MAYBE YOU SHOULD TALK TO SOMEONE

A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
by Lori Gottlieb

I could not put this book down once I started reading it. At the same time, I didn’t want to read too much at one sitting because I wanted to absorb what I’d read and I didn’t want the book to end.

Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and contributing editor and writer for The Atlantic magazine. She blends these two talents perfectly in Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. The book follows several of Gottlieb’s patients as they progress through therapy with her. (Of course, these stories are shared with their consent). Early in the book, Gottlieb decides she needs to enter therapy herself–to deal with the feeling that her life is spinning out of control. She’s the single mother of an eight-year-old. She’s just been “dumped” by her boyfriend whom she thought she would marry. She’s unable to honor her contract to write a book and she’s spent the advance money. Something isn’t right with her health and doctors are incapable of diagnosing or treating her. So, Gottlieb begins to adroitly intersperse chapters about her therapy with those about her patients’.

The result is an insightful, engrossing book that is filled with nuggets of useful information. Although at times I felt guilty and like a voyeur, those feelings were overshadowed by the insights Gottlieb offers about living a more authentic, self-aware life. We are happiest, she believes, when we successfully connect to the people around us, especially those we love. This book is well-written and provocative and totally unique. I have already found myself recommending it–and I do so enthusiastically here. (Liz)

A SECOND HELPING

I LOVED this book, not only because I am obsessed with psychology and how the human brain and personality work, but also because it is heartfelt and honest about how hard it can be sometimes to just be yourself and live the life you want for yourself. I felt saner, and more motivated for having read this.