Hatching Charlie: A Psychotherapist's Tale - Softcover

Reseña del editor

Hatching Charlie is the odyssey of psychotherapist Charles McCormack that begins in episodic violence and the segregationist South then moves to a boarding school in France where he is abandoned. Unable to speak the language Charlie is isolated and bullied. Without the love and protection of family or friends, he becomes anxious and depressed. He begins a desperate quest to make sense of a world that has gone mad and of the relationships that allowed it to happen, a drive for understanding that will shape the rest of his life. He wonders about things most people take for granted: love, loving, life, death, family, son-hood, spouse-hood, fatherhood and grand fatherhood. Charlie strives to understand "How to create a life worth living: a personally meaningful life?" The going is not easy. Charlie encounters many failures in his life before discovering his calling. Then, while working blue-collar jobs to support his family he obtains degrees in psychology and social work. Then, as a therapist, he suffers PTSD following a patient’s suicide, begins writing, is published, and invited to join the faculty of a prestigious psychoanalytically oriented training institute. Subsequently, he is named Clinical Social Worker of the Year in Maryland and promoted to Senior Social Worker of Adult Long-Term Inpatient Services at a renowned psychiatric hospital. Finally, he writes a book entitled “Treating Borderline States in Marriage: Dealing with Oppositionalism, Ruthless Aggression, and Severe Resistance”. Yet, as his career trajectory rises his personal life plummets. He is confronted by mental illness in his own family, becomes a single-parent father and divorces, all the while continuing to struggle to answer those early questions. Now, armed by decades of thinking, training, and helping others Charlie confronts the impact of his childhood traumas on his personal capacity for love and loving, and of creating a personally meaningful life. As you read "Hatching Charlie" you'll find elements of your own journey in his and his answers will surprise yet resonate. What people are saying: ..."Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "Hatching Charlie: A Psychotherapist's Tale" is an inherently fascinating, thoughtful, and thought-provoking read from beginning to end. While unreservedly recommended for both community and academic library Contemporary American Biography collections, “Hatching Charlie” will also prove to be of immense interest to the supplemental studies reading lists of psychology students as well.” Midwest Book Review ..."You’ll read your story in this beautiful book. Then you’ll wake up, determined to embrace life, your life, broken as it is, and to make some meaning out of the broken pieces." Reader's Favorite ..."...compelling. If I’d had more time, I’d probably have read it in one sitting...the book truly covers the full gamut of human experience – warmth, love, friendship, loneliness, unhappiness, violence, despair: life and death." Literary Titan ... "Socrates famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. By reading about how others, such as McCormack, have examined their lives, perhaps this task is made a little easier for the rest of us." Portland Book Review. ... It was amazing. Intriguing, Powerful, Insightful, Compelling, Fantastic Read! I Loved It!" Goodreads Review. ..."I purchased it in audio formats and I have listened to it twice. It is insightful and well written... I found it inspirational!" Facebook Comment. ... “Hatching Charlie” brought me to the edge of the storm. My congratulations and love to Charles McCormack for his perseverance, tenacity and fine, fine authentic work. What a weighted puzzle, what a multi-headed monster, an endless confronting and grappling, which he tells us all about in such fabulously clear and uncompromised language.” Goodreads Review ...A 2017 11th Annual National Indie Excellence Book Awards Finalist. ...Silver Award Winner, Literary Titan Awards

Biografía del autor

Charles C. McCormack, MA, MSW, LCSW-C, has a master's in psychology from Loyola College and a master’s in psychiatric social work from the University of Maryland. He is the author of the 1989 article “The Borderline/Schizoid Marriage: The Holding Environment as an Essential Treatment Construct” and the book Treating Borderline States in Marriage: Dealing with Oppositionalism, Ruthless Aggression, and Severe Resistance (2000). From 1988-1992 McCormack was the Senior Social Worker of Adult Inpatient Services at Sheppard-Pratt Psychiatric Hospital where he was also the first social worker in its history to be invited to join the Teaching and Supervisory faculty. McCormack also invited as Guest Faculty of the Washington School of Psychiatry, a role he performed for many years.

McCormack has spoken extensively around the United States and Canada on treating difficult to treat individuals and couples. His entire biography can be seen at www.hatchingcharlie.com

McCormack was named clinician of the year in 1994 by the Maryland Society of Clinical Social Workers. He is married with three children and eight grandchildren and lives on the Bush River, off the Chesapeake Bay, in Aberdeen, Maryland.