Eighteen East 74th Street: An Autobiographical Novel

I'm an 88-year-old retired Jungian Analyst. I wrote this book to share a lifelong struggle to free myself from the powerfully dominating influence of my mother, something Jung more elegantly described as "The Battle for Deliverance from the Mother." It's a battle I now doubt can be won, although an uneasy truce may be achievable. I believe the power that my mother's values and beliefs have over me is related to a very early experience in life that seems quite small but, like an atom, contains unspeakably powerful energy. I refer to it as "that look," the look of pure, unconditional love that is experienced only briefly in early infancy and seems to evaporate once socialization begins. Unconsciously, we recognize it as a reflection of our inmost being, an image so exquisite that we want to hold onto it and keep it only for ourselves. We are not only unconscious of the wish to be "le seul," the only one, but also of the price that must be paid to remain so: the rejection and concealment of that part of ourselves that mother frowned upon, narrowing us down to only the bright side of our two-sided moon. The struggle to be free of the mother's power becomes the struggle for wholeness itself. At the same time, after all our work and self-reflection, we realize that mother, paradoxically, is essential to our experience of our self and with "that look" fuels our lifelong search for it.

Staples, Lawrence H.

Biographies & Memoirs

Chiron Publications

Like Berlin, we all have a wall, an inner wall, that needs to be torn down. It's a wall we built at a young age, when socialization began and we needed a barrier behind which we could hide that part of ourselves that was unacceptable to our mothers as well as important others. What we hide is the "shadow." To conceal it, we create a wall that we call the "persona. " 
To be a Berliner, is about starting out as a unified whole, as we all started out as infants, as Berlin itself started out. It is then to be split in two with a wall erected between the two parts, as Berlin was, and as we all were when socialization began, shattering our original wholeness. 
Finally, it is to become one again, as Berlin has done and as we hope to do, if we do our work and if we are lucky. As in the case of Berlin, the wall keeps us from becoming all we can be. Berlin, thus, is a metaphor for the enlargement of personality that can occur when we, like Berlin's inhabitants, tear down that wall and become bigger, richer, freer, and more diverse and democratic. In this sense, we are all potentially Berliners.

Tearing Down Walls: Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Professionals & Academics

The Guilt Cure proposes a new theory of guilt. It puts guilt in a totally different perspective that can help alleviate the pain and suffering it inflicts. Existing theories of guilt are based on the conventional idea that guilt’s primary function is in the protection and maintenance of morals. While guilt certainly contributes to the protection and maintenance of morals, most guilt, in fact, stems from thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that violate no religious, divine or legal ordinances. Thus, guilt is far more morally neutral than we would ever suspect. Guilt’s moral neutrality stems from its more important psychological role in the creation and maintenance of consciousness and in the workings of the self-regulatory system of the psyche. It is consciousness of guilt’s significant moral neutrality that helps alleviate its pain. The Guilt Cure reaches deep into humanity’s collective experience of guilt and finds persuasive psychological reasons for guilt's role and purpose that go far beyond conventionally held religious explanations. The conventional view is that guilt's primary function is the protection and maintenance of morals. While guilt admittedly contributes to the protection and maintenance of morals, this is by no means its only role. Nor is it even its most important role. Guilt is far more morally neutral than many would suspect. While guilt is conventionally thought to be a result of sin, most guilt, in fact, stems from thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that violate no religious or divine ordinances. The psychological experience of guilt is much broader than the religious definition of sin would account for. The Guilt Cure examines the many faces of guilt, including its more important function in the creation and maintenance of consciousness, its place in the self-regulatory system of the psyche, its effects on our psychological development, and its impact on our mental health and wellbeing.

The Guilt Cure

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Pennington, Nancy Carter

Psychology & Counseling

Fisher King Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Staples, Lawrence H.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Staples, Lawrence H.