Tales from a Traveling Couch: Psychotherapist Revisits His Most Memorable Patients (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780393314984)

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 into 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. For example: Naomi, an abused young Jewish girl from the Bronx who transforms herself into a Spanish flamenco dancer named Isabella; Charles, the animal trainer who fell madly in love with a circus polar bear; and Seth, a man obsessed with sadomasochistic fantasies, yet drawn to the love-in culture of the sixties.

Like a brilliant psychological detective novel, this book tells stories in fascinating detail while raising fundamental questions about psychotherapy. Returning home with his "story endings," Dr. Akeret finds that his journey has reshaped his ideas of what it means to have a rich and satisfying life.