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Athletes Who Indulge Their Dark Side:
Sex, Drugs and Cover-ups
December 2009
Praeger
ISBN 978-0-313-37756-3
Order from Amazon.com
Sports scandals have
captured our interest for decades, and the
public’s curiosity and attraction to these
episodes is increasingly present. Currently,
there is an ever growing fascination about
sports stars who fall from the pedestal we have
placed them on, as they lapse into immoral or
illegal territory.
These transgressions, many
of them serious offenses, include using steroids
and other illegal performance enhancing drugs,
gambling problems, alcohol and drug abuse,
domestic violence, sexual misconduct, and even
murder.
This book comprehensively
focuses on sports scandals from a perspective
that addresses the psychological factors that
drive many high profile athletes to step over
the line.
Some sports stars have a
predilection for indulging their dark side and
bending the rules of society, while others are
conditioned to do so by the excessive adulation
from fans and the media; which prompts them to
acquire a distorted self image that fuels the
belief that they can follow their own set of
rules.
Fame can be a great
corrupter of morality, and the incessant glare
of media spotlight is ever ready to illuminate
misconduct. In the present culture of
corruption scrutiny, it behooves elite athletes
to be acutely mindful of their image, not only
during their active careers, but also after
retirement from the game. While we yearn to
anoint our sports stars as role models, too many
of them are providing a model of corrupt
behavior rather than a model of integrity.
Given the ongoing cavalcade
of sports scandals, this book is a very timely
entry in a hot area of national interest and
concern, and conveys an in depth understanding
about why elite athletes take risks with their
careers and their lives.
"This book proves that there are two sides to
every golden game. Congrats to Stan
Teitelbaum for exposing the realities of
American athletics."
-- Maury Allen, author of All Roads Lead to
October and Brooklyn Remembered
"Stan Teitelbaum has shed
a bright line on the dark side of athletes,
combining a clinician's insights and a fan's
outrage to explain how a lethal combination of
overexposure and overindulgence has spawned
pathologies and killed our heroes."
--John Helyar, co-author of Barbarians at
the Gate, author of Lords of the Realm:
The Real History of Baseball
"Teitelbaum explores a
subject for all seasons: the dark side of
sports. We only know about the cover-ups
that fail, of course...so is the cheating we
know only the tip of an iceberg?"
--Gene Carney, author of Burying the
Black Sox
SPORTS
HEROES, FALLEN IDOLS:
How Star Athletes Pursue Self Destructive Paths
and Jeopardize Their Careers
August 2005
University of Nebraska Press
800-755-1105
ISBN 0-8032-4445-0
Order from University of Nebraska Press
Read an
excerpt
On the court and on the field, they are the
world’s winners, exhibiting a natural grace and
prowess their adoring fans can only dream about.
Yet so often, when off the field, our sports
heroes lose: their perspective, their balance,
their place. In a work as timely as the latest
fracas on the basketball court or NFL
suspension, Stanley H. Teitelbaum looks into the
circumstances behind so many star athletes’
precipitous fall from grace. Why, he asks, do
these sports heroes who seem to have it all also
seem, increasingly, to have a superhuman
proclivity for self-destruction?
Considering over two hundred historical and
current cases, Dr. Teitelbaum shows how, in many
instances, the very factors that elevate
athletes to superstardom can contribute to their
downfall: the adulation of fans and obsessive
attention of the media and the distorted
self-image and personal demons that often
accompany a headlong drive to succeed. An
evenhanded and honest look at athletes who have
faltered, Teitelbaum's work helps us see past
our sports stars' exalted image into what that
image--and its frailty--says about our society
and ourselves.
"Stanley Teitelbaum's volume,
Sports Heroes, Fallen Idols is a
thoroughly researched book full of entertaining
stories about the underbelly of sports."
-- Max Kellerman, TV and Radio Personality
"A great book that is apropos for today."
-- Nancy Grace, CNN Headline News
"A very, very, very timely book and a
fascinating read these days."
-- Ron Kuby, Court TV
 ILLUSION
AND DISILLUSIONMENT:
Core Issues in Psychotherapy
August 1999 (hardcover)
Jason Aronson Press
ISBN 0-7657-0219-3
February 2007 (paperback)
Rowman & Littlefield
800-462-6420
ISBN 0-765-70517-6
Order from Rowman & Littlefield
Read an Excerpt
Throughout the life cycle individuals
maintain illusions that sustain them. In
the course of normal development and in
psychotherapy, many of these illusions about
oneself and others are gradually dismantled.
Mourning the loss of core illusions and coping
with the impact of disillusionment are critical
issues as treatment progresses. Some
patients weather the inevitable loss of their
illusions smoothly, but for others the
relinquishment of a needed illusion can be
traumatic, engender extreme anxiety, and
permeate the core of the psychotherapeutic
relationship. In this informative and
readable book, Stanley H. Teitelbaum explores
this therapeutic issue in depth from a
developmental, theoretical and clinical
perspective and emphasizes its particular
importance in the treatment of depressed and
narcissistic patients. Rich case material
illustrates how the therapist can effectively
address the illusions and manage the resulting
disillusionment.
"Dr. Stanley Teitelbaum has written a gem.
In lucid, jargon-free language, he clearly
demonstrates how illusions and disillusionment's
are an inevitable part of life and, therefore,
must be constantly confronted by all patients
and practitioners... This scholarly and creative
book is a must read for those who want to master
the essentials of the psychotherapeutic
process."
-- Herbert S. Strean, D.S.W., Distinguished
Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University
"This book calls attention to a neglected
construct in psychodynamic formulations: the
centrality of illusions and the power of
disillusionment in shaping the organization of
human experience. Illusion and
Disillusionment makes Interesting,
enlightening, and enjoyable reading for
practicing psychotherapists, students, and
consumers."
--Peter Buirski, Ph.D., Dean Graduate School of
Professional Psychology, University of Denver
"An extremely well-written, in-depth
account of the various psychological
maladaptations that can result from the failure
to come to terms with painful experiences of
disillusionment about the self, others, and the
world. The clinical vignettes illustrating
how long-standing psychopathological sequelae of
disillusionment have been repaired in
psychotherapy are excellent. The lay
reader as well as the professional will find
much of interest here."
-- Lawrence Epstein, Ph.D., Supervising and
Training Analyst, William Alanson White
Institute for Psychoanalysis
"A fantastic book"
-- Nancy Grace, Court TV |
