This is a fascinating piece, Richard. Your statement: "Because lying about the world to stay safe from power is what diplomacy is" is sadly true, although the opposite should be the case; i.e. "Not lying about the world to stay safe from power is what diplomacy should be".

I am also struck by this statement: "Afraid of failing, I learned how to lunch the powerful. I made them like me by hiding my intelligence".

The late Dr. Victor Frankl, holocaust survivor, psychiatrist and logotherapist wrote a very profound book: "MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING".

On page x of the FOREWARD, he writes: "Terrible as it was, his experience in Auschwitz reinforced what was already one of his key ideas: Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life".

Thanks for sharing your 12 years experience as a journalist and I am glad you eventually pivoted into an arena where you have found "Meaning". Great lesson for all of us, even though as you state

"the counselling and psychotherapy profession itself is riddled with self-appointed powers, saturated with giant splintery egos exploiting the gullible, and held up by flimsy balsa-wood structures built on fine dry sand. There are many would-be emperors and they all are naked".

Just remember, your profession is not alone !!!