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Book: Voicelessness and Emotional Survival: Notes from the therapy underground
Dr. Richard Grossman:
Hi everybody,
I understand that my book challenges many of the fundamental beliefs about therapy that have evolved over the past century including (in no particular order):
1) Psychotherapy is a technique to be applied by neutral practitioners,
2) Psychotherapists’ personalities—and the damage they can cause—can be neutralized by their own personal therapies,
3) Dividing the brain into small pieces and applying therapy to one of those pieces can make the biggest difference in a patient’s life,
4) All books on therapy should be written from an objective, research based, scientific perspective—not from one therapist’s own personal experience,
5) Faulty parenting is the primary reason for most people’s psychological problems,
6) People should be divided into categories and treated according to those categories—after all, isn’t that what the science of psychology is all about?
7) The people with the most training and who work at the most prestigious institutions know the most about psychotherapy, and should be trusted the most, and
8) Therapists are psychologically healthier than the people they treat and therefore need not pay attention to their responses to patients.
Largely because the book challenges so many of these beliefs (and others)—and because it has been written in an atypical, non-academic form (illustrating, by design, my autonomous “character,”), most people/therapists will not be interested in reading it—and will disagree with much or all of it. The flip side is that a few people—and especially, people who are willing to question prevailing viewpoints, have loved/appreciated it (one of my ex-Massachusetts General Psychiatry colleagues told me it should be required reading in all of the therapy training programs in the Boston area). This is the feedback I have gotten from readers—all of which, negative and positive, I have much appreciated!
I want to thank again all those who have read the book.
Richard
Dr. Richard Grossman:
Hi everybody,
The striking results of this survey as reported by NPR will not be a surprise to many here:
"Most Americans Are Lonely, And Our Workplace Culture May Not Be Helping"
January 23, 20206:00 AM ET
ELENA RENKEN
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/01/23/798676465/most-americans-are-lonely-and-our-workplace-culture-may-not-be-helping
Aloneness, the main focus of my work/book, has reached epidemic proportion in our society.
Richard
Lollie:
I know I'm way too late on this, but congratulations on the book! I am going to order it right now!
Dr. Richard Grossman:
Thanks, Lollie! And welcome back!!! Just a warning—my goal in the 40 plus years of doing therapy was to make the biggest difference in my patients’ lives that I could, and in pursuing this goal, I had to learn, from my patients, to see therapy in a totally different way. As a result, most people have disapproved of the book and its stated beliefs—but, surprisingly (at least to me), some people loved it. I know one couple who read it and were on “opposite sides of the fence” who argued about it, vociferously, back and forth, for a whole day! I loved that! But the book is completely out of the box for a book on therapy. The prologue of the book is a 10-minute play that I wrote—the reason for its being there is only explained at the end of the book. And then, the first part is told from a personal, first person perspective—something that therapists are taught never to do. BTW, most readers (including acquaintances) would not even talk to me about the book. And, of course, some told me they wished I had written a more traditional academic book on the subject. Of course, all of my patients fired me after reading it. Just kidding—I really enjoyed hearing their individual reactions to it, and most important to me, none of it surprised them. Anyway, I’ll leave the rest to you, and if you feel comfortable about commenting on it, all of your negative thoughts/feelings about it will be much appreciated, and if you have some positive ones, I’d love to hear them, too!
Again, and most important, welcome back!!!
Richard
Lollie:
Dr. G.
Thanks for remembering me! I am patiently waiting for Amazon to deliver. :)
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