, the deepest part of your mind would never actually open up to you as I have
depicted here. And this is precisely why this book is so important. It takes objectively
obtained data from decades of research data that youd be hard pressed to discover on
your own and presents it to you in an easy-to-understand way.
The book is purposefully short and priced accordingly. Ive made every attempt to weed
out extraneous information and present something so clear that you cannot miss the
central point.
Still, when you discover a truth so shocking and elusive, you may not believe it, even
when it bites you in the ass.
Mike Bundrant
November 2013
Temecula, CA
Dedicated to the hidden part of you that you are about to discover
 Some species of eel are parasitic.
They sneak up on unsuspecting fish, bore into their flesh
and begin feeding on blood.
As the eel devours vital nutrients
that would otherwise sustain the fish,
this attachment renders the fish
incapable of a healthy existence.
Eventually, the fish dies, never having recovered its full strength.
What do human beings and
unsuspecting fish have in common?
Hello,
Weve been together for a long time now, although you wish I were dead.
Even so, I am very much alive.
Because of Me, your world feels hopeless, helpless and inescapable. No matter what you
do, it would seem, youre stuck with Me.
Inner negativity and emotional turmoil is the fruit of my hidden labor. Self-sabotage is
the inevitable result.
I think its time you understand how I work.
Im known as an Attachment.
Like a sharp-toothed, blood-sucking lamprey eel, I hang on to you for MY dear life, while
wreaking havoc in yours.
Your negative, frustrated, hurt, anxious, angry, hopeless and out-of-control feelings feed
Me. In fact, such despair is highly nutritious for My type!
So, I insist that you keep these awful feelings alive and well, even if they interfere with
your plans. This is how I remain alive and well.

You didnt consciously choose Me, the hidden aspect of your psyche that feeds on
negativity and emotional pain. I simply swam alongside and latched on at a time when
you were utterly defenseless.
You didnt even notice I was there. It just happened because conditions were ripe.
And, believe it or not, you were in need of what I had to offer.
Today, you loathe me because I demand to be fed. I hunger for negativity and emotional
angst. And my appetite is voracious.
My appetite is YOUR appetite.
Do any of the following sound familiar?
Criticism.
Pessimism.
Humiliation.
Rejection.
Control.
Discouragement.
Loneliness.
Frustration.
Anger.
Guilt.
Shame.
Failure.
Fear.
Chronic stress.
Emptiness.
Self-sabotage.

You can thank Me for these.

AMAZINGLY, most people know nothing about me. Still, they hope I will suddenly let
go and set them free of chronic negativity and self-sabotage.
This is magical thinking! It won't happen. In fact, over time I only become stronger and
limit your options further.
Though its against My nature, I am here to teach you how to make Me let go.
Its scary to say goodbye to what youve been dragging around for such a long time, I
know.
Even if Im not in your best interest, Im still what youre used to. In fact, you might even
say Im part of you.
You may not even know who you are without Me.

As much as I hate saying it, youd be much better off if I werent around, however.
Letting Me go will change your entire perspective and give you the freedom to finally
live as youve been longing to live.
Its the ONLY way.
When you learn to release Me, youll enter a new world of emotional maturity and grace,
where negativity is optional and you choose how to feel.
Im not saying you wont experience disappointment and even tragedy. Regardless, life
isnt easy. But youll be better able to manage the rough currents that are a normal part of
living.
Let Me Explain:
To move beyond chronic inner negativity and emotions that you cannot control, you first
need to learn how and why youve continued to allow Me to hang on.
Chronic negativity falls into three categories1:
1) The feeling of being controlled
2) The feeling of being deprived
3) The feeling of being rejected

You may relate to some or all of these.

Feeling controlled involves experiencing yourself at the mercy of outside forces, being
helpless, feeling worried about things you cannot control, and so forth. It may also inspire
retaliation, such as anger and rebellion.
Feeling deprived involves experiencing unmet needs, feeling empty and unsatisfied. It
may involve feeling hopeless, purposeless or depressed, as if you will never get what you
want.
Feeling rejected involves experiencing humiliation or worthlessness, feeling unwanted,
or that you are a fake or an outcast. You may feel like you never fit in or that others
constantly judge you.
Negative feelings begin at an early age.
The unfortunate truth is: It didnt take much to launch this cascade of negativity into your
life.

It probably began before you can remember, possibly before you were even conscious of
yourself2.
Here are some examples of how easy it is to create pain and angst early in life:
For a baby to feel controlled, all you need to do is keep him from going wherever he
wants.
For a baby to feel deprived, all you need to do is delay feeding it for a few seconds.
For a baby to feel rejected, all you need to do is look the other way.

Why is this?
Babies and young children have little sense of time3 and no realization that others are
separate people4 with their own needs and limitations.
In other words, they want what they want immediately, with no filters, no means of
delaying gratification5.
They even desire what may harm them, with no reasoning that suggests they should not
have it.
Babies and young children are set up from the get go!

They are set up to feel repeatedly controlled, deprived and rejected, even by the best of
parents. Thoughtless parents make matters much worse. And there are so many
thoughtless parents
This is the nature of things for babies and young children.
There is no escape for these innocents. None whatsoever!
This is where I came in: I SAVED YOU.
The salvation I offered, however, came at an immense price.
You were never consulted. You just complied and unwittingly agreed to pay the toll.
Youre still paying it today. Isnt that amazing?
Heres what I did to save you:
I attached myself to you and made the control, deprivation and rejection palatable6. In
other words, I gave you an appetite for emotional pain and negativity!

That sounds crazy, too, but it was the only way for you to cope. I actually think it was a
brilliant solution!
You needed a way to assimilate the constant barrage of negative messages that came your
way. Thats what I do. I eat negativity for lunch.
I am always hungry. I cant get enough!
And remember, MY appetite is YOUR appetite.
Are you still with me? Here are a few questions for you to consider
Have you ever wondered why people choose to do things that cause them unhappiness?
Have you tried to give up behaviors that cause you guilt, shame and personal angst, only
to return to those very behaviors again and again?
Have you ever given up on an achievable, positive goal?
Do you tend to invite controlling, rejecting or emotionally unavailable people into your
life?
Do you often feel at the mercy of others?
Do you sometimes make decisions that you know are going to cause trouble, but make
them anyway?
Is it difficult for you to care deeply for others?
Or, do you care so much that you sacrifice yourself and end up resentful?
Are you unable to feel passionate about life? About anything?
Do you struggle with personal discipline?
Does your life feel like it is moving on autopilot, with no one who can take charge?
Have you wondered why you cant just be happy and content?
Its because youre still feeding an old attachment that formed before your conscious
mind was able to choose for itself.
The Universal Law of Pleasure and Pain7
People move toward pleasure and away from pain.
What happens, though, when pain is cloaked in pleasure? What if you have a strange
appetite for trouble?
Heres what happens: You keep seeking out and managing to find that old, familiar angst,
wittingly or unwittingly!
But, you say, I dont find my pain to be pleasurable. I despise negativity!
Fair enough. Yet, why do you continually criticize yourself, focusing on every
conceivable negative aspect of life?
Why do you do things that you know you shouldnt do?

Why do you avoid doing things you know you should do?
A Universal Conundrum
How can someone say they hate pain and discomfort and at the same time make choices
that guarantee these negative states persist?8
Why does the miserable addict return to his drug?
Why do committed couples pick fights with each other?
Why does an unhappy obese person overeat while knowing fully the consequences?
Why do people ignore all the red flags when making ill-fated decisions about time,
money, relationships, employment, health, business and parenting?
In short, why do people stare the negative consequences of their actions in the face, yet
proceed down that dark path anyway?
Why dont they simply choose to take a different path?
Are you beginning to accept the idea that there is a reason for all this?
Lets move on
The bottom line is: Im an Ugly Truth.
And for this reason, youve always tried to avoid me.
When youve had to confront me, youve attempted to annihilate Me.
When youve sought help from others, youve wanted them to annihilate Me for you.
It doesnt work, does it? I wont simply be pulled off and discarded. I am stronger than
you, regardless.
You see, Im a survivor and I can out maneuver the best of them.
How else could I manage to drive you, a rational human being, to do things that just dont
make sense?
Once hooked with psychological attachments9, people victimize themselves by doing the
most contradictory things:
Someone miserably overweight consumes a diet high in sugar and fat.
A tortured woman stays with the man who mistreats her.
A would-be lover smothers a companion until rejected.
A lonely person avoids socializing and laments a solitary life.
A parent complains about a spoiled child, but continues to spoil.
A smoker with emphysema carts around an oxygen tank while perching a cigarette
between his lips.
A brilliant artist harshly criticizes her work in spite of being widely celebrated.
Someone with low self-esteem piles on with daily self-condemnation.
An aspiring business manager underperforms, even when it compromises chances for
success.
Someone who feels momentarily happy is convinced that bad news is just around the
corner and thus abandons the happy state.
A nervous speech giver avoids preparing the speech.
A person with great potential fears success even though there is nothing to be afraid
of.
A wrongdoer feels horribly guilty, but persists in the wrongdoing.
In each scenario, the victim actively fears and resists10 solutions, justifying - or making
excuses - that embrace the self-damning behavior. In other words, they refuse to give up
what makes them miserable.
This craziness doesnt make sense until they and you intimately understand how I
work.
Remember, Im the parasite, the Attachment that hooked onto you years ago, eventually
distorting your concepts and robbing you of a healthy mental life. Ive succeeded in
giving you an appetite for negativity and failure.
Long ago, I helped you cope, providing a way to digest the daily onslaught of negativity
you perceived as a baby or young child.
Now, as a result, you subconsciously hunger11 for negativity while avoiding happiness
and self-respect.
Youve not released Me because youve denied that I exist. Or, perhaps you have feared
what life would be like without Me.
Ive always been with you and will remain so until the day you die12. That is, unless you
expand your awareness and realize that I am here and am NOT going away unless you do
something different than you have ever done.13
If you think this is bad news, here is something worse:

I will set you up for failure.

Has it dawned on you that I lure you into behaviors and situations that lead directly to
personal pain?
Remember, YOUR pain is MY gain.
In the moment, you may be convinced that you are making the right choice, or the only
choice you have.
Or, you may know that you are making a bad decision, but justify it by blaming someone
else or outside circumstances, making yourself helpless the victim, as always.
It all leads to the same place the feeding of Me, your Attachment.
And when I am fed, I grow stronger and you grow weaker.
Even so

You are likely to resist having a greater choice.

You may not trust yourself with greater personal power.
You may not want the responsibility that comes with freedom.
You may become confused, distracted, angry or fearful.
You may feel selfish, guilty or ashamed.
You may feel unworthy of anything better than what you have now.
All of the above is your resistance to My release. This resistance keeps us connected
while you continue to sacrifice yourself with your misconceptions of safety and comfort.
Your desire to cling to whats familiar is your undoing.
Dont give up, though. You can be free.
Whats the Secret?
The secret is to starve me. Quit feeding me, even though I will be fighting for my
life, at first.

When you deny me what I need to survive for long enough, Ill eventually get the
message, detach and search for happier hunting grounds.
How do you stop feeding a monster with a never-ending appetite for destruction?

The process is this:

1. Become AWARE.
2. HALT what you are doing.
3. ACT on new information.

Remember this simple acronym: AHA

The following scenario will help to explain:
Lets say youre faced with the choice to purchase a sensible, affordable car or a fancier
one thats well beyond your budget.
As your Attachment, Ill do My level best to tempt you into making a poor choice so that
you ultimately feel bad; its what I do.
Youre enchanted by the sleek body, luxury leather, powerful engine and pride of
ownership that comes with the high-priced vehicle.
Ill tell you that youll be making more money soon and that this purchase will motivate
you even more to succeed.
In fact, you may even feel like a loser if you dont get this car. Thats how far removed
from reality youre likely to become under my influence.
Better judgment would tell you that you cant afford it - you know its a poor choice, but
better judgment isnt at work here. I am.
You purchase the fancy car.
Soon enough, however, you realize youve taken on more than you can handle
financially.
You can blame the high-pressure salesperson, or even a materialistic culture for your
feelings of guilt, shame, frustration and helplessness.
You can even blame yourself for making such an irrational decision.
You may even look back on a string of bad decisions and chastise yourself for never
getting your life together for being a loser in every area.
This is familiar emotional territory. Its what you know. You may even find a perverse
satisfaction or self-justification here.
In fact, all this self-condemnation might be downright attractive (it is to me).

As your Attachment, I call it subconscious pleasure in negative outcomes. This is my

daily diet.
Youve come to call it home.
Now, lets take your negative car buying experience and turn it into a positive AHA
Solution.

A = Aware
When you understand Me, then you understand that my goal is to put you into negative
situations that feed Me.
Armed with this level of insight, youll approach the car buying from a completely
different position of power.
From the get go, youll be looking for how I might set you up to feel bad about yourself
and the world. Car purchases can serve that purpose as well as anything else.
Now, youre ready to deny Me my next meal!
So, there you are, evaluating the car that fits your budget vs. the fancier car that youd
really rather have.
Then, I hit you with a surge of temptation to close your eyes, sign on the dotted line and
drive away in your new, fancy-mobile.
I pour on the rhetoric:
You deserve this car.
Youve put this off long enough.
Youll figure out how to pay for it.
So-and-so has a nice car, but THIS ONE puts his to shame.
You cant just walk away from this nice salesperson that has spent so much time with
you!
You may stress about this later, but you REALLY WANT IT NOW, dont you?
And so on
And then, AHA! There it is! You suddenly see whats happening. I am ready to make my
next meal out of you. And there wont be much room left for the positive feelings you
might have had if you had made a better choice.
You see, I plan ahead in ways you have never imagined. This is how Ive been
outsmarting you for many, many years.
I know just how to blind you to the truth and make you ignore all the red flags that
would awaken your better judgment in life. I do this with your money, your time,
relationships, hobbies, parenting, health, career, and well, everything.
Im insidious.
Your awareness of Me and My purpose could be the death of Me, however.
If youve gotten this far with an open mind, you are ahead of most people. So,
congratulations.
Now, on to the next step...
H = Halt
Once you are aware, it is imperative that you HALT. Stop. Take a moment to consider
whats really going on. Where are you headed?
Of course, Ill try to persuade you to keep going on autopilot, like a zombie in front of a
slot machine.
The machine is gobbling up your credits at breakneck speed. You keep mindlessly
pushing the buttons, dazzled by the flashing lights and cutesy music.
Youve lost $100 so far with only $50 left in your reserve. Might as well go for broke!
Then, when the machine has eaten your last penny, you can finally relax and retreat with
a happens every time look on your face.
Yes, Ill be trying to keep you on autopilot, away from any conscious reflection.
If you do not Halt the process, it will rage on forever, dwindling your emotional credits
with every pull of the handle!
Lets look at where you are so far in the car-buying process:
Youre still faced with the choice: fancy and unaffordable or less fancy yet affordable.
Youve caught me red-handed, trying to lead you into a decision that will taint the
pleasure of the fancy car with a healthy dose of pain shame, self-criticism, feelings of
failure and low self-esteem.
Time to get off autopilot. So, you stop yourself in your tracks and shake off the self-
deceptive trance that any car really means all that much.

You begin to consciously evaluate this decision in terms of self-sabotage. Is buying the
fancy car self-sabotage? Will it allow you to really feel good, proud of yourself and full
of self-respect? Or will owning this car, and all that goes with it, just reinforce old,
unhealthy ideas that youve been carrying around so long?
In this moment, you are truly alive as an adult. Youve put yourself in a rare position of
conscious choice.
A = Act

When youre Aware of your chronic, subconscious tendencies, and Halt to reflect on
what you are doing from moment to moment, you can integrate14 these tendencies into
your conscious decision-making.
For most people, the conscious desire is to be happy. Good health, financial stability,
caring relationships, fun hobbies and balanced living tend to lead to happiness.
Of course, none of the above is appealing to Me. I prefer a darker, more chaotic and
drama-filled existence. Balance and happiness are boring to me.
You and I have been competing for a long time now. And you have won some battles
along the way. I accept this. If you couldnt win some of the time, Id lose my feeding
ground because youd give up on life.
Do you want to win more battles and even end the war between us?
Do you really want me to surrender and swim away?
The opportunity is here, right now. Youve got to act on new information.

Here is where you stand:

You understand your tendency toward self-sabotage.
Youve caught Me in the act of setting you up to feel miserable.
Now, youre on your own. You have a choice to make. Given that you know what Im
about to do, you have no excuses and no right to complain if you end up feeding Me yet
another meal.
Again, Im not about to make it easy on you.
Mostly, Ill cause you to fear change. Ill make happiness and self-respect scary and
unfamiliar. Ill make you feel disloyal to all those who taught you to hate yourself. Ill
convince you not to care.
Of course, none of this is true, but it will FEEL TRUE. And it may just entice you to stick
with what you know pain.
At any rate, your new choice now looks very different in light of your new awareness.
Option 1
Buy a less fancy car that you can afford, that WONT stress you out, cause you to
condemn yourself or feel out of control in your life. Most of all, it wont be a self-
betraying decision.
Option 2
Buy a fancy car that will do all those wonderful, negative things. At this point, if do buy
this fancy car, you KNOW it is an act of self-sabotage. Youll live to regret it.
Option 3 and Beyond
Yes, now that you are thinking clearly, who knows what other choices will appear to
you? You may decide not to buy a new car right now. You may commit to saving up for
the car you want. You may even wonder why you wanted to look for a new car in the first
place.
This is your chance to get out of your own way.
This is your moment to Act with self-awareness and self-respect.
Its not about the car.
I don't care about cars. I just want you to feel bad so I can feed on you some more.
If you were in a position to purchase and enjoy the car of your dreams, then I might try to
prevent you from getting the fancy car you want (and can easily afford) and stick you
with a car you hate.
Ill tell you that you dont deserve a luxury car. Who do you think you are, anyway? Stop
being so self-centered! By the way, if you get that nice car, people will hate you for being
more successful than they are.
And so on. Its not about the car! My sole goal is that you end up feeling deprived,
rejected, out-of-control, humiliated, less than
Im everywhere you are, constantly strategizing about how to pull of negative outcomes.
Stop feeding me if you want to live.
Are you ready to Act?
The truth is, you wont always become Aware of what youre doing in time to Halt and
Act on new information.
When youre caught up in a raging river of self-sabotage, you dont always see the
branches and boulders to grab onto.
This is OK.
If you criticize yourself for your lack of awareness, youre only feeding Me more.
But, as soon as you do notice, even in hindsight, you can still review the scenario, break
it down and learn from it.
Be grateful for this. Be proud of yourself for this new ability.
Soon, youll get ahead of your tendency for self-sabotage and learn to see it coming.
Then, youll be ready to let me go and swim confidently.
Your new consciousness will know that you have a choice in relation to old habits. Only
then will you be free of Me, your Attachment, once and for all.
This falls into the realm of a quality of life decision, although it may also be a matter of
life and death15.
Now that you are Aware, you can Halt what you are doing and Act DIFFERENTLY.
Now What?

Remember:
You have the potential to repel pain, rather than attract it.
Negativity does not need to be magnetic.
Drama does not need to be exciting.
Failure does not need to feel inevitable.
There are no negative side effects to giving up a hidden desire for personal suffering.

Imagine:
No more trading off what you want for what youll settle for that is more familiar.
No more going against your better judgment only to find regret.
No more behaviors that you cannot control.
No more critical voice in your head.
No more reckless decisions.
No more low self-esteem.
No more chronic worry, irrational fear, jealousy or resentment.
No more abandoning goals for no apparent reason.
No more feeling rejected and socially anxious.
No more feeling empty and purposeless.
No more inner conflict, indecision and emotional paralysis.
No more self-sabotage.
In short, no more of those old, worthless behaviors and feelings that have defined you!
You may not feel that you have a choice about some of the above.
Still, you do have a choice to make, and it is this:

To do the work of releasing Me, your Attachment to consciously realize what you are
doing that makes your life a prison. Do this work for however long it takes and whatever
the consequences. Its really your only choice if you want to be free.
Only then will you be able to finally say, AHA! My new life has just begun.
Afterword

The truth can be uncomfortable. Perhaps its a mixed blessing that its so easy to avoid!
Nowhere is the truth the reality of whats really going on more readily lost than in the
labyrinth of our own minds.
This is why human science researchers can't agree on much of anything. Unfortunately,
they're all just guessing!
Still, making educated guesses is important. Its our only hope.
Throughout history, however, when guesses have come just a bit too close to an
uncomfortable truth, theyve been systematically resisted before being reluctantly
accepted and eventually embraced.
Pythagoras, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Pasteur, Einstein and Edison are examples of
forward thinkers who were publicly ridiculed, even executed, for possessing such radical
ideas.
Another example is that of Edmund Bergler, MD (18991962). Youve probably never
heard of Bergler, even though he was one of Sigmund Freuds closest colleagues. Bergler
was assistant director of Freuds clinic in Vienna and a prominent psychiatrist in New
York. He authored 300 hundred studies that were published in medical journals and 23
books.
Youve probably never heard of Bergler, even though Freud publicly acknowledged that
Berglers work represented the next level of psychoanalytic thinking.
Heres why:
Bergler's "next level of thinking" hit a nerve and was systematically shunned by his
colleagues, the very people with the greatest potential to understand! Even for them, the
truth was uncomfortable and threatened the basis of who they were and what they did.
So, like any decent prophet, Dr. Bergler accepted his fate and trudged onward, predicting
a span of 100 years before his ideas would be seriously considered.
Its been just over 50 years.
What was this nerve that Bergler hit?
Its what you just read. No, Bergler didnt discuss lamprey eels, but he was emphatic
about our unconscious appetite for negativity. Bergler called it psychic masochism.

The fundamental neurosis, according to Bergler, is that human beings learn to take
pleasure in displeasure. We sugar coat negativity so it is easier to swallow, even though it
makes us miserable.
We develop such a tolerance for emotional pain that we end up unnecessarily keeping it
around for a lifetime.
Unless and until we recognize this universal tendency, the problem at the root of most
human suffering never goes away. In fact, psychic masochism is a progressive disease.


Below are articles which address psychological attachments:

7 facts about the human psyche lead you straight into the matrix
Psychological Attachments: Why you Dont Just Do What Makes you Happy
5 Steps to Handle Parts of Yourself that you Absolutely Hate
Six Reasons Why People Stay in a Bad Relationship
Are You as Happy as Most People? Check the Recent National Poll
The Unseen Question That Shapes Your Life
When its Bad, this Common Relationship Slowly Kills You
How to Help your Spouse Be Kind to You: The No-Fail Formula
Lack of Motivation? Here are Seven Causes and Seven Cures
How to Overcome a Deep Sense of Shame: the Essential FAQ and To-Do List
Whose Life is it Anyway? My Extraordinary Personal Revolution
You Want To Be Loved More, But
10 Signs you are Emotionally Attached to a Negative Past
Have you Given your Independence Away?
How to Get Out of the Shadow of a Negative Past The Essential FAQ
The Most Valuable and Feared Gift You Possess
Acceptance: The Direct Path to Inner Peace. Three keys you never considered
The New List of Lifes Top Stressors: Seven things that steal your joy
How to Let Go of Painful, Negative Relationships
How to Express your Needs without Getting Shot Down
How to Activate your Deep Healing Energy
Work on yourself First: Seven Powerful Reasons Why
How I Ended Self-Sabotage and Created a New Career Path
Psychological Attachments: Why you Dont Just Do What Makes you Happy
How to Resolve your Worst Personal Problem: My Five Best Suggestions
See Through These Six False Beliefs And Be Free
Why Am I So Unhappy? Heres why
 If THIS is not Your Goal, then NO GOAL is Worth Getting
The Right Reasons to Change Make all the Difference (here they are)
Finding Happiness through Self-Acceptance: Three Simple Steps
Template for the Ideal Personal Development Plan
Why Your Mind Acts Like a Personal Torture Chamber
Introducing the Evil Twins that Ruin our Lives
Getting Unstuck: Seven Extraordinary Methods
What to do When Life is a Series of Wrong Turns
The Results Are Now In
Can You Heal Just by Being More Aware?
10 Signs You Believe its Wrong to Be Happy
Are You Seeking Rejection Without Knowing It?
Recognizing your Spouses Attachment Brings You Freedom
Pull Up Self-Sabotage by the Roots
How to Know if you Have Weak Emotional Boundaries
5 Ways you Trick yourself into Prolonging Emotional Pain
What Goes on Inside a Control Freak?
The Simplest, Sanest, Most Effective Rule for Inner Peace
If your unconscious mind could speak, here is what it would say
When You HAVE the Tools, But You DONT Use Them
The Buried Secret that Runs Peoples Lives
How to discover the limiting beliefs that create self-sabotage
Why some simple behaviors seem impossible to change
The simplest success formula ever




 Footnotes

1 These categories are synthesized from classic child development theory and

represent the logical outcomes from crises encountered at various stages.

For the purpose of this book, we do not apply the outcomes of feeling controlled,
deprived or rejected to specific stages, although it would be appropriate to do this in
academia.

2 Neuroscientists have actually compared the brain waves of consciousness in babies,
children and adults. Speculations about the findings suggest that baby brains show faint
signs of consciousness as young as two months, and continues to develop through
adulthood. Researchers point out that this is highly speculative, however. See
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/04/baby-consciousness/
It should also be noted that many mature adults show very limited self-awareness and
have potential to continue to learn throughout the life span.

3 A quote from Rod Burton of Phenomenology Online:

There is a fundamental difference in my own time experience compared to that of my five-
year-old daughter. It is a classic contrast in time experience; that of objective versus
subjective time. The morning ritual of getting her to daycare consists of exhorting her to
rush, to hurry, to get dressed (right now), to get breakfast done with, to get into the van,
and to get to the playschool.
In other words, I force her to act in a behavior oriented toward a future time space - my
time space, insofar as I wont be late for work. She is learning to live the logistics of my
life: I am certainly not attuned to her natural ability to live in a primordial present - a
present that does not know of a future or a past. See:
http://www.phenomenologyonline.com/sources/textorium/burton-rod-the-experience-of-
time-in-the-very-young

4 This refers to Piagets experiments around object permanence, or the ability for a

child to understand that something exists outside of its own perception. Infants
display extreme egocentrism. In other words, they cannot tell the difference
between their own perceptions and outside objects and people. This means they
have no ability to comprehend anyone elses individual existence, much less
acknowledge others needs or limitations.

5 Most psychologists agree that the ability to delay gratification (patience) is

developed between the ages of 2 and 5, although we all know that some people
never quite get there in a lifetime!

6 Psychiatrist Edmund Bergler, MD suggested that this is the basic human neurosis,

the necessary transformation of pain into pleasure at a very early stage of life,
leading one to unwittingly seek out suffering and find subconscious satisfaction in it.
This may be the very root of self-sabotage. Read Berglers The Basic Neurosis.


7 Introduced by Sigmund Freud as the pleasure principle and popularized widely by

psychologists, counselors and motivational speakers.

8 This conundrum is known in academia as the problem of self-deception. For

thousands of years, philosophers have debated the question as to how and why we
deceive ourselves, misjudging the cause of and responsibility for our own actions.

9 Psychotherapist Peter Michaelson uses the term emotional attachment.

When were unhappy, were usually making unconscious inner choices that produce our
unhappiness. We have to understand the bittersweet appeal of negative emotions. Without
realizing what were doing, we actual make inner choices to feel deprived or refused-
or helpless, criticized, rejected, betrayed, or abandoned.
Unconsciously, were tempted to indulge in such negative emotions that are unresolved
from our past. Unwittingly, we recreate and recycle these familiar, painful feelings
through the events and situations of our everyday life.
I use the term emotional attachments to express this inner conflict. While consciously we
very much dislike our suffering, unconsciously we can be willing and determined
to experience the unresolved negative emotions that produce suffering. Vast numbers of
people have these emotional attachments. The problem goes largely untreated because
its not well understood. See: http://whywesuffer.com

10 Psychotherapists are so familiar with resistance to change in their clients that an

axiom has emerged in the field: Resistance is evidence that therapy is taking place. In
fact, one study demonstrated that when clients show low resistance to change,
therapy is not as effective. See: Bischoff, M. M., & Tracey, T. J. G. (1995). Client
resistance as predicted by therapist behavior: A study of sequential dependence.
Journal of Counseling Psychology, 42(4), 487-495.

This suggests that clinging to familiarity and resisting change - even change for the
better - is pervasive. Therapists know they are on the right track when they
encounter resistance.

11 Do people really seek negativity, failure and self-harm? Edmund Bergler, MD (see

footnote 6) debated a colleague as follows:

Mrs. A: You seem to have the fantastic idea that a person can have the wish to damage
himself. I have always assumed that every individual is his own best friend and well-
wisher. Left to himself, no reasonable person would do himself harm in any way. Isn't
your assumption in contradiction to common sense?
Bergler: If you had said, 'Every person is his own best friend and well-wisher
consciously,' there would be no argument. But if your rule is meant to include the
unconscious, it becomes more than debatable. Unconsciously, many people damage
themselves.

Mrs. A.: That's unbelievable.
Bergler: Of course. Still, it corresponds to the facts.
Ref: Edmund Bergler Society of Toronto.

12 Edmund Bergler, MD stated that psychic masochism, his term for the basic

neurosis (see footnote 9) is a progressive condition that does not heal with time, but
progresses steadily over time. See The Basic Neurosis.

13 Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it
fate. -Carl Jung

14 Nathaniel Branden taught us through his years of experience as a psychotherapist

and in his published works, such as The Disowned Self, that it is by exposing
unconscious patterns to consciousness that we heal and gain self-control.

15 Lifestyle related disease, addiction, suicide and more can only be called self-

sabotage.