This type of self-esteem we call, "Confidence," is an action-taking, protective, defensive positive emotion, and an energy of action, akin to being "paternal" or fatherly toward one's self and others. It is the antidote to the other of the two types of stress, called, "loss." In terms of the laws of thermodynamics, it is a "kinetic energy," an energy of action. Confidence is then the ability to take action to [Read more...] about Confidence

Conscience is something that guides our decisions in terms of what the likely effect will be on others in those decisions. Will it be destructive (win/lose) or constructive (win/win) toward others. After we make a decision, either constructive or destructive, we get to learn whether the result was conscientious, or ethical, by way of feedback from others. And so our "tank" of conscience or ethics fills a bit. In other [Read more...] about Conscience

The conscious mind has been a core interest of philosophers throughout history. It has been referred to in many ways, from Aristotle to Freud. In Romantic Dynamics, we seek to get more precise and circumscribed about what it means exactly and how we can make the definition practical to ourselves.

And so for our purposes, we will view the conscious mind as those mental processes that operate within our [Read more...] about Conscious

That which is constructive has all kinds of connotations in psychology. For our purposes in Romantic Dynamics, it pertains to the intent and outcome of our decision-making, and can be used as a unit marker of the level of maturity (and likely success at getting to goals) in our decisions.

For purposes of accuracy and the spirit of science, we borrow from Game Theory of Economics, and specifically, what [Read more...] about Constructive

The expression of an intrapsychic conflict as something physical. In the world of medicine, this pathologic effect has been seen in the form of blindness, deafness, or some other catastrophic physical manifestation of someone’s inner conflict or anxiety. You may know it in a more mundane way as “being too sick to go to school,” or in having had someone genuinely fall ill with a cold or flu at just [Read more...] about Conversion