smyers5600 's review for:

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

2.0

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I technically did not finish this book but I came to within 40 pages of finishing before ultimately becoming so frustrated with it that I stopped. I consider the time spent and pages read to suffice as a completed work for me. I wanted to like this book. I wanted to derive insights from it that I could apply to my own suffering. And yet, this completely missed the mark for me. I am someone deeply interested in psychology, therapy, the human condition, etc. but I found this to be derivative and somewhat unbelievable. The “patients” were almost cartoonish in their descriptions, and the author seemed to gloss over the things most interesting about her life and reasons for becoming a therapist. John was a caricature of a Hollywood producer. Everything seemed to tie up perfectly, which I don’t find to be a truly representative picture of what it’s like to go through therapy. These were embellished stories. And while there are certainly lessons to be drawn from them, I can’t say I found much satisfaction from it. If you’re looking for a book that will challenge the way you think about psychological intervention and the innovative, compassionate,  practice that can come from truly unique and horrific cases, I highly recommend reading “The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog” by Dr. Bruce Perry much more than this one.