Kill Him! The Pilgrimage of Psychotherapy Patients

I read this book when it first came out in the 70s. I was impressed then and was impressed again when I read it this time. No complaints there.

This is a book written by a psychotherapist for psychotherapists and patients of psychotherapy. I am neither, but there are good thoughts and things of great worth to me between these covers.

The book itself, though newly printed and bound, was rather cheaply put-together. I am careful with my books, but several pages just fell out of this paperback while I was going through it. The book will not survive another reading. I don't expect paperback books to last forever, but I do want them to survive more than a single reading intact, if only for the sake of the trees they are made from.

There are works that are timeless and apply to any generation or society. This is not one of them. It certainly cites timeless works ad nauseam, but offers nothing new or insightful. References to dated social problems and terms do little to help this. The vast majority of the rest of the work seems to me to be a tour of the author's past, from his days as a "Hipster", to his early days as a psychotherapist, and several patients he has worked with in his career. All that said, I will be fair and say that there /may/ be 2 pages (or 1 page, 2 sides) of thought-provoking observations by the author. There is a certain disingenuous quality to a psychotherapist writing a book whose premise is that you need neither the psychotherapist nor the book in the first place. So why write it? It does happen to further the argument that there are no answers in books...Maybe that was the purpose in the first place.

...or, at least, i think i'm gonna love it; haven't had the chance to more than skim over a few pages and passages...i may have other books to read b-4 getting around to what appears to be a very interesting read...

I originally read this book about 35 years ago and have recommended it to others. I recently bought two copies of the book from the store to give as gifts.
It is a good tool for self-learning and self-examination.

Very Old Thinking, depressing and out of date for 2014.
Bought the book because I heard about it on a TV show I loved.
I'm sure I got something out of it, but not sure what it is.
Best part of the book is the Title, which basically says it all.

the book came in a timely manner. i expected a worn book but this one definitely look like it was one of the original books from the 80s. other than that, fast shipping, it served it's purpose for my class

If Kopp’s title seems gratuitously bellicose and totally inappropriate for a book about psychotherapy, you may not recognize that it’s a quote from the 9th century Zen (Chán) Buddhist master, Linji Yixuan. In reality, the quote isn’t bellicose and is quite apropos of Kopp’s message. Linji was just saying that if one collects sacred cows, one is unlikely to be liberated from delusion and find a quiet mind. Kopp’s primary point is that patients tend to deify their therapists, thinking of therapists as people who can “fix them.” In reality, the therapist is a flawed human who can only help guide the patient on a personal pilgrimage. However, when patients find out that the therapist isn’t a sage who can make them feel better as if by magic without any real change on the patient’s part, they become disillusioned and the wheels can roll off any progress they may have made.

Pilgrimage is the central metaphor of Kopp’s book. The psychologist uses an interesting approach, without which I doubt I would have read this book. He uses pilgrims of classic literature as models. The second, and by far the largest, part of the book lays out the various paradigms of pilgrim. The use of works like “Gilgamesh”, “Macbeth”, “Don Quixote”, Dante’s “Inferno”, Kafka’s “The Castle”, and Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” makes for a work of interest to more than just psychotherapists. Kopp skillfully employs the wisdom of both the Eastern and Western worlds, often in pithy stories that have been around for centuries.

In addition to all the well-known tales that Kopp relies upon, the latter part of the book has some interesting personal stories from when Kopp was working as a therapist in a prison.

I think this book offers some intriguing food for thought regardless of whether one is either a psychotherapist or a psychotherapy patient.

I read a few, maybe 10 self-help books in my youth, probably all in the 70s and 80s. I never had real expectations and I don't remember even really looking for guidance, but I was a voracious reader and looking for little gems of good writing and advice. So maybe I wasn't a good candidate. Some I remember were fun to read, like John Gray's I'm OK, You're OK and his Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus (I think you would call those self-help books) and Robert Ringer's Winning through Intimidation. Probably most books I find valuable teach us to be ourselves and that only you can make yourself happy or something along that line. It doesn't matter that we already have heard these things and know it when young, sometimes a reminder along the way is valuable or comes at the right time. And probably most people reading them are looking for something. But, of those I read, by far two were the most interesting and worthwhile for me. One was Kopp's book on our psychological journey.

Not that any of the underlying substance hasn't been said before. The philosophy itself is millennia old. But he told it by mining his experiences as a Jungian therapist, and in a unique way. I know this is a cliché, but - I laughed; I cried. Really, there's a story in there that made me cry, in fact almost every time I read it over. Okay, tear up - not really cry, but, still - how often do you think that happens when you read a book? Not a lot for me (though interestingly, almost any movie at the climax). And you know what - I've told that same story to other people and it has made them tear up. Admittedly, I am not one who is overly impressed with Jungian psychology. I've read Jung, also when young, and though he was very interesting, occasionally fascinating, he was also a little "out there" to me. But, that doesn't matter for the purposes of the book. It's just the base he uses to tell his stories and about his encounters.

If you are looking for advice - if you are looking to give advice - if you just want to read something really interesting, this is a great place to go. I think I've talked myself into re-reading it.

Almost forgot - the other one I was really impressed by - All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulgham.

Had to read just for title's sake, and since I couldn't find the book I was searching for a the library. Had good insights, especially about how we are the therapists we seek. We each have a internal compass showing us the way. However, his views are also dated... wow, hipsters were in the 40's too! Also insinuates that homosexuality was a mental illness which obviously was thrown out of the DSM a long time ago.

This book is not like a chicken soup for the soul ordeal, but it happens to share the same flavor. It is the journey of a mans struggles, and a picture of what is. The book has very old philosophical principles intertwined in its pages. I recommend it to those who want a quick refreshing breeze in their own philosophy.

This book is a wonderful read for anyone who wonders, worries or agonizes about the meaning of life, and whether they're doing it "right." Psychotherapist Kopp wrote this book in 1972, but it still works today.
Whether giving or receiving therapy, this book reminds us that we are all humans -- nobody has all the answers. The eschatological laundry list (which I've seen roaming around the web, but never attributed to Kopp) has become a classic.
1. This is it! 2. There are no hidden meanings
3. You can't get there from here, and besides, there's no place else to go
4. We are all already dying and we'll be dead for a long time.
5. Nothing lasts!
6. There is no way of getting all you want.
7. You can't have anything unless you let go of it.
8. You only get to keep what you give away.
9. There is no particular reason why you lost out on some things.
10. The world is not necessarily just. Being good often does not pay off and there is no compensation for misfortune.
11. You have the responsibility to do your best nonetheless.
12. It is a random universe to which we bring meaning.
13. You don't really control anything.
14. You can't make someone love you.
I'll stop there -- there's more in the book, and if you find the list discouraging, you need to read the book. If you find the words encouraging, you need to read the book. Add it to your list of books to give friends who are feeling glum and hopeless.
Use it as a group discussion book!
After reading this (at different stages in my life), I still find it centering and soothing. A good addition to the self-help library, along with The Road Less Traveled.

Sheldon B. Kopp narrates his existential voyage through the human experience. It is definitely not quite nihilistic, but similar. Killing the Buddha on the road means that no meaning that comes from outside ourselves is real. We need only recognize that we already have our own Buddhahood. The secret is that there is none, and no solution, and it comes down to just being what you are. His philosophy from his pyschological context has some of the right ideas, but he spreads some of the wrong messages. I enjoyed the book however. He uses the telling of tales from our ancestors, metaphors for our struggle to fit into existence. I speculate that this is to emphasize our story-telling nature as animals. With his version of wisdom, there is no guru to teach us and we are no one's disciple. In this he is the messenger of bad news and expects to disappoint those who search in life as if there was some underlying meaning in the world. He's sure that its in vain, and ultimately so are our lives. If you are someone disturbed by this, then reading his book will transcend those feelings. If you aren't by now... I recommend it ;¤)

A brilliant examination of modern day psychotherapy as it relate to the spiritual search for enlightenment. Every therapist should read this book and anyone who has spent a lot of time in one form of therapy or another will find so much that is familiar in this book. I recommend it most highly.

I love how Dr. Kopp elucidates the fact that life is a continual pilgrimage.
The fact that all truths are relative to our own individual lives.
We must constantly work out our individual paths, with courage, faith, and take risks.
There are no 100% correct paths, the way may be uneven
"What is the Happy Life? "Self-Sufficiency, and abiding tranquility, the gift of greatness of soul that perseveres in a course judged right"
Seneca
Great Metaphors and historic parables with commentary
A deep deep book; come back to it again, and again

I have always been an odd person. This book made so much sense to me. Take from that what you will... but if there has always been some puzzle inside of you that you're drawn to try to solve, this book is a tool to do just that. I don't want to give away too much, but you are stronger then you know. This is a great book. It discusses very serious subjects in ways that are easy to comprehend, and that plant seeds inside you that blossom and grow as your understanding of yourself does. A great read. Truly.

I started reading this book despite the offensive title and found it to be a hodgepodge of rambling and irrationality masquerading as psychobabble.

The author does not understand that the Buddha is a person, a human being, is a nature that all of us possess. Instead of offering help, this book is antireligious defamatory and offers a poor outlook on how to live as a normal human being.

This is the first book in 48 years of reading that I destroyed rather than donate or resell it. I tore it up and tossed it on the fire.

Sheldon Kopp captures the essence of therapist-client as a parallel journey of two human beings in a relationship dependent upon the ability of both to become careful (full of care) for the other while traveling through metaphors, symbols, sagas and myths, each telling their stories along the way. His eschatological laundry list is a necessary and existentially humorous bump with reality. I recommend this book to all clients seeking to enter the sacred ground of a therapeutic alliance where change, transformation and healing are to occur. Sheldon Kopp's serious pragmatism and humorous satire hold the reader to the task of "learning the dance" and becoming aware of the process of being in therapy.

I have read this book twice and thoroughly enjoyed it both times. Dr. Kopp is able to demystify the process of psychotherapy through his experiences as a psychiatrist and human being. The stories related are thought provoking, inspiring and enlightening. It also includes the author's "Eschatological Laundry List". Anyone seeking a better understanding of themselves and their lives will reward themselves by reading this book.

It is easy for anyone to believe that it is always that other person - that one who knows something that we don't know; has something that we have given up on obtaining; or, looks like what we think is the best.
Killing the Buddha is looking deeply within ourselves, accepting our limitations, our attributes, and everything in between. We are the experts in the journey of our own lives. No one else is.

Marvelous book. Filled with beautiful insights and wisdom. The author is a genuinely caring man who is also willing to share his own dirty laundry. I highly recommend this to all those who are seekers of truth. Although it is primarily listed as a book relating to psychology, I laos found it deeply spiritual as well.

as a student of psychology I picked up this book and it didn't disappoint. It talks about not depending on other people for answers, especially if they are in the unique position of caregiver or power.

If there are questions in your head or you are not sure where you life is at then I highly recommend reading this book. Sheldon does an incredible job of putting together a simple guide for better self understanding. After reading this incredible piece of work I realized that i was "just another struggling human being" and no longer felt isolated and lost.

i read this book for a report and found it right on with a lot of good ideas. it teaches you to be free which is by far the most important of all things. live your life the way you want to and always be happy. it includes the eschatological laundry list and has my favorite qoute "you are free to do whatever you like. you need only face the consequences." i have always lived by this and now its in a book. ok the book was before i was born but what it goes to show you that i can learn a lot of things on my own and it is comparable to what other will learn on their own. this is what the book is all about!

Just as Rogers was said to have taken the patient off the couch, Sheldon Kopp takes the therapist off his/her pedestal. A must-read for anyone who has ever struggled with the conflictual aims of the therapist and client in a therapeutic process. Unfortunately the latter chapters tend to be more autobiographical and the book loses some of it's impact.

As one of the other reviewers said, "where do I begin" with my issues with this book?

First the positive. There are some interesting stories woven around such greats as Dante's Inferno and some stories about the author's rebellious teen years in the 1940's which are interesting from a cultural and historical perspective.

However, the author's central thesis seems to me to be unsound, this thesis being that there is absolutely no value to be had in looking to anyone else for answers to life's mysteries and that the only answers (if indeed there are any, which the author seem to thinks there are not) are to be found within Oneself.

I cannot help but wonder whether the author's self confessed youthful experiements with mind altering substance may have permanently addled his brain. To imply as he does that there is no value whatsoever to be had from a teacher because nobody else is any more knowledgeable or wiser than any other is manifestly false and dangerous thinking. An ignorant, misguided and deluded person is NOT equally enlightened to a wiser, more knowledgeable, mentally stable and experienced thinker. To suggest otherwise is downright dangerous and wrong.

We can learn something from all philosophies and religions even if (as in the case of this book) it is only through being able to better reflect on our views through contemplating their collision with error. In this sense (if no other) prehaps this odd and dated little book may have some value after all.

This book has the best title for a general work on therapy. However, I would consider most of the advice which this contains quite conventional. Even the chapter on a power trip does not embrace thermonuclear war. The advice suggested by the title might be best for someone who wished to devote his life to writing the most unpopular reviews, or whatever other perverse activities might suggest themselves to those who are familiar with the Buddha. This might be a great opportunity for irony, which ought to pop into the mind of anyone who does not like the title upon reading it for the first time. A little experience in dialectics ought to allow readers to see how this can't be the final word, whatever "this" is. The humor which I see in the title springs from my ability to show how therapy could be the worst alternative to be suggested by those who expect everyone to contribute positive ideas when confronting a radical situation. Page 4 of this book, on the "distress and disruption" in the lives of those who seek this kind of help, supposes that really the patient "prefers the security of known misery to the misery of unfamiliar security." This kind of assumption has very little play in a comic society in which trouble is often the result of a ludicrous embrace of inappropriate familiarity, often expressed in a manner which is considered "adult" when the need to exclude children from the consideration of such pernicious ideas is paramount. In the suggested reading at the end of this book, an anthology of writings by C.G. Jung is suggested. This kind of psychology could be associated with those who might laugh if I claimed that I am a Freudian. Well they might think that Freud is a Buddha which met a collectively imposed intellectual death at some point in their own enlightenment, but I keep hearing expletives (which ought to be deleted) that spring from awareness of things which Freud could merely hint at in his work on the tendencies of wit. People who seek a little satisfaction in themselves might find some edification in the mental exercises suggested by this book. But expecting this kind of thing to change the nature of the relationship between a person and the world may lead to some other surprise. There was a good man in the Bible named Job, of whom this book says, "Though Job started out as an innocent, . . . he ended up being a pest." (p. 136) A bit of reality might associate that problem which Job had most closely with Job's lines quoted on the same page, "For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me." Job was a great book.

If you are tired of relying upon others to help you "fix" yourself, read this book. If you seek wisdom and are willing to accept it from History and Literature, read this book. If you see yourself as a person on a journey (pilgrimage) through life that never really ends, read this book!

this is an interesting book full of cultural terminology of the 70's thicker than the clouds of cannabis you smell as you read this book. occasionally there is a great insight given, but more often than not the reader is left wondering why a random story is given and to what extent did drugs take part in this books writing. buy it, it's cheap and better than most of the crap on tv, but buy it knowing ahead of time that you will be baffled and enlightened.

This is a fantastic book, however I don't recommend taking it in any literal sense. I was once walking down the road and saw a fat man walking toward me. With out hesitation I jumped on the man and killed him. Unfortunately for me my defense of the book made me do it didn't hold up in court. Now I spend my days in my cell reading Catcher In The Rye, So far it is a very good book as well and I recommend it to everyone.