Synopses & Reviews
The collection of ten absorbing tales by master psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom uncovers the mysteries, frustrations, pathos, and humor at the heart of the therapeutic encounter. In recounting his patients dilemmas, Yalom not only gives us a rare and enthralling glimpse into their personal desires and motivations but also tells us his own story as he struggles to reconcile his all-too human responses with his sensibility as a psychiatrist. Not since Freud has an author done so much to clarify what goes on between a psychotherapist and a patient.
Review
New York TimesDr. Yalom demonstrates once again that in the right hands, the stuff of therapy has the interest of the richest and most inventive fiction.”
Washington Post Book World
Like Freud, Yalom is a graceful and canny writer. The fascinating, moving, enervating, inspiring, unexpected stuff of psychotherapy is told with economy and, most surprising, with humor.”
Los Angeles Times
Yalom is a gifted storyteller, and from the sound of these tales, a no-less-gifted psychotherapist. He restores a sense of awe and mystery to an endeavor that all too often gets mired in the muck of jargon and categorization.... In addition to bringing the reader up close to his patients, and to a process often (necessarily) cloaked in secrecy, he gives the reader an un-airbrushed picture of the therapist, warts and all.”
Chicago Tribune
Here is the naked therapist, stripped of the armor of god-like omniscience, aware of his flaws.”
San Francisco Chronicle
Inspired.... Yalom writes with the narrative wit of O. Henry and the earthy humor of Isaac Bashevis Singer.”
Newsday
Loves Executioner is Yaloms wise, humane, stirring and utterly absorbing account of how 10 of his patients try to cope with what he calls existence pain — the knowledge that death is inevitable, that each of us is ultimately alone, that life has no clear meaning, but that we nonetheless have the freedom to make our lives as we will'..... Irvin Yaloms book is charged with hope and generosity of spirit.”
Miami Herald
By his honesty and literary talent, Yalom convinces us that these are, in his words, everyman, everywoman stories and that in each of these crazies, in my word, is a little bit of you and me.”
Toronto Star
Dr. Irvin Yalom ... bravely steps into this chaotic void in Loves Executioner ... [H]e brings understanding, order, and the feel of the process of psychotherapy as few before him have done.”
Globe and Mail
Dr. Yaloms point is not to merely document psychological abnormality, it is to demonstrate that it is possible to confront the truths of existence and harness their power in the service of personal change and growth. Read Loves Executioner, and weep.”
Sunday Herald (Melbourne, Australia)
[Yaloms] honesty can be unnerving ... Loves Executioner offers a tragic, deeply felt vision of the human condition. In demystifying the therapist-patient encounter, Dr. Yalom brings us into broader territory: he reminds us of our need for intimacy and trust and the struggle necessary to achieve them.”
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The vicissitudes of neurosis and its treatment have always provided irresistible material for dramatic narratives. In Loves Executioner Yalom demonstrates that in the right hands, the stuff of therapy has the interest of the richest and most inventive fiction.”
Monterey County Herald
[I]nsightful.”
Existential Analysis (London)
In Loves Executioner I marvelled at Yaloms courage in writing about therapeutic relationships which had not been a great success and also at his skill in bringing these encounters to life.”
Rollo May
Irvin Yalom writes like an angel about the devils that besiege us. These beautifully wrought true stories go way beyond therapy; they are incisive and moving tales of life, by a wise psychotherapist.”
Erica Jong
Loves Executioner is one of those rare books that suggests both the mystery and the poetry of the psychotherapeutic process. The best therapists are at least partly poets. With this riveting and beautifully written book, Irvin Yalom has joined their ranks.”
Bernie S. Siegel
These stories are wonderful. They make us realize that within every human being lie the pain and beauty that make life worthwhile.”
Phillip Lopate
This is an impressive transformation of clinical experience into literature. Dr. Yaloms case histories are more gripping than 98 percent of the fiction published today, and he has gone to amazing lengths of honesty to depict himself as a realistic flesh-and-blood character: funny, flawed, perverse, and above all, understanding.”
Maggie Scarf
These remarkably moving and instructive tales of the psychiatric encounter bring the reader into novel territories of the mind — and the landscape is truly unforgettable.
Anthony Storr
Dr. Yalom is unusually honest, both with his patients and about himself.”
Joanne Greenberg
I loved Loves Executioner. Dr. Yalom has learned something that fiction writers learned years ago — that peoples mistakes are a lot more interesting than their triumphs.”
Synopsis
This collection of ten absorbing tales by master psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom uncovers the mysteries, frustrations, pathos, and humor at the heart of the therapeutic encounter.
First published in 1989, this New York Times bestselling collection of ten tales has become a classic. Yalom not only gives us a rare and enthralling glimpse into his patients' personal desires and motivations, but also tells his own story as he struggles to reconcile his all-too-human response with his sensibility as a psychiatrist. Now with a new afterword, Love's Exectioner promises to inspire generations of readers to come.
Synopsis
In his classic, bestselling work, the masterful therapist and novelist Irving Yalom describes his sometimes tragic, sometimes inspiring, and always absorbing encounters with patients In this classic book, master psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom uncovers the mysteries, frustrations, pathos, and humor at the heart of the therapeutic encounter. With insight and sympathy, Yalom not only gives us a rare and enthralling glimpse into the personal desires and motivations of ten of his patients, but also tells his own story as he struggles to reconcile his all-too-human response with his sensibility as a psychiatrist. Love's Executioner has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers already, and promises to inspire generations of readers to come.
Synopsis
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER An "utterly absorbing" collection of ten classic tales from the therapist's chair by renowned psychiatrist and best-selling author Irvin D. Yalom (Newsday)
Why was Saul tormented by three unopened letters from Stockholm? What made Thelma spend her whole life raking over a long-past love affair? How did Carlos's macho fantasies help him deal with terminal cancer?
In this engrossing book, Irvin Yalom gives detailed and deeply affecting accounts of his work with these and seven other patients. Deep down, all of them were suffering from the basic human anxieties--isolation, fear of death or freedom, a sense of the meaninglessness of life--that none of us can escape completely. And yet, as the case histories make touchingly clear, it is only by facing such anxieties head on that we can hope to come to terms with them and develop. Throughout, Dr. Yalom remains refreshingly frank about his own errors and prejudices; his book provides a rare glimpse into the consulting room of a master therapist.
Synopsis
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER
An "utterly absorbing" collection of ten classic tales from the therapist's chair by renowned psychiatrist and best-selling author Irvin D. Yalom (Newsday)
Why was Saul tormented by three unopened letters from Stockholm? What made Thelma spend her whole life raking over a long-past love affair? How did Carlos's macho fantasies help him deal with terminal cancer?
In this engrossing book, Irvin Yalom gives detailed and deeply affecting accounts of his work with these and seven other patients. Deep down, all of them were suffering from the basic human anxieties-isolation, fear of death or freedom, a sense of the meaninglessness of life-that none of us can escape completely. And yet, as the case histories make touchingly clear, it is only by facing such anxieties head on that we can hope to come to terms with them and develop. Throughout, Dr. Yalom remains refreshingly frank about his own errors and prejudices; his book provides a rare glimpse into the consulting room of a master therapist.
About the Author
Irvin D. Yalom, M.D., is an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and a psychiatrist in private practice in San Francisco. He is the author of many books, including Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, The Gift of Therapy, and When Nietzsche Wept.