In this case, though, form obviously trumps content. The beauty of this campaign is that it’s transformative. The literal message implies a static present, but the act of reaching out, of making these videos, itself shatters that illusion.

These videos prove that people have been moved already. They allow us to see a changing landscape in bloom. The point isn’t really that things will get better; it’s that – look! – they are getting better…

And that sharing our pain makes all the difference.

Bless you, Dan Savage.

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[This is a gorgeous essay. I hate to excerpt it at all. -Ed.]

More on Andrew Solomon

I’m a fan of Freud. Despite a lot of funny ideas, his investment in self-awareness – and his method of attaining it, free association – makes him a crucial figure in the enlightenment of our species. Nonetheless, we live in dark times. I’m not a pessimist about nature, but I don’t believe in the progressive arc of history. As Freud himself asserts, human beings have to work to improve themselves. I take this to be true writ large. Without a vast, shared commitment to better our world, we will doom ourselves to horrors old and new. And a sentiment of shared commitment seems to be waning.

As always, though, bad news spells opportunity. In times of darkness, great minds usually arise to challenge the status quo; Freud himself is an example of this. Surprisingly, then, Freud’s philosophy is at the heart of the most scathing critique of modern society I have seen in some time: Adam Curtis’ The Century of the Self.

Curtis doesn’t take issue with Freud’s ideas directly. He attacks them for their consequences. If you have any interest in Freud whatsoever, you MUST watch this documentary. Here is Curtis in his own words:

I don’t say there was a conspiracy but that consumerism had an ideology just as much as fascism or communism did. It was another way of managing the masses in an age of mass democracy. People like [Edward] Bernays were the first architects of that. And the model they used was fundamentally the pessimistic Freudian view that we are just emotional, irrational creatures and nothing more…

Bernays [Freud's nephew] provided the ideas that were used by the US government, big business, and the CIA to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the savage barbarism that the psychoanalysts told them lurked just under the surface of normal American life…

What happened was that a group of psychoanalysts took what Bernays had begun and invented a whole range of techniques to get inside and manage the unconscious mind of the consumer. By the early 50s the ideas of psychoanalysis had penetrated deep into American life. The psychoanalysts themselves became rich and powerful and had many famous politicians, writers and show business celebrities as patients. And, as their ideas took hold, a new elite began to emerge — in politics, social planning, and the business world. What linked them was the assumption that the masses were fundamentally irrational. The way to manage a free market democracy, like America, was to use their psychological understanding to control this irrationality in the interests of everyone.

This may sound a bit marxist for your tastes, with its powerful elite controlling the minds of many. But Curtis is really the opposite of a conspiracy theorist – he’s interested in the consequences of good intentions. With an eye and ear for breathtaking historical detail, he illustrates how Freud’s followers undermine the notion of public good.

It’s safe to assume Freud would be horrified by Curtis’ picture. Freud meant to demystify the unconscious, as a way of freeing us from pain and misery. But his savviest disciples proved to be master manipulators. More shillers than healers, they used Freud’s theories to toy with the unconscious instead.

Curtis’ history is beyond shocking, if only because none of it is secret. He weaves together a grand narrative that seems utterly obvious and yet painfully fresh. Yes, it is true: Freud is the great uncle of public relations, the grandaddy of consumer culture. Watch The Century of the Self and you’ll be convinced.

Part One: Happiness Machines

Part Two: The Engineering of Consent

Part Three: There Is a Policeman Inside All Our Heads He Must Be Destroyed

Part Four: Eight People Sipping Wine in Kettering

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[A wonderful follow-up to this post. Props to Cathy Horyn, who really hits all the bases in writing responsibly about a suicide.]

And sometimes when I’m feeling kind of overwhelmed by ‘the battlefield,’ I will just sort of stay away from the artificial situations and get back to my closer friends who really get what’s going on in my psyche.”

[Amen. I'm going to make better sleep hygiene my new year's resolution. -Ed.]

Artistic men are happier, study finds

“The findings of the study, in which almost 50,000 people participated, suggest that greater participation in arts and culture may improve overall levels of mental health. Professor Jostein Holmen, one of the researchers at the university said there was a ‘positive relationship’ between cultural participation and happiness for both sexes.”

In mental health news, you hear this stuff all the time: obvious conclusions couched in scientific language, announced in the manner of discoveries. Should it come as any surprise that participation in cultural activities adds to well-being? Why would scientists spend so much time verifying this connection? The study and its press say more about our relationship to art than anything else.

The real news here is our insecurity. Art doesn’t just make us happy – it makes us human. Those who question its benefits, or need to prove them, already seem lost.

In some ways, the site is a contradiction. Its mission seems particularly suited to the ethos of a blooming web culture – bringing together strangers to share secrets in an arbitrarily structured way that feels freeing and gives rise to a wealth of expression. From another angle, the whole thing seems oddly old-fashioned – decorating tiny canvasses using scissors and glue, submitting them for publication via snail-mail, and hoping your entry gets lovingly scanned by Frank Warren himself. It’s folk art for the internet age. And I love it.

[This is great. Comedian Howie Mandel opens up about his Obsessive-compulsive Disorder on Ellen. -Ed.]

Therapy is expensive. Even on a sliding scale, one can expect to pay anywhere from $40-$75 per session (though better deals can be had). And the question of cost isn’t merely tricky because of tight funds. Who wants to pay for emotional support? I’m sure people grapple with this question all the time – I know I did. It took me years to address my misgivings about money with my therapist in an open and honest way.

In the end, I found that my reluctance to “shell out” cash for therapy had a lot to do with fears: of being self-involved, of being silly, of being wasteful. In other words, I questioned the relevancy of my own peace of mind.

For getting me to consider questions like that, therapy was worth every penny.

[PS: Here are some tips for care on a budget. See also my comments here (at bottom); the emergency room is always an option.]

[A] genetic trait tremendously maladaptive in one situation can prove highly adaptive in another. We needn’t look far to see this in human behavior. To survive and evolve, every society needs some individuals who are more aggressive, restless, stubborn, submissive, social, hyperactive, flexible, solitary, anxious, introspective, vigilant—and even more morose, irritable, or outright violent—than the norm. All of this helps answer that fundamental evolutionary question about how risk alleles have endured. We have survived not despite these alleles but because of them. And those alleles haven’t merely managed to slip through the selection process; they have been actively selected for.

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[Fascinating stuff – reminiscent of this post. Also included, this wonderful zinger: "The orchid variant of the DRD4 gene, for instance, increases risk of ADHD (a syndrome best characterized, Cochran and Harpending write, 'by actions that annoy elementary-school teachers')." -Ed.]