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A review by cooperatoby
Lying on the Couch by Irvin D. Yalom
3.0
It is set in San Francisco of course. The browbeaten Justin finally leaves his high-powered lawyer wife Carol for a younger model, so she decides to seduce his therapist by way of revenge, and goes to him as a customer. However this therapist (Ernest) has decided to use her as a guinea pig for a new type of therapy relying on total truth between therapist and patient. Strangely and against her will, this starts to work and she loses her rage against men. This experimental approach also means Ernest has to leave his supervisor, Marshal, who is hypercorrect and would say it is against the rules of psychoanalysis. Marshal is also hyper-ambitious to be president of the analysts’ association. But he is defrauded of $90,000 by a con man (Peter Macondo, marvellous name) who comes to him for short therapy against overgenerousness – then in a double whammy of a further $24,000 when he tries to entrap him. This enrages Marshal, so he goes to a lawyer – Carol of course. He doesn’t dare tell his troubles to another analyst because they gossip so much. So the tables are turned as she becomes his therapist. Everybody lives unhappily ever after, calculating their stock prices and tax deductions, playing professional politics, jogging, gambling at poker and doing all manner of Californian things, observed and commented upon wryly.