Professionals and Amateurs Part I

It is not that I am so smart; it is that I stay with problems longer. —Albert Einstein A professional and an amateur are states of mind. By professional, I don’t mean “the professions” such as doctors and lawyers. The professional is an ideal, a...

A Quiz

Each of the following eight questions has a single word answer: 1. What is the most popular legal substance to all peoples of the world? 2. What is the one true metaphor, the single commodity that can be translated into everything else? 3. What is the story that you...

Your Transition Story

I felt that something had broken within me on which my life had always rested, that I had nothing left to hold onto, and that morally my life had stopped. And yet, I could give no reasonable meaning to any action of my life. And I was surprised that I had not...

Money Psychology, Shame and Self-Regulation

The Language of Shame Of all our human emotions, the most painful, the hardest to tolerate, is shame. Shame is the feeling that there is something wrong with us, that we are not only inadequate but are basically flawed. Shame can assume different intensities from...

On Being Right and Wrong: The Neuroscience of Internal Smugness

When I was formerly practicing Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, I once had a young woman present to me, who despite all the external trappings of success and a doctorate degree, felt insecure and uncertain of herself. She concluded our initial discussion by saying,...