ABSTRACT
There was a short period of about one month, during the time I was doing my clinical training in family therapy, when I felt hopelessly de-skilled and unintelligent. There was a particular piece of theory which I could not grasp. The other trainees in my group seemed to comprehend it perfectly, which increased my feelings of inadequacy. Then one day the light dawned and I suddenly understood it. I asked myself at the time why was it today that I understood, why was it this afternoon, why wasn’t it yesterday or next week? This event reminded me of another situation 18 years earlier when I was learning to play the guitar. I started to learn to play the F chord, where one of the fingers, the index finger, has to act as a bar across all six strings. I grew increasingly frustrated at my inability to achieve a clear sound when I strummed the guitar. After about six weeks it suddenly happened that I could play the chord properly. But why that day, why that minute?
