This book presents a psychologically engrossing novel that delves into the hidden lives of a psychiatrist and his bisexual patient. Author Fritz Klein has decades of experience as a practicing psychiatrist and is recognized as one of the world's leading authorities on bisexuality. He brings his experience to bear as no lay author could in "Life, Sex and the Pursuit of Happiness", creating a remarkably detailed psychological portrait of both therapist and client that will captivate and enlighten anyone who has sat in a therapist's office - on either side of the desk. In the character of Randy Gold, Klein gives us a man who harbours no malice but is saddled with an insatiable need for sex - a constant craving that causes him great frustration and endangers his marriage, his health and his work. Klein gently brings us deep inside this complex character to discover his motivations, his emotions, and the process by which he makes decisions that may change the course of his life. Paul Manes is a hypnotherapist, though it wasn't his dream to become one. His life has been turned inside out by a 180-degree career change, by unexpected fatherhood and by the sudden illness and death of his young wife. His own sex life, however, is less than satisfying. When Paul begins therapy with Randy, whose problem is that he is constantly aroused, he learns more than he thought possible about the nature of desire. And when Randy mentions having slept with a woman who is a figure from Paul's distant past, a new dimension is added to the relationship between the two men.
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About the Author
Fritz Klein is an editor, writer, researcher and a practicing psychiatrist. He lives is San Diego, California.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating and Meaningful,
This review is from: Life, Sex, And the Pursuit of Happiness (Paperback)
This is a fascinating book. It takes us through a series of vignettes primarily in and around the lives of Randy, a voraciously sexual west-coast ad designer who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish east coast baker family, and Paul, a sometime east-coast actor turned Swiss-trained California psychiatrist with his share of tragedies and struggles to cope with.
The stories and timeframes shift over 21 years, as we learn what makes up Paul, Randy and the people they are intimate with - spouses, parents, lovers, bosses, friends - and gain insight as to why. The fact Paul and Randy shared a chance common acquaintance, years apart, leads to some healing and emotional unblocking for both, in an almost mystically unconscious way. The artfulness of the prose and dialog is slightly strained at times when the author or characters describe feelings and relationships, but I didn't mind because I chalked it up to the shorthand way the psychiatrist author can get to the essence of relationships. In fact, readers may see their own relationships in simpler, more pure terms as a result, with some liberation of their own undercurrent feelings. (Maybe the book is intentionally a bit hypnotic or neuro-linguistically programmed?) If you've ever wondered what therapists get out of therapy, you'll be interested. This book is a fascinating meditation on the way relationships can, but sometimes don't, help heal pain (internal or interpersonal) that may in turn have been caused by relationships and what happened in and to them. And it does this 98% by story and character. Recommended, if this review speaks to you.
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