The Proletarian Has Nothing to Lose but Chains: The Same Holds for Ordinary People's Psychological Healing

The proletarians have nothing to lose in this revolution but their chains. They have a whole world to win. —Marx and Engels

Proletarians endure all kinds of oppression and toil, yet retain a simple commitment to truth, goodness, and beauty.

Psychological healing is much the same.

Ordinary people endure all kinds of suffering and struggle to survive, yet retain a simple commitment to truth, goodness, and beauty.

External pressures for material gain and vanity, comparisons with peers, the social clock, competition among men and among women, emotional exploitation and draining, poor emotional relationships, distorted relationship patterns, poor lifestyle habits, poor core beliefs, poor psychological patterns, poor behavioral patterns, all kinds of defense mechanisms, PUA-style belittling and seduction, indelibly imprinted ideological conditioning, moral blackmail, elitism, consumerism, and so on.

Human beings possess innate wholeness, but in an alienating feudal-capitalist society, this seed has not been properly nourished. The self is weakened, beset by illness, pain, and trauma, and haunted by the petty ego and inner demons. People are continually hurt in their environments of origin—their families of origin, their initial workplaces, and their original surroundings. Yet they still possess innate wholeness. This remains true until the day they decide to fight to defend their souls: to leave resolutely, move forward with perseverance, and remain steadfast in being themselves. They begin to resist and break free from all the people and energies that drag them down, eat away at them, malign them, obstruct them, and mislead them, using the ideas of Marx and Zhuangzi to liberate themselves fully.

Psychological healing means removing, one by one, these shackles attached to the healthy self with its innate wholeness and inherent purity. Chains removed -> a stronger self -> greater courage to break through stronger chains -> an even stronger self -> greater ability to be oneself.

Ordinary people have nothing to lose in this liberation of the spirit but their chains. They have an entire universe to gain. —Zhuangzi