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Take 12 Strokes off Your Golf Game by
Overcoming Cathexis with Kenosis - What?
Ron Strand
Every summer for the past five or six years I have reread
Scott Peck's quirky book about psychiatry and golf, Golf and
the Spirit. Peck is probably better known for his best selling
books about his experiences and insights as a psychiatrist,
such as, A Road Less Travelled. In Golf and the Spirit, Peck
combines his love for golf and what golf has taught him about
the human condition and relates that to his years as a psychiatrist,
and what studying the human condition that has taught him
about golf.
If that sounds a bit convoluted, well, paradox is one of the
recurring themes in the book. Peck says in the introduction
that reading the book might take 12 strokes of your game,
and it might not. His advice on the physical and technical
sides of the game is simple, keep your eye on the ball and
take a nice easy swing, and, watch a good player and imitate
the swing. The book is more about the mental part of the game,
and the behaviour that is required to succeed at golf and
in life.
Peck, who has spent decades as a golfer, and now, unable to
play, creates his imaginary dream golf course on a tropical
island. In each chapter he plays a hole on the course, reflecting
on memories of past experiences, both as a golfer and a psychiatrist.
Along the course, he ponders issues like, why it is so difficult
for people to change, even though they want to, whether it
is correcting your golf swing to get rid of a slice or someone
trying to overcome an addiction and everything in between.
A couple of the recurring themes are difficult concepts that
define difficult words. Peck returns again and again to the
concept of kenosis, the idea that to change you must empty
yourself of self. Self gets in the way. Every golfer knows
that the mental game plays a big part in a golfer's success.
Golf involves the often difficult paradox of relaxing and
concentrating at the same time. Golf cannot be played well
if ones mind is distracted with all kinds of thoughts, whatever
they may be about. Somehow, it is best to be thought-less.
The mind must be emptied, which is the beginning of kenosis.
Another concept Peck returns to often is called cathexis.
This word describes the human condition of developing an emotional
investment in destructive behaviour. It is applicable to golf
as it is many things in life. We can't change because we can't
give up the emotional investment we have in our behaviour,
how that behaviour defines us.
I am often surprised, yet I guess not really because I have
done it too, at how often I see golfers at the driving range
make the same bad swing time and time again, somehow expecting
a different result. If you want to change the result you have
to change the swing, the stance, the grip, something. I found
that my game started to improve when I started experimenting.
What will happen if I stand with my feet closer together?
What happens when I draw back a bit farther on my backswing?
Eventually, you find out what works and what doesn't work.
In the process, you give up the emotional investment in one
way of doing things. It is a form of kenosis.
I can't say for sure if Peck is responsible for taking twelve
strokes off my game, but my game has definitely improved since
reading and rereading his book. I think there is a correlation.
Learning to overcome cathexis with kenosis is probably not
being taught at many golf academies. But read the book, relax
and enjoy it, and your game will probably improve.
Ron Strand is a college instructor, consultant and
golfer who writes for a golf website.
Article Source: http://www.goarticles.com
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