An Intriguing Series of Insights That Debunk Popular Myths.

In this eye-opening collection of eight essays, Dr. Geraldine K. Piorkowski writes about what she learned working with people from different walks of life, cultures, and socioeconomic levels. Besides reaffirming that all people are fundamentally the same, she discovered many psychological realities that run counter to popular culture. Among her insights is the observation that positive thinking is not always helpful, especially when it bypasses the normal processing of negative events and emotions. Another observation she makes is that our culture is obsessed with romantic love and mistakenly believes that romantic love is magical, enduring, and biological rather than the product of unresolved past and current psychological needs. She also notes that healthy narcissism is quite different from the unhealthy variety, which runs rampant in our culture, most notably in road rage. Healthy anger vs. dangerous rage, the appeal of vulnerability, the illusion of control, the role of luck (or chance) in everyday life, and the significance of empathy are other topics she covers provocatively and with much depth.

Dr. Geraldine K. Piorkowski is a retired clinical psychologist who received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Throughout her lengthy career, she worked in a variety of academic and clinical settings on the East coast and in the Midwest for over fifty years. Besides holding the position of Chair of the Psychology Department at Roosevelt University, Chicago, she was also on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Northwestern Medical School in Chicago. In addition, she was director of the counseling centers at two, large universities in the Midwest. She is the author of many psychological articles and two books on romantic love: “Too Close for Comfort: Exploring the Risks of Intimacy” and “Adult Children of Divorce: Confused Love Seekers.” Currently, she is on a local Board of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society and writes blog postings for “Psychology Today.” She lives in Chicago with her husband of 66 years. “Love, Luck, and Narcissism: When Popular Culture Gets It Wrong” is a second edition of “Beyond Pipe Dreams and Platitudes: Insights on Love, Luck, and Narcissism from a Longtime Psychologist,” published in 2021, with a new title.