Feeling Our Way

Turn in the direction of the skid.

Michael Karson Ph.D., J.D.

The Problem with Claims of “Lived Experience”

Faculty members can’t promote contextual or scientific thinking if faculty colleagues or the larger culture won’t stand up for instruction.

Are Older Therapists Better?

Shouldn’t your therapist keep getting better at therapy?

The 2 Biggest Dating Mistakes

At the heart of the fantasy of meeting Mr. or Ms. Right is the fantasy that you yourself are just right for someone.

Stigma: Life as a Series of Job Interviews

The most insidious and pervasive stigmas are those that disqualify us in the eyes of others from playing the role of human being.

Splitting: The Psychology of the Political Climate

Stark emotions in primary colors produce comic-book narratives about what is going on.

The Teletherapy Frame

If an athlete seeks coaching or strength training, and there’s no internal problem such as injury, go ahead with coaching or strength training, but don’t call it physical therapy.

How "Heroic" Therapists Harm Patients

When therapists insist on being the good guy, it blinds them to their mistakes.

Book Report on "Ulysses" by James Joyce

The blooming idiots who will tell me I am not entitled to have an opinion about Ulysses are like those that tell Bloom he’s not Irish.

Comedy and Tragedy in Life and Therapy

The supposedly-sympathetic, condoling framing of suffering as a tragedy pushes people to embrace hopelessness, victimhood, and defeatism.

Belle’s Psychotherapy (Beauty and the Beast)

Tantalizing others makes them savage.

The Neverending Story Applied to Therapy

Enter patterns to change them; don’t just talk them to death.

Peter Pan’s Psychotherapy

A good therapist sews your shadow back on.

Ironies in Political Correctness

Jews have become white people to the “woke,” while still suffering hate crimes at higher rates than gays, Blacks, and Muslims.

Ariel’s Psychotherapy

A different Prince once said, “Holding someone is truly believing there's joy in repetition."

Lights in the Darkness

As a global pandemic impinges on holiday traditions, we can turn to history for inspiration.

The Internet Can Stunt Our Growth and Undermine Psychotherapy

The Internet allows you to fit in without having to adapt, by finding a social space where you already fit in.

Cinderella’s Psychotherapy

The cure for wretchedness isn’t luxury; it’s ordinary human connection, apart from wealth or poverty.

Martin Buber Does Therapy

In therapy, patients and therapists often confuse indulgence with being treated as a “You” and frustration with being treated as an “It.”

How to Think Systemically About Your Relationship

Take steps to promote the type of marriage you want to be in rather than inadvertently implementing the sort of marriage you don’t want to be in.

Should Therapists Talk to Patients About Social Injustice?

Be an activist. Be a comrade. Be an ally. Be a guide. But when you’re doing therapy, be a therapist.

Social Media as a Member of the Household

Tartuffe—and social media—judge everything they see, not to help but for profit.

All Cultures Are Cancel Cultures

We are not elevated by canceling the people we are expected to cancel. We are elevated by empathizing with them.

How to Make Your Marriage a Prison

It’s human nature to find someone to blame for life’s disappointments, and your poor spouse is a likely candidate.

Talking in Your Real Voice

The real self is needy, collaborative, and all-too-human.

Unconscious Motivation

We are more likely to manage our motivations successfully if we acknowledge and accept them.

Is the Client’s Racism the Therapist’s Business?

The real self is not racist. Acorns are concerned with becoming oak trees, not with whether white oaks are superior to red oaks.

Psychopathology: Outmoded Intuitive Theories

Psychopathology is like trying to get around in your city using a map that is decades old and drawn by a child.

Psychopathology: Karen Horney’s Humanist View

Psychopathology uses imagination to replace rather than to develop ourselves.

The Medicine Man

When psychologists conceptualize human suffering as angst, despair, and ennui rather than as disease, then our "medicine" is very strong.

Conflict Resolution in Couples: Irrational Goals

Your partner cannot be both a perfect shield against infection and, at the same time, a relaxed roommate. You can’t marry Monica AND Phoebe, or Chandler AND Joey.

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