Read more
Something particularly powerful happened to the author the first time he went to France in 1952 at the age of twenty.
It was a kind of liberation, like for a drop of water finding its optimal shape. It was not by any means trouble-free, yet being in France over the years was always liberating, helping him be himself. In this process, his efforts to learn the beauties of the French language played a major role. This book was a part of those efforts, as a way to help learning French, yes, but also in finding what felt to be the optimal shape of his identity.
About the author
Dr. Strauss, professor emeritus at Yale Medical School, is a renowned psychiatrist who specialized in understanding the long-term course of severe mental illness. His numerous professional awards and more than 200 published articles reflect his training by seminal gestalt psychologists such as Wolfgang Kohler and Solomon Asch and his study with Jean Piaget. But to sum up his life in this way would do his own personhood a disservice since it would neglect the equally-critical time spent sailing on the Great Lakes, hitchhiking across country, walking springer spaniels, leading writing groups in the US and Europe "Writing Creatively about Clinical Experiences," and having coffee and conversation with friends, colleagues and his children Sarah and Jeff. He lives in New Haven, CT.
