In this episode of Witt & Wisdom we take a careful look at these narcissistic tendencies and how they express themselves in all four quadrants, and at every major stage of development. We hope that this discussion will help you identify whatever narcissistic traits you may be carrying with you, and to consciously wield your positive self-esteem without being seduced by our own self-importance.
Love, Conflict, and Play
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosKeith and Corey talk about how all play is an abstracted version of fighting, and how we can always draw upon our evolutionary capacity to transmute our basic animal drives into art, goodness, and greater understanding.
The Invisible Audience
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosWatch as Dr. Keith and Corey have a fascinating discussion about the “Invisible Audience”, helping you make these unconscious observers just a bit more visible to you.
From Trauma to Transcendence
Dr. Keith WittThis practice will help you cultivate the courage to face your trauma, discover an unbreakable source of resilience and empathy within yourself, and find deeper meaning in your suffering — so that you yourself can become a source of strength and healing for the rest of the world.
Time, Consciousness, and Development
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey discuss how our relationship with time lies at the very root of consciousness, and explore how our perceptions of time affect our overall psychological health and sense of well-being. We are also joined by our good friend Jeremy Johnson in a fascinating discussion of how Jean Gebser describes our ever-evolving enactment of time.
Creating a Coherent Life Story
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith and Corey discuss the primary goal of psychotherapy — to help people experience themselves every day as living a happy ending to their life so far, and at the very beginning of a wonderful and exciting new chapter. This goal, of course, requires a more integrated self in order to meet the inevitable challenges, triggers, and opportunities that we will encounter on the path of growing up, and for us to be able to create a cohesive and coherent life story for ourselves as we move forward
A More Unifying Psychotherapy
Andre Marquis and Ken WilberAndre Marquis, PhD, is associate professor of counseling and human development and author of several books and scholarly articles in the field of Integral Psychology. Today Andre talks to Ken Wilber about his most recent book, Integral Psychotherapy: A Unifying Approach, which explores how a more comprehensive understanding of the self can greatly enhance, enrich, and energize the therapeutic experience for both patient and practitioner.
The Butterfly and the Hawk: How “Dual Focus” Can Help You Overcome Pain, Anxiety, and Trauma
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosA common element of many trauma treatments, most psychotherapy, and much spiritual practice is something called “dual focus” — our capacity to anchor ourselves in the feeling of being safe, capable, and worthy in the present moment, while simultaneously extending our awareness to distressing feelings, thoughts, memories, impulses, judgments, and events.
Why Be Normal?
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith discusses how the concept of “normal” profoundly effects our development and functioning, and how he has dealt with these issues over the decades in therapy sessions and groups.
For the Love of Chaos: What Does Complexity Theory Have to Do with Intimacy and Healing?
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosIn a world as complex and chaotic as ours, how can we raise our level of awareness and attunement in order to meet the great challenges of our time? Watch as Dr. Keith explains how chaos can be used as an incredibly effective driver of growth, healing, and love.
Finding Greater Resilience in the Trump Era
Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff SalzmanDr. Keith Witt talks to Jeff Salzman about the ramifications today’s polarized politics are having upon people’s psychological health, and the strategies you need to become more resilient — and less reactive — to the many stresses of our time.
Heal Thyself: How to Repair Interpersonal and Cultural Injuries
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosThe Buddha had it right with “life is suffering”! We all regularly feel injured by other people, our own interior struggles, cultural events, or random chance. Repairing these injuries is a big deal! Luckily, Integrally informed psychology can help us recognize and repair injuries. In this upcoming episode of Live with Dr. Keith we’ll talk about how we all become injured and the steps we often need to take for effective repair.
Normal Crazy vs. Extra Crazy: Disarming Your Defensive States
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosWhen we feel safe, we are usually comfortably social with ourselves and others. When we feel threatened, our nervous systems (our adaptive unconscious, our Shadow selves) can generate defensive states to protect us. These states amplify or numb emotions, distort perspectives, pump out destructive impulses, and diminish self-reflection and empathy. Watch as Dr. Keith Witt offers some valuable guidance to help you disarm these defensive states whenever they arise for you.
Finding Sanity in the Post-Truth Era
Dr. Keith Witt and Corey deVosDr. Keith Witt talks about our shared emotional reactions to the election and ongoing cultural upheavals, and some strategies help us not only cope, but actually grow through these times.
Race, Rooted Cosmopolitanism, and Hope in the 21st Century
Greg Thomas and Mark FormanThe political storm that has visited the United States over the past few years have exposed a number of crises: cultural, political, and environmental. One of these crises is our society’s ongoing struggles with how we define and treat one another according to our ideas of “race.” The moment is ripe for bringing together healthier understandings of ethnic identity that can replace the largely toxic idea of race from our past. In this episode of Psychology Now, special guest Greg Thomas joins co-host Mark Forman to discuss these issues.
Growing, Relating, Connecting: An Integral Tour of Couples Therapy
Dr. Keith Witt and Mark FormanIn this episode of Psychology Now, Dr. Keith and Dr. Mark dive into the wide world of couples therapy and relationships, using the Integral lens to locate some of the deeper principles and key insights that leading couples therapists’ employ to help couples develop loving, growth-orientated, grounded relationships. Includes six key practices that you can try right now to enhance your relationship.
Psychedelics in Psychotherapy
Elliott Ingersoll, Mark Forman and Dr. Keith WittSpecial guest Dr. Elliott Ingersoll joins Doctors Keith Witt and Mark Forman to share their personal and professional experiences with psychedelics while reviewing relevant research, current practices, and the amazing potentials of these treatments. Therapists need as many tools as possible to remediate symptoms, enhance health, and support development. The way we see it therapies utilizing psychedelics will become increasingly available and likely useful in the years to come.
The Universal Dream: Seeing Dreams In Multiple Perspectives
Mark Forman and Dr. Keith WittDr. Witt and Dr. Forman dive deeply into the world of dreaming, exploring the neurobiology and function of dreams, the history and basics of dream work in psychotherapy, and some useful tips to help you interpret your own dreams.
Relationships in Therapy, Relationships in Life
Dr. Keith Witt and Mark FormanIn this episode of Psychology Now, Dr. Witt and Dr. Forman dive specifically into the therapeutic relationship and describe how it functions as the medium of healing and transformation in psychotherapy.
The Spectrum of Brokenness: What to Do When You’re Dealing With a Personality Disorder
Dr. Keith Witt and Mark FormanNearly 1 in 10 people possess some form of personality disorder. Which means there’s a very good chance that you will encounter someone with this disorder at some point in your life… if you haven’t already. They might be your boss, your lover, your parent, your spiritual teacher, or even your presidential candidate. How can we engage these personalities with care and compassion, while remaining fully attentive to our own personal boundaries? Listen to find out!
Human 101: The Psychology of the Future
Ken WilberHow can we formulate an approach to psychology that honors and embraces every legitimate aspect of human consciousness and pulls these multiple aspects together into a single coherent model of the human mind? Watch as Ken Wilber offers one of the finest and most complete summaries of an Integral approach to psychology he has ever recorded, while suggesting how a more comprehensive understanding of human consciousness can help shape a better, kinder, and more sustainable future.
In The Belly of The Whale: Joseph Campbell and The Hero’s Journey
Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff SalzmanIn this conversation with Dr. Keith Witt and Jeff Salzman we explore the gift of Campbell’s formulation of The Hero’s Journey — Campbell’s name for the basic pattern of the great myths, which turns out to be a guide for our own lives.
The Seeker’s Guide to Self-Deception
Ken WilberKen Wilber discusses the many kinds of self, the nature of identity and enlightenment, and the spectrum of deceit that keeps us from knowing who we really are.
Perls of Wisdom: Introflection, Retroflection, and Other Games People Play
Ken WilberKen Wilber offers insight into the high-level features of two major therapeutic approaches, the role that a defense called “retroflection” plays in the process of projection, and some of the ways in which we can objectify the role-based psychological games we play while interacting with each other.
Consciousness Explained Better
Allan Combs and Ken WilberAllan Combs, a pioneer of Integral thought and practice whose name may be familiar if you’ve ever heard of the “Wilber-Combs lattice”, speaks with Ken about a better way to explain the mystery of consciousness.
The Power of Premonitions
Larry Dossey and Ken WilberMore than an examination of case studies, The Power of Premonitions reveals the world of science and research that proves the human capacity for knowing the future. Experiments consistently show that human beings are as wired to know what’s coming next as we are to see, feel, hear and think. Dossey uses cutting-edge science to prove the value of what had long been considered the provenance of mystic charlatans and to show readers how to cultivate their natural abilities.
Indigenous Cultures in the Modern World
Tim Black and Ken WilberA published author in the areas of trauma, group counseling, and applied Integral theory in counseling ethics engages Ken Wilber on why it’s so difficult to find Integrally-minded individuals in the indigenous peoples of his native British Colombia—an issue experienced globally, but expressed here as deep interest and care for those living in a modern Canada.
Telling the Story of Development
Susanne Cook-Greuter and Ken WilberSusanne Cook-Greuter, one of the most important developmental psychologists working today, shares her path from a working-class family in Switzerland to academic excellence and innovation at Harvard University, exploring the higher stages of consciousness available to us all. She then shares her thoughts on the current state of academia and the culture at large, and why it‘s so important to encourage flourishing at every stage of development alongside the invitation to keep growing.
Introduction to Ego Development
Susanne Cook-GreuterSusanne Cook-Greuter is an internationally recognized researcher in mature ego development and self-actualization. You may have noticed her name alongside Robert Kegan’s, Clare Graves’, and Jane Loevinger’s in Ken’s book, Integral Spirituality. Her sentence completion tests are sophisticated enough to tease out the subtle differences between Teal, Turquoise, Indigo, and Violet altitudes of development.
A Natural History of Supernormal Powers
Mike Murphy and Ken WilberMike Murphy is the leading integral theorist of his generation; Ken Wilber is the leading integral theorist of his. Their conversations are unlike anything you will hear anywhere else. These dialogues are warm, witty, loving, and vibrant. They are not, however, for the intellectually faint of heart.