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THE MAN WITH THE BEAUTIFUL VOICE

Name: THE MAN WITH THE BEAUTIFUL VOICE
Author: Lillian B. Rubin
ISBN: 0-8070-2926-2

AND MORE STORIES FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COUCH

by Lillian B. Rubin ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2003

A good introduction for the curious.

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Sensitive accounts of unusual cases on the frontiers of psychotherapy.

“One of the dangerous seductions of being a therapist,” avers Rubin (Sociology/Berkeley; Intimate Strangers, 1982), “is the kind of authority our patients give over to us and that we too often encourage.” This stance informs her project, as she seeks to demystify aspects of contemporary psychotherapy in a work intended primarily for nonpractitioners. She begins by discussing the clinical training that all therapists undergo, noting that while certain boundaries are crucial, traditional psychotherapists rely unduly on inviolate rules (e.g., never hug a patient) and on securing a firm, unambiguous diagnosis for each patient. Six chapters illustrate the limits of this stance by focusing on patients who brought both seemingly intractable problems and unforeseen twists to the analytic process. In one, Rubin treats a young woman unable to progress past childish, petulant paranoia by gradually coaxing a history of childhood trauma from her in exchange for rituals of friendship the patient sorely needs. The title essay refers to a man born without use of his legs due to his mother’s thalidomide use; his formidable hostility towards the world at large and therapists in particular (for their perceived hypocrisy) make him a difficult patient, but Rubin connects with him via his raw, emotional painting. Two essays depict seemingly successful professionals whose secret lives blow up dramatically during couples therapy. One is a woman concealing her actual husband from Rubin in favor of a pretend spouse; the other is a light-skinned black man who has “passed” for years without telling his colleagues or girlfriend. The woman ultimately flees, while the man’s startling admission ultimately resolves many personal difficulties. Rubin considers her own responses to these patients, a process termed “countertransference.” Although her techniques seem unorthodox, she argues persuasively that intensive psychotherapy remains a successful defense for the individual against the traumatic complexities of our lives.

A good introduction for the curious.

Pub Date: June 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-8070-2926-2

Page Count: 162

Publisher: Beacon Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003

Categories:

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TRANSCENDENT CHILD
by Lillian B. Rubin

- BOOK REVIEW
FAMILIES ON THE FAULT LINE
by Lillian B. Rubin

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

Well-told and admonitory.

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Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Well-told and admonitory.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

Categories:

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BUSINESS

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INTO THE WILD

by Jon Krakauer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1996

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor...

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The excruciating story of a young man on a quest for knowledge and experience, a search that eventually cooked his goose, told with the flair of a seasoned investigative reporter by Outside magazine contributing editor Krakauer (Eiger Dreams, 1990).

Chris McCandless loved the road, the unadorned life, the Tolstoyan call to asceticism. After graduating college, he took off on another of his long destinationless journeys, this time cutting all contact with his family and changing his name to Alex Supertramp. He was a gent of strong opinions, and he shared them with those he met: "You must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life''; "be nomadic.'' Ultimately, in 1992, his terms got him into mortal trouble when he ran up against something—the Alaskan wild—that didn't give a hoot about Supertramp's worldview; his decomposed corpse was found 16 weeks after he entered the bush. Many people felt McCandless was just a hubris-laden jerk with a death wish (he had discarded his map before going into the wild and brought no food but a bag of rice). Krakauer thought not. Admitting an interest that bordered on obsession, he dug deep into McCandless's life. He found a willful, reckless, moody boyhood; an ugly little secret that sundered the relationship between father and son; a moral absolutism that agitated the young man's soul and drove him to extremes; but he was no more a nutcase than other pilgrims. Writing in supple, electric prose, Krakauer tries to make sense of McCandless (while scrupulously avoiding off-the-rack psychoanalysis): his risky behavior and the rites associated with it, his asceticism, his love of wide open spaces, the flights of his soul.

A wonderful page-turner written with humility, immediacy, and great style. Nothing came cheap and easy to McCandless, nor will it to readers of Krakauer's narrative. (4 maps) (First printing of 35,000; author tour)