I’m starting to think he’s doing this on purpose:

Both Ivan the Terrible and Stalin faked old-man frailty to lure enemies into complacence and deliver a mortal blow. There was also a medieval cardinal who got himself elected Pope by faking a drooling senility that masked extreme ferocity.

A reminder: if you are seeking psychotherapy or any form of psychological (as opposed to psychiatric) help, the #1 question to ask the therapist at the introductory meeting is whether he or she works with a supervisor. If the therapist has no idea what you mean or doesn’t immediately say “yes, of course,” please leave at once. A therapist / analyst who isn’t always, constantly in therapy to deal with and process the emotional garbage of the clients is a quack. A professional therapist / analyst pays at least twice what you pay him for his sessions with his supervisor.

The amount of quackery in the field of psychotherapy is incredible. I saw some discussions on therapist FB, and it’s enough to make you despair of humanity. These people are downright dangerous.

Also, I beg you, instead of life coaches and mindfulness coaches and all that sort of amateurish ridiculousness, seek real help from a qualified psychotherapist / psychoanalyst. Yes, it’s expensive. But it’s a lot less than you’ll spend on booze / food / pot / medication / whatever else you use to self-soothe AND on the medical interventions to treat the results of this self-soothing. Plus, once you don’t have to spend so much time and energy on self-soothing, you will simply make more money.

One more thing. Psychoanalysis is fantastic for treating addiction. A complete cure, really fast. You won’t have to spend the rest of your life fighting temptation and reciting “hi, I’m an alcoholic” as ritual humiliation to keep you from slipping up. None of the typical truisms of the conventional treatment of addiction apply. You don’t need to “hit rock bottom,” “really want to get better,” or even recognize that you have a problem with your substance. You can be one of those sad sacks who “just drink socially and can quit any time I want.” And it will still work because it’s not the kind of treatment that engages your consciousness or applies labels.

I don’t know about all insurance companies but Blue Cross / Blue Shield recognizes and reimburses for psychoanalysis. Not 100% but a good chunk.

Klara left a card under my bedroom door, saying that she loves me very much, and when I wake up, I will find a great surprise under my door, which is this card and it will tell me all about a great surprise card under my door.

P.S. She dictates her texts and N transcribes them.

Unvaccinated faculty and students are harassed with weekly COVID tests in my workplace.

Here’s what happens when a professor misses a weekly test.

COVID tracers send a list of their names to HR.

HR sends a list of their names to the Dean.

The Dean sends a list of their names to the Chair.

The Chair harasses them individually.

Why such a complex, Byzantine system? Why not just send them an email from the very first stop in this chain?

I’ve lived in a totalitarian society, so let me explain: nobody cares if you get tested or not. This isn’t about that. The goal is to involve as many people as possible in spying and snitching on each other. The goal is to make the non-compliant massively hated because so many people have to waste time and effort on bullying them to comply. The goal is to ensure that as many people as possible know their names – completely in violation of all the usual protections of medical privacy.

The process is repeated every week into infinity. How fast does the Dean and the Chair remember the names of the people who are causing all this bother all the time? How soon before they begin to – maybe completely unwittingly and subconsciously – to discriminate against the annoying personnel?

Add to this that the list given to me of the “lower-caste” workers in my department was actually 100% incorrect. They couldn’t have gotten tested on campus even if they really wanted. They are teaching online (we are still only 30% back) and two of them are out of state. I know for an absolute fact that at least one of them is fully vaccinated and extremely fanatical about it. Anybody who worked in a bureaucracy knows that with each extra step added to any procedure, the potential for mistakes quadruples.

This procedure, as well as microaggression trainings, anti-racisms, and diversity efforts, aim to isolate workers and make them fear and dislike each other. Please think about it before you participate.

Two guinea pigs at a pet store are talking.

“Have you gotten vaccinated for COVID, then?” asks one.

“Nah, I’m waiting for the trial on humans to be completed,” says another.

Somebody planted a mango tree in a shared greenery spot of our HOA. And it bore fruit. For real. We have mangoes growing across the road. In Illinois.

“Hey, feel like going out, picking some mangoes?” is a real conversation we had today in my house.

I hate this climate.