Nearer to the Heart's Desire: Tales of Psychotherapy

A New York City psychotherapist and author of The Taboo Scarf offers eight generally interesting accounts of his encounters with patients. A skilled observer, Weinberg adds his responses and developing assessments to his descriptions of those who come to him for help: the brash and vulnerable young comic disturbed by voices in her head; a quiet bachelor struggling with powerful impulses to strangle his young niece; an eccentric older woman whose daughter wants sent to a nursing home. In many cases, therapy is terminated before the story is resolved or Weinberg is able to ``save'' the patient he has come to care for. Yet in his attentive, compassionate descriptions these people, and their private mysteries, come to matter. (Sept.)