The Interrogative Mood

Got alerted by this NPR story to the existence of Padget Powell’s latest book, The Interrogative Mood.  The book is a long collection of questions–all questions, nothing but.

Are you happy? Do we need galoshes? Are bluebirds perfect? Do you know the distinctions, empirical or theoretical, between moss and lichen? Is it clear to you why I am asking you all these questions? Should I go away? Leave you alone?

Therapists spend most of their time asking questions and only rarely get asked anything themselves.  So here, for a debut Mental Health Break, suggesting the preview of the Powell book posted by the publisher.

Read some out loud with someone–makes for a lively parlor game-type activity.  Some questions good for laughs, others for a little discussion.  “Do you consider yourself dangerous?” might get you talking about fear of expressed anger–how we sometime imagine our rage unleashed is more than others, or the world, could possibly survive…which may lead to talk about early terror of parents’ survival-threatening anger…and to how this is dealt with in object relations theory and …so much for that Mental Health Break.

Enjoy.