dagblog - Comments for "Looking for Mr. Goodcure"

As someone who spent some

Elusive Trope — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 19:07:11 +0000

In reply to Great idea in principle but

As someone who spent some considerable time in workshop at a university, there is a lot of truth to when you say:

Workshops can be tough on the psyche, even when face-to-face with thoughtful participants who try to be constructive. And though dag is cool place, and we know each other pretty well, it's still the internet. People are often less considerate than they would be in person. So I don't see it ending well.

One idea that comes to mind, is that there is an added section, like the "Creative Corner," where people purposively submit a particular blog to be 'workshopped." Maybe the "Workshop Corner." I know I wouldn't submit everything I blog to this, but there may be a blog I really want some constructive feedback on, positive and negative. I think people can always learn a lot about how they present feedback, so there would be, of course, feedback on the feedback. People know it could get a little "messy," and I have seen enough workshops in the face-to-face milieu get out of control, where the professor had to step in and just put an end to the discussion.

Just a thought.

Great idea in principle but

Michael Wolraich — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 18:57:55 +0000

In reply to And you appear to have some

Great idea in principle but not in practice, I think. Not everyone who blogs here wants to be involuntarily subjected to a writers workshop. Workshops can be tough on the psyche, even when face-to-face with thoughtful participants who try to be constructive. And though dag is cool place, and we know each other pretty well, it's still the internet. People are often less considerate than they would be in person. So I don't see it ending well.

Fair enough. I'd rather you

Michael Wolraich — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 18:43:37 +0000

In reply to I appreciate the constructive

Fair enough. I'd rather you post than avoid posting because of over-editing. I also tend to edit too much for blogging. Blogging takes me a lot of time, which is part of the reason I've been doing it so rarely lately.

Thank you for such a

CVille Dem — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 14:44:36 +0000

In reply to I had to look up what the

Thank you for such a thoughtful response. Keep posting, BTW!

I had to look up what the

Elusive Trope — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 13:54:59 +0000

In reply to Wow. I don't even know what

I had to look up what the letters myself to know what he meant. In some ways it is the perfect acronym, the phrase "too long didn't read" itself apparently too long to write out that the person has to put it into only four letters.

And what you describe above for your own life is not Mr Goodcure. It is the opposite in my opinion. You didn't go seeking the answer, grabbing and settling for whatever approach you just happened to come across, but worked through various processes until you actually found one that actually did work for you.

The fact that you feel the need to point out "It isn't that I don't care" indicates that somewhere in the past you picked up the "value" that you do need to get things all figured out, with the notion that this would lead to some kind of serenity or happiness. I am kind of the same way.

There is that popular song by the Indigo Girls which I think speaks to this:

And I went to see the doctor of philosophy
With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee
He never did marry or see a B grade movie
He graded my performance, he said he could see through me
I spent four years prostrate to the higher mind
Got my paper and I was free

And I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

I looked to the children, I drank from the fountains
There's more than one answer to these questions
Pointing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source for some definitive
Closer I am to fine

I appreciate the constructive

Elusive Trope — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 13:43:17 +0000

In reply to I think Jolly has a point,

I appreciate the constructive feedback. In some cases, as with this piece, I just get to certain point (it was probably three times as long when I originally put it together in a Word document) and then just throw it up on site. And sometimes, as with this one, I am not quite sure exactly what is my point until I actually go into my "final" tuning before posting it. Or at least a point or angle that others might find relevant to their lives, and not just me working through some things or entertaining myself (and in some cases using it to procrastinate from doing some things I should be doing).

One of problems as a writer going back decades has always been the inability to get to a point where I would let anyone see my writing. An endless time spent re-editing and re-editing. The value for me in being anonymous is that it does allow me to put something out there I wouldn't otherwise if my actual identity was attached to it. Yet at the same time I should take some more care in what I put up on the site.

As artappraiser says, maybe it should be a little more writers workshoppy for those who would value such feedback at least. Sometimes what needs to be put out there, to make the case or fleshed out, turns out to make for a long blog or article. Other times it is just laziness or whatever, as is with this case, where it could be tightened more.

And you appear to have some

artappraiser — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 02:11:08 +0000

In reply to I think Jolly has a point,

And you appear to have some talent at literary criticism. Maybe you should make this place more writers workshoppy....

Wow. I don't even know what

CVille Dem — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 01:32:33 +0000

In reply to I think Jolly has a point,

Wow. I don't even know what those initials JR posted mean. I love the way Jolly writes (usually) and I enjoyed Trope's post, although to be honest I really didn't GET all of it. Woody Allen is so self-obsessed (which I kind of enjoyed until he started dating his wife's daughter).

I guess my take on all of this is that there are way too many diagnoses, and also too many treatments. I really don't know what I did or what if anything helped, but somehow I have managed to discard those things that I don't want to take to an island, and I can actually feel happy. This is so different than when I was always trying to figure things out. It isn't that I don't care. I just don't care about things I have no control over.

Is that Mr GoodCure? Inquiring minds want to know.

I think Jolly has a point,

Michael Wolraich — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 21:45:04 +0000

In reply to Well at least you're honest.

I think Jolly has a point, though I'd present it more constructively. You're an excellent writer who always brings fresh, thoughtful ideas to dagblog, and this article is no exception, but I do think it would be more compelling with a tighter focus and fewer/shorter quotes.

Of course, dagblog isn't a writers workshop, and you can stick that advice wherever you deem fit. As for Jolly, I suggest you meander over to his own post and urge him to temper his brain-twisting parentheticals and cringe-inducing innuendo, which distract from his trenchant analysis and cheapen his blistering wit.

The one point I would make

Elusive Trope — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:23:31 +0000

In reply to I agree with Lurker that the

The one point I would make about psychotherapy is that not only does it require a competent therapist but also a willing participant on the part of the client. Too often people go into psychotherapy with an attitude that it is all a bunch of hooey. This isn't going to go well. Or even if they they are really looking for a solution, they enter with the expectation that the therapist just cure them, or in other words, do all the work (similar to the taking the anti-cholesterol medicine without changing the lifestyle and diet). Again this isn't going to end well. And even if the therapist is competent and the client willing to do the hard work, the relationship between the two is just not a good fit. Sometimes it takes three or four or five attempts to find the right therapist with whom the client is "a good fit." This doesn't mean that the other therapists were bad therapists, but their style, personality, etc. just didn't create the right therapeutic environment in which the client could really explore the depths of their psyche, an exploration always fraught with anxiety and discomfort.

Couples counseling is a good example, where one or both of the clients are kind of dragged in against their "will." Too often the two just want the therapist to prove that it is the other's fault things aren't working, not to mention an unwillingness to do any personal exploration about where they have "issues" that extend beyond the problems of the relationship.

So although I would say just about everyone could use psychotherapy, I would add that most of those are not in a place where psychotherapy would be helpful. Kind of like throwing someone at 4th grade level of academics into the 9th grade. They're just going to walk away with a bad taste in their mouth and a general attitude that "school sucks."