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    Pop Psychology 3 – Saying it loud and clear in the living years

      I remember vividly discovering that I could learn from my children. I still marvel at the way they handle the life I have been instrumental in giving them as precious. With far greater ease than I recall mustering at their age and, seemingly, less effort, they navigate the challenges of their ‘Living Years’; all the more breathtakingly now as they interact with their own offspring. I have not always approved of the lifestyle choices they each have made, but I have come to recognise them as autonomous human beings in the making, just as I am, who were entrusted to me and my wife’s care for a season. We…

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    Pop Psychology 2 – ‘Please Don’t Leave Me’ – letting go of co-dependency

    Hearing, for the first time, P!nk’s unaccompanied voice punching “Da da da da da” in the intro, even before the relentless, driving guitar kicks in, left me winded. A foreshadowing of the breath-taking push-pull tussle that ensues. “I always say how I don’t need you.” followed a few lines later by “I need you.” For those unfamiliar with the song, or who need reminding, here is the You tube link www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-XLvUpvjZo . A warning though, this video contains disturbing images of brutalising behaviour by one human on another. Co-dependence is learned through placating the chaotic, incessant demands of a forebear or sibling who is perceived as a helpless victim, in…

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    Pop Psychology 1 – Do you need to speak to someone?

    What makes the perfect pop song? Music has three vital ingredients, melody, harmony and rhythm. For a track to become a hit it needs a hook, something to draw the listener in, so that the number becomes an incessant earworm, to which Kylie’s 2001 No 1 ‘Can’t Get You Outta My Head’ hypnotically attests. Songs that draw my attention have a further component. They tell a story. Succinctly capturing vignettes of life in 3 minutes. Not only observing something about the human condition but resonating deeply with it. The concept behind each entry in this regular blog is to take the narrative from a popular song as a jumping off…

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