Michael Holden

1. I want to share something about Hilary Mantel which I hope is about her as a writer but also perhaps an illustration of the power and potential of writing itself…

@JonathanShedler The assertion that things (in this case sentences) have 'usual' meanings - as oppose to thinking about the particular meaning for the client.

Is this written by AI? Because if it’s written by a real patient describing psychotherapy, something feels “off.” If you’re a therapist or a patient in therapy, what seems off to you?

@ScarredForLife2 Not half. That figure in the titles got mixed up with images of the god Pan in other stuff I was into and the whole thing became a sort of fearful roving entity that could crop up anywhere. I thought I saw him in our garden at one point.

The unnerving, doom-laden title sequence to ITV's long-running current affairs show WORLD IN ACTION, circa 1980. Between the radar-themed Vitruvian Man (who, as a child, I confused with Jesus) and the angry theme music, every episode felt apocalyptic.

With a lot of Robert Bolt on iPlayer (Man for All Seasons + Lawrence) I bought Adrian Turner's biography 'Scenes From Two Lives' - pleased to see this attribution of the famed match/desert cut which skews towards Lean/Young/Coates, as rooted in the writing

Karma, Kim n' Elon. "Influence is a coproduction. Perhaps the brightest future is one in which we learn to look away" .open.substack.com/pub/preciseins…

Michael Holden's new VICE column, taken from the comeback issue of our magazine, has been liberated from the paywall—read @thewrongwriter's take on the modern condition here: vice.com/en/article/att…

Love The Firm. I especially love the fact that one of the senior hooligans is called, "Oboe." 'Why' someone ends up named after a classical instrument is less the point than its authentic representation of the sheer weirdness of the nickname process.

@RealTimBooth Hello. I wrote something about the experience (and avoidance of) of frustration, and your song about it - for which -many thanks 🙏 open.substack.com/pub/preciseins…

Pulp Friction. “The object that behaves perfectly becomes no better than a hallucination.” open.substack.com/pub/preciseins…

'The Attention Casino' piece I wrote for @vice now liberated from their paywall. "The ‘zone’ in the casino where we find ourselves is not one of comfort. In fact, it runs on stress, anxiety, and a replica of togetherness experienced mostly while alone." vice.com/en/article/att…

Sheared, slaughtered and scorned. open.substack.com/pub/preciseins…

The Fridge Magnet at the End of the Universe… "the endpoint of all the wearisome sloganeering now making up such a proportion of our feeds" open.substack.com/pub/preciseins…

@JonathanShedler @threadreaderapp unroll

1/ from In Treatment season 1 Why do you think you had that particular memory the other night? -Dr Paul Weston Perhaps there’s a reason you had that particular memory the other night -me (imagining I'm his consultant) Two ways to invite reflection. Perhaps one is more inviting

@JonathanShedler TBF he's doing this is at something like the assesment stage - they're not really 'in therapy' so to speak, he's saying I can't/won't see you, here's why.

A common tell of an unskilled therapist is giving patients advice about what to do When psychotherapy helps patients become more self-aware & more whole, they won’t need advice. When it doesn’t, the advice falls on deaf ears (as it did with Carmella) Good TV drama, bad therapy

Not with a bang, but… open.substack.com/pub/preciseins…

Publish, and be Scammed. The rickety rise of the fake author biography. open.substack.com/pub/preciseins…

Our Mother the Mountain - Greed, growing older and getting down with the uphill struggle. open.substack.com/pub/preciseins…

Unmarked Raves open.substack.com/pub/preciseins…