This book starts at the beginning of psychotherapy with Freud. At that time, the treatment for mental issues was spoken therapy with a trained therapist so the patient could verbalize concerns and come to an understanding of his own self. The treatment for mental issues now has moved from spoken therapy, to a prescribed drug, completely missing psychotherapy.

When engaged in therapy as opposed to being prescribed a drug, a patient becomes more self-aware and is more empathetic with others around him giving him better treatment and a complete understanding of himself. As a result of moving to drugs for treatment, the self-awareness and empathy is lessened and as a result, the quality of treatment is declining. The drug treatment seems to me to be a band-aid, and not a fix.

This book is very well documented - probably listing more sources that I have seen in quite some time. It is eye opening to me that drugs are taking out the human aspect of treatment and how much power the drug companies and insurance companies can control the quality of our health. ( )

I have been in therapy most of my adult life. Without the treatment and care of my therapist, I don't know where I would be. I have had a couple shitty ones though that made me think therapy is bullshit. I am glad I stuck through it until I found someone that truly cares. This book is great. ( )

I was looking forward to wining the book "Saving Talk Therapy" on LibraryThing, as I knew that health insurers do not want to pay for talk therapy, at least mine don't. Instead I got a poorly written history of talk therapy, which ignored Jung and Adler, and other practitioners and theoreticians, a baseless statement that democracy depends on Fruedian therapy, and odd quotations.No real theory, nor evidence. I was not impressed. I am not surprised that no libraries on WorldCat have the book. ( )

This book highlights the rise and fall of traditional talk therapy. The first two chapters go over the beginnings of psychotherapy, starting with Sigmund Freud and moving through the various therapists after him and their contributions to the field. These chapters, I thought, were very interesting, as they show how dynamic the field is and how many changes were made throughout its history, steadily getting more effective in its methods.

The next two chapters, three and four, go over the rise of the first anti-depressants, the most famous being Prozac starting in the 1980's, and the introduction of more scientifically measurable treatment methods like cognitive behavioral therapy (C.B.T.). The author describes how the first anti-depressants like Prozac and Xanax exploded onto the scene, apparently curing depression in people left and right, and making quite a lot of money in the process. This leads up to the current situation in America, with most people with depression, or depressive-like symptoms, on some sort of medication. On top of this, more scientifically built therapies that cut down on the more personal face-to-face interactions, like cognitive behavioral therapy (C.B.T.) or acceptance and commitment therapy (A.C.T.), are introduced to quickly and efficiently reduce therapy visits and cure the patient.

The fifth chapter goes over how new therapists are being trained within the new realm of therapies that include the methods mentioned above, and how the traditional trust-building of therapist and patient is being played-down. While the last three chapters explain the importance of real talk therapy, with examples from the author's own experiences, along with small explanations and the importance on building a rapport with their patient(s) to help the healing process, the growth of the therapist's expertise and wisdom, and the importance of natural human connections.

Overall, I did like this book. The author certainly makes his case for making connections with patients through a long, healing dialogue. To get people to speak about their innermost thoughts, feeling, ideas, and so on, to really examine what is bothering them and why. As someone who has went through therapy, I can attest to this method. To be able to talk to someone with a non-judgmental and open point-of-view who can help you re-frame your experiences, is very important for the sorting-out of your mind and life.

I did have a few issues with some of the content, though, which by themselves aren't too bad except that I'm seeing them as all as a string of problems connected as one big one. So here goes...

The author likes to point out how good of a therapist he is, which in itself is not totally a bad thing, except that he did it enough times for me to take real notice. This was also coupled with the amount of times he brings up the subject of money and how much the therapist should be paid.
A therapist is engaging in a very difficult procedure and should be paid for it, I totally get that, no question, and he brings this up at the end of the book. It's just that he is also seems very much against the "scientifically measurable" therapies like C.B.T., for example. He says that they are there to get the patient fixed asap and has statistical significance so that those methods can be perfected and the therapist trained accordingly. All this leading to less human connection and less billable time for the therapist. I do agree with the genuine human connection, that connection with my therapist helped immeasurably and I see his point, what I don't agree with is his apparent anti-science stance he makes from time to time. One therapy he brought up is M.B.S.R., or mindfulness based stress reduction, which is a highly successful (and scientifically measurable) therapy started in 1979 by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. Though I haven't personally engaged in this therapy, if you read enough books on the psychology of stress and/or trauma you will come across this method, and it is a very highly recommended method which has helped many people. My therapist had me work with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), along with talking, and the ACT methods helped me quite a lot. I'm not quite sure why these "quick fix" therapies are so bad, they're just (in my opinion) different perspectives which, depending on the patient, help them get to the core of their problem. Sure, one person should use ACT and not CBT, or CBT and not MBSR, and so on, but they are there to help the patient sort out their issues. Granted, he does mention how some therapists do use the science-based methods along with talk therapy, mixing them in and not just using them exclusively, and that's great. But the author treats them as if they are just another form of medication.

Maybe it's just me, but in his tone of writing in this string of issues I noticed, they connect together to produce a profile of a guy who is self-promoting himself a bit too much and who wants to get paid a lot and frequently. Less pills, less "scientifically based" methods, and more billable in-the-chair time with him. I could be COMPLETELY off the mark here, but these things rose up as I was reading and I thought I would voice them out and see if anyone saw this too.

OKAY, THAT BEING SAID...

Would I recommend this book? If you are interested in mental health care, YES, I would definitely recommend this. Yes, I wrote a rather long rant about that narrative I saw running through the book, and I apologize for the length, but ignoring all that, the book is really interesting. I do agree with most of what Dr. Gnaulati talks about: we are a very social, collective species that needs that natural, living connection between our fellow human beings, and talking is a major part of that connection. We in Western culture have become more and more fragmented from each other, and having trusting, fulfilling relationships helps balance ourselves out. Therapy should not be made up of pills and forms to fill out, it needs to be a honest, open, and trusting dialogue.

Thanks. ( )

Dr Gnaulati's work is an accessible overview of the contemporary psychoanalytic industry. He traces the roots of humanistic psychology from Freud to May and Rogers, documenting the power of building relationships in this era of short-term skill building interventions. For most of the book we learn about the shortcomings of medicalized, insurer-approved, researcher-friendly counseling approaches. Then we are provided with a alternative vision of psychotherapy that focuses on long-term personal growth as a goal in itself. The elements involved in successful personal growth counseling from a humanistic perspective are discussed to round out the book. As a professional counselor I found merit in many of the points made by Dr Gnaulati. Saving Talk Therapy is for the general public as well as the specialist who wants to understand how modern psychotherapy became standardized and who desire an effective alternative.