Tales from a Traveling Couch: Psychotherapist Revisits His Most Memorable Patients

by Robert U. Akeret

Overview

After thirty-five years in practice, prominent New York psychotherapist and author Robert Akeret found himself in the thrall of a single question: Did therapy make a real difference in his patients lives?

So, on a sunny morning in April, Dr. Akeret got in his van and set off to visit his most memorable former patients—a journey "in search of story endings." And what remarkable stories they are...

Naomi, an abused young Jewish girl from the Bronx who transforms herself into a Spanish flamenco dancer named Isabella—what is she like now, in her mid-fifties?

What about Charles, who fell madly in love with a circus polar bear? Had he been able to resist his fatal psychosexual attraction? These

What of Sasha, the dashing, prize-winning French novelist with writers block and a penchant for exploiting women? In the end, did his art prevail or his life?

And what became of Mary—did she ever "murder" again?

Like a brilliant psychological detective novel, this book tells its stories in fascinating detail while raising fundamental questions about psychotherapy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393314984
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/17/1996
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Robert U. Akeret received his doctorate in psychology from Columbia University and his certificate in psychoanalysis from the William Alanson White Institute where he trained with Rollo May and Erich Fromm. He has worked in the counseling services at Columbia University, the City College of New York, and is a past President of the Association of Psychoanalytic Psychologists.

What People are Saying About This

Elaine Mazlish

Riveting stories — not since Love's Executioner has a book so beautifully captured the drama and magic of psychotherapy.... the stories take us beyond therapy to what happened in the lifetimes that followed.

Donna Jackson

Akeret takes us on an insightful, provocative journey that spans thirty-five years, allowing us to peer with him into the lives of some of the most memorable patients. The effect is an invigoratingly great lead, one that will surely spark new dialogue about the eternal search, through analysis, for a better self.
— Donna Jackson, author of How To Make the World a Better Place for Women