And my take on Dr Melfi and Tony Soprano The best idea I’ve had about how to conduct psychotherapy, I got from visiting my allergist. Whenever I have tears in my eyes during a session, it might be because of what the client was saying; sometimes I’m deeply moved, but probably my allergies were responsible.Continue reading “The After Visit Summary”
Monthly Archives: March 2022
Is Addiction a Disease?
A Reading of The Urge: Our History of Addiction, Part III People have debated whether addiction is a disease for as long as I know and have never settled the matter for me, so that I cannot say for certain whether it is or isn’t. It depends on what you mean by disease. The wordContinue reading “Is Addiction a Disease?”
Shame
Chapter 6a of Meeting the Voices in My Head and Searching for an Inner Adult The other night, I walked into Starbucks, placed an order, and, when I reached for my wallet, discovered I forgot not only my wallet but also my pants. Fortunately, this was only a dream, but I didn’t know it atContinue reading “Shame”
The Origin of “Addiction”
A Reading of The Urge: Our History of Addiction, Part II The first time someone used the word addict in English, he was criticizing the Pope. Since then, the word has been used millions of times about all kinds of people. The meaning has changed. Yet, in a sense, the original meaning remains the same.
Fear at the Grand Canyon
Chapter 5b of Meeting the Voices in My Head and Searching for an Inner Adult It was an ordinary day inside my head. I was relaxed, happy, and had not a care in the world. All the people in my brain were getting along. I couldn’t ask for any better than that. Outside my head,Continue reading “Fear at the Grand Canyon”
The Spectrum of Addiction
A Reading of The Urge: Our History of Addiction, Part I I’d like to devote a few posts to chew over Carl Erik Fisher’s book, The Urge: Our History of Addiction. Fisher is an addiction psychiatrist, bioethicist, and assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University.
The Evolution and Domestication of Feelings
Chapter 5a of Meeting the Voices in My Head and Searching for an Inner Adult I suspect I’m not going to find my Inner Adult in my feelings. There doesn’t seem to be anything adult about them. Good or bad, they are some of the most childish things I’ve got. How can I be soContinue reading “The Evolution and Domestication of Feelings”
Are the Inner Voices of My Parents My Inner Adults?
Chapter 4b of Meeting the Voices in My Head and Searching for an Inner Adult Parents hope you will install bots of themselves in your brain for when they can’t be around to stop you from doing things they would disapprove. If your father was the kind that yelled at you when you swiped aContinue reading “Are the Inner Voices of My Parents My Inner Adults?”