Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery

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But lo and behold, there was ANOTHER book about a therapist being released around the same time as Group, it's just that the Whiskey in a Teacup lady didn't choose it for her book club and the publisher didn't rain copies down on Bookstagrammers so it didn't get half the hype as Group did. Friends, this one is worlds better than Group. I had a few Aha-moments, which has influenced how I see some aspects of my own life now. We tend to forget that we create defense mechanisms in childhood to cope with certain things, but then retain these long after they become unnecessary. The book’s subtitle - A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery - is the perfect content summary. I was actually surprised to find that the patients she profiled weren’t psychopaths given the “monster” in the primary title. Rather, they were just people trying to be functioning adults after horrible (HORRIBLE) childhoods. Case in point, a woman whose hateful mother greeted her each day with, “good morning, monster.” A llows one the privilege of seeing the therapist-patient relationship as an essentially human interaction." — JM Coetzee, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature I loved Gildiner’s three memoirs and was excited to see she had another book coming out. Because I worked as a counselor for several years, reading a Gildiner memoir about her years as a therapist seemed right up my alley. Unfortunately, not only was I disappointed, I actually found a large swath of the book distasteful.

Good Morning, Monster by Catherine Gildiner | Waterstones

I highly recommend Good Morning, Monster to anyone who loved Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, or who like me was looking for something similar but someone else.There is Laura, who was abandoned in a cabin as a child and sought to hide that fact from the world as she stepped into the role of parent for her younger siblings. There is Peter, the son of immigrants, who was consigned nearly from birth to years spent alone in a room above the family restaurant; years that left him with developmental deficits harsh enough to deny him the intimacy he so required as an adult. There is Danny, an Indigenous man, who was ripped from his family by the government so that he might have his native ways educated out of him, only to suffer repeated abuse in the school ostensibly meant to save him. There is Alana, the daughter of a pedophile, who was proffered to her father's friends until society intervened to place her with her paternal grandparents - where the true nightmare began. And there is Madeline, whose aristocratic mother greeted her every day with the phrase destined to become this book's title. Regardless of how it all came to be, it is blatantly unethical. Calling someone a hero means nothing if you treat them like a pawn. The immense suffering and horrific abuse these men and women have endured is beyond belief of the human mind to comprehend. One such patient was a pianist, Peter. Initially, the musician was working with a urologist because of erectile dysfunction. However, the urologist could find no reason why Peter – who could masturbate to completion and had no physical impediments – couldn’t achieve an erection during sex. Peter was attracted to women and wanted a sexual relationship, but even the strongest, most reliable drug the urologist had didn’t help.

Good Morning, Monster - Macmillan Good Morning, Monster - Macmillan

As in such recent classics as The Glass Castle and Educated, each patient embodies self-reflection, stoicism, perseverance, and forgiveness as they work unflinchingly to face the truth. Gildiner's account of her journeys with them is moving, insightful, and sometimes very funny. Good Morning Monster offers an almost novelistic, behind-the-scenes look into the therapist's office, illustrating how the process can heal even the most unimaginable wounds. When I asked how I could help her, Laura sat for a long time looking out the window. I waited for her to tell me the problem. I continued to wait in what’s called a therapeutic silence—an uncomfortable quiet that’s supposed to elicit truth from the patient. Finally, she said, “I have herpes.”She said she was twenty-six, single, and working in a large securities firm. She’d started out as a secretary but had been promoted to the human resources department. Dr. G. writes with sincerity, honesty and compassion about her patients; her respect for each of them clearly shines through in her words. One of Peter’s biggest realizations throughout his work with Gildiner was that although his mother did what she thought was best for their family – and indeed, did better than her relatives had done for her when she was young – she had still abused and neglected him. Since reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed last year, I've been so eager to find something similar. I fell prey to the marketing for Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life, and, for some twisted reason, I actually finished that awful book despite it being one of the most cringey reading experiences I've ever had the displeasure of going through. Not only did it not quench my thirst for another Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, it nearly put me off of the idea of books centering around therapists for good. Each case presented is quite different and unique. From a woman with recurring herpes outbreaks because of stress, to a Native American man who cannot show emotion. They all have one thing in common, showing that trauma, abuse, neglect can induce destructive triggers but it also shows the indomitable human spirit to overcome adversity.

Good Morning, Monster Summary of Key Ideas and Review Good Morning, Monster Summary of Key Ideas and Review

My streak of outstanding reads continues. Though I have only read 31 books this year, the number of 5 stars books amongst that lot is remarkable. And the streak continues with Good Morning Monster. PDF / EPUB File Name: Good_Morning_Monster_-_Catherine_Gildiner.pdf, Good_Morning_Monster_-_Catherine_Gildiner.epub

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I totally agree! Maybe that's why I love to read mysteries/thrillers and why I enjoyed studying psychology in college. First of all, Good Morning, Monster is heart-breaking, because the book tells the stories of real people and the horrors they had to endure over long periods of time. There are so many abysmal things these men and women went through that I found it hard to read on at times. The book made me cry more than once, and since the stories told are at times rather detailed, it is sometimes a long way in each story until you see the success, if you want to, you can call that the happy ending. For Gildiner, the idea that situations can have many layers is central to therapy. She often had patients seek her assistance for one reason, only to discover later that the root of the problem was much different. Peter was one of Gildiner’s most heroic patients. She also learned important lessons herself in her work with him, especially related to how layered therapy ends up being sometimes.