For Richard Lettieri, becoming a forensic psychologist and psychoanalyst wasn’t a childhood dream. He didn’t know what a psychoanalyst was until his college years.

During his third year of high school, his shop teacher took him aside and suggested he reconsider his career path. Lettieri had almost electrocuted himself several times working on the electrical systems that were used in shop class. The teacher was concerned that Lettieri would eventually kill himself. He suggested Lettieri consider attending college to become an engineer.

He switched to college prep classes and after high school, took pre-engineering classes at junior college before becoming an electrical engineering student at City College of New York. He was decent at the math and science, but something was askew. Unlike most of the engineering students, Lettieri found  ...