Thoughts on Therapy

I don't go to therapy anymore because it always amounts to the same flaccid circular hand holding relationship. I angle for compliments and they respond by alternatively acquiescing (but in small, unsatisfying ways) while also saying "you shouldn't feel the need to feel special.” But also, if you don't feel special, it's because x or y person hurt you in the past. Basically, the only part that's your fault is feeling bad.

In cults, doubtful or negative feelings are pathologized as yet more evidence of your own shortcomings, and of your inability to fully commit to the ideology. "Is your life meaningless? Those kinds of questions are exactly what someone whose life is meaningless would ask."

Talk therapy is coded as the coolest and highest class of the various one-on-one professional talk relationships, but it's a shallow surrogate of the others. The only effective therapist experiences I've had have been those with a goal, either attempting to get over a specific hurdle in my own behavi…