Well isn’t this special.
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Ah yes, the 2006 CNN episode. That was good enough for weeks worth of material on here. I still show the clips to my classes for a, um, discussion starter. In the clip above, Stephen Langa is the speaker who is quoting Richard Cohen as if he were an expert. The segment where Langa is speaking took place a week after the March ex-gay conference where Scott Lively, Caleb Brundidge and Don Schmierer were recruited to whip up public support for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
It wasn’t long after the CNN segment that an international group of astronomers announced that Pluto was no longer a planet, becoming the first ex-planet. We had the exclusive insight into how it was done.
The CNN debacle was the first of several disasters on national television. He later regretted his performances, saying so here. He should regret that he allowed Caleb Brundidge to go to Uganda on his behalf and that he has not spoken about this issue until Rachel Maddow asked about his views of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
He is slated to go on her show tonight. Grab a tennis racquet, a pillow and a significant other to cuddle; this is must see TV.
This is long overdue.
David & Mary – thanks for your work with Pluto. I have now taken over and Pluto is working through congruence with plantary aspirations. Prognosis is guarded but positive.
Pluto came to me dissatisfied with his classification as a planet. After talking with Pluto over several sessions and clarifying his desires and self description he does not fit the criteria for being a planet. Thus we are working on a course of counseling that will bring him to a place that recognizes his definition for himself.
🙂
Pluto came to me for therapy some time ago. I have a release of information signed by Pluto giving me permission to speak bluntly about his condition and his treatment.
I can say, with confidence, that Pluto now describes itself as an Ex-Planet. “I no longer have striving to be a planet, I am comfortable with being a diffuse self, kind of a cloud of molecules and gases. I used to think there was something wrong with me. I felt pressure to be a planet. To act normal; to fit in with the other celestial bodies. I felt all sorts of tension. It never felt real, like I was trying to integrate parts of me that could never be integrated.”
This “false self” was his primary identity when he came to see me, some 4 years ago. He looked up to the larger planets, but always felt detached from them. Yearning to be solid and massive, he felt small and gasseous; but instead of being honest, he portrayed himself to scientists as a substantive, small planet. It felt phoney, empty. Time and again he would collapse into shame as he realized he was a gaseous cloud…not a planet at all.
These repetitive shame experiences eventually were confronted in therapy as a poor solution to dealing with himself. He was stuck in a repetitive pattern of unrealistic expectations for Planethood. Expectations that put too much pressure on him and never fit with his gaseous nature. Eventually, he realized that although he was different than other planets, he was still a vital member of the galactic community. It was not up to Jupiter or Mars to decide what true membership in the universe was, but that there were many kinds of members to the universe.
This released all the pressure for Pluto. A deep calm came over him, he no longer sought compulsive connection with other planets as a means of affirming himself. He could see that he was adequate just as he was.
This is not a typical case for me. The outcome is much better than I thought. I am much less successful with asteroids, who remain frozen for years in their fantasies that they will change the course of the planets in the heavens, and pursue this goal compulsively with little chance of success.
I don’t play tennis and I don’t get MSNBC… guess I’ll just cry into my pillow.
Or read your analysis of it…