Philip Huang, AMFT
There is danger in too much sanity. Therapy can help us cope, adapt, normalize. Therapy must also help us protest, refuse, rebel. In successful treatment, we respect what is odd about us. In our pathology lies our salvation.Our choice, after all, is not between sanity or insanity. It is between madness and insanity. We cannot be fully sane. This is why, after years of therapy and meditation and pills, we still feel moody or horny or forlorn. And we think WHY. How much more work do we have to do?The bad news is that we will never be rid of our madness.The good news is that we shouldn’t.The madness is the rich fatty yolk in the egg. Our only choice is to go a little mad every day or go insane. Instead of the Buddha, we can learn more from Bette Davis, who rolled her eyes into the grave. Or Nora Ephron, who laughed her way into hers. We were not put on this earth to cope, but to LIVE.There is urgency here. Far too many of us are dead before we are dead, martyred to the puritan ideals of duty and control. This is why therapy is a dangerous thing. It might get us to accept, even to celebrate, that we are mad–maybe a little, maybe a lot. It might get us to finally rebel.And then, perhaps, we can LIVE.
All my session are on Zoom or by phone. M-F 10a-8p. My fee is $125-$175 for individuals, $150-$225 for couples, and $75/week for men's group.