Psychologist for the Invisible. Heartfelt Confessions

"My husband cheated, my child does not listen, my parents do not understand me, I fear old age, I cannot find myself... what should I do?" - the faces of the questioners are not visible, their voices are not heard, questions cannot be asked, and the answers will be read by thousands of unfamiliar people. Is it even possible in such a situation to answer accurately, and to imbue the answer with concrete practical meaning? One of the most famous Russian psychologists, Ekaterina Mikhailova, says that the letters from readers of the magazine Psychologies, which she has been answering for ten years, are the most difficult "quest" she can remember. Behind the letter to the "dear editor" it is not easy to discern a living person - even harder to avoid templates and ready-made solutions in the response. For Mikhailova, these letters, "so alive and so bewildered," are a mirror of social processes. People write about how they envision the world they live in. The psychologist becomes an echo, a translator of a message that needs to be deciphered - so that readers recognize their own in someone else's and see that even from the most difficult experiences...