“To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly” (Dogen Zenji 1200-1253).
How does one “study” or “forget” the self?
How does the self study and forget it-|…|-self?
How is one “actualized” by “myriad things”?
Who is the “one” asking the question?
Both Buddhism and psychology attempt to grasp the nature of mind, consciousness and the self, to alleviate suffering and to foster greater capacity for happiness and compassion. We all are prewired to develop a “self”. Human brain and nervous system have evolved to “have” consciousness and an embodied, pertinacious sense of “I / me” as a phenomenological center of our own subjectivity.
Along with the “language instinct” and its semiotic function(s), the capacity to “have” (an experience of) mind, consciousness and self are uniquely human, reflective of our evolutionary moment in space and time. 
As humans, we are also hardwired to organize our genetic endowment and all personal experiences into a personality - a neurocognitive (brain-mind) system regulating the enduring patterns of our internal experience and behavior.
As we mature and transition from infancy to adulthood, personality eventually becomes central in making each of us unique among others and consistent in time and across different situations. In the course of our psychological development, all events in our lives, every interaction, sensation, thought, internal experience or overt behavior leave a permanent trace on our brain-mind (memory) and make us who we are in the present moment.
Given “good enough” conditions, life, self, identity and personality develop relatively intact. When the hereditary and / or situational conditions are not wholesome enough, specific problems known as “disorders of personality” may develop.
A disorder of personality (and a personality disorder) can be thought of as “an enduring disturbance of the neurocognitive system regulating patterns of internal experience, behavior and interpersonal adaptation“. It can become a life long psychological and psychiatric affliction permeating all aspect of life, interpersonal relations with other people in particular.
Buddhism and psychology in general, and Buddhist meditation training and psychotherapy in particular, are two distinct yet overlapping ways of healing and mending hurt selves, ruptured identities and maladaptive personalities.
This website is a forum where psychotherapy, Buddhist meditation and disorders of personality are explored and discussed within a multidimensional, multivariable, psychodynamic neurocognitiveparadigm.
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