But from the library- I hate movie tie in covers.

Even though this book isn’t really about its title- this guy is a dinosaur- as modern psychotherapy does not involve much free association or dream analysis. The present is the focus of much therapy, with the future also being important. Dude doesn’t even cover cognitive behavioral therapy, which is the dominant mode nowadays!

However, he does have some good insights, and going back to the roots of psychotherapy can bring new light to the psychotherapy of today. I wouldn’t recommend this to someone who wants to learn about how psychotherapy works today, but it’s a good historical text, despite apparently being written in the 2000s…

I loved this book. I loved how through doubts, sleepless nights and existential debates, Jauhar fought to keep the faith. I also liked how he depicted his ethical struggles- his tension between the demands of the profession and his desire to do more for his patients, the tension between the attitudes of other doctors and his own attitudes. He finds some peace at the end, but he has earned it.

While this book is an important book, I had a hard time reading it. It was heavy on statistics, and lists of the chemicals in everything that will give you a list of unpleasant diseases. The illustrations were charming, and the author clearly knew her book was depressing as it was littered liberally with a reason for hope icons. Of course, the hope seemed rather weak after another chapter about African children dying from toxic waste.

I would recommend this book more as a reference work, as it does include a lot of information. I would not recommend this book as pleasure reading, as it fails to balance eye opening expose with hope or something we can reasonably do about this. And no, joining Greenpeace isn’t it.

A long hard slog to read, but it has some good information in it.

I preferred fear and other uninvited guests, but still a good book.

This story needed more depth and detail to really do justice to the subject matter.

Man, this book makes me want to read the next book, but it is not written yet.

Some indirect spoilers:

Through water logic, two people are one.

Through water logic, a woman loses and gains back her soul

Through water logic, hey, yay for lesbians and sword fights!

This book needed a lot less orentialism and a lot more talk about the culturebound syndrome of hikkomori. Culture bound syndromes can be a symptom of cultural issues, but I don’t think a lack of Christianity and the banking system not being flexible is that much of interest.

This is the sort of book that should never be made into a movie. The strength of the book is the fact that the central character changes only a little bit- she does gain a better connection with her daughter, and starts to accept more of the past and the future, but in a movie, instead of the subtle changes shown here, it’d be hosed down in sludgy glurge.