Tales from the Couch: Writers On Therapy

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In recent years, psychotherapy has become a widely accepted and even popular form of treatment for mental and emotional troubles. Whether seeking guidance, comfort, help, or just some small measure of peace, more people than ever are going, to the therapist's couch for the "talking cure." The literary artist is no exception. In fact, the writer -- whose life in many cases serves as inspiration for his or her work -- is in an ideal position to evaluate the experience.

In this fascinating, revealing, and profoundly intimate volume, editor Jason Shinder has collected the personal reminiscences of some of the greatest writers today, all of whom have been to the therapist's couch and now offer valuable insight into the process. Adam Gopnik wryly discusses what was "easily one of the most unsuccessful psychoanalyses ever attempted" by an eccentric New York Freudian. Pam Houston offers a riveting account of the revolutionary technique that brought her back from the brink of madness. Mark Doty poignantly chronicles how therapy, and a trip to the Serengeti, awakened him to the truth that -- while his marriage was dead -- his future was still very much alive. And Susan Cheever takes a humorous look at psychotherapy through the eyes of a lifelong patient.

From poet and memoirist David Mura's serious concern that therapy in America fails patients of color to George Plimpton's healthy skepticism about the entire process -- from one writer who is joyous at the prospect of getting two therapists for the price of one to another who likens therapy to baseball, finding special comfort in Willie Mays -- these essays are by turns funny, introspective, inspiring, disquieting, thoughtful, often provocative, and always entertaining.

In this remarkable anthology of essays -- many never before published -- seventeen award-winning poets, playwrights, and writers confront depression, addiction, troubled pasts, and mental instability. In addition, they probe the effects of psychotherapy, from pivotal to nonexistent, on their lives -- as well as on the storytelling process itself. The result is a remarkably well-written, deeply revealing journey into the psyches of some of America's premier literary talents.