Lying on the Couch : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: This is a witty, insightful and intelligent novel.
Review: "Lying on the Couch" is a clever novel by Irvin D. Yalom, a therapist who has written a number of non-fiction books on psychotherapy. This work of fiction peers into the lives of various psychoanalysts and the people whom they analyze. The two main characters are Marshal Streider, a pompous psycholanalyst who is driven by a desperate hunger for fame, wealth and social position, and Ernest Lash, who is Marshall's student. Lash tries a novel approach in psychotherapy. He tries experimenting with an "honest" approach towards his patients. Yalom has fun dissecting the lives of Streider, Lash and their patients. The title, "Lying on the Couch," is a play on words. Yalom tells us that we often lie to our analysts and to ourselves, because lying appears to be easier than facing up to the truth about ourselves. He also probes some of the unconscious feelings that drive some people's self-destructive behavior. In addition, Yalom hilariously punctures the pomposity of jargon-spewing analysts who never use a one-syllable word if they can help it. Ultimately, Dr. Yalom poignantly shows that being true to ourselves and working through our childhood issues is a necessary step towards ultimate growth and fulfillment. This book is creative, literate, and often very funny. "Lying on the Couch" is a delightful entertainment for the thinking reader who is fascinated by the life of the mind.

Rating:
Summary: This is a witty, insightful and intelligent novel.
Review: "Lying on the Couch" is a clever novel by Irvin D. Yalom, a therapist who has written a number of non-fiction books on psychotherapy. This work of fiction peers into the lives of various psychoanalysts and the people whom they analyze. The two main characters are Marshal Streider, a pompous psycholanalyst who is driven by a desperate hunger for fame, wealth and social position, and Ernest Lash, who is Marshall's student. Lash tries a novel approach in psychotherapy. He tries experimenting with an "honest" approach towards his patients. Yalom has fun dissecting the lives of Streider, Lash and their patients. The title, "Lying on the Couch," is a play on words. Yalom tells us that we often lie to our analysts and to ourselves, because lying appears to be easier than facing up to the truth about ourselves. He also probes some of the unconscious feelings that drive some people's self-destructive behavior. In addition, Yalom hilariously punctures the pomposity of jargon-spewing analysts who never use a one-syllable word if they can help it. Ultimately, Dr. Yalom poignantly shows that being true to ourselves and working through our childhood issues is a necessary step towards ultimate growth and fulfillment. This book is creative, literate, and often very funny. "Lying on the Couch" is a delightful entertainment for the thinking reader who is fascinated by the life of the mind.

Rating:
Summary: Great Stories and Transformations
Review: Anyone who has undergone therapy or is thinking about it is advised to read this book. If you don't fit into either category, you should still read the book. It presents a driving story line with linkages that tie up so neatly you are barely aware of the next connection. The book sometimes feels like a series of connected vignettes featuring a cast of characters so compelling that the rest of the world falls away from them and is irrelevant. The narrow focus serves to allow the writer to provide many layers of observations about each one, each layer judiciously offered until the characters have depth and richness. Insights and wisdom about human behavior are provided from both the therapist's and the patient's perspective. The fascinating dialogue that occurs between patient and therapist is supplemented with the therapist's inner thoughts and doubts about what he has said and the direction in which he is taking the therapy. The book touches on many different aspects of the character's lives, including obsession, love, sex, marriage, personal integrity, honesty, politics (yes, even therapists seem to love political intrigue), revenge, and their own humanity (frequently difficult to discover). You feel the characters' struggles with themselves, and the therapists' yearning to find ways to reach the patients and improve their lives. That aspect of the book is gripping and moving. Personal transformations unfold gracefully and naturally, although the book makes clear that effective therapy is hard work for both sides. Lying on the Couch has elements of a mystery, a thriller, and a series of great stories, woven together artfully and smoothly.

Rating:
Summary: Best book I've read in years!
Review: As a Counselling Psychologist trainee I would like to recommend this book to everyone, especially students. Lying on the couch is entertaining and informative. This novel illustrates the complexities of a therapeutic relationship in ways that many other texts could only hope to achieve. This book is especially good at showing the importance of boundaries as well as exposing the dangers that all therapists and clients are potentially exposed to. All this and fun too.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed Sleight of Hand
Review: As an aspiring novelist (with three novels waiting in the wings for publication) I always read contemporary works mindful of what elements are evident that may have factored into getting them published. With Yalome's opus, Lying on the Couch, one element is its slick style. The sentence structures are efficient, and the progression within each chapter impeccable, with a feel of rightness and authorial confidence.

Aside from these positive aspects of the author's style, I have to as well admire his skill in weaving the characters and plots with an almost Dostyevskian genius.

Yet, a few things trouble me, and they all relate to the positive criticisms above. Though Yalome writes with great efficiency within sentence structures and individual chapters, the progression among the chapters (especially involving the Carolyn/Ernest and Marshall/Macando plots) drudge along at a dreary pace, despite the whole book being a mere 370 pps.--a novella by Dostoyevski's measure. Many times, while reading these plots, my mind broiled into an insane froth: "Get to the bloody point, man!" This makes the rather forced and unlikely ending that much more unsatisfying. (I mean, really, why would an avaricious psychiatrist who just DAYS BEFORE had his ego thoroughly bruised by a swindler agree to send money to someone he hasn't even met? And why would this same arrogant psychoanalyst then suddenly condescend to seeking psychotherapy from a lawyer, especially after the innumerable passages that established him as a rather shallow, extremely predictable, by-the-book, orthodox Freudian? These questions never get satisfactorially answered.)

I recognize how Yalome probes into some deep issues involving truth and compassion (as it pertains to the questionable "science" of psychoanalysis), but there's never an attempt at the universal; instead we have a cop-out ending, and a mundane one at that. In the end, while I respect many elements of his writing style (eg - his daring in using the word "pusillanimous"), and envy the fact that he has been published, I can't help the feeling that I have used the finest, polished silverware to consume a Snicker bar.

Rating:
Summary: A great read while your analyst's away.
Review: Dr. Yalom writes a breezy account of individuals entrapped by the principles of integrity, and what can happen to psychiatrists and their patients when they bend the rules.

Rating:
Summary: Dr. Yalom is the best of the best
Review: Escribo desde Mexico D.F. Espero alguien entienda lo que escribo. Pocas veces se lee un libro como este. Soy una paciente de sicoanalisis y fue fascinante saber lo que puede pensarse del otro lado del divan. Realmente devore esta novela que me dejo mucho mas que horas de satistacion, de diversion y de aprendizaje. GRACIAS DR. YALOM.

Rating:
Summary: A book for therapy patients and poker players
Review: I loved Irv Yalom's book. I am a poker player. I loved the way one of his patients(a compulsive gambler) gets his psychiatrist to go to a card parlour, and helps him figure out that he is losing because of a "tell". A great read even if you are not a poker player.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, funny story.
Review: I loved this book. I just loved it. I love psychology, read a lot of non-fiction and take all this self-examination stuff much too seriously. Obviously, Dr. Yalom doesn't take himself or any other psychotherapist too seriously, yet he is a respected professor of psychiatry and has written serious works on psychotherapy. But, this is fiction and well written. From the pun in the title to the final twists of the plot, it is an delightfully funny story.

Rating:
Summary: YOU COULD FINISH THIS BOOK IN ONE COUCH SESSION!
Review: I really enjoyed the dynamics of this book and appreciated the easy writting style! It was a great change of pace from the literature and classics that I usually read with out being overly soap-operish. I thought that the book intuitvley explored relationships at many dimensions and in many situations. It was an interesting point that the best of the best can so easily decieved. I have often wondered if a therapist would know if a patient was lying or not. I thought the book was well written and easy to get into. I don't think there was anyone that could not relate to one of the many characters at some level. I liked how, in every person, the good and bad sides of that character were revealed. The book was pretty rivoting and susspenceful, though I thought that one of the characters we had grown to know and love would somehow come out to be the villan- and that was a little dissapointing- but overall- I really enjoyed this book. It was great to bring the revered 'doctors' down to our level to realize that they really aren't too much different from the people that come to them for help!