San Francisco Tenderloin: True Stories of Heroes, Demons, Angels, Outcasts and a Psychotherapist - Tapa blanda

How people view the San Francisco Tenderloin and psychotherapy should drastically change after reading this nonfiction book, which demystifies both. The first chapter chronicles the Tenderloin's stamina in surviving for over a hundred years as a necessary part of San Francisco. The remaining 25 chapters invite further controversy as readers learn how psychotherapy works, why it fails, and the ethical dilemmas of the author. Each of these chapters humanizes the Tenderloin with stories of extraordinary residents and patients, their unusual relationship with the author. It reveals how he learned to respect and trust these outcasts and misfits, even with his life.

Dr. Larry Wonderling is well qualified to write a book about the San Francisco Tenderloin and its people. As a native of San Francisco, some of his earliest personal experiences were in the Tenderloin, where he was first exposed to gentle winos and tough bars in the late 1940's. A clinical psychologist with over forty years of professional experience, he was well respected in the San Francisco community. Dedicated to helping the disadvantaged, his clinical practice was almost exclusively with Tenderloin clients for over twenty years. His non-profit charity for the poor still exists. He was also an international cross-cultural consultant who wrote numerous papers and articles about an individual's struggle to survive in complex modern cultures, which inspired his first book, SEDUCTIVE ILLUSIONS.