Jessica Lamb-Shapiro: Raised by Psychotherapists

Later in life, you discover that you know enough psychological terminology to entertain or frighten your friends with armchair diagnoses. And “The Anatomy of Melancholy” is actually a delightful book. Also, the experience of vanishing during other people’s therapy sessions was formative: Every writer should be so lucky to be shut in a room with only books to read for hours at a time.

But I had honed a skill that was, practically speaking, useless. Invisibility is the worst superpower. I miss the days when my talents were more in demand. I wish there were a game show where success was conditional on one’s ability to be silent and immobile for lengthy periods, because I would win it. My neighbors don’t appreciate how quietly I can breathe, since who notices a lack of noise? To my dismay, there are no reading tires at grown-up parties. I recently read that playground tires give off toxic gases. Still, I’m nostalgic for the sensation of sitting inside one while someone climbs on it, oblivious to my existence.

Jessica Lamb-Shapiro is the author of “Promise Land: My Journey Through America’s Self-Help Culture.”