The Good Psychologist
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
** 'This extraordinarily compelling novel combines the intensity of a thriller with the lucidity and depth of a master class. Shpancer, like all the best writers (and clinicians), doesn't just reveal the complexities of our nature but honors and preserves the mystery at their core. Page by page, THE GOOD PSYCHOLOGIST is brilliantly suspenseful; long after time is up, you'll continue to hear his voice in your head, elegant, knowing, and surpassingly humane (Robert Cohen, author of INSPIRED SLEEP and AMATEUR BARBARIANS )
** 'Noam Shpancer portrays the oft-hidden world of psychotherapy with unparalleled authenticity, compassion, and wit. More important, his literary gifts are profound. Beautiful language, an evocative sense of place, and an acute understanding of the human (Jonathan Kellerman )
** 'Noam Shpancer portrays the oft-hidden world of psychotherapy with unparalleled authenticity, compassion, and wit. More important, his literary gifts are profound. Beautiful language, an evocative sense of place, and an acute understanding of the human (Jonathan Kellerman )
Book Description
* A quirky and wonderfully written first novel that got rave reviews in C format, about a good psychologist, available now in paperback
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I enjoyed the book and thought it was always interesting. The story was very simple A to B stuff without much complication or development. And the characters were missing any convincing depths. This comes across as deliberate minimalism and not outright bad writing. Or at least the author has turned his weakness for plot and character into a strength.
The book is also slightly shorter than most. In my experience the average novel takes about six hours to read. I finished this in about four and a half hours (238 pages).
I'm a little surprised at how unambitious it is in scale. It reads almost like a screenplay for a very low budget French film. The lack of scale seems odd, as though the use of every location and extra character was a costly burden he was trying to avoid. And I say French film as it shares that feeling of existential emptiness* I usually get from that countries films (see The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Death In A French Garden, Novo and especially The Pornographer which ramps it up to a silly degree).
The oddest thing about the book is that it lacks quotation marks when people speak. My best guess is that he's trying to blur the line between what is said inside, and what is said out loud. I quickly got used to this quirk so it wasn't an issue.
It's a decent book and not at all hard to read. I wouldn't recommend it, although I also wouldn't talk anyone out of reading it. The book is not insubstantial, just very minimalist.
* A lack of overt drama. A strange disconnect between the characters as they talk in elliptical sentences to each other. Main and sub-plots often left unresolved. Just a general feeling of tired ennui.
The book is also slightly shorter than most. In my experience the average novel takes about six hours to read. I finished this in about four and a half hours (238 pages).
I'm a little surprised at how unambitious it is in scale. It reads almost like a screenplay for a very low budget French film. The lack of scale seems odd, as though the use of every location and extra character was a costly burden he was trying to avoid. And I say French film as it shares that feeling of existential emptiness* I usually get from that countries films (see The Beat That My Heart Skipped, Death In A French Garden, Novo and especially The Pornographer which ramps it up to a silly degree).
The oddest thing about the book is that it lacks quotation marks when people speak. My best guess is that he's trying to blur the line between what is said inside, and what is said out loud. I quickly got used to this quirk so it wasn't an issue.
It's a decent book and not at all hard to read. I wouldn't recommend it, although I also wouldn't talk anyone out of reading it. The book is not insubstantial, just very minimalist.
* A lack of overt drama. A strange disconnect between the characters as they talk in elliptical sentences to each other. Main and sub-plots often left unresolved. Just a general feeling of tired ennui.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The protagonist of this interesting novel is a psychologist and lecturer - and a father to a child he has never seen conceived with the woman he loves but he can't have. His lectures are popular with the students and his practice is successful, but that does not fill him with the same satisfaction it used to and more and more he feels the loneliness of his existence creeping in and he struggles to apply the advice that he so freely gives in both his professional settings to his personal life.
We meet him at the time when he has just started with a new case; a stripper who has developed a fear of performing - an issue that self-evidently threatens to destroy her livelihood - and her chance of making enough money to get her daughter back. The psychologist takes a special interest in the case risking not only to compromise his professional living but also his personal life since she makes it difficult not to blur the lines.
I really like the idea behind the story and it is very well written with many interesting, funny and useful observations along the way. I also like the interchanging roles he has as a lecturer, psychologist and individual (or maybe not so changing by the end of the day - there is a reason why I now shortly after finishing the book cannot remember his name, but just call him the psychologist).
The lectures are cleverly used to give us an insight in the theories and the reasoning behind the theories he uses in the psychologist chair and which we see applied in the stripper case all the same as we see how he doesn't exactly follow his own advice in the private sphere. The story develops naturally and at a good pace and the characters are interesting and believable, the writing fluent and it is such a novel idea that even though there are a few places where he is dangerously close to slipping into stereotypes and overused examples, I still enjoyed the read very much. Definitely recommendable!
We meet him at the time when he has just started with a new case; a stripper who has developed a fear of performing - an issue that self-evidently threatens to destroy her livelihood - and her chance of making enough money to get her daughter back. The psychologist takes a special interest in the case risking not only to compromise his professional living but also his personal life since she makes it difficult not to blur the lines.
I really like the idea behind the story and it is very well written with many interesting, funny and useful observations along the way. I also like the interchanging roles he has as a lecturer, psychologist and individual (or maybe not so changing by the end of the day - there is a reason why I now shortly after finishing the book cannot remember his name, but just call him the psychologist).
The lectures are cleverly used to give us an insight in the theories and the reasoning behind the theories he uses in the psychologist chair and which we see applied in the stripper case all the same as we see how he doesn't exactly follow his own advice in the private sphere. The story develops naturally and at a good pace and the characters are interesting and believable, the writing fluent and it is such a novel idea that even though there are a few places where he is dangerously close to slipping into stereotypes and overused examples, I still enjoyed the read very much. Definitely recommendable!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
There is a certain detachment in this book which feels inappropriate for a novel and it took me a long time to warm to it. This is partly because the charatcters are rarely referred to by name and instead referred to by role or characteristic: 'The psychologist', 'the four o'clock appointment', 'the pink-haired girl' and so on. This, combined with a lack of any speech or quotation marks, leads to a real sense of distance.
So, the book generally engages at the cognitive rather than affective level; and I began to wonder if it isn't a novel at all, but rather a manual on cognitive behavioural therapy cast in the form of a novel. You can certainly learn a lot about the therapeutic process from the book and much of it rings very true.
But there is emotional engagement, though only in the subplot, which concerns a forbidden love which wracks the psychologist and almost derails him emotionally. Sadly, the general 'arms-length' sense in the writing kept me from caring deeply about the outcome, which was a shame.
But I've still given the book four stars because it is well written, if a little stiff and mannered in places, and the development and narrative thrust kept me interested and wanting to read to the end. Ultimately, an enjoyable read.
So, the book generally engages at the cognitive rather than affective level; and I began to wonder if it isn't a novel at all, but rather a manual on cognitive behavioural therapy cast in the form of a novel. You can certainly learn a lot about the therapeutic process from the book and much of it rings very true.
But there is emotional engagement, though only in the subplot, which concerns a forbidden love which wracks the psychologist and almost derails him emotionally. Sadly, the general 'arms-length' sense in the writing kept me from caring deeply about the outcome, which was a shame.
But I've still given the book four stars because it is well written, if a little stiff and mannered in places, and the development and narrative thrust kept me interested and wanting to read to the end. Ultimately, an enjoyable read.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not the best of psychologically themed novels
But a decent enough read, the pace and style of writing I found to be agreeable without being pacey like a thriller, there is not a lot of suspense and the plot was a little... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lark
well written psychological portraits
this is a strange but surprisingly good novel, clearly written with inside knowledge of the psychiatrist's chair, creating vivid psychological portraits of the therapist and his... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Angus Jenkinson
Entertaining and thought-provoking
This book comes close to doing for Psychology what Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy did for Philosophy. Read more
Published 8 months ago by N. Gratton
Highly readable foray into the human psyche
In this very original & well written novel, we find out what a psychologist does, & the theory behind psychology through his classroom lectures & his sessions with his clients,... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. K. Cross
Thoughtful take on the human mind
In the week that the brilliant In Treatment - Complete HBO Season 2 [DVD] returns to UK TV screens, it felt only fitting that I finished this book. Read more
Published 13 months ago by R. A. Mansfield
You will need more than a passing interest in psychology
This book is written using an interesting style which was uncomfortable to read as there seems to be no way to get close to any of the characters - we don't even know the... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Janie U
'In Treatment' in a novel ...
If you enjoyed the TV series 'In Treatment', as I did, then you will probably enjoy this novel. Existing somewhere between a work of fiction and a beginner's guide to psychology... Read more
Published 13 months ago by P. Millar
A novel novel!
I loved this book. I have no experience of psychology or psychologists so had no particular expectations. Read more
Published 13 months ago by hiljean
You can learn a lot about psychology
Novels that try to lecture you, in the guise of others' conversations, are often heavy-handed. This one's great. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mrs. R.
The Good Psychologist
Is the title a challenging contradiction in terms? Is it a reference to the protagonist, whom the author regards as a good man who has chosen to be a psychologist? Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ragnar
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
