Sometimes it seems as though every female psychologist speaks just like this first woman does: with careful, breathy enunciation. It’s like they were trained in school: “Try not to make too much noise, but speak so that you could be understood even if you were in a silent movie.”
liz | 1:41 PM | Uncategorized
Liz Spikol was born in Philadelphia sometime in the 20th century. She started writing about her experience as a person with mental illness in 1999, while employed at Philadelphia Weekly as the paper’s managing editor. Aside from serving as that paper’s web editor, music editor, staff writer, senior editor, executive editor and a host of other random roles that she couldn’t make up her mind about, she has also worked as a Spanish teacher, as a Certified Peer Specialist during Philly’s system-wide transformation and as a communications specialist for a prison reform organization. Currently, she works at the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania and writes book reviews for PW. This blog — named one of the Top 10 Bipolar Blogs of 2007 and 2008 by PsychCentral — is about medications, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, SAD (and many other acronyms), mad pride, Big Pharma, celebrities, hospitals, stigma and the recovery movement. And other stuff.
Yes, that’s what Sartre called bad faith — play-acting what you would actually be for real if you only stopped play-acting. His famous example is a café waiter.
The exaggerated head movements at the start are wonderful, too.
It may also be a coping mechanism by a “recovering” stutterer. I am one. The stutterer becomes very cautious and tends to measure words, deliberately modulate tone. Stutterers, even those who haven’t been “active” in years (yes, it sounds like I’m talking about alcoholics), are forever wary of their voices, speech patterns, and words. With all due respect to Sartre, play-acting is the most vital part of a recovering stutterer’s arsenal. When the alternative is authenticity a la Porky Pig, where is the choice?
It’s not their enunciation that bugs me as much as it seems like they think it’s really cool. If you just look at her face it’s like she’s talking about Jesus or Amway or something.
i’m sure this behavior, this intensely sincere, concerned, reassuring insincerity, would be less common if it wasn’t what the market wanted.
as for me, i’m glad my shrink talks like a crabby bag lady and yells at me occasionally.
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