The Passion Paradox: A Guide to Going All In, Finding Success, and Discovering the Benefits of an Unbalanced Life

by Brad Stulberg

Might Roll’s story have broader implications? Professor Alan St Clair Gibson, PhD, MD, of the University of Essex in the UK, thinks so. Gibson specializes in integrative neuroscience. He’s devoted much of his life to thinking about the intersection of mind and body. Gibson believes that passion may be rooted at least partially in something that Sigmund Freud long ago called ego fragility. In order to block out damaging events from one’s past, Gibson says, people repress bad memories and experiences, relegating them deep into the subconscious. But these emotions can only stay bottled up for so long. Eventually, according to Gibson, they are “released through external drives or desires, often manifesting as energy put forth toward an unrelated activity.” A telltale sign of this transference, Gibson says, is “fanatical attachment to projects and goals.”9 Gibson is well aware that Freudian psychology has fallen out of favor, but the notion of ego fragility—that damaging events from one’s past and insecurities can fuel later and seemingly unrelated obsessions—is supported by a wealth of more modern science.