MY LIFE IS GREAT. WHY DO I FEEL SO AWFUL?

Why many successful career women feet empty and incomplete and what they can do about it. A psychiatrist and thriller author (Blood Heat, 1988; The Mind Palace, 1985), Pieczenik contends that many of the successful working women he has treated for depression related to a sense of inner emptiness had programmed themselves for high-flying business or professional careers without taking stock of their own desires, talents, and goals. Although reared to nurture others, they were forced to adopt male-oriented attributes like assertiveness and competitiveness. Pieczenik attempts to motivate such patients to find their ""secret"" selves by honestly answering three questions: ""What do I want? How do I get it? What will it cost me?"" Responding to this treatment, some women have developed the necessary insights and determination to improve their emotional lives through major career changes or even by temporarily dropping out of the rat race to spend more time with their families. The book's second half presents an extensive shopping list of techniques designed to uncover and work through hidden problems (fear of change, a penchant for self-sacrifice) and promote self-understanding. The reader is encouraged to pick and choose among numerous questionnaires, checklists, an emotional cost/benefit analysis, role playing, relaxation and mental-imaging techniques, etc. More pertinent and less didactic than some other books tackling similar problems-for instance, Arthur Freeman and Rose DeWolf's Woulda/Coulda/Shoulda (1989).