Casper Kaplan is a psychologist with personal problems and difficult clients, including Julian, an obsessive epileptic, and Maureen, a professor who taunts Cap with dragon lady attire and lewd remarks and instigates an affair with Julian that is ultimately life-threatening.

Praise

In his debut novel, the author of two short-story collections ( Leningrad in Winter ; Lives of the Fathers ) offers a penetrating character study with psychotherapy as its base. So ingeniously representative--and dead on--is his depiction of contemporary mores that the work might well stand in the future as a vivid glimpse of the ways in which late-20th century Americans interpreted life's conundrums. Casper ("Cap") Kaplan is a middle-aged psychotherapist in a Colorado college town, dealing with such troubling--though occasionally predictable--scenarios as the arrival of his first child late in life, a schizophrenic brother and the death of a parent. Cap's professional life, too, is complicated by particularly difficult clients, with the result that he falls victim to acute depression, while his wife secretly enters therapy herself. Deft plotting adds an element of suspense, though readers may have difficulty keeping track of the characters' lineages and associated childhood traumas. And while the secrets and shame of these inner lives exert a certain fascination, the limitations of a purely therapeutic approach become apparent as Cap succumbs to the temptation to intervene in everyone's business. Nonetheless, this accomplished work proves stylistically engrossing and eminently readable.
–Publishers Weekly

Searching for growth and evaluating family ties, the characters in Therapy seek values and security while trying to conquer personal demons. They ask difficult questions of psychologist "Cap" Kaplan, who practices in their Colorado college town. Cap, in turn, questions his own motivations and the value of therapy in general, while groping with everyone's problems-his clients' as well as his own, which, somehow, have become intertwined. Does therapy help? Should he continue? Should clients' sessions continue? These are very real people whose real problems and extremely natural dialog will evoke readers' compassion and empathy. Recommended for general collections.
– School Library Journal

Cap Kaplan, a clinical psychologist in the fictional college town of Pierre, Colorado, and his wife, Wallis, have just survived the difficult birth of their first child, Claude, and a visit from Cap's determinedly eastern parents (Cap's father: "I thought you lived on the Rocky Mountain"). When Cap returns to his practice from paternity leave, he finds his clients more demanding than ever: handsome, epileptic Julian has discovered that bowling all night makes his medicine obsolete; Professor Maureen Kels is more interested in bedding Cap than understanding herself; and elderly, prim Wilmella loves the chance for an outing, not the opportunity to cure her panic attacks. Amid the professional therapy--Cap's patients; his schizophrenic brother, Allan; his enigmatic mentor, Armond--Cap and Willis learn the value of parenting and, perhaps, finally, of being parented. Schwartz--winner of two O. Henry Awards, the Nelson Algren Award, and author of two highly praised story collections--has penned a touching, hilarious first novel. An unrelenting comic energy runs through these pages, but Schwartz shifts seamlessly from the most delightfully comic aspects of life to the most tragic. A delightful, thoughtful read.
–Booklist

“Therapy is an expansive, intelligent novel which is by clever twists and turns tragic, comic and transforming--not unlike the best kind of therapy itself.”
–Washington Post