Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96513 in Books
• Published on: 1920-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Expected More
This is an okay book for the psychological novice. But even to the novice the author presents his case pretentiously and disorderly.

What's worse, the persona of the author is very present in the text, in every anecdote, in every point which makes it hard to seperate the author from the points he is trying to make. - If you happen to like his persona you might give this book a higher rating, yet he rubbed me the wrong way; he struck me as an unrepentant lightweight with a Louis XIV complex. - I *did* enjoy parts of his message but I also kept wishing that he would have taken the trouble of getting his act together and delivering his message in a more disciplined and less self-centered fashion.

An Antidote to Therapy
I work as a speechwriter and I love this type of book because it's full of quotable stuff.

Lines like, 'You are free to do whatever you like. You need only face the consequences.'

or, 'You can't make anyone love you. You just have to reveal who your are and take your chances.'

He illustrates his theories using some of the Great Classics of Western Literature - Chaucer's Wife of Bath, Kafka's The Castle, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and Shakespeare's Macbeth.

The thrust of the book is 'The secret is that there is no secret'. We must all face our problems, there are no real gurus with all the answers. Life is complex, difficult, unpredictable, confusing - fun sometimes - harrowing and depressing at others. We have to find temporary solutions in ourselves. Stories, maxims and metaphors help us do this. It all ends with Kopp's Laundry List - a number of short phrases which sum up his theses. A super book.

Excellent comments on the process of psychotherapy.
Sheldon B. Kopp is an experienced pyschotherapist and has written a very insightful commentary on the process and journey of self realization as well as relating it to many other interesting myths, stories, and philosophies.