Ross Rosenberg's Blog

PTSD

The motivation to write this poem was to figure out why my conscious motivations to be with a new intimate partner seemed to be contradicted and sabotaged by deeper automatic...

HEAVEN

In an effort to understand spirituality and true life meaning, I tend this poem at age 52 (2003). It represents my desire to reconcile my scientific and spiritual understanding of...

CODEPENDENT LOVE

 In a moment of inspiration, I tapped into the illusionary and dishonest nature of codependent love. The pain reflected in this poem should resonate with the world of codependents as...

ON BECOMING A ROSE: THE JOURNEY TO SELF-LOVE ABUNDANCE

        Anaïs Nin's famous quote: “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to...

SMILING SKELETONS - A POEM BY ROSS ROSENBERG

I started this poem eight years ago after visiting my childhood home (in Mt. Prospect, IL). I had hoped that someone would be home to let me come inside to...

Toxic Empathy

Toxic Empathy Excerpt from Upcoming“The Codependency Revolution”Released with workbook in November 2023 Written by Ross Rosenberg, M.Ed., LCPC, CADCSelf-Love Recovery Institute — President/CEOPsychotherapist, Educator, Author, Expert Witness TOXIC EMPATHY Before describing toxic empathy, its healthy form...

Common Codependency Traits

Common Codependency Traits Excerpt from Upcoming“The Codependency Revolution”Released with workbook on November 1, 2023 Written by Ross Rosenberg, M.Ed., LCPC, CADCSelf-Love Recovery Institute — President/CEOPsychotherapist, Educator, Author, Expert Witness COMMON CODEPENDENCY TRAITS Although codependency has been...

We Are All Human Magnets

The earth is one colossal magnet with two opposite poles, like its smaller magnetic cousins. Each pole has opposite magnetic charges: positive and negative. As a result, a metal needle in a compass is highly sensitive to our planet’s magnetic field.

Taking on the Codependency Establishment

Predictive Awareness' Worst-Case Scenario Technique

Iatrogenic Trauma: The Consequences of Ineffective Therapy

Iatrogenic trauma is the long-term suffering and distress caused by the poorly executed, mistaken, and/or incompetent treatment of any painful, limiting, or frightening mental health or medical problem. Such trauma is caused by a treatment provider’s unrealistic optimism, unfulfilled assurances of relief or a cure, treatment failure, the worsening of the condition, painful complications, or the creation of unanticipated unrelated conditions

Reverse Gaslighting: The “We Are a Perfect Family” Lie

This was when I created the term “Reverse Gaslighting,” to explain the phenomenon about which we had been talking. Just like traditional gaslighting, there was a focused and selfish effort to manipulate the environment to create a false belief in a reality that was manufactured. In her case, her father—and to some degree, her mother—clearly manipulated her childhood and adolescent perceptions to make her believe what was obviously dysfunctional was healthy. Sandra now understood how and why her parents ignored or whitewashed any negative interactions so that the “perfect family” and “perfect daughter” narrative could stay intact.

Couples Therapy Backfires With Narcissists

It is extremely likely that couples therapy will fail when one of the partners has been or could be diagnosed with narcissistic (NPD), borderline (BPD), and antisocial (ASPD) personality disorder. 

Narcissistic Injuries:Threatening the Narcissist's Low Self-Esteem

Narcissistic injuries are almost always projections, which is the misplacement of the narcissist’s unconscious self-hatred onto any person who they experience as threatening. Projections are dissociated feelings of self-hatred and self-loathing, that are attributed to a person who threatens the narcissist’s veneer-thin self-esteem. Because projections intertwine with narcissistic injuries, it is only academic to separate them.

Pathological Narcissists Are Delusional

Written by Ross Rosenberg, M.Ed., LCPC, CADCSelf-Love Recovery Institute — President/CEOPsychotherapist, Educator, Author, Expert Witness These days, the term “delusion” or “delusional” is used well beyond its original clinical meaning. Like many of my other mental...