Panic Attacks in Pistachio: A Psychological Detective Story

Announcing the Release of 

Panic Attacks in Pistachio: 

A Psychological Detective Story

It was happening again.

I had to see her.
I couldn’t stand it:
Sweating

Being dizzy
Heart pounding so hard you knew you were going to die
Right now.
Die.

Alone, in the middle of the street, in pain.
Only I had been enough times to ER to know
it wasn’t a heart attack.
Or not a heart attack in the sense of something wrong with my heart muscle.

It was a different kind of heart attack
A heart attack in my soul.

I had to see her.
She was the only one who helped.
I had to…

 

Panic Attacks in Pistachio: A Psychological Detective Story begins in the middle of a panic attack and never lets up. The man suffering from these agonizing panic attacks comes to his regular therapy session but instead of finding comfort discovers something no patient would ever expect to find. The drive to discover the truth behind this terrifying mystery sets him out on a quest, even a crusade, to discover the meaning of what happened. He must search among his fellow patients and ultimately enter his therapist’s temenos, the holy of holies. 
In this psychological detective journey, he finds powerful help, through active imagination, from the greatest detectives of all time, Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. These inner figures help him solve the mystery and the process helps transform tragedy into the beginning of individuation. He discovers many secrets and ultimately the hidden connection between pistachio ice cream and his panic attacks. Written as a thriller, told in the first person, based on the author’s long experience as a Jungian analyst, the book makes compelling reading.

“Panic Attacks in Pistachio packs a lot of punch. There is the personal anguish of loss at the outset, the threat of mass destruction as the narrative unfolds, and the surprising compassionate ending at the conclusion. It’s a page turner from start to finish.”

-Murray Stein, Jungian Analyst

Also from Henry Abramovitch
Why Odysseus Came Home as a Stranger and Other Puzzling Moments in the Life of Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Abraham, and other Great Individuals
Author Henry Abramovitch comes from a culture that encourages people to ask why. As a Jungian analyst, he also values questions. In reading the life stories of “Great Individuals,” he often found himself asking the question, “Why?” Why did Arjuna, greatest general of his age refuse to fight? Why did Socrates remember his debt to Ascalapius, the god of healing, only in his last breath? Why did Jesus, the prophet of love, curse an innocent fig tree? Why did Abraham agree to kill the son he loved the most? Why did Lot’s wife look back? Why did Odysseus come home as a stranger?

With Murray Stein
The Analyst and the Rabbi – A Play
A meeting between C.G. Jung and Rabbi Leo Baeck took place in Zurich in October 1946 at the Savoy Hotel Baur en Ville. Very little is actually known about this meeting. There are no extant notes or reports from the principals indicating what was said or discussed. There was no secretary present taking down minutes of the conversation. What is known from the few documents attesting to this meeting is that it took place at Jung’s request and that Baeck did not wish to meet with Jung. The play is an imaginative construction of what might have happened in this historic meeting of two great men.

About the Author

 

HENRY ABRAMOVITCH Ph.D. is Founding President and senior training analyst at the Israel Institute of Jungian Psychology in Honor of Erich Neumann, Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University Medical School and Past President of Israel Anthropological Association. He is active in Israel Interfaith Encounter Association. He teaches and supervises Routers in the IAAP Developing Groups in Eastern Europe and Kazakhstan. He is author of The First Father (2010); Brothers and Sisters: Myth and Reality (2014); Why Odysseus Came Home as a Stranger and Other Puzzling Moments in the Life of…Great Individuals (2020), and with Murray Stein, the plays, The Analyst and the Rabbi (2019), My Lunch with Thomas (2023) and Eranos (2023). Since the beginning of the war, he has led a Reflection Group for Ukrainian Analysts on Zoom. This is his first novel. 

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