Authenticity 101

Freudian Psychology

Jacques Lacan on How Children Learn to Make Meaning

Ira Israel LMFT on June 13, 2025

The game of Hide-and-Seek teaches children to bear absence, to symbolize presence, to delay gratification, and to discover themselves as desiring subjects.

The game of Hide-and-Seek teaches children to bear absence, to symbolize presence, to delay gratification, and to discover themselves as desiring subjects.

Mating

Can AI Save Dating Apps?

Ira Israel LMFT on June 10, 2025

Dating should be about sharing experiences, not about interviewing someone to see if they can play the role of "Sidekick" in the script called “This Is What My Life Should Resemble.”

Dating should be about sharing experiences, not about interviewing someone to see if they can play the role of "Sidekick" in the script called “This Is What My Life Should Resemble.”

Parenting

The Most Important Lesson I Learned From My Father

Ira Israel LMFT on June 9, 2025

My father seemed to believe that he won $1 every time he didn’t buy a lottery ticket; this inversion transmuted into my ability and mandate to think different(ly).

My father seemed to believe that he won $1 every time he didn’t buy a lottery ticket; this inversion transmuted into my ability and mandate to think different(ly).

Relationships

8 Ways to Stop Couples From Fighting

Ira Israel LMFT on June 8, 2025

Here are exercises, practices, tools, and expressions that I share with clients during their initial couples sessions.

Here are exercises, practices, tools, and expressions that I share with clients during their initial couples sessions.

Narcissism

The Culture of Fabricated Self-Importance

Ira Israel LMFT on May 1, 2025

Personal Perspective: The classic 1979 book "The Culture of Narcissism" could be updated for 2025 as "The Culture of Fabricated Self-Importance."

Personal Perspective: The classic 1979 book "The Culture of Narcissism" could be updated for 2025 as "The Culture of Fabricated Self-Importance."

Authenticity

A New Biopic Challenges the Illusions of Fame

Ira Israel LMFT on April 30, 2025

Insights on authenticity and self-acceptance in film.

Insights on authenticity and self-acceptance in film.

Therapy

20 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became a Therapist

Ira Israel LMFT on April 1, 2025

Over the past 15 years of daily practice as a therapist I have learned that psychotherapy is not about mastery, not about fixing people, and certainly not about discovering truth.

Over the past 15 years of daily practice as a therapist I have learned that psychotherapy is not about mastery, not about fixing people, and certainly not about discovering truth.