The Listener: A Psychoanalyst Examines His Life

The story begins with his parents' life of poverty in rural Texas. When Wheelis was a small boy, his father contracted tuberculosis. He spent several years dying, exercising a tyrannical control over his family. In one searing scene, Wheelis is made to cut the lawn with a razor, a task that occupies every day of his summer. Timidity, insecurity and a cloyingly close connection to his mother mark Wheelis' efforts to establish himself in the adult world. When trying to write a novel as a young man, he falls mysteriously ill. Eventually he realizes that he has made himself ill so that his failure to write can be excused. This perception leads him to the study of medicine and eventually psychiatry. As Wheelis turns his explanatory lens on the dark corners of his own life, we come to understand how a gift for analysis--like a gift for prophecy--brings little comfort to its possessor and no guarantee of happiness.

Author: Allen Wheelis
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 09/01/1999
Pages: 260
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.59d
ISBN: 9780393336375

About the Author
Wheelis, Allen: - Allen Wheelis is a celebrated psychoanalyst and philosopher whose books include How People Change and The Illusionless Man. He lives in San Francisco, California.