This book was unreadable to me. I couldn’t understand how any of it was formatted or how to follow. It was way too confusing for me.

Well I did plough through it, but have to admit that whilst other readers may be delighted by the surrealistic style this novel is written it, I did find myself getting bogged down with it.

It follows the life, work and ruminations of Dr Max, a psychiatrist and about his i teractipns with his patients, and with the stories he tells them. He sees patients both in the hospital and at home through his private practise. He listens to their preposterous stories and prescribes, in fact at the beginning especially, he does tend to prescribe rather a lot of pills.

On one level, the concerns of his patients, those of the worried well, as Dr Max indeed ruminates on those of his own, are banal, and venal. Marriage concerns, whether or not to chuck or leave the job, paying taxes, how the bowels are performing. O è of his characters is pronounced dead, but then there is the question of how to exsin that to the taxman, and how the spouse will benefit.

Other tales become wildly hallucinatory, where characters morph into table legs, insects, mice or birds, and then end up in Lilliputian worlds of mice and birds.

One patient, a boy called Guy, appears to be in hospital because he cannot make friends as and his mother never really owns him..

Towards the end of the novel, the names of his characters succeed ever-more quickly as they emerge from other planets and universes, with just-as many questions about the meaning of life.

For sheer inventiveness then, this set of intertwined tales cannot be faulted. This novel could be compared to that of Jonathan Swift, or Calvino, often interspersed with humour over the ways our psychoses and neuroses span out.

At over 600 pages and little in the way of more character stories that could have been explored, this set of tall tales did seem to creak a little over its own weight. It should appeal to those readers who e joy this ki d of anti-realist zsniness, however.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

I was incredibly excited to read this book based on the title alone. Who doesn't love some juicy psych stories about their interesting cases?! Unfortunately, I was poorly mistaken. This book was ... horribly written. It was boring. It was just SO difficult to get through based on those two things alone.

Don't waste your time. ;/

Despite the compelling title and my own love of psychology, I found this text to be greatly disappointing. While I expected something along the lines of an Oliver Saks text, full of insight into clinical cases, I was disappointed to find that these tales seemed to be written for shock value only and lacked any insight. In hindsight, the lack of a full name for the author was a red flag. Definitely not a purchase I'll be recommending to my library or my patrons.

Poorly written and quite boring. Not a book I'd recommend, it needs a good editor to go through it before publication

As a reader with experience working in and participating in numerous mental health communities, I had high hopes for this book. It's touted as a unique collection of patient stories psychiatrist Doctor Zak has heard in his office over the years. Suffering from mental illness himself, Dr. Zak works to understand the core of each patient’s issues and the challenges they face, according to the book's description.
True to the description, this book is a surreal and unusual journey. Unfortunately, it does not help readers understand the highly unusual journeys his patients go through or contemplate timeless questions about our purpose, free will or suffering. Instead, the stories told do not make sense, include plenty of sexual references and profanity, and meander. I read the first few chapters but then skimmed to the end. I was hoping to find closure, but the end included the same disjointed stories as the rest of the book. Overall, very disappointing.

The description sounded interesting to me, however this book was so disjointed and hard to follow that I could not finish it.

I am giving The Psychiatrist Who Believed He Was a Wolf and Other Clinical Episodes three stars. I rate using the Goodreads guidelines / rating scale so 3 stars = "I liked it."

The Psychiatrist Who Believed He Was a Wolf and Other Clinical Episodes has "something for everyone." Seriously, there is a story that will appeal to everyone who loves psychology in its most umbrella of terms. Furthermore, there may even be a story that is enjoyable to a reader who typically does not enjoy this particular topic. I started my studies in psychology and remain interested in this field, particularly mood and personality disorders.

I have always been a reader of novels. I think this is (maybe) the fourth book of short stories I have read, ever. Typically, short stories just don't tickle my fancy, but this was an exception to that rule.

As I have stated in many of my reviews and in my NetGalley profile, I am not one who will summarize plots or go spelunking for the deeper, hidden meanings in an author's work. I write reviews to share if a book is good, bad, worth the time, etc. - and I am writing today to tell all my fellow bibliophiles that The Psychiatrist Who Believed He Was a Wolf and Other Clinical Episodes is worth the time it takes to read it. Furthermore, if you don't like psych, or if you don't particularly care for short stories, pick this book up anyways because you will find an aspect of it you will enjoy.