The Duality of the Self

“My argument with so much psychoanalysis is the supreme conception that suffering is a mistake, or a sign of weakness or a sign even of illness when in fact possibly the greatest truths we know have come out of people’s suffering. That the problem is not to undo suffering or to wipe it off the face of the earth but to make it inform our lives. Instead of trying to cure ourselves of it constantly and avoid it, and avoid anything but that lobotomized sense of what they call happiness.” — Arthur Miller

I’m wading through Adam Curtis' The Century of the Self, a sobering documentary series that is available to stream gratis on YouTube.

Curtis profiles the men and women who single-handedly shaped the modern societies of the twentieth century through psychoanalysis, propaganda and public relations.

So much of the series is focused upon thought leaders labouring to create the perfect society, utopias devoid of pain and suffering. Yet such a vision is short-sighted. One that belongs in a children’s book.

The fact that we can light up a room yet feel desperately alone inside is what makes mankind so profound in the first place.

Our imperfections are what make us truly unique.