With therapists away this time of the year, abandoned patients are freaking out. Fortunately, in this lousy economy, there are cheaper ways to soothe your turbulent psyche than handing over your hard-won cash to an overpriced Jungian partying at the shore. As a former book critic and long-term shrinkoholic (plug: read all about it my first novel, “Speed Shrinking”), I thought I’d help out by listing the best fiction filled with shrink wit and wisdom that you can absorb for way less than the standard $150 per session.
“Fear of Flying,” by Erica Jong
There’s a reason 20 million copies are in print. Jong’s hilarious 1973 therapy, sex and feminist tour de force about hot, unhappily married 29-year-old poet Isadora Wing’s fantasizing her way through Freud’s Vienna will make you want to see a shrink, be a shrink, date, mate and divorce a shrink before you can say “zipless.”
“Portnoy’s Complaint,” by Philip Roth
Told as a monologue from patient Portnoy to Dr. Spielvogel, Roth’s 1969 laugh riot is his most popular book. It’ll remind you that your family’s insanity is actually normal. And you’ll never again say, “What am I, chopped liver?” without laughing (or puking, depending on your gross-out level). The book is way better than the film starring Richard Benjamin.
“August,” by Judith Rossner
For a more serious chronicle of psychoanalysis, this 1983 bestseller could be subtitled “Looking for Dr. Goodbar.” Luckily, 20-year-old New England client, Dawn Henley, finds her in 40-year-old Manhattanite Dr. Lulu Shinefield. Okay, the names Dawn, Lulu and Shinefield are Dickensian, and I wouldn’t recommend the realistic, dialogue-heavy soft cover for the beach. Still, Rossner’s story is the real deal, and you’ll be thankful your background is nowhere near as insane as Dawn’s.
“The Treatment,” by Daniel Menaker
Thirty-two-year-old wimpy teacher Jake Singer has a crazy Cuban, Catholic head doctor, who stars in this serio-comic Manhattan shrinkfest. Fascinatingly, Dr. Morales turns out to be dead-on about his patient’s need to grow balls. Bonus: Rent the recent fun movie starring Ian Holm as the last foul-mouthed Freudian.
