Thanks for reading and for commenting Jude. I’m not quite sure I follow. But I can ask you, in your example, how did the girl get over the initial trauma of seeing the murder on TV? She wasn’t shut down or scared senseless by it, she had the courage to take the next step. In that way, she wasn’t a victim to her past, but she also didn’t deny its effects.

The same goes for the man who had a mean father. He could have let his childhood dominate his life. But he was open enough to learn from new experiences.

In both these cases, digging into the past wasn’t the answer. It was having the courage to take the next step and live regardless.

You make a good point with the past being useful on a practical level. The difference is that this article — and Adler’s work as a psychotherapist — is about moving on from difficult past experiences that hold people back and prevent them from making change. He’s not saying forget everything useful you have learned and been through. We couldn’t live without memory. But likewise you won’t live much if your memory is constantly troubled and consumed by the past.

Thanks for reading :)