Shirah Vollmer MD
The Musings of Dr. Vollmer
Recent Posts
Categories
- About Me (8)
- Accolades (8)
- ADHD (24)
- Adolescence (26)
- Aggression (3)
- Aging (5)
- altruism (1)
- Analytic Separation (1)
- Anger (9)
- Anxiety (10)
- Apps (2)
- Arrogance (3)
- Art (1)
- Asperger's Disorder (3)
- Assessment (3)
- Attachment (12)
- Atypicals (2)
- Autism (8)
- avoidance (8)
- Belonging (6)
- Bipolar Disorder (3)
- Birth Order (1)
- Birthdays (1)
- Blogosphere Fans (17)
- Book Reveiw (6)
- Borderline Personality Disorder (3)
- Brain and Behavior (5)
- Bullies (1)
- Career Dilemmas (4)
- caring therapist (1)
- Cartoons (119)
- child abuse (5)
- Child Psychiatry (58)
- Child Psychotherapy (20)
- child safety (4)
- Chronic Mental Illness (3)
- communication skills (1)
- community psychoanalysis (2)
- Community Resources (2)
- Confidentiality (1)
- Countertransference (10)
- Couples Therapy (7)
- Criminal Justice (1)
- Crowd Sourcing (1)
- Cultural Activities (2)
- Culture Vulture (2)
- current events (1)
- Dating (1)
- Death and Dying (6)
- Decision Making (1)
- Defense Mechanisms (1)
- denial (2)
- depression (13)
- Digital Age (2)
- dissociation (2)
- Doctor/Patient Relationship (19)
- doorknob comments (3)
- Dreams (2)
- Eating (9)
- Eating Disorders (1)
- Ebola (1)
- Electronic Medical Records (4)
- Emerging Adult (4)
- Empathy (1)
- Empty Nest (2)
- End of life care/palliative care (1)
- Fairbairn (2)
- Families (8)
- fathers and sons (1)
- Fatigue (1)
- Feelings (6)
- Finances (2)
- forensic psychology (2)
- Foster Children (4)
- Frame (1)
- Free Association (2)
- Freud (4)
- Friendship (32)
- gangs (1)
- genetics (3)
- Geriatrics (4)
- Gifts (1)
- Great Quotes (5)
- Grief (8)
- Guilt (12)
- Hammer Museum (1)
- Happiness (2)
- Health Care Delivery (9)
- Holidays (3)
- humor (2)
- Hypochondriac (1)
- Identification (1)
- Impasse (1)
- Intersubjectivity (1)
- judgment (3)
- Kohut (1)
- leadership (2)
- Letters (1)
- Listening (8)
- Loneliness (8)
- Losing A Child (1)
- Loss (3)
- Manners (1)
- Marketing (1)
- marriage (5)
- Media Consumption (5)
- Media Coverage (41)
- Medical Training (8)
- Melanie Klein (2)
- memory (3)
- Mentorship (4)
- Metablogging (3)
- Mind/Body (9)
- Mindfulness (1)
- Money and Psychotherapy (2)
- Monte Marla (19)
- Movie Review (41)
- music and the mind (3)
- Musings (880)
- Aging Brain (4)
- Anxiety Disorders (10)
- At The Movies (2)
- Betrayal (4)
- Child Development (13)
- Divorce (9)
- DSM 5 (22)
- Gender (8)
- Genetics of Human Behavior (2)
- Medical Education (14)
- Mental Health and the Media (5)
- Mother/Child Relationships (13)
- Motivation (4)
- Neurobiology of Behavior (13)
- Parenting (55)
- Play (18)
- Psychoanalysis (254)
- Psychopathology (7)
- Psychopharmacology (29)
- Psychotherapy (404)
- Relationships (64)
- Sleep Pathology (2)
- State of Psychiatry (6)
- Weight (4)
- Women's Issues (10)
- Mutism (2)
- My Events (18)
- My Publications (1)
- Narcissism (14)
- Narratives (1)
- Nature/Nurture (2)
- Neuroeconomics (1)
- neuromodulation (2)
- New Media and Psychotherapy (2)
- No-Show (1)
- obituaries (1)
- Obsessions (2)
- Oedipal (1)
- Office Management (14)
- Office Practice (20)
- Panic Attacks (1)
- Parties (2)
- PCMH (1)
- Pediatric Psychopharmacology (3)
- personal growth (11)
- Personality (7)
- pharmacies (2)
- PMDD (1)
- pregnancy (1)
- Primary Care (16)
- Professional Development (29)
- Professionalism (19)
- Projection (3)
- PSR (1)
- Psychiatric Assessment (5)
- Psychiatric Hospitalization (1)
- Psychiatry in Transition (83)
- psychic retreats (1)
- Psychobiology (3)
- PTSD (7)
- Public Relations (1)
- Quotes (2)
- Race In Psychotherapy (1)
- Referrals (3)
- Rescue (2)
- Resistance (4)
- Retirement (1)
- Schizophrenia (3)
- school refusal (3)
- school visit (4)
- Self-Psychology (1)
- Sexuality (1)
- Shame (3)
- Siblings (9)
- Sisters (2)
- Sleep (3)
- social media (1)
- Social Skills (1)
- Sociopathy (2)
- speech therapy (1)
- Stress (1)
- Subjectivityy (2)
- Substance Abuse (9)
- Success (1)
- Suicide (5)
- Supervision (5)
- Tardiness (1)
- Teaching (114)
- Teaching Psychoanalysis (149)
- Technology in Medicine (4)
- Telephone (1)
- Termination (1)
- Terrorism (1)
- The Affair (1)
- Therapeutic Action (1)
- Transference (23)
- Trauma (9)
- Triggers (1)
- twitter (1)
- Uncategorized (1)
- Unconscious Living (9)
- understanding (2)
- unemployment (2)
- Volunteer Opportunities (2)
- Winnicott (13)
- Working Through (1)
- Zoloft (3)
-
This blog describes the thoughts of a practicing analytically trained psychiatrist.
Disclaimer: all patients mentioned in this blog are fictional composites created to highlight an issue.
Subscribe
Blog Stats
- 314,250 hits
Archives
- September 2019
- July 2019
- February 2019
- July 2018
- June 2018
- April 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
Pages
Meta
Shelly Tannenbaum said
It’s good if we can laugh at ourselves, but not if people stigmatize those suffering with anxiety. As an example, Jews can call each other “Kikes” without offending one another, but let a Gentile call a Jew a “Kike” and it brings on a whole other meaning. To say to someone, “After years of therapy….you must miss your suffering!” would be horribly offensive, wouldn’t it?
Dr. Vollmer said
Humor is a complicated experience, and one which I am endlessly fascinated with. The ability to laugh at one’s neurosis is a very adaptive coping skill, but at the same time, as you say, humor so depends on both the speaker and the audience. I agree that when we are dealing with raw experiences, making light is in very bad taste, but as the experience or the pain has time to set in, then there is an opportunity for laughter, which then in turn, eases the pain. Thanks, as always, for chiming in.