Fire Your Shrink and Read this Book Instead

Name: Fire Your Shrink and Read this Book Instead
Author: David M. Klein
ISBN: 978-0988882003

by David M. Klein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2013

An honest, edgy and highly logical explanation of why analysis doesn’t always work.

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Awards & Accolades

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In Klein’s debut nonfiction self-help book, the author turns a critical eye toward talk therapy and questions its ability to help a person change his life for the better.

The author begins with a quick history of his life and explains that after years of wrong turns, guilt and regret, he finally turned to therapy—and spent several more years analyzing the reasons behind his “hangups.” Unfortunately, he writes, such analysis often keeps a person stuck in a less-than-ideal life and convinced that he’s controlled by forces he cannot change. Klein explains that self-perception drives one’s ability to move forward, make decisions and grow; if we allow our self-perception to be defined by outdated life events, such as the way our mothers treated us, we can never reach our full potential. Using a series of anecdotes about anonymous friends and acquaintances, Klein argues that it’s easy to see direct solutions for someone else’s situation, but when one looks inward, one’s often blocked by age-old emotional “tricks,” such as insecurity. As an example, Klein writes of how he stayed too long in an unhappy marriage to a highly critical woman since he grew up with a critical mother. Internally, he believed that he was meant to stay in an unhappy situation and work on it rather than accept that things were fundamentally not going to change. But Klein is careful to point out that his mother didn’t cause him to stay in the marriage—he caused himself to stay; his mother caused him to build self-protective emotional walls, and that made him stay in an unhappy relationship. As the author points out, a person can spend a lifetime in therapy understanding the “why” behind his decisions, or he can just shrug off the three major “cancers” of blame, regret and hatred and actively decide to make better choices. The book is written in a straightforward, conversational tone and reads like tough love from a close friend.

An honest, edgy and highly logical explanation of why analysis doesn’t always work.

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0988882003

Page Count: 220

Publisher: DMK Media Holdings Inc.

Review Posted Online: April 8, 2013

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.