Hatching Charlie: A Psychotherapist's Tale

McCormack was asked two questions by his children that unerringly targeted issues he had struggled with his entire life: "Who are you?" and "What is life about?" Hatching Charlie, his attempt to respond, rocketed him down a wormhole through time, his past made present. He re-lives the disruptions of......more

McCormack was asked two questions by his children that unerringly targeted issues he had struggled with his entire life: "Who are you?" and "What is life about?" Hatching Charlie, his attempt to respond, rocketed him down a wormhole through time, his past made present. He re-lives the disruptions of military family life, family violence, the racism of the Jim Crowe South, and the tidal wave of fear and confusion when exiled to a boarding school in France as a child. With unalloyed frankness, McCormack, an award-winning psychotherapist, author, and lecturer, takes us into the mental illness in his own family, and the destructive influence of his cratered childhood upon his adulthood. During this journey, we go behind the scenes of psychiatric treatment, including a vivid portrayal of McCormack’s experience in psychoanalysis and as a psychiatric social worker in a locked-door inpatient treatment unit. There, we become engulfed in the penetrating horror and self-doubt when confronted with the suicide of several patients, as well as the profound sense of fulfillment experienced when able to help those who had been unable to help themselves. In his striving for happiness and meaning, McCormack arrives at the realization that there was an enduring block to happiness and that it resided within himself. Rejecting this self-limiting fate, he pecks away at the shells that confine him like a Russian nesting doll and discovers first-hand the hidden power of incomplete mourning to constrict happiness like English ivy strangles a tree. In this moving memoir, there is wisdom about life, love, and relationships that will bring tears to your eyes and a smile to your face.(less)

Charles C. McCormack, MA, MSW, LCSW-C holds masters degrees in psychology and in clinical social work. Over the past forty-plus years, he has worked in a variety of psychiatric settings covering sexual abuse, family violence, drug treatment and was the Senior Social Worker of Long-Term Inpatient Ser......more

Charles C. McCormack, MA, MSW, LCSW-C holds masters degrees in psychology and in clinical social work. Over the past forty-plus years, he has worked in a variety of psychiatric settings covering sexual abuse, family violence, drug treatment and was the Senior Social Worker of Long-Term Inpatient Services at Sheppard-Pratt Hospital in Baltimore. Mr. McCormack has presented numerous papers and workshops in the United States and Canada on the treatment of “difficult to treat” individuals, couples, and families. He was the first social worker invited to join the teaching faculty of Sheppard-Pratt and the first invited to become guest faculty of the Washington School of Psychiatry’s Psychoanalytic Object Relations Family and Couples Therapy Trai

Charles C. McCormack, MA, MSW, LCSW-C holds masters degrees in psychology and in clinical social work. Over the past forty-plus years, he has worked in a variety of psychiatric settings covering sexual abuse, family violence, drug treatment and was the Senior Social Worker of Long-Term Inpatient Services at Sheppard-Pratt Hospital in Baltimore. Mr. McCormack has presented numerous papers and workshops in the United States and Canada on the treatment of “difficult to treat” individuals, couples, and families. He was the first social worker invited to join the teaching faculty of Sheppard-Pratt and the first invited to become guest faculty of the Washington School of Psychiatry’s Psychoanalytic Object Relations Family and Couples Therapy Training Program without first going through the program. He was a field instructor for Smith College's Masters and Doctoral programs in social work. In 1994 Mr. McCormack was named Clinician of the Year by the Maryland Society of Clinical Social Workers. In 2000 his book "Treating Borderline States in Marriage: Dealing with Oppositionalism, Ruthless Aggression, and Severe Resistance" was published and is used in couples therapy training programs. In December, 2016 Mr. McCormack self-published an autobiography "Hatching Charlie: A Psychotherapist’s Tale" which interweaves the story of his unusual life, with becoming a psychotherapist. He has since re-written Hatching Charlie twice, each revision lending greater clarity and understanding like a photograph coming into full focus in the third and final edition As Happy As I Can Stand. McCormack maintains a small private practice in Aberdeen, Maryland. (less)