8/5/23, 1:27 PM My Daily Struggles: Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

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My Daily Struggles
A blog devoted to the actors and public policy issues involved in the 1998 District of Columbia Court of Appeals
decision in Freedman v. D.C. Department of Human Rights, an employment discrimination case.

T H U R S D A Y, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 1 0

Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

My Daily Struggles
Pages 30-33 of Social Security Document Submission
My Zimbio
FAX NO. 609 235 5569 MEREDITH FINANCIAL SERVICES Top Stories

Transmittal for Mrs. Edward Jacobson c/o Mr. Edward Jacobson My Zimbio
KudoSurf Me!
Dear Stell,
Blog Archive
Here’s some more on the issue of why people respond to me the way ►  2020 (1)
they do. I recently had a small insight that may contribute to an
►  2016 (9)
understanding of why Akin Gump management responds to me as they
do. Maybe you could tell me what you think of this. ►  2015 (23)
►  2014 (60)
In one of my early sessions with Dr. Palombo I confronted him with the
►  2013 (134)
accusation that he was in communication with my employer. He put me
on the defensive by asking me why I was not practicing law. His ►  2012 (476)
questioning of me on this issue was uncharacteristic of a psychoanalyst ►  2011 (1049)
and was, in fact, not characteristic of my work with him generally. He ▼  2010 (1340)
said, “I’ll tell you what happened. When you graduated from law school
►  December (74)
you got scared.” 1/
►  November (132)
I also confronted Dr. Brown with the accusation that he was in ►  October (75)
communication with my employer. He, too, asked me why I was not
►  September (105)
practicing law. His response resembled that of Dr. Palombo, but his
questioning was even more pointed. (In a telling display of body ►  August (68)
language, Dr. Brown took off his glasses to explain at length that he was ►  July (141)
not communicating with my employer. On only one other occasion in my ►  June (117)
20 sessions with Dr. Brown did he take his glasses off--once again it was
►  May (176)
to assert and explain that he had had no contacts with my employer. He
literally couldn’t “look me straight in the eye” to tell me he was not in ►  April (167)
communication with Akin Gump management.) ►  March (101)
▼  February (65)
I had the impression that Akin Gump management had coached both Dr.
Palombo and Dr. Brown on what to say should I complain that they were I Always Wondered What
Leonard Shengold, M.D.
communicating with my employer. In Dr. Palombo’s case, he seemed to
Look...
step out of his psychoanalytic persona in dealing with the issue. In Dr.
Brown’s case, I was struck by the similarity in his response to that of Dr. The Lassman Mishpachah: Did
Palombo. Dr. Brown took on the role of an attorney cross examining a You Know Malcolm Has A...
witness on the issue of why I was not practicing law. When I told Dr. Significant Moments: Fondness

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8/5/23, 1:27 PM My Daily Struggles: Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

Brown that his response to my accusation was peculiarly similar to Dr. for a Female Judge
Palombo’s response, he said that it was just a natural response to my Akin Gump: Now This Is
accusation. (In fact, when I confronted Dr. Sack with the very same Interesting!
accusation, his response was totally different, and consciously
Theme and Variations: Etosha
psychoanalytical. Dr. Sack said, “If you believe that I am in
National Park and Sch...
communication with your employer, you see how easy it is for you not to
tell me certain things.” Dr. Sack thus linked my belief in his Stanley R. Palombo, M.D. --
Scientific Paper -- Dr...
communications with my employer with the resistance, thereby staying
within the psychoanalytical framework. Dr. Sack’s response evidenced a Obviously Somebody From The
degree of psychological sophistication inconsistent with his having been Franklin Institute Has...
coached by Akin Gimp management on this issue. Dr. Palombo and Dr. Significant Moments: The
Brown, however, linked my belief in the communications with my Sigmund Freud Archives an...
employer to my not practicing law, thereby putting me on the I Prefer To Think I'm Paranoid
defensive--as one might expect an attorney to do--but also implicitly,
Harold P. Blum, M.D. and The
and unintentionally, linking my belief to a problem of ego development
Sigmund Freud Archives
(a point that is explained in the material that follows).
Why Was This Person Up All
Night Reading My Blog?
In terms of content, my accusation of forbidden communications has
absolutely nothing to do with the issue of my not practicing law. It can Why Is This Person So
be shown, however, that at a certain psychological level--at the level of Interested?
psychological dynamics--these dissimilar issues really involve one and Social Security Document
the same issue. If one assumes that it was Akin Gump management that Submission: June 1993
coached both Dr. Palombo and Dr. Brown to respond as they did, then a Social Security Document
clarification as to the meaning of the response contributes in some Submission: June 1993
small way to an understanding of Akin Gump management’s
The Schizoid Personality Trait in
psychological relation to me (although I have no idea what the following the Workplace: T...
insight contributes).
My Line of Work

I. Issue of not practicing law: This can be analyzed in two opposing Social Security Document
ways. Some would say I’m afraid to get out into the real world, that I’m Submission: June 1993
chicken. As my co-workers at Akin Gump would say, “It’s a man’s world And They Say I'M Crazy!
out there and he’s just not all man.” 2/ This viewpoint asserts some An email to the White House
fear of an external danger, a fear of an external object. A contrary view
On Writers, Editors, and Other
holds that mine is a problem of guilt: a paralysis resulting from internal
Criminals
sources. These two viewpoints as to why I am not practicing law boils
down to a conflict as to whether my problem is one of fear of external Literary Symbolism -- and
danger or one of internal inhibition--a problem of external versus Mobbing in the Workplace
internal. Social Security Document
Submission: June 1993
II. Issue of mental health professionals’ forbidden communication with Dennis Race: "Symbolism,
employer: This can be analyzed in two opposing ways. Some would say What's Symbolism?"
that my belief is an idea of reference: that my belief in some way
Dennis Race: "What Does This
gratifies the pleasure ego and that it has no basis in reality. An opposing Have To Do With The K...
view holds that my belief is based on my perception of certain verbal
Significant Moments: Disclosing
and other cues from the environment. These two viewpoints boil down
Your Strategy Upfront
to a conflict as to whether my belief is an internally-determined idea of
reference that gratifies the pleasure ego or a realistic conclusion that Wagner's Parsifal and Charles
F.C. Ruff, Esq. -- Y...
satisfies the reality ego’s criteria for testing reality. Once again, a
problem of internal versus external. Reflections on Parsifal
Social Security Document
In effect, when I accused Dr. Palombo and Dr. Brown of communicating Submission: June 1993

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8/5/23, 1:27 PM My Daily Struggles: Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

with my employer I was saying that the issue was external; they, in turn, And They Say I'M an Angry
denied this and said the problem was internal. Dr. Palombo and Dr. Person?
Brown (really Akin Gump management) then responded with a question Yes, I Am This Gary Freedman
of their own that implicitly raised the internal/external issue: “Why are
Who Is Vernon Jordan
you not practicing law?” As to the meaning of this response (what light
Connected To?
it sheds on Akin Gump management’s relation to me), I can only say, as
Freud would say, “This is something about which one would like to know Social Security Document
Submission: June 1993
more.” Unfortunately I have no idea what this response means. Perhaps
a psychoanalyst would know. Are White People Allowed to
Protest?
The external/internal distinction, whether it concerns (1) high reality Social Security Document
testing ability versus ideas of reference or (2) fear of external danger Submission: June 1993
versus guilt, is really an issue of ego development. 3/ 4/ Both Dr. Brown One of the Crazier Observations
and Dr. Palombo (really Akin Gump management), in responding to my Made by a Governme...
accusation with their own question as to why I was not practicing law
This is America: I'm Free to be a
(both the accusation and the response raising the internal/external Crank!
issue), thereby kept the focus of the exchange at the level of an inquiry
Akin Gump: Final Agency Action
into the degree of my ego development. As noted above, however, Dr.
Sack, in effect, shifted the focus. He related my accusation (which Akin Gump: Application for
raised the internal/external distinction) to the resistance. What is the Reconsideration of No P...
significance, if any, that Dr. Sack’s response differed from the response Is Strauss First Rate?
of Dr. Palombo and Dr. Brown? Once again, an issue about which one Am I Really Paranoid? Or Am I
would like to know more. Adept At Reading No...
"Here, You Look Like You Need
________________________________________
Some Chocolate"

1/ A recurring theme in my relations with Akin Gump employees was the That Just Sounds So Fabricated:
What Should Raise ...
issue of fear. In about August 1989 a legal assistant said to me: “We’re
all afraid of you. We’re all afraid you’re going to buy a gun, bring it in D.C. Department of Human
and shoot everybody.” On October 29, 1991, Mr. Dennis Race--the Rights: Initial Determina...
chairman of the firm’s hiring committee--told me that the firm’s legal Campaign for Truth and Justice!
assistant administrator and legal assistant coordinator could not work Am I Too French For the Justice
with me, that they were “afraid” of me. Department?
I Shower Once a Day -- Twice a
2/ Paradoxically, this statement was made by the same legal assistant
Day in the Summer
who said, “We’re all afraid of you. We’re all afraid you’re going to buy a
gun, bring it in and shoot everybody.” See footnote 1. Significant Moments: The
Termination and the Colla...
3/ Note that it is psychoanalytically consistent, though not axiomatic, Judicial Error -- Collateral
than an individual who suffers from intense guilt -- really an Attack
overweening superego -- may tend to have unusually high reality testing Am I An Honest Person -- Or Do I
ability, and, conversely, a person suffering from an uninternalized fear Lie Through My Te...
of harm would tend to have low reality testing potential. In other Akin Gump: Labeling An
words, a person who is not fulfilling his potential because of guilt might Employee "Potentially
tend to possess the psychological means to discern whether his Viole...
employer were communicating with his mental health professional.
Akin Gump: My Side of the Story
Conversely, a person who was not fulfilling his potential because “he got
Hogan & Hartson: Job
scared” would tend not to have the psychological means to know of
Termination
such communications.
This is Ridicurous!
4/ The origins of both impulse control mechanisms and reality testing

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8/5/23, 1:27 PM My Daily Struggles: Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

ability have been traced to a single source -- oral, instinctual impulses. In 1918 The Justice Department
Melanie Klein believed that oral frustration contributes to the Would Have Me Locke...
development of impulse control mechanisms; abnormally intense oral What Did Earl Segal Not Know
frustration may contribute to the development of a pathological guilt And Why Didn't He Kno...
mechanism. Similarly, Freud traced the development of reality testing
What Did Bruce McLean Not
to the oral stage: Know And Why Didn't He K...
To The Powers That Be: What I
"The function of judgment is concerned with two sorts of decision. It
Originally Planned T...
may assert or deny that a thing has a particular property; or it may
affirm or dispute that a particular image or presentation exist in reality. Violence and Anger Are
Originally the property to be decided about might be either good or Probably Not Part of My
Psy...
bad, useful or harmful. Expressed in the language of the oldest, that is,
of the oral, instinctual impulses, the alternative runs thus: 'I should like Did Akin Gump Operate Like a
to eat that, or I should like to spit it out'; or, carried a stage further: 'I Cult?
should like to take this into me and keep that out of me.' That is to say: Law Enforcement: Connecting
it is to be either inside me or outside make. . . . [The original pleasure- the Psychoanalytical Dots
ego tried to introject into itself everything that is good and to reject A Law Enforcement Irony: The
from itself everything that is bad. From its point of view what is bad, Limits of My Anger
what is alien to the other ego, and what is external are, to begin with,
Maybe I Have A Nobel Prize
identical. The other sort of decision made by the function of judgment,
Complex
namely, as to the real existence of something imagined, is a concern of
Federal Civil Rights Violation:
the final reality-ego, which develops out of the previous pleasure-ego (a
The Single-Mindedn...
concern, that is, of the faculty that tests the reality of things)." Freud,
S. (1925) “Negation.” In: A General Selection from the Works of What Mental Health
Sigmund Freud, at 55-56, Rickman, J., ed. (Anchor Books: 1989). Professionals Treated Me at
Aki...
One wonders what effect early oral frustration, or oral traumatization, Akin Gump: Who Witnessed My
might have on the development of hypernormal reality testing ability. Disturbed Behavior?
One might logically speculate that intense oral frustration may serve as ►  January (119)
a body-ego prototype of an unusual capacity of the final reality-ego to
defer judgment, an important aspect of reality testing (and creativity). ►  2009 (305)
One might also logically speculate that early oral traumatization (or ►  2008 (106)
early oral masochism) may contribute to the development of an ability
►  2007 (174)
of the final reality-ego to hold ideas that are in no way pleasurable--
ideas that are held simply because they are real, or bitter truths. ►  2005 (10)
►  2004 (64)
Posted by My Daily Struggles at 11:59 AM
►  1971 (1)
Labels: Social Security Document Submission
►  1970 (1)

1 comment:

My Daily Struggles said...

June 14, 1993

3801 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20008

Paul G. Yessler, MD
2501 Calvert Street, NW
Suite 101
Washington, DC 20008

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8/5/23, 1:27 PM My Daily Struggles: Social Security Document Submission: June 1993

RE: Social Security Disability Psychiatric Evaluation

xxx-xx-xxxx

Dear Dr. Yessler:

Enclosed with respect to the above-referenced matter is a

collection of letters I wrote and sent (by mail or fax) to my sister
after my job termination on October 29, 1991 and before the
filing of a disability claim with the Social Security Administration.
Most of the letters were in fact written and sent in the year 1992.

I wrote the letters under the influence of my belief that my sister

was in communication with my former employer, Akin Gump, and
that my sister, upon receipt of the letters, would transmit the
letters by fax communication back to managers of Akin Gump.

Both the writing and sending of the letters together with the
content of the letters establish the persistence of seemingly
paranoid ideation throughout the period beginning October 29,
1991. The letters deal, among other issues, with my concerns
regarding harassment by Akin Gump co-workers; harassing (and
anti-Semitic) telephone calls I received during 1991 and 1992; my
belief that various of my treating psychiatrists were in
communication with my former employer; the belief that
librarians at the Cleveland Park Public Library (referred to as "the
Club") harassed me; my belief that a clerk at a Giant Supermarket
in my neighborhood (Adam) harassed me concerning my
friendship with Craig Dye; my belief that a specialist at the
Brookings Institution (Stephen Hess) was in communication with
my former employer; the belief that it was not a mere accident
that my former supervisor, Christine Robertson, had me touch her
breasts, etc.

Please forward these materials to:

Ms. Fay Peterson

District of Columbia
Rehabilitation Services Administration
Disability Determination Division
P.O. Box 37608
Washington, DC 20013

If you have any questions, you may contact me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx

(or leave messages at xxx xxx-xxxx). Might I suggest a follow-up
evaluation consult?

You may contact my sister, Mrs. Estelle Jacobson, at (609) 727-

3295.

Thank you very much.

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Sincerely ,

Gary Freedman

The above cover letter transmitted a document production of

approximately 185 pages. The document production is presumably
on file at the Social Security Administration. The produced
documents were presumably a significant factor in Social
Security's disability determination of August 1993.

Sunday, May 08, 2011

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