The Couch Trip

On Tuesday, I was at the FBI listening to them talk about the preposterous manner in which they're depicted on television. (John Miller made fun of most of CBS's primetime lineup, to be fair.) The purpose of setting up a workshop with the Writers Guild was to try to get more realistic depictions of the F.B.I. into the popular culture.

Now, it seems the shrinks are all squawking about the penultimate Sopranos episode...

I got some mixed feelings about psychotherapy. I'm not all anti-psychiatry like those wily Scientologists. I think therapy can be useful.

But in my personal experience, therapy can easily go on indefinitely. You go through some hard times, it can be helpful to talk to someone. But hard times pass. And some therapists are content to just keep it going forever.

And I guess that's fine for certain people. If you can afford it. (Psychiatry and Scientology both bleed you a bit...) But it seems like it turns into life coaching at some point. I don't see the purpose.

I did marriage counseling for the better part of a fucking year and I can say, in hindsight, it was a COMPLETE waste of time and money. I'll give most of the blame to my ex-wife, who was cowardly and inarticulate and hypocritical and just revolting. The therapist could have facilitated the process better—but it just went nowhere. And between the two of them, the counseling could have gone on indefinitely, had I not pulled my ex aside one day and said, "What are we doing?"

And I own the blame for not doing that earlier. My point is, some things shouldn't just go on indefinitely. At a certain point, you need to stop and ask, "Is this really helping?"