Mantra - “Idiots”
Gottlieb asserts, “Have compassion, have compassion, have compassion…I’m repeating this phrase in my head like a mantra as the forty-year-old man sitting across from me is telling me about all of the people in his life who are ‘idiots.” The emblematic ‘mantra’ accentuates the materiality of empathy towards John. Being considerate is recommended for psychotherapists who encounter patients with assorted difficulties.
Pornography - “The Space of a Step”
Gottlieb elucidates, “Therapy elicits odd reactions because in a way, it’s like pornography. Both involve a kind of nudity. Both have the potential to thrill. And both have millions of users, most of whom keep their use private. Though statisticians have attempted the number of people in therapy, their results are thought to be skewed because many people who go therapy choose not to admit.” Therapy is tantamount to psychological display of one’s shielded sentiments which leaks their unconscious reservations and wounds. Undertaking therapy is comparable to partaking a pornography which will result in unqualified exposure of one’s unconscious. The disinclination to divulge the soliciting of therapy is attributed to the mortification which is attributed to disclosing one’s timidities.
