Confiding: A Psychotherapist and Her Patients Search for Stories to Live by

Expanding upon her eloquent essays in The Dinosaur Man , psychologist Baur here examines more of her work with severely disturbed patients at the New England psychiatric institution she calls the Hillsdale Clinic. Baur listens closely to the stories her schizophrenic, manic or severely depressed patients tell about themselves for clues to how they see the world and their place in it in order ``to do the slow and careful work needed to modify the plot of a life.'' In energetic prose spiked with humor, she re-creates, for example, the aggressive, chaotic ramblings of a teenaged boy who committed suicide at age 19 and traces the elaborate, complex delusions constructed over the lifetime of a 50-year-old man. Each of the eight case narratives, which include her own free-ranging responses, is followed by a chapter lucidly examining a psychologically relevant aspect of the client's narrative. Citing the work of Robert Coles, Bruno Bettelheim and James Hillman, among others, Baur makes a convincing case for respectful, responsible listening as central to the transaction of psychotherapy. Author tour. (June)