On the wound beneath the work — and the life that waits on the other side of the achievement Somewhere in the middle of a life that looks, by every available measure, like a success, a person stops. Not dramatically. Not in crisis. They stop the way you stop when you have been walking fast…
On the feelings that travel and the relationships that pay the price The anger you brought home was not about the dishes. You know this, somewhere. The dishes were real; they were there, unwashed, exactly where they should not have been, and the irritation that rose in you was genuine. But the size of it;…
On the mind’s extraordinary capacity to explain what it cannot yet afford to examine You are in the middle of explaining a decision; to a partner, a friend, a therapist, or simply to yourself at two in the morning; and somewhere in the middle of the explanation, something happens. Not a dramatic recognition. Something quieter….
Dr. Orna Guralnik and the psychodynamic dimension hiding in plain sight If you have watched Couples Therapy on Paramount and found yourself unexpectedly moved; not by the conflict, not by the drama, but by something quieter happening in the room; you have been watching psychodynamic work. You may not have known to call it that….
When the mind uses thought to avoid the very thing thought claims to be examining Thinking carefully about your problems is good. This is one of the few propositions about mental health that most people accept without question; across therapeutic traditions, cultural backgrounds, and levels of psychological sophistication. Reflection is healthy. Self-examination is mature. The…
– On the absence that shapes everything and the work of becoming one’s own man Somewhere in the middle of a session, usually when we have been working together long enough that the real material has begun to surface, a man will say something that stops the room. Not dramatically; quietly. Almost as an aside….
