In case you missed in, here’s Daphne Merkin on the pitfalls of entertaining in therapy–Making My Therapist Laugh (NYT):
One of the odder things about therapy, I’ve discovered, is that it comes with little in the way of a code of conduct as opposed to other situations you find yourself in…There is no one, in short, to tell you how to behave. Indeed, the assumptions you make about how you should behave can reveal as much about you as what you actually say or do in therapy itself…[F]or the longest time I thought my role as a good patient was to entertain, to tap-dance around my troubles, like a Ms. Bojangles, aiming for a heartwarming response from the gallery. Indeed, I became so skilled at casting my issues in an amusing light that one of my therapists asked me if I had ever considered becoming a stand-up comedian…