A MODERN GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED

A psychiatrist offers a collection of essays about life and learning.

Sones opens his debut with a quick disclaimer regarding the fact that the title of his book echoes that of the great 12th-century work of philosophical inquiry by Maimonides. Although the author is self-deprecating, readers familiar with Maimonides will notice some similarities in tone and manner. Sones draws on his nearly 60 years of experience as a psychiatrist to address a large variety of personal and social topics, ranging from how to deal with verbal abuse to strategies for improving self-discipline and much more. Not all of the case studies he describes from his practice are glowing successes. In one typical story, for instance, a patient he calls Sam, who has been dealing with obsessive-compulsive disorder, is skeptical of the whole process of therapy and leaves shortly after getting a prescription. Wrapped around these clinical tales are the author’s observations about more general subjects connected with mental health. These reflections are written in a bright, approachable prose that will prompt a good deal of reader confidence in Sones’ calm wisdom. The subject of “training” attention, for example, is set in the context of the human psyche: “Attention tends to get captured by negative possibilities and this remarkable brain of ours can generate endless negative possibilities (fantasies).” But, the author asserts, humans can exercise an element of control over the attention mechanism. Some of these insights may surprise readers in their pragmatic utility, as when Sones dispassionately discusses the tactics, good and bad, of conducting an extramarital affair (“If you have to confess,” he deadpans, “go see your priest; if that is not your persuasion, see a psychiatrist”). But such digressions should actually be predictable. As its title indicates, the book is designed to give solid counsel, not moralistic judgments. And it succeeds very neatly at that—readers faced with personal problems will find these pages enlightening.

Wise, cleareyed advice about a wide range of personal predicaments.