Reddit reviews He: Understanding Masculine Psychology (Perennial Library)

I'm guessing you mean mother complex! As far as I understand it is the regressive tendency in a man, the part of you that basically wants to return to the womb, for all of life's challenges to just go away so you can be looked after again by your mummy. Part of the male journey of individuation involves overcoming this tendency once and for all. The hero's quest to defeat the dragon can be symbolic of us striving to defeat the mother complex - this is talked about in the excellent book He: Understanding Masculine Psychology, which I highly recommend.

Having said that I'm no expert so I'll leave a deeper definition for someone else!

A lot of "disorders" are not really disorders at all. Depression is a way of making a person focus inward and solve issues. It's the opposite of inflation and often follows hand in hand -- ego inflates, doesn't get what it wants, followed by depression. So instead of feel it and finally resolve to break that cycle, we take drugs to suppress it. I think disorder is just a convenient term for something that isn't properly understood by our modern medicine.

I think DID might result from parts of the personality that aren't incorporated under the umbrella of the ego. The ego is supposed to be a sort of CEO who runs the show and gets everyone moving the same direction, but sometimes it just can't encompass all of the competing interests. I bet your therapist talks about "empowerment" a bit. It's really the heart of helping to incorporate Ren and Tom more consciously into your personality. DID becomes a danger to the public when your alters influence you to take actions that are harmful. The potential for trouble is the reason why DID is treated like it is. Otherwise, in the olden days, it was called "coping."

You can use your dreams to make Ren and Tom more conscious and thus more incorporated under your ego. The female dream character is the key, because she represents the unconscious feminine parts of yourself -- anima -- that you can make more conscious by developing and furthering a relationship with her, same as you converse with Ren and Tom as distinct people. "Marry" her and you will gain the ego strength to be declared "normal." The marriage I refer to is also known as marriage of the soul. Marriage of the ego with the unconscious side of the mind -- what you call your female alter -- is the ultimate aim of personal growth. To really understand what she is to you, I suggest reading "He" by Robert A. Johnson.. It's an outstanding book and it will help you understand what's going on beneath the surface of your mind. He explains marriage of the soul better than I can. You might also read "Care of the Soul" by Thomas Moore. I think those books will help you.

It's difficult to condense so many thoughts that reading your post and talking with you has brought to mind. My background gives me an understanding of what you are experiencing without having experienced myself. I don't think there is anything "wrong" with you, I think you just need time to work things out and need some tools to help you do it. I hope your therapist treats you with respect and helps you understand what is going on inside of you. You are finding your soul, uncovered a spoonful at a time as you experience life and absorb it. Some people just go about it differently than others. As long as you aren't harming anyone (including yourself), you're fine. Take care :)

He, She and We (three books) all very short, like 100 pages... awesome transformative writing

http://www.amazon.com/He-Understanding-Masculine-Psychology-Perennial/dp/0060963964