Elliott Jurist, PhD, uses memoir as a way to understand how patients experience therapy. Memoirs provide an unexplored place to hear from patients, separate from professional opinion. Drawing from diverse sources, Dr. Jurist argues that some memoirists see therapy as transformative, but others are equivocal or even negative. He also reflects upon how our beliefs about therapy have changed from the post-war era to today. The memoirists whom he address are Lucy Freeman, Rachel Reiland, Alison Bechdel, Melissa Febos, Hua Hsu, and Stephanie Foo.

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