Stephen Grosz

Stephen Grosz has the rare, enviable ability to combine non-fiction analysis with beautiful, captivating storytelling. His psychoanalytic accounts are backed by decades of experience, yet his stories read like parables, with moral lessons that apply to every reader. Each scientific analysis is compared with astute observations that make psychoanalysis more accessible than it has ever been before.

Stephen Grosz: biography

Stephen Grosz was born in Indiana, USA, in 1952. He attended the University of California, where he studied psychology and politics, and later studied at Baliol College in Oxford, England.

By 17, Grosz knew he wanted to be a psychoanalyst, citing Sigmund Freud's (1856-1939)The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) as an early inspiration. Grosz found gripping both Freud's psychoanalytic methods and his flair for storytelling.

Fig 1. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is considered the father of psychoanalysis. One of his patient accounts, The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), was an early inspiration for Grosz.

Grosz has worked as a psychoanalyst for his entire adult life, successfully treating patients from various backgrounds. After a decade-long lecturing role at University College London, Grosz began writing for the Financial Times. He used his weekly column to reflect on his career as a psychoanalyst and discuss lessons he has learned from experience.

Stephen Grosz: books

Stephen Grosz has written many non-fiction essays and technical papers. His work has been published in notable literary journals. For example, his article titled 'On Waking from a Dream' (2012) was published in Granta, a literary magazine dedicated to the power of storytelling.

The publication in Granta shows a lot about Stephen. By his own account, he has always enjoyed the art of storytelling as a powerful psychoanalytic tool. He believes that conversation is at the heart of psychoanalysis and has always searched for ways to transfer his knowledge to the page in an accessible way. Stephen realised that to make psychoanalysis more approachable, he needed to tell the narratives in a candid, intimate fashion. Collecting the stories into an accessible full-length book seemed the perfect way to achieve this.

Stephen published his first book, The Examined Life: How We Find and Lose Ourselves, in 2013. The book contains 30 chapters, each narrating a tale about a patient that Stephen has treated over his career. He cited many short-story writers as inspiration for his writing style. These include John Cheever (1912-1982), Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), Raymond Carver (1938-1988), Franz Kafka (1883-1924), and Andre Dubus (1936-1999).

Upon its release, The Examined Life was nominated for the 2013 Guardian First Book Award. It was also chosen as one of the Books of the Year in The New York Times, Observer, Sunday Times and Mail on Sunday. It has also been translated into over 25 languages.

The Examined Life by Stephen Grosz

The Examined Life is a culmination of Grosz's 25 years of experience as a psychoanalyst. The book contains an illuminating collection of patient histories, stories and accounts the author has collected over a long and captivating career. Grosz boils down complex cases into simple, inspiring tales with important morals. The stories read more like parables than traditional psychoanalytic reports; this is by intent. Grosz's ability to illuminate hidden truths and teach crucial lessons has led his work to be compared to that of famous Russian short-story writer Anton Chekhov.

The book is not an argument in favour of psychoanalysis, although it does provide a compelling case for its place in the modern world. Grosz's lessons aren't bound to the field of psychology; the book is instead designed to apply to people from all walks of life. To aid with this, Grosz refrains from including psychoanalytic jargon, helping the book remain accessible to a broader audience.

Psychoanalysis is a collection of theories dealing with the unconscious. A psychoanalyst aims to tap into the mind to reveal the hidden meaning behind people's thoughts and feelings.

The main aim of The Examined Life is to explore why people think and act in specific ways. Each unique case stands on its own, tackles a unique topic, and introduces an important lesson. While Grosz does advocate for the benefits of psychoanalysis, he balances this by revealing the shortcomings of his theories. What results is an honest, genuine insight into the mysterious world of psychoanalysis.

The Examined Life is based on the values Grosz sees as 'the core of psychoanalysis'. He believes that change always derives from loss and that only when people acknowledge their loss can they truly begin to heal and evolve. He has also stated that the ultimate goal of psychoanalysis is to search for the truth.

Stephen Grosz: quotes

Grosz's work is inherently quotable. His ability to reduce complex psychoanalytic theory into concise, insightful lessons means much of his work can be appreciated and understood by people from all walks of life, even without complete context.

Many of the lessons in Grosz's book revolve around grief and how it affects people. Here he argues that loss instils change in those that acknowledge it.

Here Grosz argues that closure is a way of lying to oneself, as it is based on the wrongful belief that it will make grief disappear. In Grosz's view, the only way to cope with grief is to acknowledge and understand it. This allows a person to tackle their emotions healthily.

For Grosz, the most critical way to tackle grief is to give people the space to tell stories that help them understand themselves. Telling stories is at the heart of successful psychoanalysis.

In this quote, Grosz offers a new perspective on a theory. One of Grosz's missions is to make psychoanalysis accessible to everyone. He achieves this in part by distancing himself from common tropes and taking a humanistic approach to his work. This candid, honest approach makes readers trust him, helping his work appeal to a broader audience.

Stephen Grosz: about

• Grosz cites his two children as inspiration for The Examined Life, stating that he wanted to use the book to pass down important lessons to them.
• The Examined Life won the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week award in 2013. Select stories were also read aloud in a five-episode special.
• Grosz taught 'The Case History' seminar course in Theoretical Psychoanalytic Studies at University College London between 1999 and 2009.
• Grosz got married to his wife Nicola at 50 years old. They have two children.
• In The Examined Life, all of the stories are entirely true. Grosz changed all of the names in the book to preserve his patients' anonymity.