Is there a way out of that emptiness

Frasier获了终身成就奖，获奖前去看老师，讲自己内心的emptiness挥之不去。老师说，你帮我回忆一下你为什么最开始想学心理学。

Frasier: I was eight. I'd come home crying because one of the older boys had thrown my copy of "The Fountainhead" under a bus. My mother explained to me it wasn't because he didn't like the way I walked or because I wore an ascot to school, it was because he didn't like himself. And at that very moment, I became a student of human behavior. It was as if someone had given me an instruction manual explaining why people acted the way they did. Tewksbury: Not to mention a way to distance yourself from painful emotions. Frasier: Oh, totally. I took a lot of grief for that ascot. Tewksbury: So, you were drawn to psychiatry not because you like to help people, but because you feared them. Frasier: I feared them? Tewksbury: Psychiatry gives you objectivity. Objectivity gives you emotional distance. Distance makes you feel safe.

Frasier: Yes, yes, granted. But what does that got to do with me? Tewksbury: How's your practice? Frasier: I don't have a practice, I have a radio show. Tewksbury: Distance. Any children? Frasier: Yes, I have a wonderful son with whom I'm very close. Tewksbury: You live with him? Frasier: He lives in Boston. Tewksbury: Distance. With your wife. Frasier: My ex-wife - yes, I know, distance. Tewksbury: Wasn't she a psychiatrist? Frasier: Yes, she was. She happens to be a damn good one, too. Tewksbury: Well, that's a handy choice for someone who'd rather share ideas than emotions. Frasier: Have you ever met Lilith? Tewksbury: No. Frasier: Well, she happens to be a very warm and loving woman! Tewksbury: Have you had any other meaningful relationships since then? Frasier: Well, as a matter of fact... what is your point?

Tewksbury: My point is that at the age of eight - at EIGHT - you began to use psychiatry as a way to deal with a world that scared you to death. And this lifetime achievement award has made you realize that your career is finite and once it's gone, all you'll have left is that frightened eight-year-old boy.

这说得就是我。 I am exactly that scared little kid who try to hide behind the objectivity of "science" to gain that distance and feel safe. This is exactly me.