Mild Epicureanism: notes toward the definition of a therapeutic attitude.

Psychotherapists generally feel uncomfortable addressing patients' beliefs, particularly religious beliefs, because of the desire to respect client subjectivity and to avoid the abuse of therapeutic authority. This paper's first contention is that at some junctures, investigation of the client's belief structure can be an important catalyst for change, as exemplified by an extended case example. This stance assumes that much of the individual and collective damage rigid belief systems inflict derives from their function as a defense against death awareness, as described by terror management theory.

The existential necessity of midlife change.

As life expectancy in the West increases and companies can no longer promise lifelong security, many businesspeople will need to make major changes during middle age, embarking on a second life and a second career. They must start by getting beyond two pervasive and opposing myths. The first is that midlife marks the onset of decline.

The Bobo dilemma. Psychotherapeutic reflections on a contemporary myth.

This paper investigates the psychological consequences of a social ethos that has emerged in the 1990s; the Bourgeois Bohemian (in short, Bobo) that claims that the bourgeois striving for financial success and status can be reconciled with the Bohemian striving for creative self-expression. An extended case history shows how a man in his thirties grappled with the inherent complexity and contradictions of the Bobo ethos. The question is raised how, as psychotherapists, we can deal with the individual patient's search for a good life amidst the growing pressure of the Bobo ethos, to get the best of all possible lives, the combination of authenticity and success.