Book Sorting: The Explanation

But first, a brief health update. The relevant bit for this entry is that while my most recent experimental treatment (rifaximin) had no effect whatsoever, I am still feeling good enough from the combination of the semi-successful sleep experiment (it didn't permanently fix the problem, but it did improve it) and the previous successful experimental antibiotics that I am attempting to catch up on six months' worth of stuff I didn't due because I was too sick.

I have just begun experimental antibiotic treatment # 4: two of the same ones that worked before for a slightly longer period (14 rather than 10 days) and one at a higher dosage, minus the one that had horrible side effects. If it is a complete failure, that will at least suggest that the key factor was fucking tinidazole (or tinidazole combined with something).

Anyway, I am procrastinating starting with the easier long-delayed chores before working my way up to the harder stuff.

Problem: I have too goddamn many random books that I don't want and are cluttering up my apartment. One of today's tasks, chosen for being low-energy-required, amusing, and producing a visible and wanted change, is to get rid of a chunk of them.

Step 1: Sort unwanted books into three categories based on what I'm going to do with them.

Category 1: Psychological books that are outdated, not useful, etc. Some of these are quite expensive textbooks, but I don't have the time/energy to sell them or mail them to people who want them. Instead, since I am going to Antioch (old campus) anyway on Thursday, I will leave them in the student's lounge with a note saying to take them if you want them. Some student or students will be very grateful to save hundreds of dollars on required texts.

Category 2: General books I don't want. These will be delivered to the library. If the library doesn't want them, they go to the thrift store next to the library.

To help motivate me, I will record the books as I go along. This is the possibly amusing part. Please feel free to comment! That will also help motivate me. The next post will be updated daily with actual books.

My opinion on books meant to be helpful to the therapist, by the way, is that they are mostly useless. Or rather, that they are the wrong books. Want to treat combat veterans? Read memoirs by veterans. Those are about a billion times more helpful than textbooks. Want to apply Jungian principles to therapy? Read Robertson Davies' The Manticore. I doff my hat to anyone who gets anything out of reading Jung himself but a headache. Want to understand Carl Rogers? Watch videos of him in action. (His book is fine. It's just that the videos are SO MUCH BETTER.)

If anyone cares, when I am done I may do an overview of the short list of books that I did find helpful.

Psychology books I am getting rid of, Part 1

In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness, by Peter Levine. This is the guy who invented somatic experiencing. I am sure it works when he does it. Lots of therapies work because they're done by charismatic, compassionate, insightful people who believe in what they're doing. (In fact, therapy in general works that way, even when using highly structured therapies like CBT for phobias.)

This book? USELESS. FACTUALLY INCORRECT. STUPID. He explains that he saw lions chase zebras on TV, and the zebras who escaped would shake and twitch, then recover and go about their lives without getting PTSD. HOW CAN YOU TELL? YOU WATCHED ANIMAL PLANET. YOU DID NOT FOLLOW UP WITH THE ZEBRAS. He concluded that animals don't get PTSD (FACTUALLY INCORRECT. Anyone who has ever seen an abused pet has seen PTSD in animals.) and that the reason is that they physically shake out the trauma. And so he created a treatment based on shaking out the trauma. I am being unfair and simplistic but only slightly. This dude was highly respected at my school, too. I'm sure someone will appreciate this book over there.

Help for the Helper: The Psychophysiology of Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma (Norton Professional Books), by Babette Rothschild. Summary: vicarious traumatization is a thing. If you're a therapist, maintain boundaries, be aware if you're getting too affected by other people's pain, and practice self-care. There, now you don't have to read this book.

The Psychology of the Transference (Ark Paperbacks), by Carl Jung. From this we must conclude that the symbolism of the stories rests on a much more primitive mental structure than the alchemical quaternio and its psychological equivalent. I am not smart enough to read this book.

The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, Fifth Edition, by Irvin Yalom. This is a pretty great and classic work on a very specific type of group therapy that I HATE and never intend to do. ("I have difficulties relating to others, let's work these out experientially in a group focused exclusively on how the group interacts with each other." I'm sure this actually works very well when someone as skilled as Yalom is running it, but 1) it's not my thing, 2) it can very easily turn into a parody of itself in a very specific way, 3) I was permanently traumatized by a badly run group of this sort in college, which did become the parody, in which this exchange actually occurred:

Group Member A: "I notice that your foot is pointing in my direction. I wonder what you intend to convey by that."

Dude with Foot (hastily moves foot): "Er… No, my foot just happened to be there. I didn't even notice it was pointing at you."

Group Member A: "You sound defensive. Were you pointing it at me subconsciously, because you have some unexpressed anger at me?"

Dude with Foot (moves foot back): "No… but NOW I'm feeling angry!"

It's also a very expensive required text at Antioch. Someone else will benefit from this book, but I don't need it.

Fast Girls: Teenage Tribes And The Myth Of The Slut, by Emily White. This is actually a pretty good book on sexism, rape culture, how girls get labeled "sluts," how this is perpetuated by both girls and boys and society at large, and the effect this has on everyone. It's just that I get this, so I wouldn't need to re-read it, and it's not so brilliantly written that I'd keep it just for that.

Therapeutic Communication: Developing Professional Skills, by Herschel Knapp. If you don't find that therapeutic communication (validating, challenging, interpreting, etc) comes naturally to you or is something you learn by doing, this is an EXCELLENT book. I personally find that I learn it by doing or by listening to other therapists describe what they do in specific cases rather than in generalities.

Also, I find that responding instinctively/intuitively/spontaneously - even if it's something I technically shouldn't say - goes over better with clients than when I say the "correct" thing in a more artificial/non-spontaneous way. (There is a specific technique key to narrative therapy called "externalizing the problem" that for whatever reason feels really unnatural to me, and whenever I try it, my clients look at me like I have two heads. My own therapist does it with me, and it works great. I use a narrative philosophy and other narrative techniques, and just ignore externalization. You have to do what works for you.)

So for me, this was not a book I'd return to. It will help someone else, I'm sure.