Yes, it’s Michelle Obama. Here’s the insufferable quote “explaining” her boycotting of the Trump inauguration, pointer to Ann Althouse, who pays attention to podcasts by celebrities like Mrs. Barack (me, I have sock drawers to keep):
“So I’m at this stage in life where I have to define my life on my terms for the first time. So what are those terms? And going to therapy just to work all that out. Like, what happened that 8 years that we were in the, the White House? What did that do to me — internally, my soul?… And going through therapy, you know, is… unlearning some of those messages that I’ve been tell… saying to myself and then trying to actively practice something different to rewire those neurons in my head…. [M]y decision to skip the inauguration… people couldn’t believe that I was saying no for any other reason — they had to assume, that my marriage was falling apart. You know, it’s like while I’m here really trying to own my life and intentionally practice making the choice that was right for me, and it took everything in my power to not do the thing that was right or that was, was that that was perceived as right but do the thing that was right for me. That was a hard thing for me to do. I had to basically trick myself out of it. And it started with not having anything to wear. I mean, I had affirmatively — because I’m always prepared for any funeral, anything I have. I walk around with the right dress, I travel with clothes, just in case something pops off. So I was like, if I’m not going to do this thing, I gotta tell my team: I don’t even want to have a dress ready. Because it’s so easy to just say, let me do the right thing.”
Right…huh?
What an insufferable, narcissistic, arrested adolescent bore. She had the privilege of living in the White House and having the unearned status and honor of being treated as a national figure and icon, despite no personal achievements that warranted such celebrity other than marrying the right guy. As a former First Lady, Michelle has few obligations, but one of them is to provide a unifying example by appearing in a non-partisan role at certain traditional ceremonies and functions, a President’s inauguration being an obvious one. She has parlayed her White House stay into untold riches, and the very least she could do to earn her keep is to show up (which, as Woody Allen has pointed out, is 80% of success in life). Instead we get this New Agey empty “like” blather.
Ethics Alarms 
Wow, all that made VP Harris sound…well…still pretty stupid, but Mrs. Obama is gaining ground down the backstretch.
(Hint) If you read this aloud, I think it might be even more mindless.
I am now convinced that “Becoming” was penned by a ghost writer.
Modern therapy often encourages people to worship every irrational emotional impulse they have. Too often, neuroticism is disguised in the name of self-empowerment.
I’ve seen people talk like this around me, and this type of rhetoric and thinking is all over social media.
The rise of therapy culture is correlated with a decrease in a culture based on duty and honor.
“Too often, neuroticism is disguised in the name of self-empowerment.”
You’d have to think that the “Those aren’t problems, they’re STRENGTHS!” (similar to Thomas Sowell’s Seductive Beliefs I and II) would be a pretty easy pitch, and likely leads to repeat business for unethical therapists.
PWS
It really is a racket.
The studies on talk therapy show the returns diminish quickly past a really small number of sessions except for people with extreme issues.
A lot of therapists are taking advantage of sad, lost people by taking their money while pretending to help them. You can’t exactly tell your client that they are too sensitive, even if coming from a good place.
Well, if you have money to burn like Michelle, why not? Therapy always has the rationalization of “who knows how bad off the subject would have been if he or she didn’t do it”.
Danny Kaye paid to have the top psychotherapist in the country live in his house so he would be on call 24-7, and the performer was just as miserable and maladjusted at the end of his life as he was before seeking help.
Egad. What a bloated, rambling way to say, “I finally have my life back without a hundred people telling me what I have to do and where I have to be and that I have to have the appropriate dress on hand for anything that could possibly erupt around me. This time, I chose to prioritize what I wanted and everybody decided there had to be something wrong with my marriage.”
I understand that living in the White House is the ultimate in fishbowl existence and I don’t envy anyone who does it. I know there are a dozen people directing your schedule every day and telling you what you can and cannot do. I get that making sure you have the right wardrobe on hand just in case something goes south is a nuisance. I appreciate that it might be necessary to talk to a therapist to work out your feelings about having your every move scrutinized for 8 years.
But that’s why you skip a Hollywood Awards ceremony, not the Inauguration.
As I have been listening to a podcast discussing “learning” as a form of, not pattern recognition, but prediction, I read “to earn her keep is to show up” as … “to shut up”.
Was this another typo?
As did I. I’d never heard “80% success/showing up” attributed to Woody Allen. I assumed it was an economist or someone like that. So, when I saw Woody Allen there, I assumed “shut up” would be there.
Believe it or not, no. In fact, it’s probably Woody’s most famous quote.
I pictured it being authored by Thomas Sowell.