Advisor: Diane, folks don’t know what psychoanalysis means. You need to define it. You need a buzz word!
Diane: Umm…I know…. Actually, it’s hard to define.
Advisor: You help folks. Just say that.
Diane: Actually, they help themselves.
Advisor: How do they help themselves?
Diane: Gees, let me count the ways…folks come in with one problem, we ‘fix’ ten…or twenty.
Advisor: Just say that.
Diane: I can’t. It’s not literally accurate. Actually folks fix themselves; sometimes, it just happens, some times they have to work at it. Sometimes, they just have to find peace with their stuff…
Advisor: Okay, so, we can’t say, ‘we’ fix anything, right?
Diane: Right.
Advisor: but, they get better, right?
Diane: We have to define ‘better.’
Advisor: Define better?
Diane: uh..well,
Advisor: Diane, what’s the goal?
Diane: Goal? Well, I’m more of a process person.
Advisor: Sigh…
Advisor: Diane, you’ve got to have buzz words! People need to know how psychoanalysis can help.
Diane: How about, ‘they learn about themselves?’
Advisor: That won’t do!
Diane: Why not?! If folks don’t learn about themselves, how are they going to fix themselves? Wait, I meant to say, how are they going to get better? Wait, I meant to say, how are they going to grow?
Advisor: Diane, what happens in psychoanalysis?
Diane: We open a window to our inner world. Our hearts open to our two year old self, our ten year old self…We understand and love who were and who we are in ways we couldn’t before…
Advisor: Think buzz word.
Diane: ‘Mobilize your mental wherewithal?’
Advisor: Nah.
Diane: ‘Work with with your own self-oranizing mind, not against it?’
Advisor: NO!
Diane: Sigh.
Advisor: How about ‘more therapeutic bang for your buck?’
Diane: Tacky.
Diane: and…it opens a can of worms-‘therapy’ or ‘growth?’ How we look at that matters!
Advisor: Nobody gets that.
Diane: How about, ‘pick your problem, psychoanalysis will help?’ ….just kidding.
Advisor: But it’s true isn’t it?
Diane: Mostly, it depends upon how they define their problem.
Advisor: Sigh. I give up, what do you mean?
Diane: You’ve hear the old adage, sh** happens? It does. At best we can come to terms with it. But, we can be in the world differently, less encumbered.
Advisor: Yeah, but what about depression? Anxiety?
Diane: There’s always something to be learned from depression and anxiety. In a way, it’s functional. It’s like the gas guage on our car, best not to put a bandaid on it.
Advisor: I get that.
Diane: Buzz word?
Advisor: ‘Best not put a bandaid on your gas guage?’
Diane and Advisor: Laughter.
This is my web site. Explore further or to begin your own guided psychoanalysis visit: https://homecookedanalysis.substack.com/
Contact [email protected]