YOUR PERSONALITY'S SO BAD YOU NEED TO KNOCK IT DOWN AND START AGAIN.

BASICALLY, your personality has been so badly constructed, the only thing to do is knock it down and start again.' That, 18 years ago, was my first introduction to therapy. I had left a teaching job in Wales and arrived in London to pursue my dream of being a fulltime writer. I knew just two people, both actors, and we shared three rooms in a bedsit in Archway. I was, and had been for some years, very depressed following the breakdown of a long-term relationship. Now I had no job, few friends and £17 a week to live on in the country's most expensive city. The Tavistock Clinic had been suggested as the ideal place to go to find out exactly what kind of therapeutic treatment might suit my condition. It was after three interview sessions that I received the scathing assessment of my personality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]