This book is a mix of Sheldon Kopp's personal life and professional story, his views on the nature of therapy and its possibilities, and his recounting of religious or legendary tales of gurus and pilgrimages as a metaphor for therapy. One of his central themes - that the client must eventually realise their therapist is as much of a journeying pilgrim as they are in order to benefit from the therapy - is helpful, even if the pilgrims' tales occupy rather more space in the book than they probably deserve in order to make the point. It is his honesty in writing about his personal suffering and journey, including his own loneliness, illness, and suicidal despair that bring the book to life for me. In keeping with his central theme, it helps to remind me that therapists too are allowed to feel helpless, lost, evil, lonely and weak simply by virtue of being human. Kopp is a very quotable writer, and throughout his perspective is very existential in orientation, even if he never uses that term. One small quibble are a couple of references to homosexuality as deviant or misguided - perhaps this was a more common attitude in the early 1970s, even among therapists.