Dear Drama Observers, For several years, I traveled the country presenting a seminar on emotional manipulation for mental health professionals. I’ve done several versions of it, but one of the brochures described the seminar this way: From guilt trips to gaslighting, emotional manipulation takes many forms, and it’s often so covert that clients have difficulty […]
Dear Drama Observers, I don’t know about you, but two things have been particularly troubling to me of late. First, there’s the ongoing uncertainty of when and how life returns to normal. Maybe the previous normal will never return and some new iteration of normality lies up ahead. Exactly what that looks like is anyone’s […]
Dear Drama Observers, I was browsing Twitter the other day and came across this exchange between three people I follow: Person 1: “Help, my parents are spreading conspiracy theories on Facebook.” Person 2: “Show of hands, whose parents are not spreading conspiracy theories on Facebook?” Person 3: “You have finally said something I agree with.” […]
Dear Drama Observers, If a contest were held to determine which word best describes the novel era in which we currently live, “uncertainty” might win the prize. About where we go from here and what to expect, there are numerous opinions. But the most honest prognosticators humbly admit that no one knows for certain. This […]
Dear Drama Observers, In April and May of 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized what became known as the Birmingham Campaign, a coordinated effort to protest the practice of segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. Martin Luther King had called Birmingham the nation’s most segregated city and hoped that mass demonstrations could pressure the city’s power […]
Image is from the cover of David Blight’s book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom Dear Drama Observers, One of my great joys is to walk the greenway trail where I live while listening to books on Audible. I’ve listened to novels, to the biographies of various historical figures, and to books about history, culture, faith, […]
Dear Drama Observers, During my middle school years, my dad and I would take our boat to a nearby lake and troll for fish. We’d put shiny lures on the ends of our lines and move at slow speeds through what we hoped were Bass-infested waters. When the fish were biting, trolling was great. But […]
Dear Drama Observers, “What we most need in this moment of crisis,” said Stuart Stevens, longtime political strategist and childhood friend of mine when interviewed this week by PBS, “is a sense of agreed upon truth.” Stuart went on to say, “And just at this moment when we need to believe someone, to believe experts, […]
Dear Drama Observers, A technique often used by manipulators is gaslighting, which I’ve previously discussed on other occasions. This week, I’d like to take a deeper dive and describe what goes on in the mind of the one who gaslights. You and I will be spelunking into the gaslighter’s mental caverns, so grab your gear […]
Dear Drama Observers, In times of crisis, we naturally search for ways to explain that which seems unexplainable. When things are out of control, we long for certitude over ambiguity, predictability over randomness, and decisiveness over indecision. I’ll say more about all that but first, let me tell you a story. Several years ago, I […]