“Addiction depends upon keeping the multiplicity of our desires unconscious. When I invite all that I am into awareness, I realize that no one substance, activity, or person has the capacity to satisfy me fully. I leave aside the security of the fix and begin the adventure of falling in love with the multiplicity of the self and the world.”

—  Sam Keen

Source: The Passionate Life (1983), p. 140

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Addiction depends upon keeping the multiplicity of our desires unconscious. When I invite all that I am into awareness,…" by Sam Keen?
Sam Keen photo
Sam Keen 56
author, professor, and philosopher 1931

Related quotes

Zafar Mirzo photo
Grant Morrison photo

“I use media exposure as a means of playing with multiple personalities. Each interview is a different me and they're all untrustworthy”

Grant Morrison (1960) writer

2000
http://web.archive.org/web/20010215211642/http://www.bbc.co.uk/edfest/chat/post_chat.shtml
On himself

Walt Whitman photo
Jurnee Smollett photo

“You are not weak. You are brave. One of the bravest I know. Speaking your truth, a person living at the intersection of multiple identities, unapologetically, takes courage. I love you”

Jurnee Smollett (1986) American actress

14 February 2019 https://twitter.com/jurneesmollett/status/1096168270506258432 re Jussie Smollett (older brother)

James Madison photo
Leo Buscaglia photo
Rose Wilder Lane photo
Eric Hoffer photo

“The significant point is that people unfit for freedom — who cannot do much with it — are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Journal entry (28 March 1959)
Working and Thinking on the Waterfront (1969)
Context: The significant point is that people unfit for freedom — who cannot do much with it — are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have-not" type of self. If Hitler had had the talents and the temperament of a genuine artist, if Stalin had had the capacity to become a first-rate theoretician, if Napoleon had had the makings of a great poet or philosopher they would hardly have developed the all-consuming lust for absolute power.
Freedom gives us a chance to realize our human and individual uniqueness. Absolute power can also bestow uniqueness: to have absolute power is to have the power to reduce all the people around us to puppets, robots, toys, or animals, and be the only man in sight. Absolute power achieves uniqueness by dehumanizing others.
To sum up: Those who lack the capacity to achieve much in an atmosphere of freedom will clamor for power.

Related topics