Shrinkage

Bizarro is inflicted on you today by Magical Foods.

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I love psychotherapy. I don’t love the expense so I can’t go every week; I simply visit one for a few weeks or months when I’m having a specific problem in my life. Like the time a few years ago when I couldn’t decide between growing a ridiculous mustache or getting giant breast implants. A shrink helped me make the right decision.

Most people don’t know where the term “shrink” came from. The fascinating story behind this is that the brilliant father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, realized that the reason people have psychological problems is that their head is too large and the extra room inside allows their brain to bounce around, causing emotional distress. He tried various methods of shrinking the head (hot water, freeze-drying) but could never perfect it and was losing patients right and left. Eventually he realized that if you stuff enough cotton into your ears, it will fill up the extra space, hold the brain still, and voila; no more brain bouncing. So “shrink” is actually a misnomer. We should be calling them “stuffers.”

On the same topic, here’s an old Bizarro shrink cartoon that I still really like.