T's published works -- to read or not to read?

For folks whose T's have published articles or books or podcasts or whatnot, what is your relationship to those works? Do you read/listen to them? Avoid them? If you do access them, how do you feel about them?

I ask in part because my T realized that I'd read the handful of academic papers he's published (I was being a twerp and subtly quoting his words and ideas back to him in my emails to see how long it'd take him to notice--gotta stay entertained somehow--and he eventually caught on) and he was visibly weirded out. (I think the exact quote from him was, "I don't know what that behaviour is about.") Also, he's in the final stages of writing a book and I have to decide whether or not to read it once it's published... and my former T who dumped me when I got to be too much trouble just published a book that I'm currently avoiding because I think it'll make me sad and resentful. (I feel a little like she dumped me for her career.)

I don't think it's at all weird to thoroughly vet the academic record of the person who is digging around in my subconscious (especially since as a resident I qualify as an academic myself), and I'm not sure why my T was so weirded out about it... though I suppose he could have been reacting to my twerpiness rather than the fact that I'd read his stuff.

What do y'all think and feel about this?

Not sure if there’s a right answer, but without a doubt I definitely would.

I would do it.
Neither of the women had written anything much. The first because I think she was functionally illiterate and the second because she had/has a whole other career and would have used a different medium than words.

My T wrote a book. I’ve read it.

I read my T's book, and I watch him when he does things online. We talk about it, and where it impacts me we discuss that. It's the therapist's job to be mindful of how their published material (from social media right the way through to books and papers) might impact on clients.

Oh. It didn't occur to me to not do this? I felt a little mixed about intense googling and social media researching, but I had no compunction about digging up her dissertation and all her published articles (I have access to a university library) and reading them. Honestly, the acknowledgments of her dissertation were the most interesting bit -- how can you not be charmed that she thanked what I am 90% sure are her pets? The rest was pretty boring.

My T seemed to expect that clients would find her published work, but she initially seemed thrown that I tracked her down on Facebook. She got over it fairly quickly, though.

That subtle quoting thing is masterful! I think my T would find that playful (and secretly flattering), but she seems to assume the best when it comes to me. I'm not sure your T operates the same way, given some of the things he has said in the past.

I would definitely read or listen to or watch any stuff my T was currently producing, but I don't think she's producing anything. It seems like most of her professional energy goes into doing therapy and supervision and expanding her practice.

I have skimmed them, but they weren't particularly on a topic relevant to me personally so I wasn't that interested in them except out of curiosity about his writing skill (LOL!).

Oh, heck yeah! I mean... they're published and public, it's not like you're breaking in to their house and grabbing their private journals. And, I totally agree - I think it's helpful to establish whether you can trust this person's interventions and ideas.

I think it's awesome and funny that you were stealthily quoting them back though. LOL.

Ha! Thanks for this... I got a much needed laugh from it!

My ex-T wrote a book about his personal life. I wouldn't have known it existed except he talked about it (and himself) a lot in therapy (poor boundaries to say the least). And I read it. And it's really really bad. I read the only academic article he's ever published as well before hiring him and it was so-so.

But the personal book was bad. It read like revenge porn against his ex-fiance. I can't believe a therapist would put that out.

I love the quoting back in email!

R has a paper coming out in March.He told me to wait and see when I asked him about it, so he knows I'm going to read it then tell him what I think.

If it's available to the public, I see no reason for you not to look at it. Early on with my T, I went to interlibrary loan and borrowed a copy of her doctoral dissertation. I've read other things she's written also, and we've almost always talked about it in session.

I've never done it, but I don't think there's a problem with doing so. Kit

AFAIK my T has no publications, but if he did I would check them out.

I would bet your T's response was to the "twerpiness" and not the reading.

I would read it out of curiosity. The T can't stop you if it's published and available.

I've found it helpful and it gives me insight into how he conceptualizes things in his clinical approach.

Only problem I had was jealousy of his other clients when reading case study type of material. I brought those feelings onto our sessions and it was good grist for the mill.

I would very much read them all, and probably give him some notes about them.

Ditto- I would too

I absolutely do (would give about anything to know what his dissertation was on! But not enough to ask... yet). It helped me a lot especially in the beginning to build trust (there was consistency between what he wrote and how he acted even years later. It also helped me to know he would work well with me). However, being an ornery academic with a high IQ I believe I have an ethical responsibility to him and myself to use it appropriately. In the past I would use those kinds of things to distract, debate and even bully therapists. I can see my current T having NO patience with that... kinda because I found personal info in some of it he didn’t realize was out there and referenced it casually... I got a look but he checked and it was where I said it was and you didn’t have to go looking for it, it was just there. I also didn’t use it in any way that was threatening.

Isn't the obvious answer to read and then berate until rupture in order to assert your superior intelligence? That's my approach.

Sure, I read them, but out of academic interest, not as a way of judging his fitness. The early in career stuff was very typical of student research, but the later stuff was mostly on systems and professional ethics and accountability, so was very interesting.

But I wouldn't "weaponize" his words because that seems to needlessly complicate matters to me, and I'm not surprised your T was annoyed.

I've read some stuff my T has written for a blog that's related to one aspect of his practice. He mentions the blog in the CV on his professional therapy website, so I felt it was fair game to read. Plus as a writer/editor myself, I was curious as to how he was as a writer. It was rather enlightening (and he's a pretty good writer!). I think I told him I read them? Haven't sought out his dissertation though (but he's told me there's a grammatical error in the first line of it).

Ex-MC had co-written a book, but I never could bring myself to buy it on Amazon, even though it seemed interesting. I did watch a professional video or two he did (pretty boring)--don't think I told him about those. Not sure if ex-T really had anything out there, and her name is fairly common, so might be difficult to track down.

I dont believe either of them have publishes anything. Oi have looked for their dissertation or anything like that came up.

But when T was moving and down sizing she gave me a bunch of books to see of my book collecting daughter wanted any..what she didnt want I donated. One of the books was written by her stepfather years ago. I read some of it and kept it.

Off subject, my daughter is going to grad school for publishing ans editing. We are concerned with her finding a job that pays well enough to pay all those loans.

Feel free to PM me if you want any advice on what to do/not do!

I don't think it's weird of you at all. I do think it's weird that he's weirded out.

I think I've read all of the papers that my current therapist has published. Most when I was deciding whether to work with him, some after I started therapy. It hasn't come up specifically, but I assume he sees it as fair game and wouldn't be surprised to know I'd looked it up. His CV is on his website, after all, and some of his publications are on topics that overlap with an interest of mine in my specialty. His body of published work is an interesting mix of more technical psychopharm stuff, and more personally revealing psychoanalytic papers.