Beginning

What is Your Therapist Thinking?

He sits there and stares at you, maybe he takes a few notes. He seems to be listening. He stares at you, looks away. Then he will mumble something that may be of great significance. It could be a life-changing intonation, such as a barely audible "huh," as he nods his head.


He may utter an amazingly perceptive comment like "You're still just pissed-off."

Or it could be a question that slices right through the soft tissues of your mind and reveals the diamond sparkle glow of the truth -- "Why the fuck would you do something like that?"

But what is really going on in the mind that resides behind those thick glasses that give him a kind of bug-eyed look? What is he really thinking about? What does he think about during those few moments in his life when he isn't thinking about you?

Stay tuned, you may find out.


Why Bother?
I have to ask myself wh I am embarking on this venture. I am a slowly ageing psychologist, who is not all that technologically savvy. I could be spending this time learning hoe to play better golf, or taking up some productive hobby like scrimshaw or backgammon. But instead I am choosing to spew my mind's tomally into cyberspace.

I am a psychologist, a psychotherapist. Yesterday I did a brief caluclation and realized that I have spent almost, not quite but almost, 50,000 hours closed in a room intimately listening and talking to people. The hours are adding up. It's time to draw some conclusions.

But, after all this time I don't know all the answers. I know some answers. Thre are some thing I am pretty certain about, and I usually have pretty strong ideas about how and why people behave, think and feel. But sometimes I am not so sure, or my ideas have changed, my theories don't match the data, my predictions miss the mark.

So I am putting many of my thoughts into cyberspace. I have no idea who, if anyone will rad them. I hope to stimulate the thoughts of others, and hope that others will help clarify my thoughts.

I have seen and heard all kinds of things tht people do to themselves and others, almost all of thm in the hope of someone improving their lives, or making themselves feel better, or at least less worse. Nothing shocks me anymore, although I admit that I can still be surprised, Maybe awed is a better word.

Everything affects my thinking: what people say, how they act, sit, or squirm. I am also affected by money, politics, culture, my own relationships, and new research in psychology, psychiatry, neurology, physiology and evolutionary theory. I am also influenced by architechture, city planning, art, music, music, dance, film, drama and some, though few, novels. My moods are affected by most of the Boston sports teams, but I have learned to keep my expectations under control. I have a 34 - 12 record pitching softball for The Pub Team, but we haven't won the Big Game yet.

I am greatly influenced by my clients. I spend a great deal of time thinking about them and what I can do for them using the limited tools in my arsenal.

If you have any interest in psychology, psychotherapy, philosophy, or just in trying to decipher how or why people think, act, and feel the way they do I hope you take a few seconds to read what I post, and send a comment.

Thanks,

DJB