Changes and Psychological Complexes

In the previous article, a willingness and a resistance to change were introduced in a general way. In this article, I want to be more specific. So, let's look at changes with respect to complexes.

Remember that complexes are part of our personal unconscious (hidden) psychologies and are triggered/activated by situations, people or comments in our daily lives.

When triggered, the complex overrides our personalities and we express ourselves through the complex until the activated complex moves back into the unconscious.

We now ask: How do changes relate to complexes? Complexes typically form during our early years, as we experience life with parents, school, friends and more. Since we are unconscious of the complexes, we only know that they are part of our psychologies when they are triggered.

When that happens we are not ourselves because we are functioning through the complex. Recognizing a complex and its expressions requires considerable attention – attention to our expressions, behaviors and interactions. Focusing on the expressions is how we get to know a particular complex and the first step toward changing a complex.

If we don't recognize our complexes and the way we express ourselves through the complexes, the complexes never change. In other words, the complexes stay with us for the reminder of our lives, and for the most part, our expressions remain fixed.

By recognizing the expressions from the complexes, and taking steps to change the way we express ourselves, we can change the complexes. This is important! As we change the complexes, we change ourselves.

For example, if you begin to recognize that you are prejudice against a particular culture or a person, you can begin to understand the prejudice complex that takes over your personality and beliefs. Changing the expressions associated with the complex -- your prejudice ways will change you. You will find that your prejudice judgments are no longer felt, expressed or presented with the same emotion and intention.

Given that we all have many, many complexes it is not difficult to see that change requires much effort and time. Of course, changing even one complex is an important change! The more complexes we attempt to change, the more we are making profound changes within our personalities and behaviors.

So, if you want to begin to make changes in your life, you can try different routines, go to different events, get a different job, meet new people and change some of your complexes.