Legal News

Carpe Diem & the Law: A Look at Preparing to Live Syndrome

By Dan Slater

Do lawyers suffer from Preparing to Live Syndrome? Do they see life as “an endless chain of meaningless, two-dimensional experiences that lack passion” but that must be tolerated “because those experiences lead to some future point when all will come together, and life will again take on sparkle and value”?

This bleak theory is explained in today’s Texas Lawyer, by James Dolan, a professional coach and psychotherapist who works with lawyers.

Dolan writes: “To assume that one doesn’t have time to grasp the one moment truly in her possession is to fall prey to the fallacy that there are an endless stream of such moments going on and on into the future . . .This assumption about the unbrokenness of our lives leads people into the PtLS trap, in which we trade what we truly have for what does not yet — and may never — exist. Then, living in barely registered pain, many search for relief in addiction, pay raises and promotions and all manner of frantic behavior.”

To be sure, Dolan’s piece is a depressing way to start off the day, even if, for some, his PtLS theory does carry a ring of familiarity. But we wonder: Is PtLS unique to the lawyering life? To us, PtLS seems like a universal issue that’s part and parcel of any culture of achievement.

You tell us, LB Readers: Does Preparing to Live Syndrome take an especially rough toll on lawyers?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on July 29, 2008 (boomark / email).