The cover story of yesterday's New York Times magazine was a provocative, sometimes self-effacing and incisive perspective on psychotherapy in general, and psychoanalysis in particular.
Here's a sample quote:
[Therapy] “is a place to say out loud all that we have grown accustomed to keeping silent, in the hope that we might better understand ourselves and our missteps, come to terms with disowned desires and perhaps even find a more direct route to an effectively examined life. It provides an opportunity unlike any other to sort through the contents of your own mind—an often painfully circuitous operation—in the presence of someone who is trained to make order out of mental chaos.”
–Daphne Merkin
To read the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/magazine/08Psychoanalysis-t.html
What are you willing to say out loud that has been cloistered inside of you?
How would you define an "effectively examined life?"
What kind of presence would be most helpful for you to undertake the "painfully circuitous operation" of sorting through your inner world in order to achieve a sense of peace, or even happiness?
book found at a garage sale