Fromm is telling us that as most of us are offspring of character-disordered parents, we are statistically likely to have our self defined by our upbringing by these people. Merton's use of this phrase speaks to the development of our false selves in our postmodern culture. Merton takes it a bit deeper and tells us about the spiritual nature of our development and spends much of the book A New Man leading us back to our first love to find out that our true self will be found in Christ, our Messiah, our Savior, our Truth, not via the Vox Populi of the post-modern culture of the Western world.

Excerpts and notes from The New Man by Thomas Merton. Chapter 1, pages 3 to 15.

I work out my worldview. I work out ideas and things I read. I write about things I know. About things going on with the culture, things in my life, and relationships.

This is your time!

The Pietist movement is still alive and well. It's particularly evident in our Evangelical and Pentecostal denominations. Why is this important to us today? They have created religions that put their emphasis on performance. For example, they equate being saved with speaking in tongues; better yet, you must believe in the rapture.

The “past determines your present action and behavior” (Miller). We can continue to repress our childhood memories, ignoring that they exist, and be driven by repressed memories and feelings that determine nearly everything we do or fail to do.

“I have come to bring a message of good news to the poor; He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty (set free) those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Trauma pain (TP) is generally experienced when you are the object of a narcissist's control or an alcoholic’s rage and abuse. It also happens at the hands of a pedophile or sexual abuse of any kind. It can be physical, emotional, and sexual.

Our ontology is a commanding force culturally. Divorce rates are high; 40% of the population is narcissistic. Evil abounds in the abortion industry. The Bible represents centuries of history that never seems to improve for humans. International corporations plot against the inattentive public, forcing vaccines designed to eliminate life.

Virginia Wolfe exclaimed, in 1910, “All human relations have shifted, those between masters and servants, husbands and wives, parents and children. And when human relations change, there is at the same time a change in religion, conduct politics, and literature.” It was apparent then, as it certainly is a century later, that something had happened.