Though my mood and circumstances around my last therapy session of 2021 were dark, my 45-minutes ended on an unexpectedly jocular note.
My therapist wished me a nice vacation (I am headed to Turks and Caicos in early January) then said, "I have to get off. My next victim is here." Referring to patients as victims is not something the good doctor has ever done in the 30 or so years I've been working with him.
I responded: "Victim? I guess that's why they call you 'the Caligula of the couch.'"
That made him laugh and of course prompted a moment's consideration--was there anything deeply meaningful in my epigram. But sometimes, as Freud never said, "a joke is just a joke," and we quickly recovered from my barb.
"I wish you holidays," he signed off with.
"Not 'happy holidays,'" I asked.
"No. I know better than that."
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