Customer Reviews

In the Shadow of the Epidemic: Being HIV-Negative in the Age of AIDS (Series Q)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No other book -- and no other therapist -- have offered such a cogent and searching examination of the psychological factors attending on HIV seroconversion. This volume has set the tone for the debate on "barebacking" and other '90s phenonomena. But it is much more: a recipe for living, with no definitive conclusions, although with plenty of food for thought for the thoughtful reader. This is necessary reading for anyone who has quarrelled with their own HIV fantasies, or with guilt, or dread. It is a book for every gay man who lives the way we live now.

In the Shadow of the Epidemic is an essential textbook for all mental health professionals. Set in a brilliant clinical framework, it retains in a stirring way a sense of the person within each case study; there is a wealth of knowledge balanced with a profound feeling within. I found that each chapter evoked a sense of pain, grief and loss. This awareness is critical in understanding the clinical issues that must be examined when treating this community. Every mental health professional must confront these issues. This book is the essential tool to accomplish this. I am eagerly waiting for the next volume from Dr. Odets.

Walt Odets has had the courage and the insight to examine the AIDS epidemic as a crisis in mental health. Clinically sound, this is also a work filled with pathos and humanity. This book is a moving, thought-provoking, and ground-breaking exploration of the effects of a nightmare from which we have yet to awake.

An intriguing theory, but one of little real relevance to understanding phenomena such as the "Second Wave" of HIV. It has almost nothing to say about the wave of seroconversions among younger gay men, who are not afflicted by the guilt of surviving the AIDS deaths of friends they never had, and most of whom, far from seeing it as "inevitable," actually give precious little thought to the possibility of becoming infected before it's too late.

A nice contribution to our understanding of a small subset of new infections, but that's all it is.