Rating: 
Summary: Therapy Bible Number 1!
Review: Sheldon Kopp captures the essence of therapist-client as a parallel journey of two human beings in a relationship dependent upon the ability of both to become careful (full of care) for the other while traveling through metaphors, symbols, sagas and myths, each telling their stories along the way. His eschatological laundry list is a necessary and existentially humorous bump with reality. I recommend this book to all clients seeking to enter the sacred ground of a therapeutic alliance where change, transformation and healing are to occur. Sheldon Kopp's serious pragmatism and humorous satire hold the reader to the task of "learning the dance" and becoming aware of the process of being in therapy.
Rating:
Summary: Literate discussion of the freedom born of self-knowledge.
Review: The subtitle, "The Pilgramage of Psychotherapy Patients," belies the essence of this highly literate hymn to authenticity and self-governance: each of us must look within to find our own answers. Drawing from the Bible, the I Ching, Siddhartha, Jung and too many others to name, the author urges that living fully requires us to let go of concepts of fairness, perfection and control and embrace the uncertainty and ambiguity of our journey. A liberating, thought provoking paean to autonomy, self acceptance and personal growth. Life Changing!
Rating: 
Summary: Time to Look Back and Within
Review: There are books available now to diagnose and prescribe everything according to the DSMIV etc. There are E-therapy sessions and from what I see of the state of mental health- you might as well go for virtual therapy as the practicioners are not particularly life-like in this current, very restrained and dispassionate age. It is worthy to reopen this book and reopen our hearts to the sacred responsibility implicit in working with another person's suffering and passage. As in so much of our corporate culture, we deny the significance of the patient in the parroting of redundant questions, no humility or sense of awe. I had the honor of hearing this book before it was published with an old psychiatrist, Dr. O. Spurgeon English, who'd been trained by Wilhelm Reich in Vienna while Freud was still there. Koop, as many authors, sent Spurge his audio draft for comment. Together we did some minor editing of the first printing and I remember it well for it was my own therapy and that was what we did. For it was the relationship, and the enormous sense of personal investment and trust that I consider perhaps the most life saving event of my life. Now, as an administrator in mental health, I have seen every sort of style come and go, from EST to primal screaming to the more fascist styles of today. It is time to return to the differing needs of the patient as an individual with a unique soul and important journey. In order to do this we must be dutiful to our own shortcomings and creative gifts as we come to understand them in our own work. If You Meet The Budha On The Road Kill Him. was one of the first of a new, revolutionary, and often sloppy, self serving approaches that was taken up in psychiatry. Now, it may be revolutionary again and the forces of repression and profit have taken on a whole new armor while we have also learned many important things that can not be overlooked. The emotional and spiritual tolls of a corporate-driven and militaristic society will necessitate an awakening that is scientifically modern and philosophically complete. The peaceful Budhist non-violent, approach is surely the right place to begin, we have no other choice. Read this book and find your path.
Rating:
Summary: If you Meet the Buddah on the Road, Kill Him
Review: This book creates such profound effects from such simple statements. Kopp's "laundry list" is a perfect example of this. I recommend that everyone have a copy of this book in their collection.
Rating:
Summary: If you Meet the Buddah on the Road, Kill Him
Review: This book creates such profound effects from such simple statements. Kopp's "laundry list" is a perfect example of this. I recommend that everyone have a copy of this book in their collection.
Rating:
Summary: It liberated me...it could liberate you too!
Review: This book has the best title for a general work on therapy. However, I would consider most of the advice which this contains quite conventional. Even the chapter on a power trip does not embrace thermonuclear war. The advice suggested by the title might be best for someone who wished to devote his life to writing the most unpopular reviews, or whatever other perverse activities might suggest themselves to those who are familiar with the Buddha. This might be a great opportunity for irony, which ought to pop into the mind of anyone who does not like the title upon reading it for the first time. A little experience in dialectics ought to allow readers to see how this can't be the final word, whatever "this" is. The humor which I see in the title springs from my ability to show how therapy could be the worst alternative to be suggested by those who expect everyone to contribute positive ideas when confronting a radical situation. Page 4 of this book, on the "distress and disruption" in the lives of those who seek this kind of help, supposes that really the patient "prefers the security of known misery to the misery of unfamiliar security." This kind of assumption has very little play in a comic society in which trouble is often the result of a ludicrous embrace of inappropriate familiarity, often expressed in a manner which is considered "adult" when the need to exclude children from the consideration of such pernicious ideas is paramount. In the suggested reading at the end of this book, an anthology of writings by C.G. Jung is suggested. This kind of psychology could be associated with those who might laugh if I claimed that I am a Freudian. Well they might think that Freud is a Buddha which met a collectively imposed intellectual death at some point in their own enlightenment, but I keep hearing expletives (which ought to be deleted) that spring from awareness of things which Freud could merely hint at in his work on the tendencies of wit. People who seek a little satisfaction in themselves might find some edification in the mental exercises suggested by this book. But expecting this kind of thing to change the nature of the relationship between a person and the world may lead to some other surprise. There was a good man in the Bible named Job, of whom this book says, "Though Job started out as an innocent, . . . he ended up being a pest." (p. 136) A bit of reality might associate that problem which Job had most closely with Job's lines quoted on the same page, "For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me." Job was a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Introduction
Review: This book has the best title for a general work on therapy. However, I would consider most of the advice which this contains quite conventional. Even the chapter on a power trip does not embrace thermonuclear war. The advice suggested by the title might be best for someone who wished to devote his life to writing the most unpopular reviews, or whatever other perverse activities might suggest themselves to those who are familiar with the Buddha. This might be a great opportunity for irony, which ought to pop into the mind of anyone who does not like the title upon reading it for the first time. A little experience in dialectics ought to allow readers to see how this can't be the final word, whatever "this" is. The humor which I see in the title springs from my ability to show how therapy could be the worst alternative to be suggested by those who expect everyone to contribute positive ideas when confronting a radical situation. Page 4 of this book, on the "distress and disruption" in the lives of those who seek this kind of help, supposes that really the patient "prefers the security of known misery to the misery of unfamiliar security." This kind of assumption has very little play in a comic society in which trouble is often the result of a ludicrous embrace of inappropriate familiarity, often expressed in a manner which is considered "adult" when the need to exclude children from the consideration of such pernicious ideas is paramount. In the suggested reading at the end of this book, an anthology of writings by C.G. Jung is suggested. This kind of psychology could be associated with those who might laugh if I claimed that I am a Freudian. Well they might think that Freud is a Buddha which met a collectively imposed intellectual death at some point in their own enlightenment, but I keep hearing expletives (which ought to be deleted) that spring from awareness of things which Freud could merely hint at in his work on the tendencies of wit. People who seek a little satisfaction in themselves might find some edification in the mental exercises suggested by this book. But expecting this kind of thing to change the nature of the relationship between a person and the world may lead to some other surprise. There was a good man in the Bible named Job, of whom this book says, "Though Job started out as an innocent, . . . he ended up being a pest." (p. 136) A bit of reality might associate that problem which Job had most closely with Job's lines quoted on the same page, "For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me." Job was a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Looking for the Meaning of Life?
Review: This book is a wonderful read for anyone who wonders, worries or agonizes about the meaning of life, and whether they're doing it "right." Psychotherapist Kopp wrote this book in 1972, but it still works today. Whether giving or receiving therapy, this book reminds us that we are all humans -- nobody has all the answers. The eschatological laundry list (which I've seen roaming around the web, but never attributed to Kopp) has become a classic. 1. This is it! 2. There are no hidden meanings 3. You can't get there from here, and besides, there's no place else to go 4. We are all already dying and we'll be dead for a long time. 5. Nothing lasts! 6. There is no way of getting all you want. 7. You can't have anything unless you let go of it. 8. You only get to keep what you give away. 9. There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things. 10. The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay off and there is no compensation for misfortune. 11. You have the responsibility to do your best nonetheless. 12. It is a random universe to which we bring meaning. 13. You don't really control anything. 14. You can't make someone love you. I'll stop there -- there's more in the book, and if you find the list discouraging, you need to read the book. If you find the words encouraging, you need to read the book. Add it to your list of books to give friends who are feeling glum and hopeless. Use it as a group discussion book! After reading this (at different stages in my life), I still find it centering and soothing. A good addition to the self-help library, along with The Road Less Traveled.
Rating:
Summary: Looking for the Meaning of Life?
Review: This book is a wonderful read for anyone who wonders, worries or agonizes about the meaning of life, and whether they're doing it "right." Psychotherapist Kopp wrote this book in 1972, but it still works today. Whether giving or receiving therapy, this book reminds us that we are all humans -- nobody has all the answers. The eschatological laundry list (which I've seen roaming around the web, but never attributed to Kopp) has become a classic. 1. This is it! 2. There are no hidden meanings 3. You can't get there from here, and besides, there's no place else to go 4. We are all already dying and we'll be dead for a long time. 5. Nothing lasts! 6. There is no way of getting all you want. 7. You can't have anything unless you let go of it. 8. You only get to keep what you give away. 9. There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things. 10. The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay off and there is no compensation for misfortune. 11. You have the responsibility to do your best nonetheless. 12. It is a random universe to which we bring meaning. 13. You don't really control anything. 14. You can't make someone love you. I'll stop there -- there's more in the book, and if you find the list discouraging, you need to read the book. If you find the words encouraging, you need to read the book. Add it to your list of books to give friends who are feeling glum and hopeless. Use it as a group discussion book! After reading this (at different stages in my life), I still find it centering and soothing. A good addition to the self-help library, along with The Road Less Traveled.
Rating:
Summary: Looking for the Meaning of Life?
Review: This book is a wonderful read for anyone who wonders, worries or agonizes about the meaning of life, and whether they're doing it "right." Psychotherapist Kopp wrote this book in 1972, but it still works today. Whether giving or receiving therapy, this book reminds us that we are all humans -- nobody has all the answers. The eschatological laundry list (which I've seen roaming around the web, but never attributed to Kopp) has become a classic. 1. This is it! 2. There are no hidden meanings 3. You can't get there from here, and besides, there's no place else to go 4. We are all already dying and we'll be dead for a long time. 5. Nothing lasts! 6. There is no way of getting all you want. 7. You can't have anything unless you let go of it. 8. You only get to keep what you give away. 9. There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things. 10. The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay off and there is no compensation for misfortune. 11. You have the responsibility to do your best nonetheless. 12. It is a random universe to which we bring meaning. 13. You don't really control anything. 14. You can't make someone love you. I'll stop there -- there's more in the book, and if you find the list discouraging, you need to read the book. If you find the words encouraging, you need to read the book. Add it to your list of books to give friends who are feeling glum and hopeless. Use it as a group discussion book! After reading this (at different stages in my life), I still find it centering and soothing. A good addition to the self-help library, along with The Road Less Traveled.
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