On Being a Therapist Book

I was excited to read this, but the author lost me inch by inch through the book. I found it to skim too shallowly on subjects that seemed haphazardly selected for discussion. And honestly, the author's cynical and compassionless attitude really seeped through the page and turned me off. He seemed to take it for granted that everyone was as cynical as he and I was not willing to enter into that assumption with him. If you're looking for something like this but something a bit more affirming and (I think) truer to the compassion that should be the center to therapy, read Irwin Yalom's work. This is not to say that I don't think therapists are fully capable of cynicism, boredom, burn-out, loss of compassion, etc. but I wouldn't so easily leap to the conclusion that they are in the same state of mind as the author.