Tales from the Couch : Writers on Therapy [Hardcover]

Jason Shinder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 2000

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 health 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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There are enough crazy artists out there to support the theory that one must be at least a little bit mad to be creative. Good news for the unhinged: one needn't trade one's sanity for one's creativity. In fact, word from the 17 authors anthologized in Tales from the Couch is that the therapeutic process actually enhances the creative one, often allowing the writer to produce, as Mark Doty puts it, "the work that has mattered most to me." Some of these authors, such as Pam Houston and Susan Cheever, consider themselves saved by psychotherapy. Others, like Phillip Lopate, regard therapy as "a treat I am entitled to give myself from time to time." Several see their therapeutic experiences as a kind of literary collaboration involving the telling and retelling of a story. Meg Wolitzer used therapy sessions to discuss problems in her work; Emily Fox Gordon considered the time spent with her therapist as "writing aloud"; and Rebecca Walker claims that the time spent scrutinizing herself "bore fruit: insights, yes, but also articles, essays, and book proposals."

And what a collection of therapists! "Finding the right shrink/analyst," says Ntozake Shange, "is as important a decision as finding a soul mate." The wrong therapists depicted here are both horrifying and hugely entertaining. Lucy Grealy encountered a therapist with tattoos on her face who claimed to have both a husband and a wife. Emily Fox Gordon tells of a married Dr. S. who took to showing up at her door with "bottles of wine and sheepish smiles." But leave it to George Plimpton to bring his psychiatrist--who kept his own sea lions in a freshwater quarry--to parties with him. "At one of them he had too much to drink and fell asleep under the hostess's bed upstairs," Plimpton says. The hostess was awakened in the middle of the night "by the sound of deep snoring under her bed." --Jane Steinberg

From Publishers Weekly

Anyone who has ever turned to psychotherapy, as poet David Mura did, "to make your life a little better" will find something of interest in this anthology. Shinder (Every Room We Ever Slept In), poet and director of the YMCA National Writer's Voice, has collected 19 mostly original essays by well-known authors who recount the time they spent in various forms of therapy. All of them agreeDsome lightheartedly, like poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman, and others with a more somber sense of recognitionDthat the key to productive therapy is the patient's willingness to become vulnerable. Mura credits the process not only with saving him from "sexual[ly] acting out" and breaking up with his future wife, but with helping him to discover a different approach to writingDone that freed him from writer's block. Several of the other essayists, including fiction writer Meg Wolitzer, playwright Ntozake Shange and novelist Carole Maso, also feel that therapy helped them with their creative processes. Not all of the writers, however, are fans of "the talking cure." Adam Gopnik, in a witty and entertaining piece, describes his therapy as "one of the last, and easily one of the most unsuccessful, psychoanalyses that have ever been attempted." After seeing a therapist who behaved like an editor and another whom he felt he had to amuse with stories, George Plimpton never went back. Despite the variety of therapeutic approaches, from Gopnik's orthodox Freudian psychoanalysis to Rebecca Walker's experience with a very supportive and responsive listener, the effectiveness of the healing process appears to be driven by a good match between therapist and patient. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (November 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380976145
• ISBN-13: 978-0380976140
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,119,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How therapy works, February 19, 2002

By 

Ejames LIEBERMAN (Potomac, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales from the Couch : Writers on Therapy (Hardcover)

A psychotherapist, I find this among the best presentations of what therapy is about, from the standpoint of those who have made use of it and tell it like it is. Some 17 essays give a range of views, not all flattering, but most supporting the process as a unique if not foolproof source of enlightenment. Because these patients take writing seriously, the reader wins. Should be required reading for anyone in, or contemplating, therapy, as well as for its practitioners.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reveals Complexity of Life, November 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Tales from the Couch : Writers on Therapy (Hardcover)

Wonderful book for anyone who wants insightful advice on what it is like to participate in the process of therapy. I am keeping this book available for my clients, as I am an interning therapist. This book brings readers into the private lives of other average people who happen to be fantastic writers. This match gives the reader an opportunity to hear about the private experiences that are inherent in therapy through the eyes of thoughtful and witty writers.

5 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Might as Well Be Fire Fighters on Therapy, May 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Tales from the Couch : Writers on Therapy (Hardcover)

The contents of this book shed no light on the complexities of the self and the creative process or on any sort of relationship between therapy and writing. The contributors just happen to be writers who also happened to have therapy. Big deal! So am I. And my story is about as interesting as most of theirs--which is to say, "not very." (There are a couple of exceptions.) Don't waste your money.