Therapy, honesty and the stories behind mood swings
Even people skilled at helping others can become trapped inside their own version of events. Gottlieb writes as both therapist and patient, following several clients while entering therapy after a painful breakup. Mood swings are not interpreted as mere storytelling; emotional changes can have hormonal, psychological, relational, and medical dimensions. During a period of bodily and social change, the memoir shows what therapy can offer beyond advice: a relationship in which patterns become visible, grief can be spoken, and the narrator learns that her account is true but incomplete. Change begins when compassionate understanding includes one’s own part in the recurring dance.
About Lori Gottlieb
Lori Gottlieb entered therapy after an unexpected breakup while continuing to treat her own patients. Including herself as the book’s fifth patient prevented her from posing as the detached expert and exposed how therapists also defend incomplete stories.
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