Entries by Alan Godwin

May 31, 2019

Dear Drama Observers, Drama People are called many things. Most of these terms aren’t nice and some you’d be careful not to say in the presence of children. Although it’s not a cover-your-child’s-ears term, one such descriptor is “shifty.” Let me explain… As I often say, Drama People lack what’s needed to make relationships function […]

May 24, 2019

Dear Drama Observers, So, what exactly is a narcissist, anyway? One of the best television examples of narcissism (in my humble opinion) is Michael Scott from The Office, who once explained: “Do I need to be liked? Absolutely not. I like to be liked. I enjoy being liked. I have to be liked. But it’s […]

May 17, 2017

Dear Drama Observers, Last week, I posted a letter written a couple of years ago about the exploitative methods of Drama People. Specifically, people who haven’t learned to think for themselves can be particularly vulnerable. I closed the letter this statement: When people can’t think for themselves, they’re easy prey for drama predators. That’s why […]

May 10, 2019 (The Seduction of Groupthink)

Dear Drama Observers, With some alterations, here’s something I wrote two years ago that relates very much to the concept of my new book: **** When I was half way through graduate school, I had to pick a research topic for my dissertation. I remember this sage-like graduate student putting his hands on my shoulders, […]

May 3, 2019

Dear Drama Observers, Do you ever have a hard time putting down a book? That’s happening to me right now. Actually, by the time you read this I will have finished it, but I will definitely be re-reading it—maybe several times. It’s entitled The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in […]

April 26, 2019

Dear Drama Observers, Below is a post from a couple of years ago (with some updates): **** It would seem that we are witnessing a sea change of sorts where activities of sexual boundary-crossers are being exposed and collectively condemned. These predators are usually men, though there is the occasional story about some female teacher […]

April 19, 2019

Dear Drama Observers, Just over two years ago, I started sending out The Drama Review on a weekly basis. I tell people sometimes: “I do it for one reason—because I want to.” Drama People can be so dang confusing, and trying make sense of them can be like looking through a camera’s viewfinder with Vaseline […]

April 12, 2019

Dear Drama Observers, For the last several years, it seems like March and April are particularly hectic for me. And this year is no exception. I’ve been busier than a one-toothed man in a corn-on-the-cobb-eating contest. So, here’s something I’ve written before. It appears in my eBook, “Marriage Myths: 10 Things That Sound True About […]

April 5, 2019

Dear Drama Observers, Drama People are head-scratchers. That is, they confuse us in two big ways. First, we struggle to understand them and make sense of their beguiling ways. They leave us wondering, “Why would he do that?” or “What’s wrong with her, anyway?” Second, even when we sort of figure them out, the more […]

March 29, 2019

Dear Drama Observers, “Attempting to reason with a person who has renounced the use of reason,” wrote founding father Thomas Paine, “is like administering medicine to the dead.” My quicker and certainly less picturesque way to say the same thing is, “You can’t reason with an unreasonable person.” I talk a lot in these weekly […]