A good work of fiction is more real than the stories from which it was derived. Otherwise it has no staying power. It's distilled reality. And some w… - Jordan Peterson

Assume ignorance before malevolence. No one has a direct pipeline to your wants and needs — not even you.

After all, if you’re not the leading man in your own drama, you’re a bit player in someone else’s — and you might well be assigned to play a dismal, lonely and tragic part.

Have they been educated to the level of their intellectual ability or ambition? Is their use of free time engaging, meaningful, and productive? Have they formulated solid and well-articulated plans for the future? Are they (and those they are close to) free of any serious physical health or economic problems? Do they have friends and a social life? A stable and satisfying intimate partnership? Close and functional familial relationships? A career — or, at least, a job — that is financially sufficient, stable and, if possible, a source of satisfaction and opportunity? If the answer to any three or more of these questions is no, I consider that my new client is insufficiently embedded in the interpersonal world and is in danger of spiraling downward psychologically because of that.