Athletes Who Indulge Their Dark Side:  Sex, Drugs and Cover-ups

December 2009
Praeger
ISBN 978-0-313-37756-3

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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

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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

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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