Dead Air
Thursday, April 30, 2009
I was listening to Terry Gross interview actor Gabriel Byrne, who appears in a drama about a psychotherapist entitled “In Therapy” when I was struck by something Gross said that struck me as, well, even dumber than usual. She was gushing over Byrne’s portrayal of a therapist, and uttered words to the effect that she would like to go into therapy herself, as it just looked so neat. It immediately occurred to me that this was sort of like watching ER, and saying you’d like to have an emergency tracheotomy or a heart transplant done on yourself as it looked so fascinating.
But then, the sort of therapy that Byrne mimes on his show and that Gross idealizes has always been more of a luxury of the moneyed classes than actual treatment for a disability. It’s just a wonderful, endless voyage of self discovery, and unlike traditional voyages of discovery, you don’t actually have to do anything other than sit in a chair and talk about yourself.
As I thought about that,I couldn’t help but be reminded of a witty quote from P.J. O’Rourke: “Earnestness is stupidity gone to college.”