BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

My father, of blessed memory, was a respected Lieutenant with the NY State Troopers. And a Type II Diabetic, as was his mother and her whole family. That said, he would never, ever have done this. It is so horrible when bad apples are encouraged to be worse... and below this I will tell you why I find this so personally scary. On the other hand, having given some seminars to law enforcement officers on the dynamics of domestic violence, I can say that many police officers do not get it about abuse (and don't seem to care, either). And they don't get how abusers can seem quite normal and even charming while they sit in a precinct office blaming their victims or even filing false charges to blame shift . In some cases, if an officer wasn't on one side of the bars, some would probably be on the other . That said, I still have high respect for police officers - many of whom do a difficult and often thankless job - day in and day out. Police cadets urged to go cau...

CAN WE 'LABEL' THE INDIVIDUAL PSYCHE? When I was an actor I found human behavior fascinating. I still do. Sometimes I will watch television or a movie and really work on trying to 'get into the head' of one of the characters. Like Tony Soprano - a sociopath with a conscience. A study in opposites. I used to do this when I worked and I found many of the people around me terribly distrubing. I still do. The people I meet in my advocacy work often intrigue me. Unfortunately, I am so empathetic I feel far too deeply in many cases. I have been in and out of some sort of therapy since about 1980. I know, I'm a stereotype. It was a huge stigma in my family to go. I never told my parents I was going. Besides, my narcissistic parent would have thought I was talking about them all the time. I have been with my current main therapist for over 10 years. I like her and she 'grows' along with me in a very non-judgmental sort of way. I have had other therapist...