Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb

PSYCHOTHERAPY FROM THE THERAPIST’S POINT OF VIEW

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Let’s start off by saying that I was quickly jealous of Lori Gottlieb, the author of this book. Feeling that way, the book had to be compelling or I would have gotten ticked off at her and quit mid-memoir. Let me tell you a bit about the book, then a bit about the author’s background, and then it will be crystal clear how she managed to get me riled up.

In this book, the author writes about her experience with psychotherapy as a therapist and as a patient. As she tells each of her patient’s stories — and her own — she explains the basics of psychotherapy. Among her patients is the producer of a popular TV show, a young woman dying of cancer, and a 69-year-old depressed woman who is planning to commit suicide on her next birthday if her life doesn’t start to look up. As for Gottlieb herself, her “presenting problem” is that a long-term boyfriend broke up with her when she thought they were headed down the aisle.

Regarding Lori Gottlieb, she is a psychotherapist in New York. A Google search tells me that she was born in 1966. In the book, she tells us lots of things about herself. In this manner, we learn that she traveled a circuitous route to become a therapist. She was a TV executive who worked on the hit show, ER, in its early years. That was not fulfilling, so she left it to go to medical school. That was not quite right either, so Goldilocks style, she quit medical school to write full time. It was then that she decided to go into psychotherapy. Somewhere in all those years, she was offered a contract to write a book for “a dizzying sum of money.” She did not accept that offer but agreed to write a different book instead. But guess what? She really didn’t want to write that one either, and she ultimately reneged on the contract.

It appears that the author is a privileged woman who was able to skate in and out of advanced college degrees and business contracts. That may turn some people off, but since I am a privileged woman too, that’s not what made me jealous. Nor am I jealous of the fact that she knows George Clooney personally. However, as a fellow writer who makes a whopping $2.09 each time someone buys my book in eBook format, that “dizzying sum of money” she talked about on page 132 was hard to read about.

Lori Gottlieb went on to slap my sensibilities one more time (on page 168) when she had this thought while counseling the 69-year-old depressed woman about her sex life, “I try to imagine sleeping with an 80-year-old and wonder if most elderly people are put off by their partners’ bodies.” Since I am 14 years older than the author, and closer to having an 80-year-old body, I took offense.

In spite of the one-two punch I felt at the author’s hands, I continued to read the book. Why? Because it’s compelling to look into the lives of others especially when described by a trained psychotherapist and a terrific writer.

PS: In researching the book, I learn that it will be made into a television series with Eva Longoria. Suffice it to say, I am jealous!

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