Dear Drama Observers, For several years now, I’ve traveled and conducted seminars about manipulators or what I refer to in this letter as Drama People. That’s a pleasant little topic, no? Manipulators are nothing if not perplexing. The mental discombobulation they generate often elicits numerous hard-to-answer questions. For example: I would never do something like […]
Dear drama observers, I realize there’s a chunk of click bait on the hook of this week’s letter entitled “We Should Argue More.” It sounds like I plan to bizarrely extol the merits of knock-down-drag-outs, fighting like cats and dogs, or conversational cage matches. I actually will argue that we should argue more. But as […]
Dear drama observers, I saw a client once whose struggles mainly centered around one theme: her husband’s jerkiness. I realize “jerkiness” is a made-up word but it’s just nicer and less vulgar than so many of the other terms one could use. You know, those derived from the combination of body parts and cuss words. […]
Dear drama observers, It’s become cliché to say we live in polarized times. The Civil War is often described as a time when “brother fought against brother.” While we’re not charging each other like the armies of George Meade and Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, we’re currently in a civil war of sorts in which […]
Dear drama observers, I have a good friend who has said to me for years, “I don’t know how you do what you do,” to which I’ve replied, “Well, I don’t know how you do what you do.” He’s always referred to my profession as “all that psycho-freako stuff” and I usually retort with some […]
Dear confused-by-the-drama observers, Drama people are nothing if not perplexing. One of my all time favorite TV shows was The Office (particularly the first three seasons). Michael Scott was the regional manager of the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin paper company. He portrayed the quintessential narcissist—pompous, grandiose, self-obsessed, un-empathic, entitled, self-congratulatory, and craving of admiration. […]
Dear drama observers, “A father . . . knows exactly what those boys at the mall have in their depraved little minds because he once owned such a depraved little mind himself. In fact, if he thinks enough about the plans that he used to have for young girls, the father will not only support […]
Dear drama observers, My wife and I graduated from rival SEC schools which clash on the gridiron every year at the end of November. Both schools have had seasons of brilliance but, far too often, the winner of our post-Thanksgiving rivalry occupies the division’s second-to-last place while the loser brings up the rear. But we […]
Dear drama observers, Along the way, I’ve heard various iterations of the following statement: “If you want to spot a counterfeit, get to know the real thing.” Counterfeiting ain’t so easy these days. What with high tech scanning capabilities, the job of a counterfeiter is much harder than before. In times past, your counterfeit twenty […]
Dear drama observers, Lately, there have been numerous examples of people in the news using their power positions for nefarious purposes. Some of these have been political figures, some religious. The lure of power is certainly not gender-confined but the specific cases to which I’m referring have all been men. I’m reminded of Lord Acton’s […]