https://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Higher-Consciousness-Ken-Key...

but personally it loaded my mind up with crap and increased my stress level and might have gotten me checked into a mental hospital if I'd tried it any harder. (I learned years later that if you want to repeat a mantra and have it calm you down and not excite you, you only repeat it when you catch another thought in your mind. If there is no thought, enjoy the silence)

There is a point, I think, for a more granular approach to find specific thoughts and behaviors that are contributing to depression and catch them.

Lately I "hired a writer" for a part of myself that emerges when my schizotypy is acting up and I am under stress and have unproductive conversations. ("The Ogre" got me kicked out of elementary school) Now instead of digging myself deeper trying to explain myself I stick to repeating (externally) a single phrase which has not the slightest hint of malice but is really infuriating to the recipient because it is scientifically formulated with the principles of self-psychology. [2] The recipient bends, stomps off, or loses their shit. I look a little crazy but not as crazy as if I lose my shit and often less crazy than they look; at best the beliefs that underly "The Ogre" are disproven, at worst I don't inflame myself any further -- either way the bad habits are not reinforced.

Overall I am really glad that my current therapist hasn't put me through CBT and the more intensive therapies based on it. My son really benefited from reading some psychology books his therapist gave him, but I'm the kind of person who's going to argue the DSM is wrong about this or that and here are 3 monographs, 5 conference proceedings, and 15 papers to prove it.

I see "As long as my conscience is clean, I will not be put to shame" as a particular "blame the victim" kind of statement (what do you conclude if you feel shame?), the harms of which are well discussed in this classic. [2]

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Analysis-Self-Psychoanalytic-Narcissi...

[2]