More 'Bout That Book

The book now exists in three-dimensional, full-color (well, mostly red) form. It was extremely cool to watch the proofing copy drop from the binder like a candy bar from a vending machine and with the same satisfying thunk.

To describe it, let me defer to that quintessential art form, the jacket copy:

"I believed so wholeheartedly in psychotherapy that I became a psychotherapist." In The Therapist's New Clothes, Judith D. Schwartz tells of training as a therapist, shifting back and forth between her experience as beginning clinician and her own increasingly devastating therapy treatment. It is the story of the author's belief system crumbling--and how she comes out the other side."

In the book I explore my love/hate relationship with psychotherapy through my own experiences: the profoundly rewarding experience of helping a client past fear or pain as well as self-delusions that bound me to a process that was leading straight downhill. That's the thematic material. There is also a story: however improbable, these things happened to me. I'll dip back into the narrative shortly. For now, here's a corner of my writing desk with my mouse pad, a replica of what is arguably the most famous Oriental rug in history--the one that covered Freud's psychoanalytic couch.