There are foods no rational human would knowingly ingest: the stuff listed on this website. Why would you eat a double bacon peanut butter egg and cheese burger with chipotle mayo? Because you think it will taste good. To be precise, a little child inside you thinks it will taste good. That little child is [...]
Archive for the ‘Intriguing Patients’ Category
Your Id – and Sarah Palin
Posted in Current Events, Intriguing Patients, tagged healthcare, Id, inner child, Pleasure Principle, regression, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Scott Brown, Tea Partiers, Tea Party, Tea Party movement, thisiswhyyourefat.com on September 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Rich and famous
Posted in Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged attention, einstein, Freud, security in love on August 15, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Albert Einstein was puzzled by the mystery of his own fame. He was forever pondering with friends and associates why he – a physicist whose work was a mystery to most non-scientists – should have become the recipient of full-blown Hollywood-style celebrity. For whatever reason, Einstein chose not to discuss this issue with the father [...]
Patients say the darndest things!
Posted in Intriguing Patients, tagged funny things, jokes, patients, psychotherapy on July 26, 2010 | 4 Comments »
A therapist colleague recently agreed with me that the funniest things we’d ever heard were told to us by our patients. Summer break (and the week of the bar exam) seems like an appropriate time for a laugh. So…without further ado…here are some of my patients’ funniest utterances from the past few years: (An Arab [...]
Listen. Don’t mind-read.
Posted in Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged Beethoven, deafness, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, mind-reading on June 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
A lot of people thought Ludwig van Beethoven was an unpleasant person. He could be impatient, and often tempestuous. But most of the time, when people thought the composer was being gruff or imperious or rude, it was the result of his trying to hide the fact that he couldn’t hear a word they were [...]
How to be Lady Gaga
Posted in Current Events, Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged Lady Gaga, Stefani Germanotta on May 10, 2010 | 3 Comments »
A young woman I worked with last week told me three thoughts that kept playing in her head like a tape: I’m not special. I’m not good at anything. It would be better if I were just dead. Listening to those voices took her down a familiar path to depression and self-destructive behavior. She admitted [...]
Does my therapist have to look like me?
Posted in Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged African-American, American Sign Language, ASL, Cantonese, choosing a therapist, Clarence Thomas, deaf, diversity, ethnicity, Japanese-speaking psychotherapist, race, Thurgood Marshall, transgender on April 3, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Towards the end of a session a while back, one of my patients, who was African-American, laughed out loud, like he was sharing a personal joke. “What’s so funny?” I asked. “Oh, I don’t know. I still can’t get over the fact that my therapist is a white guy.” I shrugged and smiled – there [...]
Why you love Prince William and Kate Middleton
Posted in Current Events, Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged British Royal Family, Elizabeth II, infantilize, Kate Middleton, Louis XIV, play, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, Prince Philip, Prince William, Versailles on March 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote a column a few weeks back on Prince William and Kate Middleton. I possess no expertise in the British royal family. I merely stumbled upon an article in a gossip mag comparing the Prince’s girlfriend to his mother, and it provided an excuse to discuss why you might choose a spouse who resembles your [...]
Walking in circles
Posted in Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged circles, deja vu, Freud, learned behavior, observing ego, Pavlov, Pavlov's dogs, repetition compulsion on February 28, 2010 | 1 Comment »
My patient sounded bewildered. “It was like I was watching myself going through the motions – repeating the same old pattern.” He’d just broken up for the umpteenth time with a woman he’d been dating for over a year. “It’s always the same thing. I do something nice for her. Then she tries to do [...]
You’re not ugly. You’re beautiful.
Posted in Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged Beauty, inner child, negative introjects, physical appearance on February 12, 2010 | 5 Comments »
The other day, I was listening to a patient explain to me why he was ugly and no one could possibly find him attractive. This was news to me, because so far as I could tell he was a very handsome guy – film star handsome. It was a puzzling case. Let’s talk about beauty [...]
Why Scott Brown needs so much attention
Posted in Current Events, Intriguing Patients, tagged acting out, filibuster, healthcare, Judge Samuel Zoll, Massachusetts, Scott Brown, Scott Brown's daughters, shop-lifting, Tea Party, Ted Kennedy, Teddy Kennedy on February 11, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Children need a lot of attention. When they don’t get it, they’ll often act out – misbehave – in a desperate attempt to be paid attention to, even if the result is negative attention. I had a patient who used to vomit frequently as a child. It became an unpleasant regular event during family meals [...]
Prince William and why your wife might be just like your mother
Posted in Current Events, Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged adaptation, Diana, Kate Middleton, marriage, narcissism, Prince William, Princess Diana on February 9, 2010 | 5 Comments »
The People’s Therapist was working out at the gym on the elliptical trainer the other day when he realized he’d come to the end of an issue of The New York Review of Books – his customary cardiovascular/literary fare. In desperation, I reached for whatever other reading material happened to be lying around, and discovered [...]
Not opposition. Alliance. Like when you first met.
Posted in Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged alliance, couples counseling, first date, opposition, partnership on February 7, 2010 | 4 Comments »
The couple sitting in my office were clearly in no mood for social niceties. It was strictly down to business with these two. There seemed to be nothing they agreed on. She insisted he marry her as a sign of his seriousness. He wanted to wait until she stopped verbally attacking him. He hated her [...]
And nip and tuck and nip and tuck
Posted in Current Events, Intriguing Patients, tagged addiction, breast augmentation, chin reduction, Heidi Montag-Pratt, lips collagen injections, Michael Jackson, nose job, plastic surgery, rhinoplasty on February 3, 2010 | 6 Comments »
The news has been full of reports of Heidi Montag-Pratt and her claim to have undergone 10 separate plastic surgery procedures in one day. That includes rhinoplasty (a nose job), breast augmentation, lip collagen injections, chin reduction, and god only knows what else. “I’m beyond obsessed,” is the frequently cited quote. It certainly sounds like [...]
You are one tough little kid
Posted in Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged inner child, resilient children, Shin, surrogates on February 1, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Studies have been done of resilient children – kids who have faced down tough times and survived intact. They share one key finding: These kids locate surrogates – replacements – for what is otherwise missing in their lives. Whether it’s a teacher or a neighbor or an uncle or a grandparent – somehow, these scrappy [...]
Obama, O-calma and the Buddha’s refusals
Posted in Current Events, Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged Baltimore, Buddha, gay, healthcare, immigrants, lesbian, LGBT, meditation, O-calma, Obama, Ocalma, Republicans, Three refusals on January 31, 2010 | 8 Comments »
The People’s Therapist is of course strictly non-partisan. It is hardly my place to take sides in political matters, and I am loathe to betray a hint of bias in these pages. However. How could anyone NOT admire our magnificent President, Barack Obama, as he faced down those ignorant Republican hacks in Baltimore last week? [...]
Stop burning bridges! Enforce boundaries instead.
Posted in Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged burning bridges, commitment, direct communication, enforcing boundaries on January 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
My patient was beside himself. The younger woman he’d been dating was jerking him around, he fumed. Last week, when he was finally out on a date with someone else, starting to enjoy himself, she’d left him an open-ended text message, asking what he was up to and whether he wanted to get together sometime. [...]
Just. Leave.
Posted in Current Events, Intriguing Patients, Thoughts and Musings, tagged abuser, assault, Charlie Sheen, Domestic Violence, order of protection, police on January 28, 2010 | 1 Comment »
The recent arrest of the actor, Charlie Sheen, on domestic violence charges will make for a very brief, very important post. I have no idea if Mr. Sheen is guilty of these charges, or what actually happened during this incident. I only mention it in order to raise the vital issue of domestic violence. Violence [...]
It’s time for your appointment
ThePeoplesTherapist
The People’s Therapist writes books
Our weekly appointments
A Quiet Room
-
The Latest Dreams for you to Interpret
-
Adlerian Plus and Minus Positions
Differing Diagnoses
- About This Site (8)
- AboveTheLaw series (72)
- AskThePeople'sTherapistSeries (23)
- Current Events (29)
- Interviews (1)
- Intriguing Patients (30)
- Radio (17)
- Thoughts and Musings (66)
Feel free to free associate
Recalling the past
Hallucinatory visions
-
Tell me about your feelings
JP on Green Acres JP on Green Acres Samiam on Green Acres Should've Been A Plu… on Green Acres Should've Been A Plu… on Green Acres
