Even as someone sincerely interested in psychology as serious science, I’m not really comfortable with the idea[0] of therapy—I assume mental health treatment is what’s usually meant by “therapy”?—especially if it implies that somebody can just “tell” me what my “subconscious” is “feeling” and expect me to take that at face value.

1) A prospect of looking for a person I can trust is quite daunting if it necessarily involves sharing sensitive things with those I wouldn’t trust once I get to know them. If you have the money and the confidence required to share very personal things with four different psychiatrists, it may work for you—it doesn’t seem likely to for me.

2) Knowing my own dislike for pseudo- or cargo cult science, I foresee how we would have to spend a lot of time diving into the “why” underlying every point, and I know from experience how it’s awkward (not to mention a waste of money and time) when you have done your own research and start noticing that a professional, in fact, (A) doesn’t know something and (B) unable to admit it and do more research (made worse if that person (C) charges by the hour).

Really, I can get on board with the idea of someone telling me that I’m in denial and me snapping out of it, but assuming I can’t acknowledge that when my friends say so why would I suddenly believe a person who knows me much less and, no offence, for all I know may well be making a living doing something not very far removed from fortune telling?

Long story short, it’s likely a Bad Idea(tm) to take these matters into your own hands[0], but I instead try to educate myself on the fundamentals by reading books. Among my recent findings on this topic is Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and His Emissary, if the above resonates with you may like it too (though I’ve only recently started it, not yet halfway through). Iain is, no surprise, a psychiatrist, but with a huge lean towards neuroscience, which is a good combination that to me makes for an interesting/palatable read. Being more or less the opposite of a self-help book, it builds on analysis of fairly hardcore well-sourced research and so far I feel enabled to make my own conclusions as to how it may (or may not, yet to be seen) apply to my psychological balance (slash lack thereof).

[0] Of course, this should go with a big red warning label that *I have not tried therapy* (yet?). Don’t listen to me, probably.