Lori Gottlieb: How changing your story can change your life
Lori Gottlieb asks: What if the stories we tell ourselves are wrong? Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
by telling you about an email
called "Dear Therapist,"
of very personal letters
from heartbreak and loss,
"The Problems of Living."
I get lots of emails just like this,
into my world for a second
until a couple of years ago.
stopped wanting to have sex as much,
that for the past few months,
long, late-night phone calls
with a coworker when I was young
to trust my husband again.
through a divorce,
about how painful infidelity is.
painful it is here
growing up with her father.
have some empathy for this woman,
feelings for her husband.
that go through my mind too,
these letters in my inbox.
when I respond to these letters
is actually just a story
of this story also exists.
anything as a therapist,
narrators of our own lives.
going to believe my TED Talk.
that we purposely mislead.
is absolutely true,
they emphasize or minimize,
in a particular way.
described this beautifully -- he said,
to take a moral stance."
with stories about our lives.
why things went wrong,
we make sense of our lives.
or just wrong?
shape our stories.
shapes what they become.
is that if we can change our stories,
an unreliable narrator.
because if I say I'm a therapist,
about to give you a pelvic exam?"
to help people edit,
about my specific role as Dear Therapist
I'm not just editing for one person.
of readers how to edit,
or going in circles,
or are they a distraction?"
tend to circle around two key themes.
at freedom for a second.
amount of freedom.
to the problem at hand,
we feel like we have none.
are about feeling trapped, right?
by our families, our jobs,
with a narrative of self-flagellation --
is better than mine" story,
the "I'm unlovable" story,
work out for me" story.
and she doesn't answer,
she'll never trust him again,
her children will suffer.
that I think is a perfect example
in these stories.
shaking the bars,
around the bars to freedom
for our role in the story,
that I see in our stories: change.
in the story to change."
she'd be the king."
or utterly miserable,
and setting and plot,
dialogue in this story.
how the story is going to go
is to venture into the unknown.
than a blank page.
becomes much easier to write.
about getting to know ourselves.
is to unknow yourself.
you've been telling yourself
that you've been telling yourself
from the woman, about the affair.
taped up in my office:
outside of one's knowledge or competence.
after this TED Talk.
that as a therapist,
what they want to do,
their life choices for them.
together, right here,
how we can all revise our stories.
that you're telling yourself right now
you're experiencing,
at the supporting characters.
who wrote me that letter
what's called "idiot compassion."
we go along with the story,
get the promotion he wanted,
several times before
put in the effort,
also steals office supplies.
that her boyfriend broke up with her,
that there are certain ways
or the going through his drawers,
in every bar you're going to,
we need to offer wise compassion,
I think the technical term might be --
what we've left out of the story.
is having an affair,
changed two years ago,
phone calls are really about.
that because of her history,
story of betrayal,
to let me, in her letter,
who's taking a Rorschach test.
they look like that,
at his ink blot and he says,
you definitely don't see."
I make when I chew.
to secretly put extra milk in my granola
after my father died two years ago.
to what I was going through.
whose father died a few months ago,
like I talk to my friend,
tolerates me now.
I read you earlier,
narrator's point of view.
a husband who's cheating,
who can't understand his grief.
is that for all of their differences,
is a longing for connection.
of the first-person narration
from another character's perspective,
becomes much more sympathetic,
in the editing process,
if you looked at your story
person's point of view?
from this wider perspective?
who are depressed,
to talk to you about you right now,"
in a very particular way.
lonely or hurt or rejected.
we're looking through.
our own fake-news broadcasters.
of the letter I read you.
and pita chips, by the way.
of the alternative narratives
but also in my column.
in the same situation
unbeknownst to the other,
of this woman's letter is,
of her letter that she wrote to me.
is having an affair of any kind --
what the plot is yet.
for what the plot can become.
that I see people who are really stuck,
in their stuckness.
when you try to offer them a suggestion,
that will never work, because ..."
because I can't do that."
but people are just so annoying."
of misery and stuckness.
I usually take a different approach.
I'm not your therapist right now.
at me right now,
about all of us, eventually.
authors of our own unhappiness,
while we're still alive.
and not the victim in our stories,
that lives in our minds
which stories to listen to
to go through a revision
to the quality of our lives
we tell ourselves about them.
to the stories of our lives,
personal Pulitzer Prize.
help-rejecting complainers,
that is so easy to slip into
or angry or vulnerable.
you're struggling with something,
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lori Gottlieb - Psychotherapist, authorLori Gottlieb asks: What if the stories we tell ourselves are wrong?
Why you should listen
Lori Gottlieb is a natural storyteller -- and no wonder. She has crafted stories for film and television series as Hollywood executive, delved deep into her subjects' stories as a nationally recognized journalist and has helped people to change their stories through her weekly "Dear Therapist" column for "The Atlantic" and her clinical work as a psychotherapist.
In her latest New York Times bestselling book, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, which is currently being adapted as a television series with Eva Longoria, she tells the stories of four of her patients, along with a fifth patient -- herself. She also serves as a member of the Advisory Council for Bring Change to Mind and as an advisor to the Aspen Institute, and she appears as a frequent expert on emotional health in media such as The Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS Early Show, CNN, and NPR's "Fresh Air." Her new podcast, which will premiere in 2020, will be co-hosted with fellow TED speaker Guy Winch and executive produced by Katie Couric.
Lori Gottlieb | Speaker | TED.com