from: Ideas 2011 July/August 2011 ATLANTIC MAGAZINE
Recently, I noticed that one of my patients had, after a couple of sessions of therapy, started to seem uncomfortable. When I probed a bit, he admitted that he felt ambivalent about being in treatment. I asked why.----
“My parents would feel like failures if they knew I was here,” he explained. “At the same time, maybe they’d be glad I’m here, because they just want me to be happy. So I’m not sure if they’d be relieved that I’ve come here to be happier, or disappointed that I’m not already happy.”
He paused and then asked, “Do you know what I mean?”
I nodded like a therapist, and then I answered like a parent who can imagine her son grappling with that very same question one day. “Yes,” I said to my patient. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Lori Gottlieb is the author, most recently, of Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough.
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One of the things I love about being a musician in a tightly-knit musical community [ed. note: google "Old Time Herald"] ls that the response to the above nonsense and angst would be "Shut up and play yer banjo".
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