My mother recently sent me a rather long e-mail. That's not a particularly uncommon experience. Answering it here on my blog, however, is very unusual.
You talk a lot about life as the stories we tell ourselves. I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Do you have a good resource for me to read about this? Have you written anything about it on your blog that you could perhaps share with me?
Actually, I don't think I have written much here on my blog about stories--and how those stories are the way in which I've come to see as the way we create our own humanity. Since she asked, and since I've been looking for a good topic to write about, why not have you all join in on my response to my mother?
I just finished a book entitled, You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know. It's a true story about a woman who came from a chaotic, dysfunctional family, as in her mother was a paranoid schizophrenic & her father, a cross dressing alcoholic who was also crazy. She had been face blind all of her life, but didn't really realize it until she was in her early 40's... I took some rather extensive notes citing the more interesting parts.
For those of you who wonder how the Irreverent Psychologist got to be the Irreverent Psychologist: you might find some clues in the above paragraph. The Mother of the Irreverent Psychologist (MIP) notes that she has taken "extensive notes citing the more interesting parts" of the book. As regular followers on Twitter may have noticed, a small portion of the voluminous notes I take while reading appear on my Tumblr page.
The nut doesn't fall far from the tree.
...but I digress. The MIP started her email with a question about stories but manage to ask two questions. The first question--about stories--will come a little later. First I'll tackle the MIP's question about cognitive behavioral therapy.
