Archetypes that push your buttons

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When I was a massage therapist, a client succeeded in getting my goat... he pushed a button. He was a Holiness preacher I was seeing for neuralgia. On the third visit, he revealed that the real reason he'd been coming to see me was to save my soul... massage therapy is evil. I experienced just a split second of the feeling of losing control... as if it was a good thing there wasn't a baseball bat nearby.

Upon later reflection, I realized it wasn't him so much. It was the Preacher thing. It's an archetype that plagues my psyche. The control I have over it comes only from being aware that it's a door to wackiness for me. That helps me to distinguish between the actual person in front of me and the image. So I don't respond to the person as if he IS that image.

The image is partly my personal tendencies combined with images built over the last 500 years or so. Jung talked about the image of the man in the long black coat... a Catholic priest. I wonder if this is same archetype. Ever notice how in a supernatural horror movie, when you hear monks singing in the background... something really bad is about to happen?

What archetype pushes your button?

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[+3] - ehBeth - 06/20/2010perpetual grad students academics who have never worked outside of the academic environment <steam comes out of my ears when I have to spend time with them>

Why did he pick your soul to save?

Better question, why was he subjecting himself to massage therapy if he felt it was evil?

Did he seem to enjoy the massage?

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@chai2,

You should went along with it and played him! When he told you that the only reason he was having the massage was to save you, You could have said something like, I know that was the only reason you were coming because I am psychic [I have Extrasensory perception] I can read minds and so forth. You realy could have had a good time with that.

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@Arjuna,

probably beside the point, but why does he think that? I mean, I know evangelicals think all manner of things are evil, but why massage therapy in particular?

As regards preachers, I don't really encounter many. The last one was when a jazz trio performed at a local church. During interval, one of the 'church elders', I guess, started to give a talk but I quietly absented myself. On the other hand, many of the spiritual philosophers and Buddhist monks whose talks I read, I find quite inspiring. And they are, in a way, sermons. So I guess I don't have a problem with priests....

I know! Guys in white coats. They annoy me.

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@chai2,

Massage therapy originally came to the US in the 20's from Europe, although it's an ancient aspect of medicine. It quickly split into Physical Therapy and Massage Therapy, the latter being a front for prostitution. This situation prevailed until the 60's when massage therapy was reborn in California as a fusion of science and spirituality. When I got my first massage therapy license, I was required to appear before a county government meeting to affirm that I'm not a prostitute. That sort of thing has since been superseded by state licensure. Americans continue to be very touchy about the issue of touch... which tends to make American massage therapy a psychic mine-field. I actually thought I was pretty good at navigating through it... humor is a mighty tool. That's why it caught me so off guard when the Preacher got me... I lost my objectivity... my eye-ball floating in the room that would allow me to otherwise lose myself. The eye-ball was intended to notify me that something was going on that I needed to consciously address. So the Preacher was like a blind-spot.

Jung talked about being arrested... temporarily paralyzed by confrontation with an archetype where there's a lot of bound up energy.

I eventually came up with the scenario that the Preacher symbolized the idea that I was talking the talk... not walking the walk. But it's still kind of open-ended. I'm not so sure I am walking the walk... whatever that means.

But as for why this guy actually did this... I think he was playing with my mind. Who knows why?

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@Arjuna,

A lot of overtly religious people, especially Evangelicals, are very hung up about sex. So it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that allowing himself to be touched by you was also something that he regarded as sinful in himself. So maybe he was talking to himself, all along. Not outside the realms of possibility.

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@Arjuna,

The type of people that really bug me are the ones that want certain rights for themselves but completely ignore the fact and try to take away the rights of others. They can't even see their own contradiction or hypocrisy.

For example all the people in California that voted against gay marriage, a huge majority of them were black. So they want their civil liberties but refuse to accept someone else to have their civil liberties? Now i know gays are not an ethnic group but they are still a group that deserve their rights. So funny how they refuse to accept that they are being hypocrites.

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@Krumple,

It is not a matter of hypocrisy. It is possible to have a principled opposition towards marriage of persons of the same gender. It is government policy in Australia, as it is in many places. Saying that opposition to marriage of persons of the same gender is like a form of racism is a very insidious argument. I can still agree that any person is entitled to have a sexual relationship with anyone they wish, and it is none of the states' business. That fact that one doesn't support marriage between persons of the same gender does not make you 'racist'.

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@jeeprs,

jeeprs wrote:

It is not a matter of hypocrisy. It is possible to have a principled opposition towards marriage of persons of the same gender. It is government policy in Australia, as it is in many places. Saying that opposition to marriage of persons of the same gender is like a form of racism is a very insidious argument. I can still agree that any person is entitled to have a sexual relationship with anyone they wish, and it is none of the states' business. That fact that one doesn't support marriage between persons of the same gender does not make you 'racist'.

I am not saying it is racism. I am saying it is hypocrisy to refuse someone else's rights to do what they want to do. They should have the right to marry if they want, yet people want their rights but refuse the rights of others. I was only siting one example. It has nothing to do with racism.

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@Arjuna,

I can't get beyond my outrage to consider your question properly!!

Anyone using the services of a therapist so mendaciously is revolting (though, I, for instance, get a lot of people trying to see me not to help their kids, but to get a Family Court Report...THERE'S a button push for me!!)...but massage is so intimate.

It would have been all I could have done not to hit him in the balls.

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@Arjuna,

I get maddened by christians who think meditation is evil..."because if you open your mind the devil comes in!!!!"

I mean apart from anything else, christianity has its own meditative tradition, to some extent.

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The Wabbit seems positively giddy since the new people showed up . . .

Fresh fish ! ! !
Fresh fish ! ! !

I think it's because she has all these new people to talk to with whom she is not bored, or for whom she has not yet developed contempt.

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@Setanta,

Actually, I've been sick and am also saving furiously, so I ahve been around more.

But fresh fish is good.

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I am sorry to hear that you are not well. I guess that you are saving for your circumplanetary digression, n'est-ce pas? I wish you well in your endeavors.

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@Arjuna,

Arjuna wrote:

Massage therapy originally came to the US in the 20's from Europe, although it's an ancient aspect of medicine. It quickly split into Physical Therapy and Massage Therapy, the latter being a front for prostitution. This situation prevailed until the 60's when massage therapy was reborn in California as a fusion of science and spirituality. When I got my first massage therapy license, I was required to appear before a county government meeting to affirm that I'm not a prostitute. That sort of thing has since been superseded by state licensure. Americans continue to be very touchy about the issue of touch... which tends to make American massage therapy a psychic mine-field. I actually thought I was pretty good at navigating through it... humor is a mighty tool. That's why it caught me so off guard when the Preacher got me... I lost my objectivity... my eye-ball floating in the room that would allow me to otherwise lose myself. The eye-ball was intended to notify me that something was going on that I needed to consciously address. So the Preacher was like a blind-spot.

We must run with a different crowd of Americans.

I don't know anyone, ulta-religious or not, that thinks a licensed massage therapist is really a prostitute.
It's understood this took training, licensure and is an important service providing pain relief, relaxation, a chance to relax not just the body, but the mind.

It's not hard to pick out the legitimate massage theripists from the prostitutes.

I think he was a nutcase, and/or wanted something illicit going on, and this was his way of absolving himself.

Anyway....

archetypes....I'd say the Victim.

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@Arjuna,

The priest archetype pushes my buttons, too. I was once trapped next to a Roman Catholic priest on a ninety-minute flight. He spent the entire time trying to convince me to spend time getting to know God as I would get to know any other new person or friend. When I realized that the debate was going nowhere, I finally told him that I understood the analogy, but that I don't worship my friends as he worships his God.

Then I felt bad for letting him get my goat. Arjuna -- I wasn't as good about it as you were, though. I didn't engage in any critical self-examination later. You've got me going now, though.

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When his motive was finally made clear, you could have just told him "Sorry, but neither of us have a soul" and in so doing save him further unnecessary effort. Shocked

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Stage moms.

You know -- those adults that were unsuccessful in their own pageant/entertainment endeavors so they push, push, push their kids in the direction of "stardom".

Stage moms push buttons I didn't even know I had.

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Self-important, self-employed photographers. Nothing gets me steamed like those types. I just want to puke when i see their photos.

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@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

Stage moms.

You know -- those adults that were unsuccessful in their own pageant/entertainment endeavors so they push, push, push their kids in the direction of "stardom".

Stage moms push buttons I didn't even know I had.

Now you got me!!! Kid "beauty pageants".

Seriously, they seem the pure face of evil to me.

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Archetypes that push your buttons

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