[[Book - Exploring the landscape of the mind]] "...We do a disservice to the process if we simply label these as self-sabotaging people. In these instances, multiple dynamics are at work to keep long-standing childhood strategies in place. Our job as therapists is to interest patients in exploring the many factors that tie them to patterns of behaviour that bring them into conflict with themselves and others. Most, often, these self-sabotaging patterns are rooted in unconscious, automatic, early defences. For example, a boy may psychologically castrate himself in the face to powerful men as a way to demonstrate to the inner, abusive father of his childhood that he is out of the competition - he is no threat. Early defensive manoeuvres helped children to feel safe. They were useful at the time, and in some important sense, they worked." Reframe and acknowledge that children, even at a young age, are already proactively working to solve their problems in living.