Psychological v. everyday problem

Let’s begin by making a distinction between an everyday problem that has no root in your psychology and a clearly psychological problem that is rooted in your past, in the history of your life.  The everyday problem makes its presence  known at various moments throughout your day and while it may be off-putting to various degrees it does not form a pattern.


An example of this would be a flat tire.  If you are to go out to your car and find one of its tires flat, this would not automatically indicate there is some deep psychological trauma; however, if you were to consistently find yourself flummoxed by flat tires, then the question should arise as to why have you repeatedly been confronted with such a problem?  Is it that you do not remember the ever deepening pot-hole, that you repeatedly run over?  Is it that you are constantly “low” on funds and have not been able to devote the money to the replacement of old tires?  The point is that there are general, happenstance, occurrences, problems that you may have no way of knowing or predicting, but a psychologically rooted problem can be predicted and you may even been fully aware of the patterned nature but have not been able to alter its reoccurrence.


The psychologically rooted problem occurs similarly to the general problem, but to the extent that it repeats itself in a pattern distinguishes it from a general everyday problem.  It is the repetition of the psychologically rooted problem that gives you a clear signal, that is—if you can become aware of the pattern, you are dealing with an unresolved issue from your past.


So the first step is making a distinction between the general problem and the psychological problem and this can initially be made with the identification of a pattern or repetition.  The next step is to isolate the context for which the psychological problem is reoccurring.  The context is related to the who, what, when, and where, while the how and why of the context is essentially the groundwork of your past and the psychological material to be discovered.