Dear drama-watchers, My wife and I are long-time Law and Order junkies. Most episodes start off something like this: a couple is jogging down a NYC street and stop to catch their breath. Their conversation is light-hearted and playful although sirens blare in the background. Then, one of the joggers notices a hat covered with something that […]
Dear looking-for-the-exits drama participants, I’m trying to reach the point where I can honestly refer to this commentary as “weekly” without using quotation marks. It’s been out three weeks and I’ve only hit two of the three so I suppose it will be a while before I can’t be accused of embellishing when I […]
Dear exasperated ones, I sent out my first “weekly” email two weeks ago requesting an advance on grace points for times I might miss a week. Having missed last week, I’ve already had to cash in. Three things derailed my plans: travel issues, technical difficulties, and discipline deficiency (not necessarily in that order). But as […]
Dear close-to-losing-it drama participant, I say “close-to-losing-it” because I figure that if you’re reading this epistle, you may be ensconced in some crazy-making drama that has you drooling, rocking back and forth, and muttering to yourself. You might’ve recently Googled the Federal Witness Protection Program hoping to download an entrance application. Or that drama person […]
My clients frequently present with complaints of symptoms related to depression or anxiety—often referred to in mental health circles as the “common colds” of mental illness. More often than not, I come to find out that the client’s negative mood originated—and is now being sustained—in some toxic relational environment. Perhaps damage was inflicted from a […]
Manipulators operate in a cloud of confusion. We can feel confused for one of several reasons: There is often a disturbing discrepancy between the public image the manipulator portrays and who he actually is in private. Attributes, which may be positives in public, are the same ones that have such a negative effect privately. […]
“The most effective lies,” I read recently, “are the ones containing the most actual truths.” Manipulators lie but the lies they propagate are often constructed using nothing but facts as building materials. True story. One time, I went downtown and a man with a mask knocked me out, slit my throat and took my money. […]
There’s a wonderful movie made in 1944 by the name of “Gaslight”. A young woman played by Ingrid Bergman is a newlywed and moves into the house of her murdered Aunt with her new husband, Charles Boyer. The husband is kind, charming, and generous. But this pleasant exterior is merely the mask worn by a […]