The premise of this interesting book is that the feeling we have of being “out of control” is in fact the beginning of our deepest wisdom. Courtney Tracy, known as “The Truth Doctor” on TikTok, is a neurodivergent licensed therapist who also shares a lot of personal stories as she offers advice for readers wanting to explore why they see themselves a certain way and why they react in the ways in they do.
Her style is casual, and readers bothered by TikTok language should steer clear. Chapter 1, for example, begins playfully with “Before I became a therapist, I was a bitch…. Bitches act like they’re in control. Therapists know they’re not.” And the f-word appears often.
This is a book about kindness and compassion toward yourself. It’s a book about you. Especially if you’ve said before, “I can’t change.”
Tracy wants us to stop referring to the “subconscious,” a term that’s been around for more than 300 years and was most notably put into common use through the work of C.G. Jung. Sub- makes it seem inaccessible and unknowable. Tracy is all about the “unconscious,” instead, and she says playfully and often that “it’s showing.” You can learn about it and put it to use for your happiness.
“Your unconscious controls at least 95 percent of all of your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and perspectives. Yet, your consciousness takes most of the credit for it.”
Part One is about shifting your understanding. Part Two, she boldly offers, “is a guide for changing your life.” Every chapter is divided into short sections punctuated by designs, cartoons, line-drawn illustrations, “truth takeaways,” summaries at the end of chapters, and practices introduced in several steps. The reader is made to feel at ease. You get the sense of this in the chapter title for Chapter 7: “See Yourself: Self-Awareness and Self-Acceptance, Steps 1, 2, 3, and 4.”
