THE RIGHTEOUS RAGE OF A TEN-YEAR-OLD BOY

A unique memoir that chronicles the author’s year of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing psychotherapy.

Long was raised on a hardscrabble farm in Oklahoma, and when he reached his mid-40s, he realized that unresolved anger issues clouded his enjoyment of life. He was 12 years sober and five years into a happy marriage with his wife, an equine vet. Together they ran a successful veterinary clinic in Florida, with him managing the business end of the practice. “But sometimes,” he writes, “things made me angry, which always turned into a negative funk, and once I started down that path, it was hard to get back out of it.” Having been in psychotherapy before, Long wanted to try again. He describes his therapy sessions in great detail, recounting painful episodes in his life, and reexamines pivotal moments that left him feeling traumatized. His therapist, Nysa, explained the process of EMDR therapy: “You hold on to these paddles while you’re going through these scenarios in your head.” Connected by a wire, they vibrate “back and forth from hand to hand, [helping] your brain rewire the emotions that are attached to the memories. We’re getting rid of the old negative junk and replacing it with a positive self-view.” Long is an engaging, animated storyteller, and many of the disturbing scenarios he explores are vividly portrayed. His father beat him daily, using a specially made wooden paddle, for each task deemed short of perfection. From the time he was 7, he had to split and stack the firewood for the kitchen every day. A slightly misaligned log got him a paddling. One Christmas, Long’s gift was a bunch of sticks collected from the front yard and tied together with a ribbon. Although not all recalled sessions are equally engaging, bringing readers directly into an interesting psychoanalytic process is an effective narrative technique.

An informative, poignant, and ultimately uplifting account of healing.