On the Couch: Great American Stories About Therapy

Rating:
Summary: A great collection!
Review: Cutting-edge stories by our top writers....Will definitely appeal to anyone interested in psychotherapy and therapists....

Rating:
Summary: Pure FICTION!
Review: I was very disappointed in this book. As a future therapist who is interested in anything that sheds light on the different points of view of the therapy process, reading a book that is purely fiction -- and bad fiction at that -- was a total waste of my time and energy.

Erica Kates states "Contemporary culture is fascinated with psychotherapy, but for most of us, what takes place during a typical session is a mystery." If Ms. Kates is so interested in what happens behind the therapist's closed door, she should treat herself to a year's worth of therapy and find out first hand what the wonderful process of learning about self is like.

These 19 ficticious accounts are the points of view of people who probably have never taken on the process -- therefore, how can they write about what the experience is like? Case in point, the few stories I read depict the therapist as a fruit loop. While this may be true is some cases, most therapists are quite professional and good at what they do.

Had I known that this book was pure fiction, I would have never put it on my "wish list." P.S. I wanted to grade this book 0 stars, but the system wouldn't let me.

Rating:
Summary: If you have gotten here via inetrest in therapy...
Review: then you should definitely buy this book.

I enjoyed 90 percent of the stories. Of those that I liked there were a couple I will definitely read again! These stories are good not only because of the subject matter but mostly due to the clever writing abilities.... especially John Updike and Daniel Menaker.