Drake Spaeth – Silence, Shunning, & Shying Away: Destroying Personhood & Connection Through Preserving the Peace

http://www.saybrook.edu/newexistentialists/posts/09-25-14

Click on the link for this interesting and useful article by Drake Spaeth, about how we can harm/diminish ourselves and others by keeping silent in relationship around difficult feeling and conflict. We especially liked:-

‘If I feel that parts of me are unacceptable to the other, I am very limited in how close I can be to him or her. Sadly and ironically, I keep silent for fear of harm to the relationship and fail to see it dying a slow death anyway through disconnection. Fears that are unexpressed and difficult conversations that we refuse to have with loved ones tend to creep around inside us and isolate us by building strong walls of indifference, imprisoning a lonely and disconnected ego, one which is futilely yearning to be a whole and authentic self. We ourselves need to be seen and recognized clearly to experience wholeness.’

Palace Gate Counselling Service, Exeter