It would be narratively counterproductive for her memoir to cater to readers' help-me instincts. Group centers on Tate's arduous struggle to name and embrace her desires, which she learned to do only with the support of her group. She is not here to pass its lessons on to us.

Group is the tale of how group therapy saved Tate, and Tate only. Christie Tate's debut memoir Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life, though, stands out because it does not. Plenty of books - both self-help and memoir - straddle the same line. I can now report that therapy content, as we might call it, can fulfill both needs, at least fleetingly. I had never listened to Perel's show, but I had dipped into reproductive psychiatrist Alexandra Sacks' Gimlet podcast Motherhood Sessions and binge-watched Showtime's Couples Therapy - not because I wanted advice, but because I am nosy. It would also reassure me that I wasn't nearly as big a jerk as I feared. My friends promised that eavesdropping on Perel's clients would help me be less of a jerk. They are very different women - and yet they gave me the exact same advice: I needed to listen to Esther Perel's couples-therapy podcast Where Should We Begin.

Stricken, I apologized, then called two close friends for help. I was taking out far too much stress on my boyfriend, forgetting that he, too, was frayed by months of social-distancing and fear. In a moment not too long ago, I realized that the coronavirus pandemic was turning me into a bad girlfriend.

Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life, by Christie Tate

Group book christie tate