John Bradshaw Quotes - Page 2

It's essential to tell the truth at all times. This will reduce life's pain. Lying distorts reality. All forms of distorted thinking must be corrected.

The feeling of righteousness is the core mood alteration among religious addicts. Religious addiction is a massive problem in our society. It may be the most pernicious of all addictions because it’s so hard for a person to break his delusion and denial. How can anything be wrong with loving God and giving your life for good works and service to mankind?

Ego is to the true self what a flashlight is to a spotlight.

To be shame-bound means that whenever you feel any feeling, need or drive, you immediately feel ashamed. The dynamic core of your human life is grounded in your feelings, needs and drives. When these are bound by shame, you are shamed to the core.

I define a good person as somebody who is fully conscious of their own limitations. They know their strengths, but they also know their shadow - they know their weaknesses. In other words, they understand that there is no good without bad. Good and evil are really one, but we have broken them up in our consciousness. We polarize them.

The spiritual quest is not some added benefit to our life, something you embark on if you have the time and inclination. We are spiritual beings on an earthly journey. Our spirituality makes up our beingness.

The foundation for our self-image is grounded in the first three years of life. It comes from our major caretaker's mirroring.

Virtue is an inner strength. It expands your nature.

You can't heal what you can't feel!

Growing up means leaving home and becoming a self supporting adult. I think this the hardest task any human being hast to face.

Most people who have survived abuse have great strength.

Children aren't fooled. They know we give time to the things we love.

The most paradoxical aspect of neurotic shame is that it is the core motivator of the superachieved and the underachieved, the star and the scapegoat, the righteous and the wretched, the powerful and the pathetic.

That's the trouble with the conventional doctors. They always say, 'How does it work?' but often there isn't any neat little answer...Something simply works...We don't really know how it works. We say we do. We know one or two things we can see and measure.

I know from my own clinical work that when people are beaten and hurt, they numb out so that they cant feel anymore.

Evil is a source of moral intelligence in the sense that we need to learn from our shadow, from our dark side, in order to be good.

You can find more traditional Shakespeare than we do. But what we want to bring to these works is energy, passion, freshness.

Healthy shame is an emotion that teaches us about our limits. Like all emotions, shame moves us to get our basic needs met.

Science has so far been unable to tell us how self-aware dogs are, much less whether they have anything like our conscious thoughts. This is not surprising, since neither scientists nor philosophers can agree about what the consciousness of humans consists of, let alone that of animals.

There are plenty of quacks in the field. Fewer than you'd expect, though still plenty (in alternative medicine).