Everyone has a part of himself that no one else knows about. In a teenager, it’s a healthy move towards becoming independent. In an adult, it can keep the spark of romance alive. But when do secrets become destructive? What drives a person to live a double life - to be a soccer dad by day and a pimp by night? To live one part law-abiding, upstanding citizen while another part secretly shoplifts, gambles away the college fund, or even commits armed robbery or murder? Everywhere, we’re discovering that our neighbors trade spouses, are married when they’re secretly gay, or are up to behavior that no one ever expected from them. Psychoanalyst Gail Saltz delivers a profound examination of how a secret life is formed, lived, justified, and exposed. She shows through historical figures as well as contemporary case studies what pushes people to deviate so far from the norm that they end up wreaking havoc on their own lives and the lives of those around them.

The Anatomy of a Secret Life
"A brave examination of the balance between safety and loniliess we all negotiate at one level or another."
— Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon, An Atlas of Depression