Posts about Uncategorized

you don’t need therapy because you had an unhappy childhood - you need therapy because you had a childhood

On March 17th covering , ,

People are always being apologetic about this. They don’t feel it’s right for them to be in my office unless they are prepared to condemn their parents or make accusations of abuse or neglect.

The longer I do this, the more I’m impressed by how complex the task of being a human being is. We all have to live with ourselves somehow. Yes, we’re interested in your childhood because that’s when you first developed your basic approach to inner and outer reality. And there’s a lot to deal with in childhood. I don’t think he put it this way exactly, but Freud realized that childhood is inherently traumatic. Read more »

Map of Madoff-inflicted pain

On March 3rd covering ,

This zoomable map shows the extent and distribution of the victims of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Ghastly viewing, especially when you consider how many lives are touched by each dot.

My field, the study of why smart people do irrational things, should be booming about now.

all culture is hacker culture

On February 27th 6 Comments covering , ,

At a tech-business event where I was talking with people about the dynamics of creative groups, a fellow offered that we are becoming a hacker culture, meaning that young people are prone to alter or repurpose software and devices to their liking, to evade DRM and copy protection and generally make things work the way they like.

He’s right– but this isn’t new at all. Sociologist Claude Levi-Strauss spoke about the concept of bricolage, which is usually translated as tinkering or using what’s available to create a new thing. Hacking, in other words. Levi-Strauss posed this as a basic process in the creation of culture. Read more »

psychoanalysts condemn Prop 8

On November 11th covering , ,

I’m glad my professional association (one of them, anyway) has made a forceful statement condemning California’s Proposition 8. Here’s the press release titled Psychoanalysts Censure California’s Vote to Ban Same-Sex Marriage.

Here’s the previously existing position statement on the issue overall. Well put.

UPDATE: Where is the American Psychological Association? if there’s a statement on Prop 8 I can’t find it. (There’s this, a general statement on homosexuality). Another reason I like to say I’m a psychoanalyst-who’s-also-a-psychologist rather than the other way around.

Reflections of a Y Combinator Dropout

On October 15th 1 Comment covering , , , ,

I just want to point to this fine memoir of someone whose startup failed to thrive in the non-cult known as Y combinator.

It’s valuable for the emphasis on the functioning of the team as make-or-break — a factor that can make all the other factors irrelevant.

I’m tempted to write a long meditation on Orian Marx’s essay — but it’s well through out and written and I’d rather let him tell it.