Irvin D. Yalom
Paperback | Pages: 384 pages Rating: 4.01 | 10783 Users | 587 Reviews
Declare Books As Lying on the Couch
| Original Title: | Lying on the Couch |
| ISBN: | 0060928514 (ISBN13: 9780060928513) |
| Edition Language: |
Narrative Toward Books Lying on the Couch
From the bestselling author of Love's Executioner and When Nietzsche Wept comes a provocative exploration of the unusual relationships three therapists form with their patients. Seymour is a therapist of the old school who blurs the boundary of sexual propriety with one of his clients. Marshal, who is haunted by his own obsessive-compulsive behaviors, is troubled by the role money plays in his dealings with his patients. Finally, there is Ernest Lash. Driven by his sincere desire to help and his faith in psychoanalysis, he invents a radically new approach to therapy -- a totally open and honest relationship with a patient that threatens to have devastating results.Exposing the many lies that are told on and off the psychoanalyst's couch, Lying on the Couch gives readers a tantalizing, almost illicit, glimpse at what their therapists might really be thinking during their sessions. Fascinating, engrossing and relentlessly intelligent, it ultimately moves readers with a denouncment of surprising humanity and redemptive faith.
List Based On Books Lying on the Couch
| Title | : | Lying on the Couch |
| Author | : | Irvin D. Yalom |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 384 pages |
| Published | : | July 18th 1997 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics (first published 1996) |
| Categories | : | Psychology. Fiction. Novels. Contemporary. Literature. American. The United States Of America |
Rating Based On Books Lying on the Couch
Ratings: 4.01 From 10783 Users | 587 ReviewsNotice Based On Books Lying on the Couch
This book had been on my "must-read" list (self-appointed just because it looked interesting, not because I'd heard anything about it) for quite some time. I finally sat down and read it, and I have to say, I'm not sure that I got it. Maybe it went over my head, or maybe I'm over-analyzing something that wasn't meant to be that profound. There were parts that really engaged me, while other parts that didn't were interesting enough for me to keep on going, but ultimately I'm not sure that it wasThis 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
This book was even worse than Yalom's other two novels I'd read. Real reminder why popular literature is as bad as chips in a bag. Flat characters, improbable coincidences, deadly language. There were several moderately interesting insights into therapy but other than that waste of time. It amazes me how a man famous for his psychological insight, someone who works with human complexity, can create such cardboard people when he writes. Just another proof that fiction writing has a great
A disappointment overall. It was my fourth of Yalom's fiction, sixth including his nonfiction and it's definitely bottom of the pack. It had some redeeming moments (he sure can write therapy process well, and I marked several passages that quite effectively and beautifully describe certain therapeutic techniques) but on the whole I found myself sifting through a lot of dirt and muck to get to what was worthwhile. A whole LOT of explicit sexual description of patient (and at times therapist)
Very good one. It was recommended by a friend who studies psychology.And in the end everything turns nice. Everyone gets what should get.
I'm going to go ahead and give this five stars. It's not a perfect book, certainly not from a literary point of view. It was didactic at times, occasionally draggy with lengthy lecture-like dialogue and inner monologue, and some of its plot twists were highly contrived. But I don't think Yalom was trying to write a perfect novel, or if he was, that goal was secondary. What he was trying to do, according to an interview I read, is carve out a new genre -- what he calls the "teaching novel." It's
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