Therapy

Much of modern psychology is borderline wishy-washy pet theories wrapped up in scientific jargon. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), on the other hand, is a practical, evidence-based approach to changing your thoughts and behaviors. And it’s been around for thousands of years. We can thank Freud for doing two things: bringing the idea of talk therapy into the mainstream and making it seem like a mystical, magical process. Freud practiced pseudoscience, and unfortunately, his ideas still permeate our culture today. Thankfully, we have (in some circles at least) replaced his style of magical thinking with more evidence-based approaches like CBT.

One of my many unpopular opinions is that therapy is mostly a waste of money. To be clear, I’m referring to the kind of therapy where you pay someone for 45 minutes to an hour of their time to sit there, listen to your problems, and perhaps give you some kind of feedback or suggestions (or maybe they’ll just give you CBT book recommendations after they’ve extracted enough revenue from you).