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

BATB score: 7/10 🍳

a therapist shares five heroic stories of emotional recovery; aka the art of paying to talk things through

Best to: the five individual stories were very sickening and thus very interesting - super fun to read like Black Mirror

Best for: only if you are someone who is exploring a career path as a psycho-therapist or is someone who wishes to be better and is considering therapy as a remedy, this book is for you; otherwise, it’s too niche

BATB lingering thought: it is as though therapy is a long 3-7 years commitment of coming in, speaking to someone, and telling/dissecting your story; slow, expensive, and yuck; honestly, I didn’t feel that the therapist did anything to help each of the five cases, she can be replaced with a listening AI soon, scam alert?

Best as: case-in-point beginner’s level therapist’s guide to what kind of patient you will be facing and how to (and not to) reaction

Best quotes: “If sharing my story helps even one person who is suffering, it will have been worth it.”

“Business leaders who make it into Forbes magazine don’t usually confess to their employees that they’re falling apart.”

“Sometimes grandparents who are warm and kind may have been far less so when they were parents. People will often mellow in old age.”

Best for: you must at the very least like psychology ie. these quotes below

“While guilt is a painful feeling about your actions, shame is much more psychologically destructive

because it’s a bad feeling about yourself as a person.”

“Anyone who thinks of a shameful memory will experience it at least as vividly as when they had the

original experience.”

“Anger is not a feeling; it’s a defense. When you can’t acknowledge your true feelings because they’re too excruciating, you defend against them with anger.”

“When people share their feelings, they feel better, less stressed and less anxious. If you plan on having a life

partner, it’s emotional intimacy that will be the glue that holds you together long after the physical intimacy fades.”

“Workaholism is another compulsion - you work because you feel anxious when you’re not working.”