This book documents a series of psychiatric consultations between the author and her therapist as she manages dysthymia, a state of persistent, low-grade depression. The narrative consists primarily of transcribed dialogue, capturing Se-hee’s struggles with self-loathing, social anxiety, and the contradictory urge to seek validation while pushing people away. These sessions analyze her daily emotional triggers and the repetitive thought patterns that leave her feeling empty despite her functional public life. The text focuses on the specific tension between her desire for self-destruction and her lingering appetite for small, earthly comforts like spicy rice cakes.
Readers who feel a quiet, constant dissatisfaction with life despite a lack of obvious trauma find a mirror in these transcripts. It addresses people navigating the middle ground between acute crisis and total wellness. Instead of offering structured clinical advice, the book provides a record of a person learning to live with their own psyche without an immediate cure. The reader finishes the book with a recognition of their own internal hypocrisies and the realization that enjoying small pleasures is possible even while managing chronic mental distress.
Inward-looking and contemplative; an easy read.
Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2018
- Language
- EN
