A Commonplace Book

I am a psychiatrist. I have been for 27 years. I'm completely worn out. Year after year, listening to patients who aren't satisfied with their lives, who want to have fun, who want me to help them with that. It wears you out I can tell you. My life isn't exactly a lot of fun either.

People demand so much. That's the conclusion I've drawn after all these years. They demand to be happy at the same time as they are egocentric, selfish and ungenerous. Well, I would like to be honest. I would like to say that they are quite simply mean. Most of them.

Spending hour after hour in therapy trying to make a mean person happy. There's no point. You can't do it. I've stopped doing it. These days I just prescribe pills. The stronger the better. That's the way it is.