Tales from a Traveling Couch

A Psychotherapist Revisits His Most Memorable Patients

"Akerets compulsively readable profiles are compelling existential dramas, and, with this deeply insightful book, he joins the front ranks of psychotherapists who write about their practices."--Publishers Weekly

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 in 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:

Naomi, an abused young Jewish girl from the Bronx who transforms herself into a Spanish flamenco dancer named Isabella--what is she like now, in her mid-fifties?

What about Charles, who fell madly in love with a circus polar bear? Had he been able to resist his fatal psychosexual attraction?

What of Sasha, the dashing, prize-winning French novelist with writers block and a penchant for exploiting women? In the end, did his art prevail or his life?

And what became of Mary--did she ever "murder" again?

Like a brilliant psychological detective novel, this book tells its stories in fascinating detail while raising fundamental questions about psychotherapy.

"Riveting stories--not since Love's Executioner has a book so beautifully captured the drama and magic of psychotherapy."--Elaine Mazlish, coauthor of Siblings without Rivalry

Robert Akeret lives in New York City.