Fresh Fun!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Irvin D. Yalom holds the subject matter of psychology in a fresh, fun (and, yes, fictional) light. This alluring, seductive story is fresh and mature and down right interesting. Husbands and wives and gamblers and shysters and the whole kit-and-caboodle-- including psychologists-- spend their share of time on the couch. The characters are timid and feisty and right and wrong-- and Yalom skillfully interweaves their deceits and truths and varying perspectives to create a tapestry of seriously good story telling. There’s not a lot of “action,” just interesting, likable people and relatable problems and some happy endings. This book is loaded with snob-free intelligence and (I have to say it again)-- FUN.

Narrator Tony Pasqualini did a terrific job complimenting this delicious piece of work.

54 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Not what I expected

Any additional comments?

I have read 3 other books from Yalom, the love's executioner, I am calling the police and Creatures of the day and this book wasn't anything similar
I guess I enjoy his books when they are true stories
I left this book half way through, because I couldn't handle it anymore
All the deception and anger and lies....
I felt there was a lot of negativity in the book

46 persone l'hanno trovata utile

great!

a great cast of characters that were surprisingly intermingled! interesting how things turned out. amazing narrator!

25 persone l'hanno trovata utile

great book!

wish there was a sequel! would make a great tv series. as a therapist this is an excellent training manual.

22 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Intense interwoven plot with multiple 1st person internal thoughts

I would recommend this to psychotherapists, particularly guys, who need to remind themselves of the pitfalls of working so closely with human beings. This story shows how we cannot afford to be naive about our own nor others' weaknesses.

21 persone l'hanno trovata utile

captivating story

Good narrator
Interesting character's
Clever weaving of characters into each other's lives
Anyone who has read Irvin's other books will appreciate this

18 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Loved it!

Intriguing and fun all together.
Deals with many aspects of counselor/client relationship.
You will not regret!!!!

16 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Dramatic satire

This grand satire on psychotherapy came out in 2014. It focuses on the lives of a few interlinked psychotherapists in San Francisco. 

The principle thread of the book is transference and countertransference, the sometimes erotic attachment that can build between a patient and therapist or vice versa. The book opens with one therapist talking to another about an incident in which a beautiful woman patient claimed to have fallen in love with him. The therapist, at 71, decided to accept the woman's passion and reciprocate as a part of therapy. The therapist is now facing expulsion by the local institute of psychotherapy.

The novel then follows the therapist listening to this story, Ernest, as well as two others through their relationships with patients and peers. Ernest is targeted by a woman who was married to a man Ernest had been treating and has now demanded a divorce. She tries to entrap Ernest in a sexual relationship. Young Seymour is a new therapist still being supervised who believes in trying to bring new and creative methods to a profession that accepts new ideas slowly. Marshal is a therapist who is obsessed with his income and investments and risks his standing when he accepts an investment tip from a patient. 

It's an interesting portrait of a profession and it becomes clear that, for all the various concerns the doctors may have, one that seldom comes up is whether a patient is being helped. Trained in methods that can take years many see their incomes endangered by insurance companies who limit visits to 5 or 6 a year. Some have given up therapy to do medication management. In all cases they find daily challenges to their oaths and integrity through daily interaction with people at their most emotionally vulnerable. 

To add to these stresses are the politics of any profession in seeking more prestige than peers, either through income or position in professional associations. Because of the limits of insurance and the cost of therapy it has, in most cases, become a treatment for the rich, making some therapists feel out of place with or envious of the people they treat.

At times it's a sexy book, at other times it reads like a crime story or a revenge tale as each doctor faces various demons in himself and his patients. The book as a whole is a hilarious portrait of people working within a field that is torn between modern medicine and its roots in Freud and Jung. It's sophisticated and perfectly paced and one of those books that book clubs are made to devour.

10 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Well, I finished it

Really not a bad tale, tiresome in parts, cynical, predictable in some ways, but with occasional surprises. Really tough on analytic psychologists and humans in general. I had to finish it to see if it would come out as I expected. It did. Doubt I would read any other books by this author.

7 persone l'hanno trovata utile

A stimulus towards inner reflection

My first -- but not last -- book by this author, it provides insight into how a brilliant psychoanalyst (the author himself, as well as his main character) can discover the inner motivations for the way we think and act. All this is done within a fabric of fine humor and even elements of adventure and suspense. I cannot exaggerate how much I enjoyed this work. The reading was rather slow and awkward and I set the controls to 1.25x.

6 persone l'hanno trovata utile