“I emigrated to Israel for the sake of my kids. And I’m happy to report that they are ecstatic.”

” Great! So what do they do in Israel?”

“Oh no, they stayed back in Ukraine.”

We loved Buddha’s Hand so much that I came to the store for two more. It is absolutely sublime, giving tea a divine fragrance. It is also the best way to achieve fresh breath fast. Just chew a little piece, and you don’t have to fear leaning over students during group assignments.

I don’t know what I will do when the store runs out of them.

I keep getting questions about psychoanalysis and I’m very glad to see an interest in the topic in a culture where pill – taking and misery as a way of life have been deified. Remember that I’m answering these questions strictly in a capacity of a highly educated recipient of the service but not a provider of any related services.

Here are some of the questions I hear a lot:

1. “I already know that I’m lazy / a liar / immature / irresponsible / dependent / have low self – esteem / [insert any self – disparaging term you can think of]. So why do I need an analyst to tell me all this?”

Answer: the possibility that an analyst will tell you any of this (or much of anything,  to be honest) is pretty much the same as that of your dentist starting to weep, tear out his hair and yell, “How could you betray me like this and destroy my faith in humanity, you evildoer?” after seeing a cavity in one of your teeth.

The room where your analysis is conducted is a space of complete and unquestionable acceptance of you. Your truth is the only one that exists. The analyst starts from the conviction that you are a good person. And that conviction never goes away. The point of analysis is not to judge you but to make the voices in your head that tell you how immature / lazy / irresponsible,  etc you are to go away. The analyst resides in a world where you are not stupid, lazy and irresponsible but in the world where you are trying to shed this dangerous and wrong mythology about yourself.

An analyst knows that there is nothing more destructive than guilt and will never foster it in you.

Hostilities are ongoing in Ukraine, in the same regions as before. If you got an impression from the news that things have been getting better, you are mistaken. Putin withdrew a small part of his troops and hasn’t been trying to amplify the hostilities (just yet), that’s all.

Putin realizes that he’s only got 2 years left before Americans elect a president who might not be as indifferent to foreign policy. Hysteria is being ramped up in Russia today to the point where I can’t shake the feeling that Putin is about to bring back across the border the troops he withdrew and add a lot more to them.

Obama is everything Putin ever hoped for and he is not wasting a second of this golden opportunity.