Psychologist Mimi Road Tripping the World

There’s a glass of water on my nightstand right now.I will not drink it.I never drink it.And yet, every night, I place it there like I’m preparing for a very specific, very dramatic version of myself who might awaken at 3:17am, parched, reflective, possibly mid–existential crisis and in desperate need of hydration.She never shows up.But the water stays.Psychology would like to gently point out…

So apparently, the internet has decided that not only do parallel universes exist (fine, physics, do your thing), but there’s also another version of me out there controlling me.Like I’m some kind of emotional marionette.Or worse, a cosmic voodoo doll.Somewhere, allegedly, Alternate Me is sitting in her superior universe, sipping a smug oat milk latte, deciding a scenario similar to this:“You…

Somewhere in 2017, over 100 employees boarded planes for what was marketed as a “corporate retreat.”You know the type. Growth. Bonding. Vision. Probably a PowerPoint with the word synergy in it.What they got instead? A fever dream. This is what supposedly happen but recall can certainly have been embellished.  But the embellishments are part of the story anyway. A CEO taken out by a salad.…

In a brief and deeply questionable moment of maternal devotion (read: mania), I signed up for an online “marketplace” while searching for grain-free pizza for my son.Marketplace is doing a lot of work here. It’s a supermarket. Let’s not get fancy.Within approximately four minutes, I realized two things:1. They had nothing else I wanted.2. They were planning to automatically fill a cart for me…

There is a very specific kind of existential betrayal that happens sometime between 1:12 a.m. and “I definitely didn’t mean to fall asleep.”You’re watching a show.Something dependable. Structured. Predictable.Let’s say Law & Order. There are rules here:1. There is a crime2.  There are detectives3. There are lawyers4. And most importantly there is a core castA psychological contract, if you will.…

I recently stumbled upon an article (and I use the term news generously these days) about adults using pacifiers to calm themselves down.Adult. Pacifiers.Pause.Now listen! I actually get the impulse. We are living in times that feel like a constant low-grade alarm bell. Everyone is triggered, activated, overstimulated. Nervous systems are doing the absolute most. So yes, I understand the desire…

New York is on fire. Not the chaotic, sirens-in-the-distance kind. But the electric, collective heartbeat of a city that has waited. And waited. And waited.And now? The Knicks are champions.This wasn’t a story of dominance. It was a story of claw-backs. Of almosts. Of “are we really doing this again?” It was a masterclass in the psychology of not giving up when the evidence suggests you probably…

Steve Jobs famously said the only way to do great work is to love what you do.And listen, I both agree and would like to lovingly challenge Mr. Turtleneck.Because here’s the inconvenient truth. You don’t get a moral hall pass just because you’re not “in love” with your job.I have seen people do mediocre work, sloppy work, even sabotage-level work, all under the banner of “well, I’m not passionate…

Google, in its quiet algorithmic way, decided to ambush me today.“This day, years ago,” it said, like it wasn’t about to rearrange my entire nervous system before coffee.And there he was.My son, younger, mid-air, literally suspended in that impossible, physics-defying moment of childhood joy. His bike is tossed to the side, abandoned with the kind of confidence only children have. Not a care…

I watched yet another true crime documentary this week, which is starting to feel less like a casual viewing choice and more like a personality trait.This time it was The Scream Murder: A True Teen Horror Story on Hulu. Three parts. And like so many of these stories, I went in knowing absolutely nothing and came out knowing too much.What fascinates me about true crime isn’t just the “what…

There is something deliciously cinematic about a 21-year-old university student casually stepping in to play piano for La La Land in Concert when the scheduled pianist falls ill. I mean, of course it happened during La La Land. Of course. Life sometimes has the subtlety of a Broadway finale.And just like that, a moment. A pivot. A “wait, is this really happening?” And then, music.We love these…

What’s a moment that made you question reality? So I did ask myself what is a moment that made me question reality.And I just blinked.A moment?I laughed because are we not doing that all day?Because my answer isn’t a moment. It’s a mood.A lifestyle, really.It’s called bewilderment.I am perpetually confused by the human condition.Take, for example, the people who run red lights. Not “oops, it…

I loved youuntil I didn’t until I couldn’t.There’s a difference.One is a quiet dimming,like a room at dusk.The otheris a circuit breaking;sparks, smoke,the unmistakable smellof something inside meburning out.Loving you meantlearning to disappearin plain sight.It meanthating myselfin small, socially acceptable waysthe kind no one applauds,but no one interrupts either.Loving you wasa slow…

There’s a particular kind of human arrogance that assumes insight belongs exclusively to us; along with taxes, existential dread, and the ability to overanalyze text messages. For a long time, scientists mostly agreed. Sure, animals could learn. They could try things, fail, try again. Trial and error. The cognitive equivalent of throwing spaghetti at the wall.But insight? That sudden, almost smug…

At approximately 2:00 a.m., which, clinically speaking, is the hour when good decisions go to die, a group of six individuals reportedly emerged from a manhole in Brooklyn.Let me repeat that.They didn’t open the manhole and go down. They came up.Like a plot twist.Like a metaphor.Like unresolved childhood trauma but wetter.It appears that they may have been underground for nearly two hours, the…

You really can’t make this stuff up anymore. Or rather, you can, and apparently people are doing so with admirable commitment and a suspicious amount of PowerPoint.This week’s dispatch from the “Is This Real Life or Did I Fall Asleep on the Remote?” files includes a story I found regarding an army veteran has come forward claiming he was part of a secret psychic spy program (already a strong…

Lately, I’ve been reading about so-called “dark personality traits.” Not villains-with-capes dark. More like everyday-people-with-good-lighting dark.Psychology tends to group them into a familiar trio: narcissism (I’m the main character), Machiavellianism (I’ll move the pieces), and psychopathy (I don’t feel much about it either way). Collectively, they’ve earned the charming nickname: the Dark…