Thirty Minutes

There's a lot to be said for short stories. In a few thousand words the bookends of a life are drawn toward the middle. We don't see all the details, but a key event or maybe just the daily pattern that reveals the core of personality. I'm old enough to remember when most television shows were a half-hour long and I was delighted with the advent of the sixty minute variety. Even better was the introduction of movies on TV -- yeah, I remember "Saturday Night at the Movies," thanks to the creativity of NBC's program directors.

I've always liked the longer story if given a choice. Thirty minutes was fine to whet my appetite but with the closing credits I felt a sense of loss. Surely there had to be more, especially if it was a good story. I think that's one reason why I like longer-term psychotherapy. Twelve sessions of skills instruction may suit the insurance industry's passion for profit margins (supported by the all-powerful "empirical" evidence), but there's more to care than simply managing repair.

In my time as a psychotherapist one of the most common things I heard from patients was, "I wish someone would just listen to me." And listening is something I tried to do regularly. Now, it's true, some people don't want to open their book and others aren't interested. Therapy is about patients and they determine its direction.

A good therapist is like the character of Virgil in Dante's Inferno. You remember how the tale goes, I'm sure. Dante is 35 and finds himself lost in a dark wood. Pursued or assailed by a leopard, lion, and wolf, he is near despair when he encounters the poet Virgil, who becomes his companion on a journey into the depths of hell. While it's true the Divine Comedy is a work of theology, taken metaphorically, it's also a description of the journey of persons from despair to meaning. When we find ourselves lost in a dark wood in the middle of this road we call life, we want a "Virgil" who's willing to go with us as far as we need to go to find our way out again.

Someone asked me once why I insisted on using the word "patient" instead of the more politically correct "client." Well, the reason is, patient means one who suffers and most of the people I've worked with were well-acquainted with suffering. It only seems right to recognize and respect that, you know?

We're all different: some people like the "half-hour show." Me, I like movies because thirty minutes is never enough.