Group: Six People in Search of a Life

"It's painful to listen to yourself, at least in the beginning, but the alternative is endless suffering", says Dr. Lathon (a pseudonym, as are all the names in the book), the therapist of this group. This book is not a self-help text, says author Paul Solotaroff, but a "work of narrative journalism" perceptively documenting five highly successful, tremendously self-destructive people living through a year of the powerhouse theatre of group therapy. With much intense emotional ditch-digging, Lathon teaches the group his vocabulary (pain is not to be confused with suffering) and helps them become acquainted with the texts of their wounds and wishes.

Solotaroff, who was once a participant in an earlier group with Lathon, is an accomplished writer who vividly brings his subjects to life. Their troubles run the gamut of dysfunction, encompassing every flavour of anaesthesia--sex, food, drugs, TV, alcohol, shopping, overwork and destructive relationships. Raw and surprisingly candid, these are real individuals fighting some of life's harshest battles; not everyone survives emotionally to tell the tale. The wealth of surprises and final twist at the book's conclusion will keep readers riveted up to the last page. Whether group therapy is ultimately an effective treatment or symptom of the pathologising of navel-gazing, Group is a powerful narrative of our time. --Fiona Buckland

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you're the sort of person who sees the "talking cure" as the American disease, then the thought of reading an account of a New York therapy group might have you running screaming for the exit. However, that would be a mistake. Group: Six People in Search of a Life is a riveting, compulsively readable account of five people and their struggle to transform their lives.

"It's painful to listen to yourself, at least in the beginning, but the alternative is endless suffering", says Dr. Lathon (a pseudonym, as are all the names in the book), the therapist of this group. This book is not a self-help text, says author Paul Solotaroff, but a "work of narrative journalism" perceptively documenting five highly-successful, tremendously self-destructive people living through a year of the powerhouse theatre of group therapy. With much intense emotional ditch-digging, Lathon teaches the group his vocabulary (pain is not to be confused with suffering) and helps them become acquainted with the texts of their wounds and wishes.

Solotaroff, who was once a participant in an earlier group with Lathon, is an accomplished writer who vividly brings his subjects to life. Their troubles run the gamut of dysfunction, encompassing every flavour of anaesthesia--sex, food, drugs, TV, alcohol, shopping, overwork and destructive relationships. Raw and surprisingly candid, these are real individuals fighting some of life's harshest battles; not everyone survives emotionally to tell the tale. The wealth of surprises and final twist at the book's conclusion will keep readers riveted up to the last page. Whether group therapy is ultimately an effective treatment or symptom of the pathologising of navel-gazing, Group is a powerful narrative of our time.--Fiona Buckland

I recommend it strongly.


if you're nosey by nature you'll enjoy this book   March 20, 2001
Group is the story of six New Yorkers, each with their own problems who seek help from therapy. It follows their personal 'stories' over the one year course of group therapy, recounting the high and lows and charting the relationships formed (and in some cases not) between the members. If you are of a curious disposition, or just downright nosey like me, then you should really enjoy it! Well written and with such pace I had to keep reminding myself that this was not a work of fiction - these are real people with real problems, which makes the revalation at the end of the book even more shocking!


As a Graduate student in counseling, It's "Outstanding"   September 2, 1999
Paul Solotaroff takes a very personel look into the world of Group Therapy. Revealing, mind provoking and entertaining all rolled into one. Reading this collection of personel stories, one can't help to take inventory of their our life's story. As a Graduate student in counseling this takes your from the textbooks to the the real world. It's all real and it's all good.


This book is the real stuff   August 28, 1999
No bunk. This is what therapy is supposed to be about. This is what life-changing therapy is really like. Not easy, not fun, but hard, gut-wrenching work that can change lives for the better. I highly recommend this book. Not only does it tell the truth about good group therapy, it's also entertaining, gripping, and a great read.


Group Therapy--delightfully free of psycho babble   August 13, 1999
Combining drum-tight writing with breathtaking insight, author Solotaroff allows you to eavesdrop along with him on the might and majesty of Dr. Lathon's brilliantly crafted methodology for Group therapy.

While emphatically not a how-to book, only the most defended of readers will fail to find applicable wisdom here. Hats off to author, doctor and most of all to the group that allowed its story-- so credible and so human in its imperfection--to be told.