Good Reads



Coming of Age on Zoloft: How Antidepressants Cheered Us Up, Let Us Down, and Changed Who We Are



Katherine Sharpe, a writer, started taking anti-depressant medications while in college and off and on throughout her 20’s.  In the book, she describes and quotes from interviews of others who did the same, some starting as early as thirteen years old.  Ms. Sharpe covers a wide range of experiences--positive, negative and mixed.  Some of the interviewees combined talk therapy and medications; others resorted solely to medication therapy.  Ms. Sharpe provides a thoughtful analysis of the varying effects of anti-depressant use on teens and young adults during pivotal developmental stages, and its effect on contemporary notions of mental health and mental disorder.
Her description of the discovery, evolution, marketing and politics of psychotherapy and medication therapy is informative.  Particularly illustrative are Ms. Sharpe’s description and analysis of her experiences with talk therapy and her depiction of the different types of talk therapy.  I highly recommend this book to laypersons and professionals, young adults and adults interested in mental health and mental health treatment.

Grief Dreams: How They Help Us Heal After the Death of a Loved One
by T. J. Wray and Ann Back Price

This book suggests how to use dreams of a deceased loved one to understand and process grief, from a Jungian perspective.

                                                                   

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading
by Nina Sankovitch

Nina Sankovitch’s beloved sister died at age forty-six, leaving Ms. Sankovitch devastated, wondering how she would continue on with her own life.  Reading had been part of the close bond the sisters shared, as well as the rich currency of their family-of-origin.  As a way of soothing and navigating her grief, Ms. Sankovitch decided to, and succeeded in, reading and reviewing one book a day for a year.  In Tolstoy and the Purple Chair, Ms. Sankovitch describes how the different books she read provided her with insight and comfort in relation to her loss, her memories, and her future. 
To read more about Nina Sankovitch and her book reviews, you can go to her website, http://www.readallday.org/blog/.


Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
by Susan Cain

Susan Cain describes differences in how introverts and extroverts navigate through life, including how each group communicates, processes information, socializes, works and creates.  Cain explains how, after World War II, the media touted extroversion as a superior trait for which Americans should strive, resulting in the diminishment of introversion and the contributions introverts bring to work and personal arenas.  Cain draws on research studies and conversations with introverts to illustrate what introverts bring to various situations, along with how introverts carve out the time and space they need to cope and thrive.  This is an informative read for anyone, regardless of where they fall on the introversion-extroversion continuum.  

Ms. Cain also has a website, The Power of Introverts, Join the Quiet Revolution, found at http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/.

More good reads coming soon.


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