I've never read any of his older stuff, but I've been reading his Sunny Randall and Jesse Stone books. It's starting to seem as though every character he writes is divorced and seeing a psychiatrist. It's like he's obsessed with the subject.

If I go back and start with the Spenser books am I going to be beaten down with characters trying to get over their exes and seeing shrinks??

I liked the Spencer books years ago, but he has them so bogged down now with Spencer's irritating shrink girlfriend that they have become unreadable. I doubt I will ever read a Parker book again.

One of the recurring secondary characters in the Spenser series is his girlfriend, Susan Silverman, who is a shrink. For the most part, he's not trying to get over her, though.

The annoying aspects of Parker's writing -- of which you cite one example -- are far more prevalent in his later work. If you go back and read his earlier stuff, you will find much less of that -- and you'll find much more sharp, interesting writing, suspenseful plots, etc.

Parker's work in recent years has definitely taken a turn for the worse, but he's undeniably a (past) master of the detective novel.