What do you think?
Rate this book
Vertical and Horizontal
product_description
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1963
19 people want to read
About the author
Lillian Ross
44 books23 followersLillian Ross was an American journalist and author, who was a staff writer at The New Yorker from 1945 until she retired.
Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 29, 2017
A satire on the medical and psychoanalytic world of Manhattan in the early 1960s.
I believe that the book was either compiled of, or based of, short pieces that Lillian Ross wrote for The New Yorker, and this fragmentary nature is clear. Most of the book revolves around Dr. Spenser, a bachelor internist who likes to think of himself as well-informed and well-intentioned. All he's waiting for is a nice young Barnard-educated girl to be proper wife material before he settles down - provided she gets the official blessing of his psychoanalyst, Dr. Birnbaum.
The truth is, of course, that Spenser is a crashing bore, Dr. Birnbaum a charlatan, and that the relationship between the two medicos goes well beyond the mutual referring of patients. When Dr. Spenser is horizontal in Dr. Birnbaum's office, he talks about himself (as is his right as a psychoanalytic patient). But when he's vertical, he talks about his patients, friends and family in a way that breaks every rule of patient-physician confidentiality. Because Spenser takes no step, makes no decision, without the green-light from his psychoanalytical guru. In this he is not alone, for this is Manhattan in early 1963 and half of Manhattan spends one hour every weekday on the therapeutic couch. And quacks like Dr. Birnbaum can get away with quite an incredible amount of influence on their patients' lives. There are a couple of cringe-inducing scenes in the book where Dr. Birnbaum tries to convince an essentially happy-go-lucky young musician that he's a deeply troubled wreck - and the reader cheers when the patient's family revolts and drags him out of the office. Dr. Spenser is not an actively bad person, just totally empty and clueless - and his one redeeming quality is that he is not a bad diagnostician and that his bedside manner may work for some patients.
Very funny in some spots, cringe-inducing in other spots. Ideal for people who would like to see the medical or psychotherapeutic profession skewered!
I believe that the book was either compiled of, or based of, short pieces that Lillian Ross wrote for The New Yorker, and this fragmentary nature is clear. Most of the book revolves around Dr. Spenser, a bachelor internist who likes to think of himself as well-informed and well-intentioned. All he's waiting for is a nice young Barnard-educated girl to be proper wife material before he settles down - provided she gets the official blessing of his psychoanalyst, Dr. Birnbaum.
The truth is, of course, that Spenser is a crashing bore, Dr. Birnbaum a charlatan, and that the relationship between the two medicos goes well beyond the mutual referring of patients. When Dr. Spenser is horizontal in Dr. Birnbaum's office, he talks about himself (as is his right as a psychoanalytic patient). But when he's vertical, he talks about his patients, friends and family in a way that breaks every rule of patient-physician confidentiality. Because Spenser takes no step, makes no decision, without the green-light from his psychoanalytical guru. In this he is not alone, for this is Manhattan in early 1963 and half of Manhattan spends one hour every weekday on the therapeutic couch. And quacks like Dr. Birnbaum can get away with quite an incredible amount of influence on their patients' lives. There are a couple of cringe-inducing scenes in the book where Dr. Birnbaum tries to convince an essentially happy-go-lucky young musician that he's a deeply troubled wreck - and the reader cheers when the patient's family revolts and drags him out of the office. Dr. Spenser is not an actively bad person, just totally empty and clueless - and his one redeeming quality is that he is not a bad diagnostician and that his bedside manner may work for some patients.
Very funny in some spots, cringe-inducing in other spots. Ideal for people who would like to see the medical or psychotherapeutic profession skewered!
Read
February 19, 2025This book has to be seen in the context of the era in which it was written to be fully appreciated. Psychoanalysts were then treated as spiritual leaders, sages, healers with arcane wisdom to ease our pain. Many even claimed to be able to successful treat cancer and some said that they could cure it. Predictably, many were windbags willing to pontificate their particular brand of science fiction at every opportunity. Some, most often the women, were very good therapists. A large percentage were new to the middle class and were eager to broadcast their newly acquired luxuries to each other.
I was working in the mist of this crew at that time thus book was written.. I liked some, but most were the jerks that Ross so skillfully lampooned. Was she ruthless? Not as much as authors who criticized psychoanalysis as a pseudscience which cured patients far less frequently than any placebo, while making some worse. Realistically, most of those in this book weren't as bad as the real life counterparts I had to work with. Some of these might have telephoned that young musician and told him that unless he returned to their couch, he would soon be in a mental hospital.
Ross did a magnificent job of showing the vanity, insensitivity, and juvenile ambitions of what were cultural icons. Since psychoanalysis has just about disappeared, the low keyed but sharp criticism of those Ross was skewering has lost much of its bite.
By the way, those analysts who read these stories most often decided that Ross wrote them because her personality had been damaged by a bad psychoanalysis. All critics of psychoanalysis were considered crazy you know
I was working in the mist of this crew at that time thus book was written.. I liked some, but most were the jerks that Ross so skillfully lampooned. Was she ruthless? Not as much as authors who criticized psychoanalysis as a pseudscience which cured patients far less frequently than any placebo, while making some worse. Realistically, most of those in this book weren't as bad as the real life counterparts I had to work with. Some of these might have telephoned that young musician and told him that unless he returned to their couch, he would soon be in a mental hospital.
Ross did a magnificent job of showing the vanity, insensitivity, and juvenile ambitions of what were cultural icons. Since psychoanalysis has just about disappeared, the low keyed but sharp criticism of those Ross was skewering has lost much of its bite.
By the way, those analysts who read these stories most often decided that Ross wrote them because her personality had been damaged by a bad psychoanalysis. All critics of psychoanalysis were considered crazy you know
January 2, 2010
For anyone who loves or hates psychoanalysis, or New York, or has a sense of humor. Good stuff!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews