The Thief of Happiness

The Story of an Extraordinary Psychotherapy by Bonnie Friedman

Publishers Weekly

	

		

"Transference, that alchemy of the psychotherapy session, with all its drama and
inscrutability is the subject of Friedman's engrossing second book. Here, the
author of Writing Past Dark (about the emotional aspects of the writing process)
examines in minute detail her treatment with Dr. Harriet Sing (a pseudonym).




"Like the poet H.D. (Tribute to Freud), Friedman entered therapy for writer's block.
After two weeks, she found herself writing her first book. As a result, she iden-
tified Sing as the source of her inspiration, and an intense infatuation resulted:
"Little mattered now beside Harriet Sing. Everyone else was merely metaphoric."
Friedman emerged confident in her identity as a writer only after seven years of
intense self-scrutiny with Sing. By then, the therapist's role had evolved into
something far more ambiguous, and it is here that readers may come to understand
what really goes on between therapist and patient. Friedman refers to Sing as a
'thief of happiness.'




"...the book is excellent in the way H.D.'s is:
it illuminates the intricate, murky relationship between therapy and real life, the
ways in which, as the author quotes Adam Phillips, "in one's relationship with the
analyst one unwittingly relives and thus discovers one's emotional history." Friedman
is at her best when relaying the delicately nuanced exchanges that occur between the
patient and therapist. "I can't be in treatment and be happy," she tells Sing.
"That's a very interesting assumption," Sing replies.




"Forecast: Fans of Friedman's first book will certainly like this one, and writers
interested in the therapeutic process as a way to ease their block will enjoy it, too.
With the right publicity campaign, the book could, like Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird,
develop a cult following."




Library Journal


	

		

"This eloquent, stream-of-consciousness case study of psychotherapy entangles the reader
from the first page.




"A patient in therapy for seven years, Friedman (Writing Past Dark:
Envy, Fear, Distraction, and Other Dilemmas in the Writer's Life) portrays her
thoughts and feelings during the process of analysis through exquisitely painted
word-pictures. She shows how she recovered from her writer's block and achieved new
levels of self-confidence through what felt like an almost magical process. At the
same time, she leaves the reader confused about what's really happening and certain
that this woman is seriously helpless and disturbed.




"As years go by and her relatively
normal life continues, Friedman begins to fear that she is dependent on the therapy
itself.  The analyst would no doubt say that her recovered sense of self was the result
of therapy, but Friedman portrays the analyst as the thief who kept her dependent and
unhappy for so long. An intriguing book for large public or medical libraries; no notes
or index. Margaret Cardwell, Christian Brothers Univ. Lib., Memphis"




The Forward

	

		

"The Thief of Happiness" is an impressive accomplishment and a fine addition to the
existing literature on therapy."




Washington Post

	

		

"Profound . . .A distillation of many psychotherapies. . .
[an author] with a great eye for detail."




O Magazine

	

		

"Friedman's compulsively readable memoir documents the thrilling highs and dramatic lows
of the seven long years during...treatment... Compelling"