EVERY FAMILY HAS A STORY
HOW WE INHERIT LOVE AND LOSS
JULIA SAMUEL
Penguin life, 320pp, £14.99
The psychotherapist Julia Samuel admits she comes from a family of ‘great privilege and multiple trauma’, but in this book offers up eight other families for psychoanalysis. ‘Her latest work embraces the trend for fly-on-the-wall analysis, such as the hit documentary series Couples Therapy, ’ Jackie Annesley observed in the Sunday Times. ‘Samuel’s scenarios are equally captivating.’
They ‘have been carefully chosen’, Kate Kellaway noted in the Guardian. ‘They are diverse in ethnicity, sexuality, economic circumstances and in the issues they raise: divorce, bereavement, same-sex marriage and adoption, addiction, empty nest syndrome… The effect is at times almost too schematic, but the Samuel magic continues to obtain. She shows there is no family tree without its gnarled complexity.’
‘The overwhelming sense is that, for better or worse, we are “trapped” within our families … We can never leave them, ’ Bel Mooney wrote in the However, ‘One of the most impressive features of this engrossing book is Julia Samuel’s extraordinary personal honesty… In the eight case studies we are gently guided, along with the participants, towards a deeper understanding of the importance of honesty, self-examination and communication within all relationships.’ Not only does Samuel nudge each family towards a deeper understanding of each other, but she
