ABSTRACT
Can psychoanalysis help us change our destinies? This chapter considers the various ways in which destiny is linked to the repetition compulsion and how psychoanalysis can, indeed, help the individual reshape his future. Utilizing some of the latest findings of neuroscience, the author describes how electrical impulses originating in the most primitive areas of the brain are processed by higher levels of the brain and converted into language, strengthening the cerebral cortex and giving the patient control over his own destiny. Some of the resistances to giving up destructive patterns are described and illustrated with clinical examples.
