Saturday, June 7, 2014

Finding the Perfect Shrink

Vanity Fair has just come out with a guide to finding the perfect shrink. If you would like to measure the current reputation of therapists, this video offers a hint.



3 comments:

Sam L. said...

I'm guessing the VF rated their own shrinks highest.

Ares Olympus said...

"A therapist's role is to make yourself feel better about yourself by making you feel worse about everybody else."

This is either a strawman argument, or satire, but taking it seriously, I wonder if its true?

As a computer programmer, I'm glad I have a product at the end that either works or doesn't work, and it might be superior or inferior to alternative programs, but if the measure of "superior" means it can do exactly what I want it to do, then its apples and oranges to compare it to other programs that do slightly different things.

So if a therapist thinks like a programmer, (okay, I hope not), but then his purpose would seem to help a person clarify their strengths and weaknesses and see themselves and the world in a more detached light, where you can admire the strengths of others as much as you admire your own, and have compassion for the weaknesses of others, even as you have compassion for your own.

But if self-esteem is a zero-sum game, then people who are insecure may prefer to project their base motives onto others, and do exactly what they claim their scapegoat target is doing to others.

Or maybe its just for fun because its satire?

Well, for satire I like the "Geico Drill Sergeant Therapist", quicker and to the point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfmVBmDKLZI

Anonymous said...

Hitchcock movies are the best shrinks.

MARNIE, for example.