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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

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Writers and therapy: a love-hate relationship?

13/4/2015

23 Comments

 
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I’ve recently dispatched the acknowledgements page to my publisher for my forthcoming novel, Sugar and Snails, in which I’m intending to thank my therapist. Given that I've decided not to name her, to protect the boundaries of our relationship, there might seem little point. Yet I couldn’t exclude someone who, despite not having read a word of the text, has made a significant contribution to the novel by safeguarding my sanity through the long process of writing and preparing for publication. Nevertheless, I do have some anxieties about flag-waving this contribution so blatantly, when it is my impression that the writing world is, at best, ambivalent and, at worst, hostile towards psychotherapy.

It’s well over a year since a book of psychoanalytic case studies made the longlist for the Guardian first book award (even if, sadly, it didn’t progress any further).  Stephen Grosz's The Examined Life reads like a short story collection, with lots to satisfy those attracted to serious fiction. Yet, only the week before the longlist was published, the same newspaper featured Charlotte Mendelson’s contribution to the Twitter fiction challenge, a neat cameo that works on the premise that therapy takes away one’s well-being.  It seems a shame that many writers should share society’s unease about therapy when there’s so much overlap between the two endeavours.

It’s not that writers aren’t happy to draw on therapy and therapists as fictional subjects, yet the results often read as rather distant from the real thing.  Of course therapy can make for terrific parody, better than a dinner party for teasing out the humour of a character’s vanity.  One of my favourites is the Lacanian analyst who has a walk-on part in Jonathan Coe’s The House of Sleep.  Russell Watts is a narcissist more interested in intellectualising than helping his patient.  At the other extreme, there’s poor Malcolm in Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked, a therapist who depends on the therapy session more than his client does.  While there has to be a grain of truth in any successful satire, these set pieces feed more into our collective anxieties about therapy than the reality.  They are a long way from the patience and sensitivity displayed by an analyst such as Stephen Grosz.

Pat Barker is a writer of fiction who seems to have taken a special interest in therapy, having created the fictional psychologist, Tom Seymour as well as fictionalising WHR Rivers, one of the early pioneers. Just over a decade ago I attended an event where she bravely agreed to be interviewed by the clinical psychologist, Caroline Garland. In a commentary on this, published in the journal, Psychology and Psychotherapy, Heather Wood wrote that Pat Barker (p202-203):

does not tolerate a humble reverence for the work of psychotherapists. The psychotherapists she portrays are flawed and the fictional characters are driven to expose or defeat them.

Barker’s attitude to psychotherapy is ambivalent, at times curious and uncertain, at other times hostile and dismissive …

Barker appears to swing between a tentative belief in a constructive, healing relationship and a view that there can be no good relationship which can reach to the heart of an individual’s disturbance and enable that to be contained, metabolized and worked through.

In discussing her novel, Border Crossing, in a previous blog post, it seems to me that her writing is weakened by this “hostile and dismissive” attitude when her lack of “humble reverence” could be a springboard for some excellent fiction. (Not that she is likely to lose sleep over it, given her track record of literary prizes and publication success.)

Yet even writers who appear more sympathetic towards therapy might feel duty bound to acknowledge that many creatives are not:

He had always had a poet’s disdain for psychotherapy. Myra had not forgotten. It was the novelists, she had come to believe, who could see the point in the process: those who had an ear for narrative and an acute sense of the importance of telling stories. Poets, with their brief and fragmented lyricism, their wilful rages, were deaf to its call. (Sylvia Brownrigg, The Delivery Room, p351-2)

In creative non-fiction the world of therapy gets set up as a straw man to be summarily knocked down.  In a lovely article about her mother’s secret past, Emma Brockes attributes the irritating phrase You have to own it to the therapeutic lexicon.  While I recognise that phrase from the blogosphere in relation to memoir, I’ve never understood it and would probably bite the head off a therapist who parroted such a thing.  Yet it isn’t easy to distinguish the myth from reality if your only sources are hearsay.

Perhaps the fact that there are so many different brands of therapy feeds into this scepticism.  Some therapies are pitched as a version of Cheer up, love, it might never happen, while others look set to abrade our insides with a cheese grater.  Such stereotypes enable us to dismiss therapy for ourselves as either too trivial or too masochistic to contemplate.  Yet neither reflects the richness of the process outlined in The Examined Life.  There’s even a form of therapy that might have been specially designed for writers: narrative therapy is about empowering people to take ownership of their own life stories.  What’s not to like?

Yet there remains an anxiety that in killing one’s demons one might also kill the muse.  Many writers would agree with Susan Hill, as quoted by Susanna Rustin writing in The Guardian, that

the dark places in her own past are “Pandora’s box is best left unopened … for fear that … inspiration will vanish”

The disturbance needs to be nurtured in the belief it’s the foundation of our creativity.  But what if therapy – either by broadening our thinking or simply offering support to follow our dreams – actually facilitates writing?  Therapy freed up Nick Hornby to write his first novel.  He can’t be alone in this.

Yet the therapy implied in Charlotte Mendelson’s Twitter story is something that robs us of our joy.  While it’s true that Freud saw common unhappiness as a worthwhile therapeutic goal; what’s often forgotten is the next line of this famous quote concerning healing the mind so that that unhappiness becomes more manageable.  It’s about confronting reality, warts and all, so that we can use our inner resources in their entirety, including the parts we’ve tried to disown.  Doesn’t that sound just the ticket for a writer who wants to capitalize on her own experience, good and bad?

Not every writer would want to sign up for a course of personal therapy, but writers who fail to recognise the common ground may be missing out according to Susie Nott-Bower: 

Therapists are a gift to writers – what is a therapy session but the process a writer goes through to understand the complexities and depths of a character?  And what is a therapist but the ultimate confidante?  The therapeutic session is a melting pot for extremes of emotion and heightened consciousness …

Stephen Grosz’s book title, The Examined Life, would work equally well for a creative-writing book on developing character or on literary fiction.  Of course therapy is scary; how can it not be if it takes us to a place we’ve never been before?  The process is challenging for both parties, but so is writing a novel.  Therapy and fiction are complementary forms of storytelling leading to a greater truth, and a society that lacks such stories can be very bleak indeed.

One place where those commonalities are addressed is in Connecting Conversations, a series of events in which psychoanalysts explore artistic creativity and practice with leaders from other fields.  If you’re interested, you couldn’t do better than to kick-off with Lionel Shriver in conversation with Angela Joyce about We Need to Talk about Kevin.

As a reader, would you trust an author more or less if she acknowledged her therapist? If you’re a writer, are you therapy convert or a sceptic?  I’d love to hear your views.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
23 Comments
Anne Booth link
13/4/2015 02:48:00 pm

This was so interesting for me, as I have also specifically dedicated my next children's book to my therapist and have added an author's note about how I had a therapist and how much she helped me when I was a carer for my mum. I wanted to do this a) because it is true and b) because the book ('Dog Ears') is about a young carer who can only confide in her dog. I'm hoping that admitting to having had therapy when I was a carer will help any young carers who read the book - but I confess I do feel a bit nervous about this and have been trying not to think about possible adverse reactions! My reasoning is that I am 50, so old enough to know what I know to be worth taking risks for, I don't agree with the taboo, and this may be an opportunity for me to help others - but your post is scaring me a little! At least I can prepare for any adverse reaction - but I'm crossing my fingers/ saying a prayer (a bit theologically confused here!) that there won't be any in the Children's Literature world.

Reply
Annecdotist
14/4/2015 02:14:38 am

Thanks for your support, Anne, and sorry if I've created anxieties where there were none before. Of course, I think it's great that you've dedicated your book to your therapist, particularly when it's on the very topic you've explored within your therapy.
The topic of your book sounds really important. I'm enraged at the complacency there is about child carers, that in this day and age we still get kids putting in a full day's work around the house after getting home from school – and then, if they're lucky, they get an award for doing so. Seems to me another form of slavery, which saves the state a fortune in not having to provide carers and home helps for their disabled parents.
As for the potential adverse reaction, it could only be based on prejudice and ignorance. We need to support each other in this venture.

Reply
Anne Booth link
14/4/2015 02:46:23 am

I couldn't agree more. It's outrageous. There are registered carers as young as 5 in our country! I couldn't believe it - but those are official statistics from 'The Children's Society'. I went to an exhibition they had where a 3 year old was regularly giving insulin injections to their parent. ANYWAY - back to your blog post - I think it's great and I definitely support you and am looking forward to hearing more about/reading your book.

Annecdotist
14/4/2015 03:11:17 am

Ouch! I feel sick! Why oh why does no-one notice that this is not want children are FOR?
I was really impressed by the artist Alison Lapper who was born with no arms writing a piece in the Guardian about parenting some time ago when she was explicit that SHE was her son's carer, not vice versa.
I think it's great that your book is tackling this issue.

Charli Mills
13/4/2015 04:49:28 pm

I'd expect you to thank your therapist. I see that as a part of your branding. Who you are as a writer includes therapy. You've built credibility by bridging your professional experience with literature. To see that acknowledgement in your book enhancing both your branding and credibility.

Psychotherapy saved my life. I reached a point where I fractured and was ready to do self-harm, yet strongly wanted to live. I just couldn't live with memories I could no longer control or suppress. I found a wonderful therapist who would bring me back from the brink of hell and put me on a path to living an empowered life. When circumstances get tough or go into an episode, I have tools to work with. One is recognition. This has led me to be studious about self-awareness. Maybe I'm too self-aware, but I'd rather be that way than how I was before, battered by things I didn't understand. Now I can seek the source and deal with it. Honestly, I hadn't thought about returning to therapy of seeing one periodically. But it has nothing to do with being ambivalent or hostile toward therapy. It's good to do the work. But I don't agree with the mass drugging of people who seek it. I never took any drugs and I was pretty messed up in the beginning. Even the psychiatrist I met with for evaluation said that drugs only masked the issues until someone could face them. And I'm paraphrasing from 25 years ago. That's what my takeaway was.

As to owning your story, I never heard that in therapy. I first encountered it at a Franciscan retreat for the "writer's soul" where we focused on writing into our truth. I found that so powerful. At work, we used a Brene Brown TedTalk on being vulnerable in leadership training and she's the one who I think people are quoting. She says, "If you own this story you get to write the ending." She also is quoted, "Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it."

I spent time going to various links. This is a rich post and I expect that more posts in the future from novelist, Anne Goodwin, will include more advocacy and accuracy regarding therapy in general and especially in literature. Therapy taught me to sprinkle semi-colons when the story seemed too final. ;-)

Reply
Annecdotist
14/4/2015 02:31:35 am

Thanks so much, Charli, for this thoughtful and supportive response to my post. I love how you see therapy as part of my "brand" – I would never have thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense. Also, along with Anne's comment, it gives me another idea for a stream of guest posts.
I'm glad you found a good therapist and that your psychiatrist wasn't a drug pusher – although, of course, that can work for some, drugs as a short-term response to an immediate crisis. And I think you encapsulated what I believe about the value of therapy – that it gives us self-knowledge and awareness that can help us to survive the difficult patches.
I wasn't wanting to suggest that, because therapy is useful, we should continue it indefinitely. Ending is actually an important part of the process.
I was interested in your points about vulnerability in leadership. I love those quotes, although I still don't really understand "owning your story" – could be that I haven't yet owned my own! (Actually, scrap that ! – it's probably true.)
There's a lovely book by Larry Hirschhorn called Reworking Authority on this subject which, unfortunately, I was able to make more use of in theory than in practice!
I so agree this is very much a semi-colon affair.

Reply
Norah Colvin link
14/4/2015 01:15:18 am

How exciting - sending your acknowledgments page to the publisher! Yippee! Another step closer. It must be so exciting Anne.
I think it's great that you acknowledge the contribution of your therapist. That wouldn't make me feel any differently about the book. I usually do skim through the acknowledgments to see if there are any names I recognize to help me make connections with who they (the authors) are and their influencers.
I'm so pleased you have referred to Stephen Grosz's book again. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and might need to reread it for my own fiction writing. It is a fascinating book. But isn't it more fact than fiction?
I'm interested in the relationship you describe between therapy and writing. I guess we have often been told that writing is a form of therapy, especially private stream-of-consciousness writing where we bare our soul in an attempt to make sense of ourselves and our lives.
I also appreciate the validity of your point that it is difficult to tell the myth from reality when the only source is hearsay.
Anne Booth and Charli have both added a lot to your post with their wisdom gleaned from experience too. I see owning our story as taking charge of our lives, taking responsibility, and not blaming. It is hard to do that when medicated, as Charli says, as it only masks the problem. It is very sad to see people reduced to zombies by medication that is meant to help them. From an outsider's point of view, it doesn't appear to help them, just makes the problem go away for a while. I'm not sure that the stripping of personality isn't more of a problem.
I can't wait for your book. I'm so excited with the progress it is making.

Reply
Annecdotist
14/4/2015 02:40:53 am

Yes, it is exciting, Norah, and I'm hoping I'll be able to share the cover next week.
I didn't mean to imply that Steven Grosz's book was fiction, more that it's a book that shows that therapy needn't be as scary as some people might assume.
I think writing can be very therapeutic in the way that it can help us to sort out our thoughts and sometimes give us a bit of distance from distressing a experience. However, I don't think it can be a substitute for therapy as there's another layer when it comes to telling your story to an engaged but neutral other person. If we're lucky with our therapist, he/she can help us reflect on the experience from a different perspective, while maintaining the integrity of our own position. It's also about discovering that the assumptions with which we might have lived for our whole lives don't necessarily hold true.

Reply
Kate Evans
14/4/2015 06:53:44 am

I have acknowledged all three of my therapists by name in both the books I have published (a non-fiction work about writing blocks and a novel which included several perspectives on the therapy world). I wanted to acknowledge them because I felt that the books wouldn't have existed without them because I wouldn't have still been drawing breath. I also run workshops encouraging therapists and other health workers to write creatively and see where it takes them in terms of self-reflection and client work. I know the unpeeling I do in therapy is very similar to the unpeeling I do with writing, although the presence of the therapist and our relationship makes a difference in terms of safety, containment and gaining different perspectives. I hope you don't receive any adverse reactions to your acknowledgement, though I know the stigma against those who admit to being emotionally vulnerable and seeking support for that is strong.

Reply
Annecdotist
16/4/2015 04:27:38 am

Thank you, Kate. I just checked your acknowledgements in The Art of the Imperfect – I like how you've done it by using their first names for those who "helped me know myself better" – that's SO what it's all about!
I also agree that there is strength in seeking that support and self-knowledge – it took me about ten years to pluck up the courage! And embracing that vulnerability is really powerful.
Those workshops sound interesting – maybe another strand for my blog?

Reply
Kate Evans
17/4/2015 01:39:28 am

Thanks Anne. And well done for plucking up the courage. My next workshop is November in Scarborough looking at poetry within the therapeutic environment, info on my website, www.writingourselveswell.co.uk. I belong to www.lapidus.org.uk which brings together writers and health professionals interested in creative writing and good health.

Annecdoti
17/4/2015 05:36:19 am

Thanks for sharing these links, Kate. I looked into that organisation Lapidus once – it does sound interesting. Maybe we'll get to hear about more of this stuff on my blog?

geoff link
14/4/2015 12:23:15 pm

This and the comments is such a rich read. I agree with everyone - acknowledge your therapist And I entirely see what Charli means about being part of your brand. What you and Anne say about young carers is reflected at the youth club where I work; we have clubs for carers - a breakfast club and a Saturday club and these youngsters aren't given anything like the support that the authority should but of course, cash constraints are the reason and the excuse.
My own experiences of therapy - it want called that but that s what I think it was, came when I was about 42 or 3 and had, under my firm's rules, to stop my management roles and go back to full time client work. The transition was tough - it felt like a retrograde step - and the head of HR asked me to undertake some carer counselling - ostensibly as a test to see 'if it might help other' but I'm sure he recognised in me someone who was at a career stage that needed others to help me find my own perspective on my career. It took me what felt like an age to recognize the answers were within and obvious - and that was due mostly to an arrogance on my part a belief I was showing a weakness in admitting this was helping me. And pretty much as soon as I reached the point of wanting it to continue it stopped (more funding reasons). A shame - I know it would have helped me later. Sorry, me rambling about me again. Your posts have that effect.

Reply
Annecdotist
16/4/2015 04:37:58 am

You're most welcome to ramble here, Geoff! It must've been so difficult to take what seemed like a backward step at work. I like the way your HR bod nudged you towards those sessions to test them out for others – seems like a very skilled way of pointing you towards what they thought you might need. It's dreadful the way that we can feel humiliated by our vulnerabilities, especially at work. I think it's great when organisations provide access to workplace counselling – I'd forgotten actually that I'd also had some many many years ago when I was in a difficult place in my work. The counsellor I saw was very skilled but I was quite defensive and these things are always time-limited if the organisation is paying. But admirable still I think that they set them up.
Oh, and those poor kids at your breakfast club etc – at least you are giving them some time to be children but I don't think lack of funds is ever a reasonable excuse for the state's neglect. After all, wouldn't they have to put services in if the person didn't have children?

Reply
sarah link
15/4/2015 07:36:20 am

So much has been said here...the post, the comments. I will add my two cents: I wouldn't trust an author more or less if she acknowledged her therapist. I love reading the acknowledgements page but I don't judge an author by it.

P.S. Congrats on being one step closer!

Reply
Annecdotist
16/4/2015 04:38:47 am

Thank you, Sarah, I always value your support.

Reply
Sherri Matthews link
24/4/2015 09:17:58 am

Hello Anne, I just wanted to say congratulations on getting ever closer to publication. I do believe that therapy plays a vital part - when it's given properly and I think it's wonderful that you are giving acknowledgment to your therapist. My daughter sees her Asperger Psychologist regularly and she says he is the only one who properly understands her because he 'gets' Aspergers. Before that, more harm than good was done unfortunately. As I write on with my first draft of my memoir, I do have a strong, abiding sense of 'owning' my story and so I'm able to write it, knowing I'm telling a true story of something that happened to me and my American GI over 30 years ago with the benefit of reflection. Now I'm rambling...all the best with your book Anne!

Reply
Annecdotist
25/4/2015 11:12:17 am

Thank you, Sherri, I am rather excited – and terrified, so glad my therapist is still around. Pleased also that your daughter has someone she feels understands her situation, and I do agree, a therapist who doesn't get it, can be worse than nothing – raising expectations that aren't met can leave you feeling even more isolated. Glad your memoir is progressing too.

Reply
http://www.goodlifeforever.com/ link
28/11/2015 06:08:13 am

Yet I couldn’t exclude someone who, despite not having read a word of the text, has made a significant contribution to the novel by safeguarding my sanity through the long process of writing and preparing for publication.

Reply
Annecdotist
28/11/2015 01:56:48 pm

Thanks for reading, and glad it resonates

Reply
signs your ex wants you back link
7/5/2016 05:27:22 am

Nevertheless, I do have some anxieties about flag-waving this contribution so blatantly, when it is my impression that the writing world is, at best, ambivalent and, at worst, hostile towards psychotherapy.

Reply
Annecdotist
7/5/2016 04:32:14 pm

So you wouldn't acknowledge a therapist yourself? A year on, I'm entirely happy with the decision I took.

Reply
Lhynzie link
13/4/2022 01:00:32 pm

Awesome content. Quite interesting and very useful. Thank you for sharing this wealth of information. Thanks for the great read. Kudos!

Reply



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