What is your interpretation of morality?
What is the essence of dignity?
What does it mean to be virtuous?
You see, deep inside your mind, you already know your true path to wellness. This blog is a vehicle that can only be powered by the self: self-awareness, self-discipline, and self-control.
Based on more than 25 years of treating professionals in the financial services industry, and studying wall street psychology I know that repression of virtue is at the root of many psychological and physiological ailments.
Of course, there are many other contributing factors. Yet, as work in therapy progresses, as we pull back the layers, my patients come to the realization that they have to answer for their actions.
And, they have to answer to themselves first and foremost. Everything comes from within. This is an important construct far too many of my patients have learned the hard way.
MORAL BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS:
I recall one case in particular, where I worked with a financial consultant who had an elite boutique practice. He managed well over $2 billion in assets. He was very good at what he did.
However, this man had weaknesses for young women, cocaine, and a variety of sexual fetishes. When he entered treatment he was spiritually bankrupt, and his production was tanking.
At some point, his perspective grew quite dark. Life became a constant grind, and he could not really understand the origins of his increasing depression and anxiety.
He confessed that he no longer felt whole, consistent, or even remotely happy. In fact, he described himself as “splintered.” As we explored his emotions, it became evident that his dignity was eroding and his honor had dissipated so greatly that he could no longer even believe himself, or his fabrications. He was losing his soul and his humanity. These painful realizations and revelations did not come easily. He also began to suffer with major depression. He agreed to a psychiatric consult, and was medicated quickly with excellent results. He was able to stop abusing cocaine, especially after I read him the riot act with regard to the distinct possibility of losing his series 7 and 63 licenses.
Yet, medication and threat of failure were still not enough to empower this individual to truly invest himself in his recovery. Ultimately, through intensive therapy, he was able to stop repressing his true identity and finally face moral accountability to and for himself.
His sense of well being began to increase and he began to heal. He was able to talk about his excessive fear of failure, and his ambivalence about maintaining, or even remotely deserving, any success. He committed to a three time per week treatment regimen. He began to restore his dignity by taking a fearless moral inventory of his life, his value system, his relationships, and his inner self on a daily basis. He even agreed to start journaling. He began to rebuild himself as he felt safe, and as his dignity started was restored.