I read an opinion in T-J that a psychologist takes money for nothing and this infuriates the reader. Briefly: a person went to one psychologist once, twice, three times - no results. I went to another one and it wasn’t there. The third one shows the same picture. And the psychologist’s offer to discuss the fact of the lack of results at a session paid for by the client is manipulation and extortion by the psychologist of money. Charlatans, scammers! As one of my relatives said, I’d rather go and buy some cosmetics for myself, and even more effectively. It seems that this is one of the most basic expectations from a psychologist: I’ll come to him and he’ll tell him what to do. Like a teacher, he will give you a textbook, or like a surgeon, he will cut out what hurts. I pay money, which means I am guaranteed to receive a checklist, instructions, healthy organs or a limb set after a dislocation, and better yet, a healthy, cheerful, happy, well-established life right away. The arguments here are as follows: the psychologist is a professional, he should immediately scan me with his with a professional look, immediately understand everything about me, make a diagnosis, take external actions and correct me, or at worst give me an algorithm: meditate, tell your boss this, use these, do this. After all, if I were a professional, I wouldn’t go to a psychologist, I would know and do everything myself. Here a person puts himself in the position of an object over which some kind of manipulation is performed, and not a subject who himself takes an active part in his life. It's a pity, in reality everything works differently. Here the surgeon performs an operation, but after it the person remains in a very difficult and sometimes long period - the period of rehabilitation, when he himself must take care of himself, his lifestyle, take medications, do therapeutic exercises, listen to his body or even change his lifestyle, place , work to recover and no longer return to the sore that the surgeon removed. Even here the person is a subject. If you don’t change the bandage after the operation and don’t follow the diet, the recovery process will be delayed, if it doesn’t get worse. Also with the teacher. A teacher can give you a tool, an algorithm, a multiplication table, but you have to learn it and apply it yourself, implement it, handle it somehow - everything yourself. With the same teacher, one student will be successful, and another will be a failure. An important role here is played by the student’s ability to take what the teacher gives, process it and appropriate it for himself. Again, the student-subject has an objectively higher chance of becoming successful in school and in life than the student-object who adheres to the “teach me” attitude. In general, sometimes cool kids don’t even need a teacher: self-education has not been canceled. So the task of a psychologist, to put it very roughly, is to help a person remember that he is, in fact, a subject. It’s banal, give him back responsibility for his life. It sounds simple, but in reality it’s years of building relationships in a safe environment, facing disappointment, frustration, devaluation of yourself and others, and ultimately with the reality that there is no other person in the world who will change something in you and in your life for the better. It simply doesn't exist. Neither for money nor for free. Accepting this fact can be very painful. After all, in childhood this person could be mom or dad, but when you are already a big boy or a big girl, you become this person. And if a person can gain this awareness on his own, that’s great, it deserves respect and admiration. Super! Going to a psychologist is not necessary. At all. Over there in the book reader, the largest section is self-help books. All the sources are there - just use it. But if you do go, it would be great not to devalue his work. After all, as a rule, a person in the position of an object tends to devalue not only others, but also himself. And perhaps regaining one’s subjectivity begins with recognizing the value of another. And then, you see, it’s not far from recognizing one’s own worth.