Eye problems often represent not seeing things the way someone else sees them (disagreements).

While walking to the store when I lived in Tucson, I thought of a girlfriend. Immediately, a gnat flew into my right eye and irritated it.

Returning home, the same place reminded me of her again, and a second gnat flew into my right eye and irritated it.

I stomped inside the room I rented, thinking, “Now I can think about her in a gnat-free environment.”

My eyelashes immediately scratched my right cornea, and my eye teared for the better part of an hour.

David A. Steere, Ph.D. (Bodily Expressions in Psychotherapy, 1982) wrote …

“Recurrent blinking is a […] script sign and is usually accompanied by confusion and failure to see things clearly. Rita often blinked uncontrollably when she began talking about herself. On two occasions she got lost coming to group, although she had successfully driven there for several weeks. She did not ‘see’ her turn, nor did she ‘see’ her reluctance to come on those evenings. She also failed to see any rebellion in her marriage to a person of another race, even though her father who was a fundamentalist preacher opposed it bitterly. Often there is some underlying trauma which accompanies blinking, coupled with a fear of injury or untoward consequences. Margo blinked rapidly when someone became angry and, at other times, produced a series of squints or half-blinks while looking aside and contemplating something painful from her past. She carried with her a fear of being struck near the eye across the left side of her face, with a vague sense that this had once happened to her as an infant in her crib. She was also terrified at the thought that someone would punch her in the eyes, reflecting the memory of the small boy next door who punched out the eyes of her three kittens while she watched helplessly. The frequent occurrence of such phenomena leads me to posit still another injunction alongside the familiar ones we have discussed – the injunction, ‘Don’t see.’ Effective redecisions are followed by strong self-assertion and the willingness to look at situations in one’s life and see them clearly.”

Eyes are seldom “strained.”

George S. Derby, M.D. (“Ocular Neuroses: An Important Cause of So-Called Eyestrain,” The Journal of the American Medical Association, Sept. 27, 1930) wrote …

“I wish we could banish the term eyestrain from our vocabulary. If the general public could learn that eyes are seldom strained, this would be a much happier world we live in. The fact of the matter is that the eye is provided with a large factor of safety and that healthy eyes do not become diseased even by excessive use. During the course of the year I see a large number of young men from various professional schools who are carrying heavy programs of work. Frequently the system rebels and the trouble may center in the eyes. In practically all cases they have been burning the candle at both ends, neglecting regular meals, sufficient sleep, fresh air and exercise. To do hard eye work one must keep the body fit. A discussion with them of their habits of life and suggestions for improvement is of far more value than simply writing a prescription for a pair of glasses; yet that is what the average ophthalmologist is likely to do.”

RED-FLAG LANGUAGINGindicators influencing eye challenges include …

“I see,” “look here,” “I don’t want to see it,” “I don’t see things that way,” “I see through you,” “look me straight in the eye,” “he’s blind as a bat,” “she’s the apple of my eye,” “she gave me the eye,” “he has his eye on me,” “he looks up to me,” “he’s squint-eyed [prejudiced] about it,” “you mustn’t look,” “seeing is believing,” “the eye is the window to the soul,” “love is blind,” “it’s the blind leading the blind,” “he can’t see past his nose,” “he’s got eyes in the back of his head,” “he gave me the evil eye,” “it’s an eye for an eye,” “the mote in your brother’s eye,” “hindsight is easier than foresight,” “he’s so mad he can’t see straight,” etc.

That last figure of speech applies to me – I was cross-eyed till I had an operation in 1954.