I had the pleasure of being joined by Jeremy Fox, a men’s and women’s trauma expert who practices EMDR for its treatment.
We covered some of the material built into the Comprehensive Guide to Men’s Psychology, which benefits those who become paid, Upgraded Members of the Substack.
Some of the material is part of the larger course but it gives a nice overview of how men can make use of psychotherapy for trauma, as well as the grounding for understanding it in the mythological story of the ancient Greek figure, Philoctetes, depicted above.
Enjoy…
NOTES:
It has been long understood that “men don’t want to talk about their feelings.” Doing so brings them a feeling of shame.
What they want to do instead is to be given a mission, a goal to achieve, to heal, and to recover their sense of masculine self.
This is illustrated in the story of Philoctetes, of the Trojan War.
Philoctetes is a mythological character from the Greek tragedy by Sophocles, a warrior on his way to the Trojan War when a serpent bit him. The smell of his wound was so noxious that he was left on the island of Lemnos and ostracized by his countrymen.
He played a decisive part in the final stages of the Trojan War. He (or his father, Poeas) had bequeathed the bow and arrows of the Greek hero Heracles in return for lighting his funeral pyre; Philoctetes thus became a notable archer.
The Oracle of Apollo had prophesied that the Trojan War could be won only with the arrows of Hercules in Philoctetes’ possession and his skill in their use.
Men instinctually need solitude to find their agency, autonomy, and to access both the emotions and the creative mind. This will later be referred to as the Hades Instinct.
Like Philoctetes, they avoid shame and retain their sense of masculinity by healing themselves through skills already in possession and through new uses and skills. This is often an educational process, which is later referred to as the Apollo Instinct.
They need to mine their wounds and to make logical meaning out of them as rewards for the perils they have adventured through, like Philoctetes or Odysseus, and perhaps the master male instinct is the instinct for freedom and adventure, the Odysseus Instinct.
They then need to use those skills to win victory, such as in achieving a goal, which is later called the Ares Instinct.
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