Alan Downs

Downs is a clinical psychologist, and The Velvet Rage is the book he is known for: an argument that many gay men grow up managing shame and then spend adulthood in cycles of overachievement and self-destruction trying to outrun it. It has been passed hand to hand since 2005 and argued over for just as long, with critics saying it generalises from one therapy practice and one American generation. Earlier he wrote about corporate life, including a 1995 book on how companies handle mass layoffs, and several on management and executive coaching. The Half-Empty Heart deals with chronic low-grade unhappiness rather than clinical depression.