The everyday world bedevils us. To make sense of it, we tell ourselves stories. Here, in short, vivid, dramatic tales, psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz draws from his twenty-year practice to track the collaborative journey of therapist and patient as they uncover the hidden feelings behind ordinary behavior. A woman finds herself daydreaming as she returns home from a business trip; a young man loses his wallet. We learn, too, from more extreme examples: the patient who points an unloaded gun at a police officer, the compulsive liar who convinces his wife he's dying of cancer. These beautifully rendered tales illuminate the fundamental pathways of life from birth to death. They invite compassionate understanding, suggesting answers to the questions that compel and disturb us most about love and loss, parents and children, work and change. The resulting journey will spark new ideas about who we are and why we do what we do.

The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves

Self-Help

Grosz, Stephen

Personal Transformation

Random House Canada

Echoing Socrates' time-honoured statement that the unexamined life is not worth living, psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz draws short, vivid stories from his 25-year practice in order to track the collaborative journey of therapist and patient as they uncover the hidden feelings behind ordinary behaviour. These beautifully rendered tales illuminate the fundamental pathways of life from birth to death. A woman finds herself daydreaming as she returns home from a business trip; a young man loses his wallet. We learn, too, from more extreme examples: the patient who points an unloaded gun at a police officer, the compulsive liar who convinces his wife he's dying of cancer. The stories invite compassionate understanding, suggesting answers to the questions that compel and disturb us most about love and loss, parents and children, work and change. The resulting journey will spark new ideas about who we are and why we do what we do.

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Psychology & Counseling

Vintage Canada

A New York Times "10 Favorite Books of 2013" An extraordinary book for anyone eager to understand the hidden motives that shape our lives. We are all storytellers―we create stories to make sense of our lives. But it is not enough to tell tales. There must be someone to listen. In his work as a practicing psychoanalyst, Stephen Grosz has spent the last twenty-five years uncovering the hidden feelings behind our most baffling behavior. The Examined Life distils more than 50,000 hours of conversation into pure psychological insight without the jargon.
This extraordinary book is about one ordinary process: talking, listening, and understanding. Its aphoristic and elegant stories teach us a new kind of attentiveness. They also unveil a delicate self-portrait of the analyst at work and show how lessons learned in the consulting room can reveal as much to the analyst as to the patient.
These are stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love and the lies we tell, the changes we bear and the grief. Ultimately, they show us not only how we lose ourselves but also how we might find ourselves.

W.W.Norton&Company

An extraordinary book for anyone eager to understand the hidden motives that shape our lives.
We are all storytellers―we create stories to make sense of our lives. A moving collection of short, personal encounters between a psychoanalyst and his patients, The Examined Life reveals how the art of insight can illuminate the most complicated, confounding, and human of experiences. Ultimately, these stories show us not only how we love ourselves but how we might find ourselves.

Examined Life

Chatto&Windus

Therapy: Vintage Minis

Vintage Classics

* Accompanies the first Oxford show for Bettina von Zwehl; the exhibition takes place at the Ashmolean Museum from 12 October 2024 to 11 May 2025 * Inspiration for the art comes from the original 'Wunderkammers' - largely thought to be the birth of the modern museum This well-designed publication features new photographs by London-based artist Bettina von Zwehl (b.1971 in Munich). Following her graduation from the Royal College of Art in 1999, von Zwehl has completed high-profile residencies and had solo exhibitions at museums around the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, Freud Museum, Holburne Museum, and the New York Historical Society Museum. During a residency in Oxford, von Zwehl researched the Ashmolean's founding collections and the many narratives embedded within the historical objects. This served as inspiration for a unique Wunderkammer book and exhibition that seamlessly transition between still-life, portraiture, monumental and miniature elements, as well as non-art objects and specimens from natural history collections. The artist's aim is to rekindle wonder and curiosity as critical tools for exploring new ideas and unique practices, expanding the boundaries of the photographic medium.

Ashmolean NOW: Bettina von Zwehl

Arts & Photography

Fritsch, Lena

Ennis, Ciara

History & Criticism

Ashmolean Museum

Die Frau, die nicht lieben wollte: Und andere wahre Geschichten über das Unbewusste

FISCHER, S.

FISCHER Taschenbuch

La mujer que no quería amar / The Examined Life: Y otras historias sobre el inconsciente / How We Lose and Find Ourselves (Spanish Edition)

Debate Editorial

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Books by Grosz, Stephen