Lying on the Couch

This book is awesome. If you have ever wondered what it feels like to be in therapy, here is your answer. This book gives you the inside information about the problems that faces both the therapeut and the pasient. Besides that it is written in a manner that intertwines the characters involved. We hear about his patients, and the next you know he is the husband of another of his patients, or the wife of the therapists advisor. The complications that this causes makes it into a humoristic book unlike anything I have ever read.And the title alone, lying on the couch, is exceptional. It is the first clue into this naive therapist that truly believes that no one could lie to him. He is a good therapist, but he can't see this. So the conclusion is that the therapist, who thinks he can see what's going on, isn't much closer to the truth than the rest of his patients. And that's what makes this book so amusing.This is a must read for anyone that has been in therapy, or are thinking about going there. And for everyone else that wants to know what it is like. If you're in for a laugh, run to the store and add this book to your collection. I promise you it will be worth it!

"Lying on the Couch" is a clever novel by Irvin D. Yalom, a therapist who has written a number of non-fiction books on psychotherapy. This work of fiction peers into the lives of various psychoanalysts and the people whom they analyze. The two main characters are Marshal Streider, a pompous psycholanalyst who is driven by a desperate hunger for fame, wealth and social position, and Ernest Lash, who is Marshall's student. Lash tries a novel approach in psychotherapy. He tries experimenting with an "honest" approach towards his patients. Yalom has fun dissecting the lives of Streider, Lash and their patients. The title, "Lying on the Couch," is a play on words. Yalom tells us that we often lie to our analysts and to ourselves, because lying appears to be easier than facing up to the truth about ourselves. He also probes some of the unconscious feelings that drive some people's self-destructive behavior. In addition, Yalom hilariously punctures the pomposity of jargon-spewing analysts who never use a one-syllable word if they can help it. Ultimately, Dr. Yalom poignantly shows that being true to ourselves and working through our childhood issues is a necessary step towards ultimate growth and fulfillment. This book is creative, literate, and often very funny. "Lying on the Couch" is a delightful entertainment for the thinking reader who is fascinated by the life of the mind.

I'm not particularly interested in psychotherapy, so I wasn't thrilled when my book club picked this to read. I'm happy to say that I enjoyed it immensely.Therapist Ernest Lash decides to try an experiment: having a completely open and honest relationship with a new patient. Little does he know what effect this will have on him, his patient, and the people who know them. The chain-reaction that follows is amazing and entertaining. This book is great testimony to the power of honesty and integrity.

This "novel" by Dr. Yalom is a true masterpiece. After having read his other popular books, I hesitated reading a "novel" , but what an amazing surprise... This work is really integrated, has great unity as far as structure goes and the subject area in which Dr.Yalom truly excells is really informative for therapists, analysts as well as patients. It gives insight not into just multiple relationships among doctors and patients but also among therapists themselves - patients in their relationships with their relatives and friends. It is an excellent guide to insight, analysis and problem-solving techniques as well as ethics, honesty and humanity. It should be required reading for courses and seminars that train analysts, therapists as well as counsellors and ultimately patients and friends and relatives of patients in therapy. Read this book -- honestly!

I'm a psychiatrist-psychoanalyst too, and probably a contemporary of Yalom's, and I declare the hero could have been me, a psychoanalytic maverick. Therefore I can say that without a doubt, if you have ever been a psychotherapist or a patient, the story will resonate. There are many fascinating sub-plots, and an element of suspense, and a magnificent, ironic ending, but the central theme is the contrast between an older, traditional Freudian, who is 'supervisor' and a younger, maverick eclectic, born-therapist, whose character grows and evolves as he performs a therapeutic miracle on a very unlikely patient.