I really, really enjoyed this book, but my question is: how was Gottlieb able to write so freely and her patients and their issues? I am assuming that all names have been changed and she also might have changed some specific characteristics and gotten permission, but I'm just curious how this all worked?

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6 years ago
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Kathy I just finished reading and I have very mixed feelings about this book. I listened to Lori Gottlieb's interview with Terry Gross on "Fresh Air" and was surprised and rather shocked to hear that she asks for written permission up front from her clients, providing she protects their identities. Some decide not to work with her as a result. This, she says, is because she's in the unique position of being a writer before she became a therapist. But this seems very odd to me. It feels coercive to demand this up front. I think it's fine to ask for permission once you've established a relationship, but this feels a bit like her patients are fodder for her writing.

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Patricia The print version does address it. Written permission from all patients and changed specifics to protect identities but still stay true to spirit of the stories.

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Marion I suspect that the client stories are composites to protect identities. The print version covers protecting identities and written permission. In response to Kathy's suggestion that it may be more ethical if Gottlieb requests permission once she had established a therapeutic relationship with her client, I tend to think, with over thirty years in the field and not being an author, Gottlieb requesting written permission upfront from her new clients seems more ethical than asking mid-treatment. That could throw a client into an unfair dilemma, already committed to treatment and being asked to provide something for the therapist they may be uncomfortable providing. I also suspect that if the client said no, that would be fine with Gottlieb.

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Deirdre K I was plagued by the same question. I’m just used to an author who writes about patients sharing from the beginning that the names and identifying details were changed. I listened to this on audio so maybe the print version addresses this. I finally found an LA Times interview with the author that confirms she wrote about her patients with their permission and the details changed. Still—it makes me wonder which parts of specific characters were fiction and which parts were nonfiction. I loved imagining John as the writer of Mad Men, but is he a writer at all?

It reads so much like a novel, I’m surprised the author didn’t just use her story as inspiration for a novel.

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Daniela On the Author's note at the beginning of the book she also explains that one character might not be just one patient, but several. Not one person even with details and names changed, would correspond to one character.

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