Basic personality traits develop early in life and over time become inviolable, hardwired. Most people learn little from experience, rarely thinking of adjusting their behavior, see problems as emanating from those around them, and keep on doing what they do in spite of everything, for better or worse.
A.S.A. HarrisonIn asserting that people don't change, what she means is that they don't change for the better. Whereas changing for the worse, that goes without saying.
A.S.A. HarrisonEvery shrink knows that it's not the event itself but how you respond to it that tells the story. Take ten assorted individuals, expose them all to the same life trial, and they will each suffuse it with exquisite personal detail and meaning.
A.S.A. HarrisonAutumn can be glorious but menacing too - the long shadows, brisk winds, scurrying leaves, impending frost.
A.S.A. HarrisonEven if you forget thatยดs not the same as if it never happened. The slate is not entirely wiped clean; you canยดt reclaim the person you were beforehand; your state of innocence is not there to be retrieved.
A.S.A. HarrisonAcceptance is supposed to be a good thing - Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Also compromise, as every couples therapist will tell you. But the cost was high - the damping of expectation, the dwindling of spirit, the resignation that comes to replace enthusiasm, the cynicism that supplants hope. The mouldering that goes unnoticed and unchecked.
A.S.A. Harrison