The Examined Life – How We Lose and Find Ourselves - Softcover

Grosz, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393349322 ISBN 13: 9780393349320

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014

Synopsis

We are all storytellers we create stories to make sense of our lives. But it is not enough to tell tales. There must be someone to listen. In his work as a practicing psychoanalyst, Stephen Grosz has spent the last twenty-five years uncovering the hidden feelings behind our most baffling behavior. The Examined Life distils more than 50,000 hours of conversation into pure psychological insight without the jargon. This extraordinary book is about one ordinary process: talking, listening, and understanding. Its aphoristic and elegant stories teach us a new kind of attentiveness. They also unveil a delicate self-portrait of the analyst at work and show how lessons learned in the consulting room can reveal as much to the analyst as to the patient. These are stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love and the lies we tell, the changes we bear and the grief. Ultimately, they show us not only how we lose ourselves but also how we might find ourselves."

About this title

Review:

By turns edifying and moving. Grosz offers astute insights into the perplexities of everyday life.--Trisha Andres

Shares the best literary qualities of Freud's most persuasive work. It is...an insightful and beautifully written book...a series of slim, piercing chapters that read like a combination of Chekhov and Oliver Sacks. [A] deeply affecting book.--Michiko Kakutani

Magnetically compelling...The result is a shared sense of humanity, understanding and even hope.--Kate Tuttle

Beautifully written...The insights here will cut close to the bone.--Dinah Loon

A peek into the human psyche...Marked by a clear absence of technical jargon...An immensely personal work, and something much more than just a legacy of advice.--Lucy Scholes

Grosz's vignettes are so brilliantly put together that they read like pieces of bare, illuminating fiction...utterly captivating.--Robert Collins

Impossible to put down...it will leave you wiser about humanity than you were when you picked it up.--Andrew Solomon, author of Far From the Tree

Book Description:

Longlisted for the Guardian first book award, a Sunday Times bestseller and Radio 4 Book of the Week. 'Marvellous' (The Times), 'Excellent' (Guardian), 'Completely magical' (Mail on Sunday)

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0393349322
• ISBN 13: 9780393349320
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240