Customer Reviews

Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued: A Woman's Guide to Unblocking Creativity

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Every woman who has had experiences - positive or negative - with expressing her creativity should get value from this book. Although I don't normally trust authors who create "combination characters" in order to make their points, in this case I was able to accept it because there was probably no way to avoid doing this without serious confidentiality consequences. And I am totally impressed and respectful of O'Doherty's obvious honesty and courage in relating her own life experiences and insights in order to further her readers' willingness to work on their issues. As with all good writing no matter what the genre, the more specific the material, the more it allows the universality of the concepts to emerge.
I confess that I did not do the recommended exercises. However I find I've been writing more. Hmmm....

It's a well-written book which offers an optimistic hand to those who wish to exert their creativity. Interesting in that it challenges the notion that the artist is probably as neurotic as the rest of us, if not more so. Neurosis does not feed creativity here.

Questions of self-esteem, as manifest in different clients, are dealt with in layman's terms, creating an excellent self-help manual for the would be writer who's just a little stuck and an enjoyable read for the rest of us who avoid exercise in the gym or on the couch.
Peg

Wow. This book is excellent.
The best thing about this book is the author's completely realistic view of the obstacles facing artists; particularly women. I immediately trust a psychotherapist who knows that having to do the dishes can be just as obstructive as a destructive Jungian "shadow self."
No. The best thing about this book is the writing. Dr. O'Doherty tells the reader she has been a speech writer, a poet, a playwright and an author of fiction - and it shows. Her sample composite-patients' portraits are vivid. Their life stories and the author's are told with a captivating narrative voice. Self help books aren't normally this well written!
I especially appreciate that Dr. O'Doherty points out that there really are external obstacles that exist - created by our society, our communities, our families, friends and colleagues - that all of us, but especially artists, may have to confront in order to be creative and productive. It's not all in our heads. Dr. O'Doherty makes novel, positive use of the examples of other women's experiences. She stresses the importance of role models, and even provides a list of inspiring women who created great works in their middle age and beyond.
In 1929, Virginia Woolf wrote, "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." Dr. O'Doherty takes this idea many steps further with practical advice and effective guidance through the complex process of self-examination as it relates to becalmed inspiration or a "deferred dream."

Marketed as a self help book for women artists, I personally found this book to be extraordinarily useful to both women and men.
The author of "Getting Unstuck Without Coming Unglued" describes in deceptively simple terms
psychological phenomena, which then become clear and accessible to the reader. She talks about them in an interesting way, and I think that both men and women will relate to them.
I have learned from this book without ever feeling lectured to, or overwhelmed.
I am a male professor of literature, and I have found this book most useful and enlightening, thanks to its pragmatic approach to creativity. While I was reading, I felt that the author actually knew the personal mechanisms of my own creativity as an educator, as well as the many issues that students struggle with--whether students are male or female, young or older.
So I highly recommend it to anyone interested in any artistic production. The author's great achievement is to actually lead
the reader to achieve his or her personal goal.
Alors, toutes mes félicitations à l'auteur, Susan O' Doherty, et merci !

Émile Bedriomo, Ph.D. in Literature (French) from New York University,
author of the book "Proust, Wagner et la coincidence des Arts", and others.

I doubt that there's a female writer, artist, painter, or musician out there who hasn't absorbed some kind of negative message about her talent or her right to pursue it. Such messages might not come from those near and dear to her, but they are everywhere in the culture--still, today. Yes, we've come a long way, but we have miles left to go.

Who better to guide us than a woman who is both an artist herself (a writer of both fiction and nonfiction) and a clinical psychologist who specializes in counseling creative women?

Sue O'Doherty weaves her own struggles and doubts into her discussion of the countless ways in which women are informed, subtly or blatantly, that they are lesser citizens in the world of art. Her personal voice only underscores the authenticity of her professional one, and I, for one, heard the same honesty and wisdom in both. I found the insights and calm perspective in this book inspiring and helpful, not because I was blocked when I read it, but because O'Doherty's overall take on women's position in the arts is one worth bearing in mind even when we are productive.

I wasn't blocked when I read this book. But that doesn't matter. Dr. O'Doherty's achievement here is in gently but firmly leading readers to understand some important ways their psyches work when it comes to creativity. The prose is beautiful-- Dr. O'Doherty is a wonderful writer -- and the stories she tells about her composite clients and herself are moving and meaningful. I think I cried during just about every chapter. This is a rare achievement: a self-help book that doesn't have a prescriptive, "the answer is simple you dummy, you just have to do what I say" undertone. It is sincere, wise, thoughtful, and true.

This is a marvelous, insightful book, essential for women who've experienced any sort of barriers to creativity. The writing is lively and engaging, and the author has a deep understanding of creativity from the inside out. I need this book now, and I so wish I'd had it when I was younger!

This is one to read, and reread, and share with every woman artist you know.

Big disappointment. Not what I wanted at all. I wanted ways to get unstuck and prime the pump of inspiration. THis is just the Artists's Way with a touch of Germaine Greer rehashed with a focus on women, especially mothers. Might be appropriate for someone else but not me. Love the title, love the front cover, but not the content.

I don't doubt that this book might be useful to some people, but it really isn't useful to me. I thought there would be lots of handy tips and fun writing exercises, but no. There are about five exercises in the book, and most of them seem to involve visualising your childhood and dealing with all the people who told you you could never be an artist/writer/musician/whatever. The case studies of stalled creative women all look at people who were either abused or grew up in abject poverty - whatever sort of miserable life they led, any sign of creativity was frowned upon. When I, however, was a small kid who was into creative stuff, my parents and my teachers and even my friends (who regularly asked me to draw pictures of various things for them) actively encouraged me to write, draw, act - you name it. In fact, the book is making me worry that I was some sort of infant narcissist - one who grew up to be an adult egomaniac - because I seriously can't identify with anything in it. It's not that I don't think its contents don't apply to some people - there are definitely lots of women who have grown up believing that women's voices don't matter and aren't important, and this book could be helpful to them. I, however, was brought up by a feminist mother and whatever my issues may be, thinking that my opinions don't matter, whether it's because I'm female or not, really, really isn't one of them.

To be honest, I think my problem with finishing stuff is that I'm constantly distracted by the next shiny idea that comes along, so perhaps I'm beyond help by books of this nature. But just as I find that detailed to-do lists really help my constant and pathological procrastinating, I thought this book might contain some useful tips and exercises (ones that don't involve visualising my imaginary childhood mentor). But it doesn't. I'm disappointed!