Talking About Therapy

Filled with anecdotes this work tells us what patients say about why they sought therapy, what they think of the therapists to whom they entrusted their well-being, and whether it was worth the struggle, the emotional pain and the money.

Their narratives are told within a framework that reveals how our society and the mental health field have changed since 1940.

World War II, Marxism, the Vietnam War, feminism, gay activism, the decline of the nuclear family, television, street drugs, AIDS and managed care have changed our society, with obvious effects on patients and practitioners.

Add to these forces the introduction of psychoactive drugs such as Thorazine and Prozac, the bewildering discharge of hospitalized mental patients into their unprepared communities and the emergence of alternative New Age approaches to psychotherapy. "Talking About Therapy" elaborates on these topics and describes the effects of these forces on modern-day therapy.

The book's power flows from the stories. They are touching, infuriating, inspirational, shocking, and above all, candid. Some say therapy taught them to think, became their religion, unleashed their creativity; others are bitter, consider it a scam.

This book is for the mental health professional, patients and potential patients.