Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Blog Tour: The Breakthrough by Fredric C. Hartman, Ph. D.




Non-Fiction / Self Help
Date Published: Originally 2007 - Revised 2015

Dr. Hartman tells the story about our vulnerability to painful emotions, which flare up from the depths of our minds, casting spells over us. As the book unfolds, he develops two powerful ways to strengthen our consciousness enough to break these spells: one, by recognizing and grappling with the two surprisingly simple thoughts that lie at the heartand generate the painin each of our negative emotions, and two, by learning to stay focused on the present momentthe single moment we spend our entire lives inwhose mysterious, unexpected nature he describes in vivid detail.

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Excerpt

The Beginning


The lights go down to total darkness and come back up.
Classical music is playing softly in the waiting room.
Human Consciousness is sitting in the chair furthest from the door to Dr.
Hartman’s office, trying to read a magazine. Dr. Hartman is in his office on
his way to the waiting room door.
DR. HARTMAN: Emerges from his office into the waiting room and
looks right at Human Consciousness. “Hello,” he says with a very subtle
smile, “Come in.”
HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS: Puts the magazine in the rack and follows
Dr. Hartman into the office, becoming a little tentative, trying to
take it all in.
DR. HARTMAN: “Anywhere you like.” As he sits in his chair.
HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS: Looks around a little more at the furnishings
and sits down in the free-form bentwood chair opposite Dr. Hartman’s,
bouncing a little in it, looking at Dr. Hartman and feeling a little odd.
xx

Overture to Just One:
Consciousness, You Mean the World to Me


[Dr. Hartman is sitting in his chair, crossing a leg. Among other things in


this scene, Human Consciousness is drawn to the sounds of trucks and cars
driving by, and a jet flying overhead, and a bee that keeps bumping into the
window behind Dr. Hartman. No matter how many people may be present in
the theater of life and no matter what Dr. Hartman tries to say or how fervently

he says it, sometimes it seems that Human Consciousness is barely there.]
Let’s stop kidding ourselves. It doesn’t matter which human I happen to be

working with. Whenever anyone comes to me for help, it’s the consciousness
brought into my office that needs the help. It’s not a man, and it’s not a
woman. My real patient is consciousness, which is not something we just
have; it’s something we are. It’s us. We are consciousness, or we’re nothing at

all. It’s this consciousness I try to seize hold of and change in my work—the
one single consciousness and, if I could ever get its full attention, the whole
collective human thing.
And no, this is not a book or a play, exactly. And it’s not a vaudeville
variety show, either. It’s an appeal, a very serious appeal directly to consciousness
to learn to see, to dare to pull free from the grip of the pain from
the past and be here in this moment. It’s a holler, a shout. It’s a scream, a
scream full of love, the kind of scream only a psychotherapist can utter.
Because consciousness can be some of the trickiest material to handle that
this wide world has ever known. What it really takes to do this job thoroughly
is a good, solid, evolved civilization. But until civilization is equal
to the task, lone practitioners like me will take it on. I’ll rival civilization.
I’ll do what civilization can’t do. I’ll be everything you need me to be to
help make you strong and healthy.



About the Author

I'm a clinical psychologist in private practice and make my home on Long Island, New York.






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