Maybe You Should Talk to Someone - Lori Gottlieb

⭐ 9.5/10

(Originally written by Magdalene)

I had high expectations of this book because of all the hype, but I liked this book even more than I expected to. The author is a therapist, but when the man she expected to marry breaks up with her out of the blue, she feels so angry and undone that she decides to see a therapist herself. This book is about her year of therapy, as she describes her therapy sessions with Wendell, plus four of her own patients, using these experiences to explore therapy itself, understand herself better, and discuss humanity overall.

I love therapy and going to therapy and also learning about psychology, so it's no surprise I loved this. It has a great balance of telling stories and information about therapy, techniques, and how brains work. It's a fairly long book, but the chapters are all pretty short, which really makes it feel like the book just zooms by. Plus I was quite invested in her and her patients' lives, so I was always eager to read more.

The chapters skip around in time a bit and from person to person, but I never felt like it lacked cohesiveness. Just reading the book felt like I had a few therapy sessions, and for free! Some of her patients have pretty heart-breaking lives, so be prepared to shed some tears if you read it, but overall it's a hopeful and uplifting book. The only reason it's not a full 10 from me is because it seemed to me like there were a couple blind spots. She never addresses the inaccessibility of therapy, especially in the US, for non-rich people, and so her book is full of only wealthy people, and pretty sure only white people too.