Shadows and Echoes - Softcover

Silverman, Stan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1483674258 ISBN 13: 9781483674254

Publisher: XLIBRIS, 2013

Synopsis

At the age of fifty-five and in the grasp of the realization of more years behind than in front of me, I felt a need to stop and look at not just where I was but where I had been, where I came from. For too long, I felt stuck in the past. Shadows and Echoes evolved as an opportunity to re-live past experiences and re-capture the people who influenced me the most. It was time to gain new insights; for finding answers to the over-arching question: "Why I am what I am." Looking at one's life when in his mid-fifties I believe, is not unusual, though for most, the past is probably only a segment of one's life, an interval with fairly well-defined parameters. This was not the case with me, until I began to write. Encapsulating aspects of my life and personal influences, Shadows and Echoes originated as a strict narrative, a composite journaling if you will, for the benefit of my daughters. A change in the setting-fictionalized between psychiatrist and patient- added interaction and subtle nuances associated with the psychotherapeutic arena. That change gives the reader a focused relatable appeal. Personally, I found this freeing and to a great extent, stabilizing. Readers, I believe, will share similar ends, whether their "look-back" is joyful, sad, and/or wistful, or some combination. With religion as the fulcrum, earlier foundations and broader issues are stressed, i.e. childhood and family dynamics and the post-World War II confluence of identity, assimilation, and anti-Semitism. In my late adolescence, for a variety of reasons our family left that safe, monolithic, supportive "cocoon" I had known and loved. It was this breach that seemed to change everything: my academic dismissal from college that propelled me into a premature marriage; career identity diffusion; a second failed marriage, and a series of relationships. Given his centrality in my life, much content was devoted to my father. He was my best friend and me

About this title

About the Author

Stan Silverman holds a Ph.D. in Human Development- College of Education from the University of Maryland (1994), where he completed his dissertation on "An Exploratory Study of the Effects of Humor on Depression and Hopelessness of Incarcerated Males." He earned an MS degree in Health Science Administration from Towson University (1981). He is a retired psychotherapist who was born and raised and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. As a psychotherapist, he worked with adolescents, baby boomers, and the geriatric populations, experiences which influenced his acceptance of causality over the life span. The older population, with its sensitive and emotional retrospection, offered a particular perspective tinged with forks-in-the-road, losses, changes, and regrets; factors that buttressed his own views and gave an impetus to much of his writing. He is currently working on his second book, Mazel, which explores how luck influences our lives in a variety of contexts. Stan has two daughters and a granddaughter.

Edition details

• Publisher: XLIBRIS
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1483674258
• ISBN 13: 9781483674254
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 344