Tea with Freud

Book excerpt: Why are you so worried and anxious? Why are you so relentlessly critical of yourself? Why do you repeatedly get involved with the wrong people? Can psychotherapy help with these matters? And if so, how does it help? Tea with Freud is an invitation to go behind the closed door of the psychotherapist’s office to get an insider’s look at common emotional problems and their treatment. Listen to the verbatim dialogue of actual people in therapy, and learn about an effective approach to resolving their difficulties. Visit with Sigmund Freud himself in turn-of-the-century Vienna, and hear an imaginary but illuminating debate with Freud about what helps people to make changes and recover their psychological health. You may be surprised to learn that the answers to many psychological struggles can still be found in Freud’s original ideas, as well as in modern findings from psychology, child development, and memory research. Part case study, part fiction, this book is a readable, entertaining introduction to some of the most important ideas—old and new—in the field of psychotherapy. It will change the way you think about the nature of emotions, the root of emotional suffering, and the effectiveness of modern “talk therapy.”