A soft-spoken student who was once a violent hit man, an elderly man tormented by memories of wartime imprisonment, a fortune-teller who finds his therapist inscrutable, a woman who can't get satisfaction from her mother or her therapist . . . These are just a few of the intriguing patients treated by Gerald Amada during nearly forty years of practice as a psychotherapist. From the ridiculous to the tragic, the tales of Amada's treatment of unusual patients are fascinating, disturbing, and utterly engrossing. Amada not only lets us peek into his office but also leads us into the hearts and minds of his patients and himself.

Although society encourages us to deny and repress such negative emotions as rage and resentment, psychiatrists know that such denial can lead to a variety of psychological, physical, and social problems. In this bold book, Gerald Amada reveals how our forbidden emotions, if properly understood and accepted, can actually be transformed into behavior that is both personally fulfilling and socially constructive.