The Curtain: Stories of Human Love and Personality - Perfect for Book Clubs, Gifts & Thoughtful Reading

In a world brimming with information about self-love, this book digs into a different and complex area of our humanity: maybe we aren’t just needing to love one self, but rather our many selves that come to the stage in the inevitable drama of our life."We often dissociate or compartmentalize parts of self because we can’t handle the conflict inside of us, but in order to feel more whole, we might have to invite those unlikable selves onto the stage, sometimes to fight it out." In his own quest to know and love himself, Brian J. Pendergast began his journey in therapy in his twenties. He has since become a psychoanalyst and psychotherapist, working with people clinically across all walks of life for more than a decade. In The Curtain: Tales of Human Love and Personality, he takes on a new angle of mental health that is growing in its understanding: the idea that we are all multiple in who we are. Brian thematically unpacks these ideas through the metaphor of a theater stage, and does so in multiple ways: utilizing neuroscience and clinical experience, practical analogies for selfhood, as well as memoir-style storytelling of how he has experienced and processed his own adventure with multiplicity of self. Exploring trauma, dissociation, and emotional regulation, he gives us a comprehensive picture of how self love is found: in embracing the many selves that exist within and among us. If you enjoy learning about the mind and how to better your life and mental health, and appreciate some good (and humorous) storytelling along the way, this book is for you.