Search Results for: Robert Firestone

Aging and Positive Psychology: Biological, Cognitive, Personality, Health, and Clinical Issues

…D., consider challenging life transitions for Baby Boomers. Sexologist Dr. Robert Birch shares his 30+ years of clinical experience as a sex therapist and discusses how to foster a fulfilling sex life for Boomers and seniors. John Erickson is a visionary who revolutionized retirement living, founded Retirement Living Television network (the only cable TV network devoted to seniors), and has developed remarkably effective medical services for senio…

Learn More

Five Ways to Bring Your Vacation Romance Home

…g in our relationship. This mode of imagined relating is what psychologist Robert W. Firestone, refers to as a “fantasy bond.” A fantasy bond represents a fused identity as a couple that replaces the initial excitement and mutual respect we once felt as two individuals who loved and cared for each other. When we give up our individuality for the security of imagining that we are part of a couple, we lose the attraction we once felt toward each oth…

Learn More
Fantasy Bond, Intimacy problems, relationship advice

Why the Spark Fades in a Relationship

…nsive psychological theory developed by my father, psychologist and author Robert Firestone, the “fantasy bond” describes a way of relating that serves as a substitute for a truly loving relationship As my father has written of the fantasy bond, “This illusion of connection and closeness allows [a couple] to maintain an imagination of love and loving, while preserving emotional distance.” As one woman who was going through a divorce after six year…

Learn More

4 Ways to Stop Sabotaging Yourself

…directed and positive. However, part of us, a part my father psychologist Robert Firestone refers to as the “anti-self,” is against us. The anti-self is like an internal enemy that resides in our minds. It speaks to us through a series of self-critical, self-denying or even self-soothing thoughts known as the “critical inner voice.” The purpose of this inner voice is to hold us back from what we want and to keep us in our place, so to speak. The…

Learn More

Why Are We Hooked on Rejection?

…don’t want to be with us romantically? My father, psychologist and author Robert Firestone, recently commented, “It’s amazing how people will suck the marrow out of rejection.” While most of us like to think that all we want is true love, the reality is, many of us are addicted to rejection. Rejection validates the negative point of view of what my father calls a “critical inner voice.” This “voice” represents an internal enemy shaped out of nega…

Learn More

The Real Reason You’re Not Married

…interpersonal relationships, both I and my father, psychologist and author Robert Firestone, Ph.D., have closely followed hundreds of clients and case studies of couples. In our research we have found overwhelming consistency in certain behavioral patterns that systematically sabotage real intimacy. First off, the search for a partner to whom we feel a real attraction and deep connection is a challenge that it would be foolish to underestimate. Th…

Learn More

Sabotage You

…. The Critical Inner Voice, a concept generated by my father, psychologist Robert Firestone, is formed early in life during stressful and traumatic events. Just as positive childhood experiences lead to confidence, ability and optimism, negative experiences lead us to low self-esteem, self-destructive behaviors and pessimism. The Critical Inner Voice thus describes a dynamic operating within each of us that causes us to relive rather than live our…

Learn More

Eight Ways to Actively Fight Depression

…the voice of a well-hidden enemy within, what my father, psychologist Dr. Robert Firestone refers to as the critical inner voice. Internalized early in life, this inner voice functions like an over-disciplinary parent holding us back and keeping us in our place. On October 11, I am presenting a CE Webinar to professionals on an Innovative Approach to Treating Depression. The presentation will illustrate how this destructive thought process fuels…

Learn More
The Critical Inner Voice

Evicting the "Obnoxious Roommate" In Your Head

…ssed by the parallels between Arianna’s inspiring message and my father’s, Robert Firestone, and my own 30 years of research into the concept of the “critical inner voice.” Like the “obnoxious roommate” described by Arianna, the inner voice represents an internalized critic that we all possess to varying degrees. Although this isn’t an actual voice we hear, the critical inner voice describes destructive thoughts we all experience toward ourselves,…

Learn More

Real Love or a Fantasy Bond: The Appeal of the Twilight Saga

…e challenges that arise with real love is form what my father psychologist Robert Firestone termed a “Fantasy Bond.” The fantasy bond is a connection built out of fears from danger and even from death that we often experience at an unconscious level. This bond substitutes real feelings of love, respect, and spontaneity with an illusion of connection, a focus on form over substance, and a false sense of security and completion by another person. Wh…

Learn More