by Peter D. Kramer
Following his insightful 1993 bestseller Listening to Prozac, philosopher and psychiatrist Peter Kramer ponders the age-old issue of breaking up. This isn't for quick-fix seekers and self-help addicts. Kramer admits early on that while he and other therapists are often asked for advice, "we do not always know what is best for the stranger before us." That still leaves him lots of brooding room. He creates a vivid gallery of fictional couples—such as poised, confident Bianca and her seemingly mismatched brute of a boyfriend, Hank; or Guy, an academic who's wary of commitment and reluctant to move with the beautiful but nonintellectual Lena to a new job and city. There are no easy answers, and Kramer alternates his case histories with chapters on modern psychiatry, using such diverse sources as Sigmund Freud, Ann Landers and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Probing and persuasive, Kramer gets you thinking in new ways about the eternal interplay of autonomy and connection. (Scribner, $25)
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