Brooklyn Zoo: The Education of a Psychotherapist by Darcy Lockman

Jul 29, 2012 Meaghan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, psychology, memoirs

I got this book free from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Excellent career memoir. Darcy Lockman notes that years in graduate school taught her how to be a scholar, but not how to be a therapist. For her training in that area she went through a grueling year-long internship, rotating through various fields of psychotherapy and meeting all the manner of wretched people. She was a psychoanalytically trained therapist accustomed to working with the relatively healthy, so seeing the people in forensic...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Cindy Knoke rated it 1 of 5 stars

I wish someone had helped this author put off writing this book until she got some more experience and insight. I feel like someone should have protected her from publishing this. She seems like a caring person, with good intentions, but remarkably naïve. I’m trying here. I did not dislike her. I’m not angry at her. I am just sort of chagrined by the whole thing. Maybe she just needs time and more experience before attempting this?

Here are some examples of statements that dismayed me:

Dr Wolfe, a...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Ali rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs, mental-health

I am having a hard time coming up with what I want to say about this book. I was really excited when I picked it up, mostly because Lockman receive her PhD at the same university where I earned my MSW, and I also interned for a year in a psychiatric hospital (although not Kings County, obviously).

That being said...wow, was I disappointed. The following review is going to consist of a large amount of venting, mostly because I disliked Lockman as a person. And I felt this long before the part whe...more I am having a hard time coming up with what I want to say about this book. I was really excited when I picked it up, mostly because Lockman receive her PhD at the same university where I earned my MSW, and I also interned for a year in a psychiatric hospital (although not Kings County, obviously).

That being said...wow, was I disappointed. The following review is going to consist of a large amount of venting, mostly because I disliked Lockman as a person. And I felt this long before the part where Lockman clearly states that she has no respect for the social work profession, and she uses them to make her feel better about herself. She clearly thinks she is above everything except her precious psychoanalytic orientation.

I don't know why she published this book. I understand she needed to process the experience, but then she should have kept it private. This book does not put her in a good light; it makes her appear professionally inept, and I can't imagine anyone would want to go to her for private therapy after reading this book. For her sake, I hope that she only has white, upper middle-class clients with attachment issues, because that's pretty much all she can handle. Anything related to psychosis or DSM criteria is completely beyond her. And I understand that she entered this internship when she was a young professional and just starting, but she stated repeatedly she has no desire to learn anything beyond what she already knows. Her feeble attempt to be open to CBT was laughable, and she clearly thinks it is a useless practice. How anyone can be so pigeon-holed into a single orientation is beyond me. I might be a lowly social worker who she thinks shouldn't be doing clinical work, but at least I understand different orientations and can confidently use them with different clients as needed.

Also, at least I didn't spend my year at my inpatient psychiatric internship belittling everything and acting like I was too good to be there. Did I complain? Yes. Did I get immensely frustrated at the bureaucracy of the hospital and the way things were run? Of course. But there is so much to learn if you want to...and she clearly didn't. She was in that rotation for how many short weeks? Twenty? And she complained about how run down she was and how it completely beat her up. Yes, it's exhausting, often thankless work. But she blatantly admits to giving up on patients after just a few times of working together, her group sessions are weak attempts that fizzle after a few minutes, and she just clearly resents having to be there. So why she listed it as her second choice is beyond me. She thought herself better than the patients, her peers, her supervisors, and pretty much everyone she came into contact with. I'm glad her supervisors called her out on that. She has such an air of entitlement that seems ludicrous to me. She ignores an invitation to meet her supervisor before the official start of her internship, she repeatedly asks to cancel supervision simply because her client didn't show up (that's not all supervision can be used for), she refuses to adjust her way of thinking to meet the demands of the environment, and yet she sees confused when she is told no one likes her. Interesting.

This book was an immense letdown. It is not a portrayal of the frustrations of being a clinician in a system that truly does need reform. It does not inspire thought or call for change. Rather, it is a whiny journal chronicling a year of this woman's misery that she clearly wrote for her own needs. (Questionable ethics, by the way...). Which, actually, fits with her psychoanalytic orientation, which is best for people interested in indulging their need to talk about themselves at great length for long periods of time with no goal or end result. Yes, psychoanalysis is a useful perspective and can be crucial for the therapeutic process. However, it is not the be all, end all of therapy, and I'm sorry she doesn't recognized that.

I respect psychologists. I agree that therapy/clinicians in general are losing out to the medical model and consequently patients are suffering. We are over-medicating and discharging patients without actually helping them. Too bad Lockman doesn't write from this perspective and the drastic need for reform, that this book claims she does.

Everyone who picks up this book will become dumber for having read it. I award her no points, and may God have mercy on her soul.
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Apr 11, 2013 Kim rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-another-day

I was really excited to read this since I love reading nonfiction about psychology and its history. However, I agree with many of the comments so far that it is sounding a bit like s personal journal lacking much thoughtfulness and responsibility to her profession.

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Mar 08, 2013 Sylvie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Another reader made the following comment:
"...and I can't imagine anyone would want to go to her for private therapy after reading this book"
I could not agree more

Darcy Lockman seems to lack serious base on psychology theory her patients would assume she has, barely aware of the various diseases or thought processes issues her patient are experiencing though working on her last year for a PhD. Her ignorance of psychology theory is declared but she seems to judge her analysis knowledge as suffic...more Another reader made the following comment:
"...and I can't imagine anyone would want to go to her for private therapy after reading this book"
I could not agree more

Darcy Lockman seems to lack serious base on psychology theory her patients would assume she has, barely aware of the various diseases or thought processes issues her patient are experiencing though working on her last year for a PhD. Her ignorance of psychology theory is declared but she seems to judge her analysis knowledge as sufficient for the psychoanalytic work she deems acceptable, without concern on improving in the vast areas of psychology she admits not having been exposed to after all these years of study. i'm unsure if it signals her own incompetence or a general failure of the US education system. For our sake I hope it's the former

Here are a few extracts I read with dismay
"I vaguely remembered that this was the hard tack one was supposed to take with an addict, but I'd never worked with any." - a Ph.D in psychology and she never worked with addicts before her last year of internship; this is surprising

"...schizoaffective disorder. I had heard of this but barely knew what it was. The diagnostic came from the Diagnostic and Stastistical Manual, the DSM, which we had not paid much mind to in graduate school... The DSM was only a book of lists that I might have sat down and read with some benefits" - this actually sound like a critical book for anyone studying psychology, similar to database data modeling concepts to a database administrator. Yes I'm sure she might have benefitted from reading it.. And her patients too I believe.

It seemed to me ms. Lockman had a complaisant attitude towards her lack of knowledge and I'm not sure how she could have been granted a Ph.D which is supposed to be earned by one advancing knowledge in their field of study.

Another time she expresses the thought:
"He was better groomed than any of the other patients I'd seen...Hope fluttered familiar; maybe there was nothing wrong with this one" - what kind of psychoanalyst hope for a normal patient in the middle of an hospital emergency psychiatry crisis center?

The book itself is well written, lively and ms. Lockman introduces us well, neophytes, to the field of psychology, psychiatrists, behavioral treatments and psychiatric hospitals. Not being in the medical field the book was interesting and the stories made all the more real by good dialogues. Evidently Ms Lockman is a writer... A profession she might as well chose to stick with and would suit her better than psychology, I believe Her candor does her honor but her self-centered approach makes you grit your teeth after a while

All in all, a good book to get an understanding of the psychology treatment world and made interesting to read by its animated prose so I'll give it a 2 stars(less)

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Aug 23, 2012 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreads-giveaways, psychology

**I originally rated this book 4 stars but as time has passed, I realize more and more that this is the book I'm comparing other psychology-themed books to. I think it Ninja-ed my brain. As time separates me from it, I find myself regretting that only have it 4 stars and so I return, a little more than a month later, to update my rating to 5 stars.*

Fascinating. Darcy Lockman provides a behind-the-scenes look at the way mental illness is treated in a medical setting as well as both sides of the C...more

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Oct 26, 2012 Rob Freund rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rating: 4/5 - excellent writing, interesting perspectives, applicability of commiseration amongst budding professionals.

This semester marks my last round of classes before I enter the practicum phase of my program. In layman's terms, that means that starting in January 2013, I'll be actually sitting down with people and helping them work through their problems. Few things in my life have ever been so simultaneously exciting and terrifying. It's a very "beginning therapist" fear to have, that you...more Rating: 4/5 - excellent writing, interesting perspectives, applicability of commiseration amongst budding professionals.

This semester marks my last round of classes before I enter the practicum phase of my program. In layman's terms, that means that starting in January 2013, I'll be actually sitting down with people and helping them work through their problems. Few things in my life have ever been so simultaneously exciting and terrifying. It's a very "beginning therapist" fear to have, that you won't be effective, that you don't know enough, that you're going to totally ruin someone's life because you're not ready. As much as my mind knows this, and knows it well, pretty much all of the rest of me is just resonating with this gut-wrenching counselor based impostor complex. This won't pass, I know, until I am actually in the thick of it and can put my (potentially lack of) skills to work.

In the meantime, the best that I can do is try to assuage my anxieties by a) looking for a practicum site and b) reading about other people's experiences; knowing that they came out the other side and survived. Which, leads me to my most recent read, Brooklyn Zoo by Darcy Lockman.

Brooklyn Zoo is the auto-biographical account of Lockman's year-long internship at Kings County Hospital in New York City. Lockman got her degree in journalism before returning to school to get a degree in Clinical Psychology; this means that she has a brilliant, easy to read writing style. It's been a long time since I've been able to read through (and remember) a 300 page book in a single day, but Brooklyn Zoo has reset the calendar on "Days since..."

Lockman comes from the psychoanalytic (a.k.a quasi/neo-Freudian) perspective of psychology, so while I was expecting a lot of "Oh, yes, I know that" moments throughout the book, there were a lot more of "Really? That's what they call it?" moments instead. There were also a lot of times when Lockman described a case that seemed kind of hopeless and I would catch myself thinking, "Well, if you implemented X theory maybe you could address Y and it wouldn't be so hopeless?" (The bold assuredness of the naive practitioner...) Still though, I actually dropped my jaw when the author wasn't terribly familiar or comfortable with the DSM-IV-TR; to her it was an abstract categorization system, and neither helpful nor terribly useful. As a student in a mental-health counseling program, DSM-IV-TR is kind of a bread-and-butter staple. We use it to diagnose and base our treatment strategies on the personality and pathology dynamics inherent to each thing. This is all irrelevant to the review, but I found the discrepancy in trainings and theoretical background to be really interesting.
At any rate, this is an account not to be passed up (regardless of theory). The hospital Lockman worked with is/was a notoriously poorly managed site, and it shone through in her descriptions of the patients, the inadequate supervision, and the predominantly self-directed development of the author. I felt terrible for her as she craved a supervisor with whom she could actually discuss her internal struggles. I also cringed with her as I read about the various kinds of patients she dealt with; bipolar, schizophrenics, depressives, pedophiles - the list goes on and on. I applaud her honesty in feeling disgusted, or afraid, or frustrated with any given client. I applaud her all the more for trying to work through those feelings.

The reader has the opportunity to follow Lockman through her year-long experience and rotations through forensic evaluations, psych-ER, outpatient, inpatient (i.e. ward) and hospital consultations. It's positively riveting, whether your'e a mental health professional or not. If you just want a peek into this kind of life, Brooklyn Zoo is a revealing, if not extreme, glimpse. If you want to read into some of the scandals of this profession, then this book gives you more than an eyeful.
It's a bit like sitting down with the author over a cup of coffee and listening to her recount her war stories. One has to wonder if her experiences are typical to the profession or if the beaurocratic controversies make it unique from other internship experiences. To a certain degree, I think it is largely universal; the institutional policies, the professional prejudices (between doctors and psychiatrists, psychiatrists and psychologists, psychologists and therapists/social workers), the pathologies encountered; all these things, in one form or another, await the hopeful therapist and are presented in purity.

Surely too, the emotional journey that Lockman takes is something that any helping professional can empathize with while starting off in their field. I like that the author drives home one basic message: that because she wanted to help people, this experience, in all of it's fumbles and frustrations made her a better psychologist. For a budding counselor that's a valuable take-home. It gives me some hope that regardless of where I intern and who I see, I will come out of all this a better therapist.(less)

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Sep 19, 2012 Jarl Anderson rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a very interesting read if you are involved in therapy and/or abnormal psychology (I am). I'm not sure if this book would appeal to anyone outside of the realm of psychology. Lockman's writing style was difficult for me to read at times, I found myself going over passages several times to parse out what she was actually trying to say. I think this is because she seems to be communicating in a conversational style, so reading it flat without any emphasis is difficult sometimes.

In terms of...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-in-2012

“Brooklyn Zoo” is the story of the internship year Lockwood completed to earn her PhD in psychology. Apparently Kings County Hospital’s G building is a rough and tumble place serving uninsured homeless people along with others down on their luck. No one wants to be there. The year Lockwood was there things sound particularly raucous. She received little teaching and less supervision. She and her fellow interns were largely on their own relying on their past clinical experience and what they’d le...more “Brooklyn Zoo” is the story of the internship year Lockwood completed to earn her PhD in psychology. Apparently Kings County Hospital’s G building is a rough and tumble place serving uninsured homeless people along with others down on their luck. No one wants to be there. The year Lockwood was there things sound particularly raucous. She received little teaching and less supervision. She and her fellow interns were largely on their own relying on their past clinical experience and what they’d learned in school. A long standing feud was in play with the medical residents and the PhD’s. Lockwood portrays the doctors as pill pushers with little respect for the patient’s need to look at underlying causes of their neuroses or psychoses. A large part of her training seemed to be maneuvering around this established norm rather than working with her fellow students and staff though she did find some sympathetic residents who she exchanged information with.

Lockwood’s account is sometimes funny but mostly it’s frustrating and tragic for the patients and for her and her fellow psych interns. Their hands were mostly tied. It was more an endurance test rather than one of learning unless you count the skill of learning to deal with bureaucracy. Lots of the patients were so profoundly ill and had been for so long with so little access to resources that there was almost nothing that could be done for them other than try and find them living accommodations and appropriate medication. Often they couldn’t articulate their life stories or if they could those stories were unbelievably tragic. They seemed like people society threw away. Lockwood is at her most eloquent when she discusses her personal emotional reactions to her patients and how she processed through those reactions by looking at her personal pathology….the pathology we all have to a greater or lesser degree. Her advantage was she actively sought self knowledge and used it to not only to heal herself but to effect changes in her patients. I admire her honesty.
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May 18, 2012 Jaime rated it 1 of 5 stars

I literally forced myself to finish this. There were so many things I disliked about it and even found myself disliking the author. Having an advanced degree in clinical psychology myself, I was stunned when she admitted that as an intern - after 4 years of classroom work and practica - she had never read the DSM, nor had her school taught it or focused on it. Her training was primarily psychoanalytical in theory, yet she chose a hospital setting as one of her top intern placements - and is surp...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Moira Russell rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebook, on-the-kindle, 2012-50-new-books-challenge

Written in a dry, analytical, almost dull style, this memoir focuses on airing many grievances about past supervisors and there's no indication she ever really emotionally connected with the patients she treated in training. The only time this books perks up is about halfway through when there's a detailed, vivid, exciting description of working in the psychiatric ER ward with a gifted doctor who's been on the job fifteen years. The author is almost painfully psychoanalytic to the point of descr...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Khaya rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks, memoirs, professionallit

Mmmrrmmmpppphhhh -- wrote a long and thoughtful review of this book, now lost in cyberspace due to an electrical short. Sigh. I will try to reconstruct, but will probably end up shortening and simplifying. Maybe that's a good thing.

When I read "Orange is the New Black," I wondered whether approaching a memoir with a high degree of curiosity about an experience is a set-up for disappointment, as reading about the mundane details can end up seeming rather boring and banal. In this case too, I thin...more Mmmrrmmmpppphhhh -- wrote a long and thoughtful review of this book, now lost in cyberspace due to an electrical short. Sigh. I will try to reconstruct, but will probably end up shortening and simplifying. Maybe that's a good thing.

When I read "Orange is the New Black," I wondered whether approaching a memoir with a high degree of curiosity about an experience is a set-up for disappointment, as reading about the mundane details can end up seeming rather boring and banal. In this case too, I think I went in with inflated expectations as I was perhaps overeager to read about someone else's doctoral internship in psychology and to compare notes.

There were definitely some parallels between Darcy's experiences and mine. Darcy and I both received psychodynamic training in graduate school (although she felt decidedly more positive about hers than I felt about mine), only to discover that this failed to prepare us for working with full-blown psychosis in an inpatient setting. Darcy, however, experienced other frustrations as well. Her supervisors not only failed to provide her with the guidance she sought but actually told her straight out that they disliked her (in my field, the distinction between evaluating someone professionally and evaluating them personally can get blurred). She felt unappreciated as a lowly psychology intern in a setting where interventions were largely medication-driven and psychiatry residents ruled the roost. And worst of all, her placement was so poorly run that it was later written up for, among other things, failing to provide appropriate clinical leadership which may validate some of Darcy's difficulties with her supervisors. Although some reviewers snark, perhaps accurately, that Darcy's own contributions to her problems remain unacknowledged by her, clearly the situation itself was far from ideal.

While I enjoyed reading about Darcy's experiences and reminiscing a bit about my own, somehow this memoir was not as affecting for me as I hoped it would be. Perhaps some of the problem was that Darcy spent a great deal of time describing the various patients she met which somehow felt repetitive although it really should have been more interesting. Meanwhile, when Darcy finally has the blow-up with her supervisors, it almost appears to come out of nowhere -- a little foreshadowing and a few dropped hints but not much actual build-up or development.

Was the whole thing perhaps too superficially rendered? Or were my expectations unrealistic? I'm not sure, so I think I'll just give it a 3 and call it a day. It was certainly an interesting read for me, even if Darcy wasn't the long lost twin I had hoped to find.(less)

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Jun 18, 2012 Squirrel Circus rated it 2 of 5 stars

Lockman can write. She was a successful magazine journalist. That part she’s got covered. But, a psychotherapist?

She chose to do her intern year at Brooklyn’s Kings County Hospital. WHY? Her fiance interns at prestigious Columbia-Presbyterian. I was forced to conclude that she’s either masochistic or not too bright or BOTH.

Her experience (as she tells it) is one depressing moment after another. Her supervisors are half-assed, the facilty is nasty (AND under federal investigation), the focus is...more

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May 22, 2012 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: goodreads-arc

I received this ARC through a goodreads giveaway, and I am very glad that I did. I am currently a student in the same field as the author, and I was able to follow along with her as she struggled through her internship. It was especially encouraging to watch her go from an unsure student to one with more confidence.

There has been one negative review of this book that I would like to address. Although I do wonder about the author not being taught about the DSM beforehand, I can say that in the pr...more

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May 03, 2013 Joakim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, psychology, mind, body, health

I'll just assume Darcy's memoir is about what she actually went through as a victim of educational system, and not her life as a scholar going after competency because no accounts of her effort was shown. It'd be hard for me to respect psychologists if it was the other way around because no effort was made to actually learn about mental illness, or to care for the mentally ill. Maybe she should write a companion memoir of what she had learned during her internship?

For me the most memorable parts...more

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Jul 16, 2012 Kurt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kurt by: Amazon Vine

This memoir should be required reading for anyone with a connection to the field of psychology. Dr. Lockman shares stories from her intern year in pursuit of a doctorate in psychology, and along the way she describes serious weaknesses in the way psychology (specifically as it relates to talk therapy, whether or not medications are involved) is represented in a hospital context. Dr. Lockman's background in journalism allows her to choose the most important details to tell her stories, and her ba...more This memoir should be required reading for anyone with a connection to the field of psychology. Dr. Lockman shares stories from her intern year in pursuit of a doctorate in psychology, and along the way she describes serious weaknesses in the way psychology (specifically as it relates to talk therapy, whether or not medications are involved) is represented in a hospital context. Dr. Lockman's background in journalism allows her to choose the most important details to tell her stories, and her background in psychotherapy moves her to share humbling personal responses to the challenges of her internship.

I approached this book as someone pretty familiar with psychiatry. My brother is a psychiatrist, I've seen a psychiatrist in the past, and my work as a public defender brings me into close contact with many people who take medication for mental health problems. When it comes to psychology as pursued by Dr. Lockman, though, I realized quickly that I was reading about a fascinating new world. Parts of it were familiar (I love the section about forensic psychology, since I work with forensic psychologists frequently and haven't really considered their perspectives often enough), but most was new for me.

Parts of this book will likely frustrate the reader. Dr. Lockman presents herself as (occasionally) an astoundingly bad employee (in any field, really, when your future boss asks to meet you before your first day of orientation, the correct response is never, "But you're all the way across town!" If you do respond this way, though, you should be ready for a difficult first few weeks on the job). She also comes across as whiny at times when frustrated by the way a fast-paced hospital doesn't carve out space for long-term talk therapy. I think these frustrations speak to Dr. Lockman's skill as an author, though. I suspect that Dr. Lockman now knows exactly how unprepared she was for her task, and while she never quite states that openly, she also doesn't engage in defensive justifications for her bad decisions and powerless grumbling. Her interest is sharing an honest look into the mind and heart of an actual intern, and that means presenting the good with the bad.

At the end of the book, I am not convinced that hospitals need to do more to accommodate long-term psychotherapy (beyond providing referrals for patients as they leave). I respect Dr. Lockman's arguments, though, and I love the incident she shares near the end of the book, where a busy psychiatrist offers a prescription for medication that has absolutely nothing to do with the psychology of why a rape victim becomes promiscuous - and Dr. Lockman, with her background in psychology, steps in to provide real hope and understanding to the patient. It's the most beautiful of many beautiful scenes in this book, and an example of why this memoir is so valuable, no matter the reader's ultimate opinion on Dr. Lockman's systemic arguments.

(I received my copy for free from the Amazon Vine program)(less)

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Jul 13, 2012 Cynthia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Ultimately I was disappointed with this book for many of the same reasons other Goodreads reviewers have mentioned. I felt the author had no idea what she was getting into with her internship, I thought her choice for her internship was an odd one (unless that was her best--and only--choice), she was completely hung up on her status as a psychologist rather than a psychiatrist, and she seemed to have an awful lot of baggage herself. The author expresses surprise when some of her supervisors don'...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Doubleday Books rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

“‘Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here’ might well be the words above the door of Kings County Hospital’s notorious G Building. Serial killer Son of Sam and rap legend Ol’ Dirty Bastard punched their tickets at this under-funded, over-crowded mental hospital; so does Darcy Lockman, a wet-behind-the-ears psych intern fresh out of graduate school. She can empathize with the human flotsam washed up on the outer edge of outer Brooklyn—the white folks get sent to Bellevue, in Manhattan—but more to the...more “‘Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here’ might well be the words above the door of Kings County Hospital’s notorious G Building. Serial killer Son of Sam and rap legend Ol’ Dirty Bastard punched their tickets at this under-funded, over-crowded mental hospital; so does Darcy Lockman, a wet-behind-the-ears psych intern fresh out of graduate school. She can empathize with the human flotsam washed up on the outer edge of outer Brooklyn—the white folks get sent to Bellevue, in Manhattan—but more to the point, she can write. Brooklyn Zoo is a sorrowful and fascinating portrait of the institutional underworld where criminality and mental illness co-exist, and patients find themselves at the mercy of a medical-penal complex ill-equipped to either cure or punish them.”
—Alex Beam, author of Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America’s Premier Mental Hospital

“Reading Brooklyn Zoo is like getting a nightly e-mail from your best friend as she explores the far side of the moon. I gasped at what she saw and alternately winced and cheered at her responses. A smart, delightful surprise of a book.”
—Susan Baur, author of The Dinosaur Man: Tales of Madness and Enchantment from the Back Ward

“Brooklyn Zoo takes us to places where very, very few of us would ever go—or want to go. This interesting memoir deals with situations which might be considered hopeless with great compassion and clarity. For so many of these people, mental illness is the least of their worries but the most of their handicaps. An insight therapist is at a huge disadvantage, and Lockman feels it deeply. She cares about people in a way that few of us dare.”
—Joanne Greenberg, author of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden

"Darcy Lockman left her journalism career to become a psychotherapist. Clearly a gifted writer, the decision could not have been easy. But she made it and stuck with it.... Brooklyn Zoo, to be released in July 2012, is expertly written: The prose flows, the pacing is even, and the structure is well crafted. As well, the content—the story—is utterly fascinating.... It is...an intelligently written, sobering look at what it takes to be a psychotherapist.... It’s the kind of book you don’t want to rush through; you want to dwell on each chapter, and meditate on Lockman’s experiences to get a fuller sense of what she saw. With a unique voice and a knack for painting verbal portraits, Lockman has delivered a rare gem."—Dan Berkowitz, Psych Central(less)

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Mar 18, 2013 Jennifer Ready rated it 2 of 5 stars

Very disappointing. I did finish it, which is why I gave it 2 stars, but it was hard work. The author is staggeringly ignorant of even basic elements of psychology, which a number of other reviewers have pointed out. She is also intolerably whiny, self-absorbed, and unwilling to take any initiative whatsoever. She blames others for the shortcomings of her experience, which was most likely difficult, but refuses to try even a little. Who gets an internship and then "declines" to meet with the sup...more

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Feb 15, 2013 Kali Lux rated it 4 of 5 stars

This author was so honest about her experience as her year interning at the poorly run Kings County Hospital on the outskirts of Brooklyn, that at times I cringed for her. I read this book quickly, as it was easy to devour her stories fast in order to find out what would happen next. Anyone who is interested in finding their own career in psychotherapy or how what you see on tv (police and hospital shows) actually plays out in the real world will appreciate this book.

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Dec 29, 2012 Carrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

An important look inside the mental health system in our country. If more people knew more about how fractured our mental health system is, they could no longer feign surprise when horrible events like those of the last few weeks happen.

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Jul 09, 2012 Kathy Schneider rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a wonderful memoir of a young graduate student's internship at a failing mental hospital. Her experiences are interesting and sometimes bizarre. The book kept me interested from beginning to end. I was actually quite disappointed when the book ended and there would be no more rotations for Darcy to share with us.
However, I don't think it's fair to say that this book explains how every therapist is got there. Every therapist is different. Any many opinion...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Karin rated it 2 of 5 stars

The material in this biography was interesting, but the author's attitude made it very hard for me to feel anything for her or her situation. Also, the title didn't seem quite right and that bugged me too.

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Jul 29, 2012 Joie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was so interesting. The insider view of the debate between the fields of pscyhology and pyschiatry and how that plays out in the provision of mental health services to society's most needy -fascinating.

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Apr 04, 2012 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: beautiful-non-fiction

Totally engrossing account of a thoughtful junior psychotherapist in one of the toughest places in America to practice. You will literally be unable to stop reading this book.

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Dec 30, 2012 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fic

Ugh. Thoroughly disgusted with the author and the thought that she'd make a good psychologist because she's empathetic WITH ALL HER PATIENTS. Frankly I found her to be lacking intelligence and a bore.

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Jul 30, 2012 Diane Lockward rated it 4 of 5 stars

A good read. Interesting look inside the hospital. I don't think, however, that I'd want to do therapy with a therapist who herself is so in need of therapy.

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Apr 29, 2013 Hope rated it 4 of 5 stars

An excellent and insightful description of the life of a psychologist... It intricately details the tension between psychology and psychiatry .. Fascinating in its descriptions.

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Aug 23, 2012 Aubrey rated it 1 of 5 stars

How does one make stories from an inner-city psych ER boring? I do not know, but Darcy Lockman does it.

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Sep 14, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads, nonfiction

I won an ARC of this book in a goodreads giveaway. I really tried to like this book but just couldn't. I actually almost stopped reading after the first two chapters because the author just had this air of superiority to her like working with the criminally insane was beneath her and she couldn't actually believe she had to do this to get her degree. I put it down for awhile and continued reading it got more interesting but the author was just annoying to me and came across as uncaring and not t...more

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title link	preview: Brooklyn Zoo: The Education of a Psychotherapist
avg rating	preview: Brooklyn Zoo: The Education of a Psychotherapist Goodreads rating: 3.09 (150 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13153448-brooklyn-zoo?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1331322408l/13153448.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13153448-brooklyn-zoo?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Brooklyn Zoo: The Education of a Psychotherapist by Darcy Lockman[/url]

Brooklyn Zoo: The Education of a Psychotherapist

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