Twitter at 1am on a Friday

>How do I go about finding a good analyst then? Are those some of the Twitter names you listed

Mine was through referral of a friend. Dumb luck. I’ve heard you can also find them by contacting a local psychoanalytic institute. Seems like the American psychoanalytic institute has a website for finding them as well. [1] On twitter,Jonathan Shedler is in the Bay Area and obviously nyctherapist is in nyc, they are both analysts, it’s possible they could refer as well (no clue). If you’re in NYC you’re in luck because analysts (at least used to) occupy many of the offices near Central Park. I used to find therapists through psychology today, but I think analysts are harder to find there. Asking for a referral from someone you find there might be good too.

In my opinion credentials (MD, PsyD, PhD) and age (within reason) seem like good signs. Proxies for experience.

Oh also, it could be worth explicitly asking the person if they are practicing psychoanalysis specifically. There are a lot of varieties of therapy. Sometimes therapists seem to list themselves as psychoanalytic (or psychodynamic) when they aren’t analysts.

>How long did take you before you felt you were making some progress.

Hm. It’s a little tricky to tease apart. When I started I was so desperate to get better that I would think anything was progress. Which is to say I felt like things were improving immediately, but I think the deeper kinds of progress actually came later. Psychoanalysis is after real psychological change. I think the changes I have experienced have come from slowly but deliberately picking apart these masses of feeling inside me, and have come over the course of months and years rather than days and weeks. I got into a (different) relationship after perhaps 5ish months. Getting into a relationship was not an explicit goal to me when I started, but I was so isolating that I think that’s indication of some genuine change. I know that by now I have changed quite a lot. It’s been about 5 years.

In any case, if you do pursue it, good luck! I’ve found it deeply enriching. It’s great for my curiosity, and I think there’s even a sense of adventure to it (going to depths of the mind that are no where else allowed)

[1] https://apsa.org/find-an-analyst

> people of a certain mindset need an Everest to conquer.

Well said. There are a few of us out there with that Gimli from LOTR approach to life:

“Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?”

They’re burning the midnight oil to save a company that is suffering from fatal wounds that were largely self-inflicted.

The details of the severance package weren’t known until after they had agreed to stay. You also need to consider that many people are attached to a specific job and are strongly opposed to leaving due to specific benefits they might struggle to find elsewhere. Besides the H1B situation that many have wondered about, there are also things like health insurance. Depending on one’s health situation—particularly with children—you may be concerned about finding a new position at a company with a similar health plan before your severance runs out. COBRA is expensive.

can you share the datapoints you are referencing that lead you to this conclusion? My experience over 30 years spent in many startups as well as other domains such as mountaineering where shared suffering cements strong bonds leads me to a different conclusion. Perhaps we just differ on our assessment of EM's motivations.