Sorry, “CRAZY: Notes on and off the Couch” isn’t quite ready just yet (tentatively scheduled for release in June, 2011), but you can read all about it below and find updates as they are posted.

The Players Involved

Rob Dobrenski, Ph.D. (author)
Jon Sternfeld of Irene Goodman Literary Agency (literary agent)
Lyons Press (publisher)

Psychologists have one of the greatest job in the world: we help give relief from mental pain. We listen and respond to psychological difficulties on an hourly basis, hear people pour their hearts out, share their deepest secrets. Day after day, week after week we give wisdom, direction, advice, perspective. Many people venerate us. A day in the life of a shrink is daunting, humbling, exciting and, most often, incredibly gratifying as we sit with people from all walks of life. We meet interesting people with fascinating, sometimes “edge-of-your seat” stories to tell. Sometimes the work is humorous and light-hearted, such as a woman lamenting her horrible date with a millionaire who insisted they dine at Taco Bell. Other times it’s serious and sobering, like when we need to help a teenager stop slicing her own arms and legs.

And yet while we bask in the glow of giving people a better quality of life, letting people believe we are ‘mental giants,’ we ourselves suffer. We’re depressed, anxious, battle with crippling panic attacks, OCD, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. We take Zoloft, or worse, antipsychotics. We get God Complexes and sometimes charge exorbitant fees. We drink too much and have horrible relationships. And sometimes we even have no clue what we are doing in the office! We love to believe that we are perhaps quirky, eccentric, maybe even neurotic, but certainly not ill. But it’s true. And we sit in our offices, listening to people talk about themselves, helping in ways that often impact them for perhaps the rest of their lives. And yet we never let them know how screwed up we really are. In reality, we’re just like them: crazy.

CRAZY is a work of creative non-fiction. It is the first and only professionally written, popular psychology book to truly come clean, to demonstrate in both entertaining and educational language, what can really happen behind the therapist’s door (and in the so-called expert’s life). It demonstrates in a page-turning and dramatic fashion, what therapists really think about both their patients and, more importantly, their own psychological problems that we all share as part of the human experience.

Part exposé and part memoir, using both humorous and seriously toned anecdotes, this book will show that whether you are a patient, doctor or someone in between, part of being a person involves being ‘crazy.’ How? Because in this unique book, those dispensing the wisdom, medications and perspectives, the psychiatrists and psychologists that many people revere, are ‘crazy’ themselves.

The stories in this book are from my real-life experiences as both a graduate student and practicing psychologist. This is not a literary version of the HBO series “In Treatment,” where the premise simply serves as a backdrop for over-the-top drama. The book shows how true mental health professionals think, feel and act both in and out of the therapy room.

If you are a fan of this site, I think you will be more than happy with the final product.