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Dr. Harper Therapy #1

I'm a Therapist, and My Patient is Going to be the Next School Shooter: 6 Patient Files That Will Keep You Up At Night

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I'm a therapist, and I work with the most dangerous patients.

I've seen it all... A boy who planned to be the next school shooter. A patient with OCD whose loved ones really did suffer every time he missed a ritual. A choir boy who claimed he was being molested -- not by a priest -- but by God Himself. A patient with PTSD who gave me nightmares. A husband and wife who accused each other of abuse, and only one of them was telling the truth.

And how could I ever forget, Patient #220.

The problem is, my patients have a habit of dying. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the common denominator. Or maybe that's just the cost of taking on exceptionally broken clients.

Either way, I'll never stop trying to help.

120 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 27, 2019

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About the author

Dr. Harper

6 books333 followers
Dr. Harper is a fictional character. The stories, the books, and their website are fictional. The author is not a mental health professional.

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5 stars
4,320 (30%)
4 stars
3,767 (26%)
3 stars
3,597 (25%)
2 stars
1,683 (11%)
1 star
935 (6%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,712 reviews
Profile Image for Misty.
296 reviews156 followers
February 15, 2019
There just are no words to convey the depth of my confusion relative to the stellar ratings on this book. The premise is that Dr. Harper has compiled files of six “broken” patients he has treated—and he is allowing readers a peek at what’s inside. The files run the gamut from disturbing to creepy to flat out ridiculous. I expected to see traditional files, with the doodles and notes that Harper mentions at the start, but they were nonexistent. Perhaps it all circles back to formatting issues with the Kindle, but this book is simply a series of six first person narratives, with a paragraph or two added to the end of each as semi-footnotes. Every “file” is almost a short story, without the interesting “stuff”, like, you know, a purpose or even a plot. What they also have in common, besides being files of Harper’s patients, is that the stories all demonstrate Harper’s inadequacies as a therapist. In every single case he also documents his own behaviors, and they, without exception, prove to be unethical, unprofessional and possible examples of malpractice. I didn’t find Harper’s stories to be necessarily “bad”, nor were they entertaining or even funny. I’m not sure what Harper WANTED this to be, as his genre-confusion was evident in the inclusion of a school shooting at the beginning bookended by attempts at humor and social satire that falls flat. I am left shaking my head and hoping those with more insight can share the redeeming qualities I so obviously missed. Two stars because at least he wrote in complete sentences.
Profile Image for Katharine Johnson.
6 reviews2 followers
December 3, 2019
I nearly abandonned this knock-off creepypasta several times. Not only is the writing childish and better suited for a reddit forum, but the content was completely ridiculous. Each "patient file" is filled with unethical, illegal, and irrational actions and crappy dialogue. I finished the story in hopes of finding a redeeming quality, but I was left with disappointment and irritation.

Edit: I’m aware it began as a CreepyPasta/ reddit forum. I just believe it should have stayed there and it made for an unfulfilling book.
9 reviews55 followers
April 19, 2019
Warning: This Book Is Fiction

I bought this ebook hoping for interesting files from a therapist’s casebook. Nope. It’s an amateurish novel that grows less believable with every page. Worse, the author seems to be offering their expertise as a counselor via a website, which I refuse to link.

Also, the therapist character is dangerously incompetent as well as unethical. Following your clients to spy on them, imprisoning one and forcing them into treatment, hiring another client as an assistant— none of these are recommended behaviors for a professional therapist.
July 3, 2020
Of course, this has little to do with anything remotely psychological. Still, an unusual series to flip through.

Q:
... my patients have a habit of dying. Alex isn’t the first, and I’m worried he won’t be the last. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the common denominator. Or maybe that’s just the cost of taking on exceptionally broken clients. (c)
Q:
I seriously think they’re just going to keep stabbing each other indefinitely. (c)
Q:
So… a patient who thinks he’s a… cow… has been eating your… grass. ...
“This is Officer Donahue, requesting backup for the cow situation.” (c)
Profile Image for Anna Ortung.
16 reviews1 follower
February 4, 2019
So here’s the thing: I am absolutely not at all interested in horror, especially not things like psychological horrors/thrillers.
But I do have a Reddit and I am subscribed to r/nosleep, which previously I hadn’t read much of at all. Then a couple months ago, I saw a post titled “I’m a therapist, and my patient is going to be the next school shooter.” In a few paragraphs, I was hooked. I’ve read every single story Dr. Harper has posted as soon as possible over the last 2 months and I would recommend this series to everyone. Even if you don’t have money to buy the actual book, the stories were all posted originally on reddit. Read them now, thank me later.
Profile Image for Crystal.
129 reviews27 followers
July 14, 2019
I thought it was pretty good...

The first half being better than the second in my opinion just because it seemed more realistic

Overall though an entertaining breezy read if you like psych horror, just be mindful it is a work of fiction and reads as such
Profile Image for Jinger Lowe.
11 reviews
May 29, 2019
“Jesus Christ. I sounded like a fucking middle schooler.”

You sounded like a middle schooler, not just in that God-awful section, but as well as throughout the entire book. I’m pretty sure I have read fanfiction more believable than this book.

I’m really bummed because I bought this book believing it to be true stories told from an actual therapist and I am now thoroughly disappointed to find out that I had been poorly misled.

And the worst part is that it wasn’t even interesting enough to keep reading. Before you write a book and try to pass it off as “real” I would suggest doing some research, maybe attending a real therapy session, or something to make it at least somewhat believable.
Profile Image for Ashley Lopez.
3 reviews3 followers
May 16, 2019
Loved it

Such a good read! Finished it in a few hours, can't wait to read more from Dr. Harper in the future.
1 review
February 20, 2019
Disappointed.

1 star The story line had the potential to be interesting, instead the book comes across as silly and juvenile
Profile Image for Lisa.
85 reviews1 follower
May 27, 2019
Wow. That was terribly written. If I had a dollar for every time this narrator bit his lip... egad. EL James’s “inner goddess” would be proud. 🙄

Save yourself the time and energy and skip this one.
Profile Image for Rachel.
288 reviews8 followers
September 9, 2021
2.75/5
*I'm not going to give you the 'what this book is about' blurb - you can read that for yourself.

1. As a psychology major this book was seriously problematic.
2. As someone who enjoys reading and problematic situations this was relatively entertaining, yet I just couldn't get over how this would NEVER happen.
3. Except people are nuts (as the last 2 years have proven) so I guess I can't say it's beyond the realm of possibility. Psychologists are not perfect or beyond fault, so while improbable, it's not impossible.
4. I think I would have liked this story much more if written in a different format. This just felt a little disjointed and abbreviated. The plot has a lot of potential if written differently.
5. Am I mad I read this? No. Will I continue to read the Dr. Harper Therapy Books? Also No.
Profile Image for Duncan Ralston.
Author 50 books1,161 followers
March 14, 2020
Plenty of over-the-top contrivances but a real pageturner. I love true case files books so this fictional one kept me intrigued. Blew through it in a couple of days.
Profile Image for Sea Caummisar.
Author 75 books440 followers
December 25, 2020
3.5 stars rounded up to 4. These stories are interesting (to say the least). A couple of the patients bored me.... One story about OCD was really great. A fictional, unethical therapist makes a great main character. Here's my problem with this book..in the end, the author tries to pull all the stories together, and it quite frankly didn't make much sense to me. At face value, it's fine, but when I thought about it, it made my head hurt. I know the author says the stories are in no particular order. I guess I need more than that. Was there only one Noah? What was his timeframe of being in the stories? And if the
Profile Image for Jenny.
139 reviews18 followers
September 24, 2020
Well. That book sucked. I thought the title was intriguing, and my team needed an I book, so off I went! It would have been very interesting if it was actual case files, or at least somewhat fictionalized case files. What it was instead was a Nancy Drew style coincidence machine laced with unbelievable characters, bad writing, and a plot that would have had me laughing if it was just a little worse.
There are a few 1 star books that I gleefully recommend to others, as they are so ridiculous that they are entertaining. This is not one of those books.
Profile Image for Beth.
429 reviews20 followers
March 6, 2019
Really good!

I want more!! Had me hooked from the first page!
Must read!!!! Make sure to pick this up! Very good
Profile Image for Carol.
144 reviews9 followers
August 17, 2019
Gosh, I cautiously perused the reddit site with the published stories thinking that these were legit composite accounts of therapy sessions. Although the title was a red flag of poor judgement/confidentiality by a licensed therapist.

Then it just got way too ridiculous and fictional. Not in the scenarios that the patients presented with — but with the “therapists” course of actions.

As fiction, I guess it could be entertaining...(although probably a misrepresentation of best practices in the field.

So titling the book “I’m a therapist, ....” was quite deceiving... and certainly is a violation of all kinds of privacy laws and ethics and common sense as a therapist plus lots of poor judgement in handling some very difficult situations (which do come up in real life) with could certainly cause this lose his ability to practice...or get him Arrested!

So maybe it was my oversight not to realize from the start that this was fiction.

And if I’m wrong about that —- and this person is really a therapist! Yikes!
1 review
February 2, 2019
A must read!

I found this author on Reddit and absolutely love his stories! You will not regret picking up this book. It is extremely well written, keeps you on your toes and leaves you wanting more.
12 reviews1 follower
February 5, 2021
Dr Harper is probably the worst therapist you could ever have. He is manipulative, unethical, gets ways to involved with his patients and is self obsessed. This even gets to the point of not questioning himself or his actions before committing some pretty serious crimes. A lot of people on here believe that this makes the book unbelievable and bad, but I think that all of this just makes the book more fun. I don’t want to read some boring Dr go through all the correct procedures, I wanna see someone go to the extent of kidnapping someone because they believe so badly that they are right. If that interests you then you should read this book, it’s only just over 100 pages and the only downside is that the writing is not the best and it seems to be a lot of telling and not so much showing. However, it is a really quick and tense read!
Profile Image for Alicia Walker.
Author 11 books8 followers
June 11, 2019
This book:

1.) Was unbelievable and not in a good way. It was literally hard to believe.
2.) It did not keep me up at night.
3.) Was written from the perspective of the world’s worst therapist.

I gave it 3 stars because it wasn’t hard to read, it was short and I enjoyed the random psych info. It was interesting enough to read its entirety. However, it wasn’t interesting enough to make me want to read the prison case files that are coming out next.

Full review at:
https://barefootmamalivin.wordpress.c...
Profile Image for Aaron Morrsi.
140 reviews16 followers
February 8, 2021
4/5
A surprisingly good read, never knew which was a specific story was going to go, been a while since I've had a book keep me on my toes like that
Profile Image for Danielle Ann.
24 reviews1 follower
March 12, 2021
My jaw was on the floor. As a therapist, this was a book that I can’t even imagine having these patients on my caseload. Awesome read and am really looking forward to the next two!
Profile Image for Brooke.
2 reviews10 followers
June 22, 2019
This “book” was first written and posted on a reddit no sleep sub where the description of the sub is “everything is real here even when it’s not” anddddd I feel like that’s where it should have stayed. It’s basically a printed version of a shit post that is good to read at 3am instead of watching the Facebook video of 2 guys making a pool out of mud for the 3rd time. It’s 3am binge able mostlyyy because it’s a raging dumpster fire and you want to watch it get put out. As the book goes on it gets more and more outrageous and unbelievable. A common complaint I see is that it’s not case files with doodles like he says it is in the beginning at all, its 6 short story told in the 1st person view and I truly believe that is because there was never any doodles, case files, or patients. It’s a collection of shit post that were posted to a reddit group that tells other people to believe its real even though it’s not.
Profile Image for Kade Gulluscio.
834 reviews35 followers
August 5, 2022
reread - 8/5/22 -
I'm a huge fan of the Dr. Harper books. I remember first finding out about Dr. Harper on reddit, and I was enthralled. I mean, there really aren't a lot of books that fit into this trope / genre. I'm a sucker for books that feature "patient" stories like this.

This was my second read of this book. I apparently didn't leave a review for the first back in 2019, but I did rate it 5 stars, and I definitely stand by that rating. Dr. Harper is a genius.

I think Patient 116 is one of my favorites in this book. ;x
2 reviews2 followers
January 31, 2019
Amazing stories!

These are fantastic stories that can be enjoyed individually for a quick read or as chapters of a book. Either way, it will be hard to put down. Anyone who is a fan of mystery and suspense (and a good bit of humor) will absolutely love this book. It constantly kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat.
Profile Image for Nikole (dreamingofreadingx).
158 reviews9 followers
June 29, 2020
I honestly don’t know what to say about this book. This therapist obviously oversteps his bounds. A lot. The ending got crazy in my opinion, but I enjoyed how everything came together at the end. As a psychology major, I liked how mental issues were discussed. Always interesting to me. I’m interested to read ‘Patient Files from Prison’ now.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,712 reviews

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