I am grateful to many who have assisted me in this venture. The members of Pegasus, my monthly group of Stanford doctors who write, critiqued several chapters. And special thanks to the founder of this group, Hans Steiner, and to my friend Randy Weingarten, a psychiatrist and poet, who proposed the chapter title “A Novice at Growing Old.” My thanks to my patients who have permitted me to describe incidents from therapy. In order to protect their confidentiality I have changed all names and deeply disguised all identifying details while attempting, at the same time, to convey certain truths of each encounter. My patients continually educate and inspire me. I was extremely fortunate to have Sam Douglas and Dan Gerstle as editors. Thanks to David Spiegel and, as always, to my literary agent Sandra Dijkstra and her associate, Andrea Cavallaro, who offered enthusiastic support from start to finish. Lifelong friends Julius Kaplan and Bea Glick helped jar my memory, as did my four children and seven grandchildren. And, most of all, to my beloved wife, Marilyn, who helped me recall events of long ago and served as my in-house editor-in-chief.