When I was talking to my uncle about astrology, he asked why the astrologers always say positive things. I told him that that was because they saw the highest potential in the chart, and they were communicating to people that awareness.

A good counsellor – whether or not affiliated with astrology - does not just see what you are. He also sees what you could be and guides you in that direction. As quote goes, “Some people see things as they are and ask why. Others see things as they could be and say why not.”

How did America lose the spirit that made it great? These days, if you want great things, they say that you are a sociopath or a narcissist. Where is the great American ingenuity? Where is liberty? Where is greatness?

I was a child prodigy, and most of the women I’ve been with have been child prodigies as well. They all got much more than their share of negative attention. People were claiming that they were arrogant or evil. They were not. They were more, not less, kind and compassionate than the average person, and they had good will even toward people who had ill will toward them.

America needs to remember what made it great. Right now, the very kind of people who were responsible for America’s greatness get persecuted or pathologized, and that hurts the country. It robs it of its greatest contributors. It undermines its competitiveness. It snuffs out its most original contributions.

So, in many schools in America, the students who take school seriously are seen as “thinking they’re better than everyone else.” What gives these people the right to speak for “everyone else” – 8 billion people, most of them nothing like themselves? Of whatever arrogance the serious student is guilty, theirs is far greater, and it is a far more destructive form of arrogance. The pride of the achiever, when directed correctly, results in all sorts of significant contributions. Whereas nothing of any kind of good is owed to the attitudes such as this.

With counsellors, once again, the best ones are ones who see their client’s potential. That way they can direct the client correctly. I’m doing a class in relationship counselling, and I plan to help people do the same thing with their relationships: See how good they can be and direct their efforts toward making that happen.

There can be any number of things that keep people from fulfilling their potential. If you are helping your clients to overcome these things, then you are doing a good thing for the world. If you are pathologize the very same qualities that are responsible for America’s greatness, then you are doing a terrible thing. There will always be need for counsellors. Counselling has to be done right.