Lying on the Couch
by Irvin Yalom
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Description
From the bestselling author of Love's Executioner and When Nietzsche Wept comes a provocative exploration of the unusual relationships three therapists form with their patients.Seymour is a therapist of the old school who blurs the boundary of sexual propriety with one of his clients. Marshal, who is haunted by his own obsessive-compulsive behaviors, is troubled by the role money plays in his dealings with his patients. Finally, there is Ernest Lash. Driven by his sincere desire to help and show more his faith in psychoanalysis, he invents a radically new approach to therapy-a totally open and honest relationship with a patient that threatens to have devastating results.Exposing the many lies that are told on and off the psychoanalyst's couch, Lying on the Couch gives listeners a tantalizing, almost illicit glimpse at what their therapists might really be thinking during their sessions. Fascinating, engrossing, and relentlessly intelligent, it ultimately moves listeners with a denouement of surprising humanity and redemptive faith. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Een verrassend en leuk boek over bedriegen en bedrogen worden, diverse aanpakken van psychotherapie. Er zit humor in, de ontknoping is goed. Kortom, een aanrader.
My first thought after finishing Lying on the Couch was "What the hell?" Yalom weaves an overly detailed novel that pays excellent attention to the work of psychotherapists but largely just continues a misogynist cycle of female exploitation and objectification. Getting all the details of the male therapist's interiority tries to read like Henry James but is closer to eavesdropping on a CB band of horny truckers, albeit with more references to theorists and philosophy.
Quattro troppe tre forse troppo poche, diciamo 3,5.
Scorre molto bene, l’intreccio e gli approcci dei tre terapeuti molto interessanti. Un po’ troppo romanzo rispetto ad altre cose di Yalom che ho letto, non ha quella forza e la “credibilità” delle altre opere. Mi ha comunque fatto piacere leggerlo,
Scorre molto bene, l’intreccio e gli approcci dei tre terapeuti molto interessanti. Un po’ troppo romanzo rispetto ad altre cose di Yalom che ho letto, non ha quella forza e la “credibilità” delle altre opere. Mi ha comunque fatto piacere leggerlo,
Good novel raising lots of interesting issues around confidentiality, boundaries, gifts, and truthfulness that rise in Psychotherapy. The portrait of the psychotherapeutic community is not very flattering. The story is excellent
I had a very hard time finishing this book. There is some information about psychotherapy - and that’s it. Not good as fiction, not good as non-fiction. Who is the targeted reader? A handful of psychotherapists who might be wondering ‘what if?’
Psychanalyste reconnu, Ernest Lash est en proie au doute: en se montrant plus proche de ses patients ne parviendrait-il pas à de meilleurs résultats? Quand Carol Leftman, brillante et séduisante avocate, entre dans son cabinet, il met en pratique sa nouvelle théorie. Mauvaise pioche: Carol, convaincue que son mari l'a quittée sur les conseils dudit psychanalyste a décidé de le piéger... Biographie de l'auteur Né à Washington en 1931 de parents russes, Irvin D. Yalom est professeur à Stanford et psychiatre. Il est l'auteur d'une dizaine d'ouvrages et de romans, dont Le Bourreau de l'amour et Apprendre à mourir.
Hilarant. Le premier chapitre est un "tour de force" comme disent les Anglais.
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Author Information
59+ Works 12,578 Members
Irvin D. Yalom was born in Washington, D.C. on June 13, 1931, of parents who immigrated from Russia shortly after World War I. Yalom entered into medical school intent on studying the field of psychiatry. His first writings were scientific contributions to professional journals. His first book, "The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy" was show more widely used as a text for training therapists. It has been translated into twelve languages and spawned four editions. "Existential Psychotherapy" followed, which was a textbook for a course that did not exist at the time, and then "Inpatient Group Psychotherapy," a guide to leading groups in the inpatient psychiatric ward. In an effort to teach aspects of Existential Therapy, Yalom turned to a literary conveyance and wrote a book of therapy tales called "Love's Executioner", two teaching novels, "When Nietzsche Wept" and "Lying on the Couch" and, "Momma and the Meaning of Life," a collection of true and fictionalized tales of therapy. These books went on to be best sellers, and "When Nietzsche Wept" won the Commonwealth Gold Medal for best fiction of 1993. They have been widely translated,each into about fifteen to twenty languages, and have had considerable distribution abroad. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
btb (72330)
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Lying on the Couch
- Original title
- Lying on the Couch
- Original publication date
- 1996
- People/Characters
- Ernest Lash; Marshal Strider; Peter Macondo; Seth Pande; Justin Astrid; Carol Astrid
- Important places
- California, USA
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 953
- Popularity
- 27,643
- Reviews
- 13
- Rating
- (3.79)
- Languages
- 17 — Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Turkish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 59
- ASINs
- 14
