Vulnerability

The author uses the theme of vulnerability to demonstrate how opening up ourselves to others is a crucial part of growth. Gottlieb reinforces this idea through her sessions with patients. Through their personal confessions, dreams, anecdotes, and stories, we come to know and care for them. Similarly, Gottlieb is not afraid to open up about her own life. By taking us back to Hollywood, medical school, and the training process for being a licensed therapist, by showing us her mistakes, she demonstrates her humanity. She destabilizes the notion of public/private and turns the image of the stoic, objective analyst on its head. She demonstrates how therapists like her and Wendell come to work every day with their own sets of longings, vulnerabilities, illusions, and fears. Therapists are not machines. They are humans too. Gottlieb uses honesty, humor, and openness to draw us in as readers and reveal...