Personal
When your name is Michael Murphy – the John Smith of Ireland – one of the first things you have to do is to differentiate yourself from all of the other Michael Murphy’s out there.
I am not the Michael Murphy who is the well-known Hollywood character actor. I am not the Michael Murphy who used to play wing for the New York Islanders. I am not the Michael Murphy who, so many years ago, sang “Wildfire” – though, truth be known, he threw a an “e” onto the end of his name (Murphey) to differentiate himself from the rest of us – I am not the Michael Murphy who founded the California human potential center Esalen. I am not any of those Michael Murphy’s, and there are a whole lot of other Michael Murphy’s that I am not.
Suggested Reading:
I am the Michael Murphy who graduated from Holy Cross College with a degree in philosophy, got a doctoral degree in Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy at Texas A&M University at Commerce, worked for 10 years as a director of a mental health center in Western Massachusetts, completed post-doctoral training programs in forensic psychology and neuropsychology, published in the million-selling book Chicken Soup for the Soul and then my own book Tales of Fathering, wrote newspaper columns for many years for the Bennington Banner and the Patriot Ledger, completed years of experience and training as a sex offender evaluator, worked for many years as a provider and supervisor of prison mental health services, completed many hundreds of court-related forensic mental health evaluations at various hospitals and secure institutions, and experienced some of the mild, and not so mild, forms of personal turmoil described in some of the essays available through my articles.
I urge you to read, respond, and contact me if there is a reason to do so. Fredrich Neitzsche described psychology as the god-science, though it has often been reduced to much more mundane purposes. As we continue on our journey wherever we are going, we can do no better than to investigate.