#78 A Gift for Psychology

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Psychologists have long known about holiday meltdown. Among the probable causes they cite unrealistically high expectations (maybe Santa will bring me that pony this year), pressure to be perfect (maybe my in-laws will compliment my cranberry-garlic loaf this year), and sheer, simple stress (maybe I’ll crack and finally have that breakdown this year). They don’t talk about the rash of psychoses that come from the anguish of people who are faced with giving and receiving gifts.

Most of these syndromes don’t even have names. In the interest of advancing science, I’d like to suggest a few new diagnoses.

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NOTES:

• The segements of this essay are based (very loosely) on the style of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. You can read a bit about it here: http://tinyurl.com/74efl
• In the essay I kid a bit about folks who over-wrap gifts. If you want to indulge your inner gillterophilic, you can follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/37e6ey or this one: http://tinyurl.com/3dkej8

Tags: humor essay | humor column | holiday | christmas | psychology | gift | comedy