Many students and adults are familiar with the old Aesop fable of the tortoise and the hare. Dr. Shana Clark, author and psychiatrist, applies this fable to everyday life in her new book, “My Money’s on the Turtle.”
The fable describes a slow tortoise who believes he can pull through and beat a hare to win a race. Clark puts her faith in the turtle in her new book, as she believes that the tortoise wins by putting his negative resentments aside and being positive.
Clark will hold a book signing in the Binghamton University Bookstore Wednesday and Thursday, from noon to 2 p.m. on both days.
She chose to hold a book signing on campus because she is currently enrolled at BU, taking music composition courses.
According to Clark, her piece is a self-help book that can be utilized to dissolve any negative feelings the reader may have because of painful life experiences.
The aim is to focus on the positive and let any grudges die, she said. Her goal is to help the many people who are suffering from the bad experiences they carry throughout their lives.
“It talks about really how to get rid of the hatred. People justify hatred instead of moving past it,” Clark said. “It is written to be understandable and comprehensible to your average emotional couch potato, which most of us are, I think.”
A practicing psychiatrist for over 20 years, Clark has been suffering from a mental illness for more than 40 years. She was born with brain damage as a child and was not expected to live past infancy. She has pushed through and found joy in what most people consider the simplest things, such as walking and talking.
“One of the reasons I like psychiatry so much is because I think of myself as an architect of life stories,” Clark said. “What I like is to take a life where there are some good things and some bad things and work it around with a patient so it takes a turn toward happy.”
Clark, who has worked with inmates in the Pennsylvania prison system, writes not only about her own obstacles, but personal miracles as well.
“Everyone has only so much psychic energy. You can choose to spend that energy on feeling resentful or angry, or you can choose to have all your energy to use in living your life,” Clark said.
According to class of ‘82 BU doctorate program alumna Dr. Elissa Savrin, a clinical psychologist specializing with adolescents and young adults, self-help books can only help people in recognizing issues they may have.
“People who read self-help books are probably more motivated to change than people who don’t,” Savrin said. “People who write self-help books have had similar experiences to them, and so it gives people an opportunity to relate to others and see they are not alone in how they feel.”
She also said that problems that occur early in a person’s life have the ability to affect them negatively much later, unless they are dealt with properly.
“If [people] hold resentments and anger from early on in life, chances are they will continue these practices later in life. There are people who are in the victim role all the time; no matter what happens they think that it’s against them,” Savrin said.
In addition to being sold during the book signing, “My Money’s on the Turtle” is also available on her publisher’s Web site, www.publishamerica.net, as well as www.amazon.com and the Barnes & Noble Web site for $24.95.