Love's Executioner - by Irvin D Yalom (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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.

Review Quotes

"Dr. Irvin Yalom ... bravely steps into this chaotic void in Love's Executioner... He brings understanding, order, and the 'feel' of the process of psychotherapy as few before him have done."--Toronto Star

"Dr. Yalom's 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 Love's Executioner, and weep."--Globe and Mail (CA)

"Here is the naked therapist, stripped of the armor of god-like omniscience, aware of his flaws."--Chicago Tribune

"In Love's Executioner I marvelled at Yalom's courage in writing about therapeutic relationships which had not been a great success and also at his skill in bringing these encounters to life."--Existential Analysis (UK)

"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."--Rollo May, psychologist

"Like Freud, Yalom is a graceful and canny writer. The fascinating, moving, enervating, inspiring, unexpected stuff of psychotherapy is told with economy and, most surprisingly, with humor."--Washington Post

"The vicissitudes of neurosis and its treatment have always provided irresistible material for dramatic narratives. In Love's Executioner Yalom demonstrates that in the right hands, the stuff of therapy has the interest of the richest and most inventive fiction."--Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

"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."--Los Angeles Times

"Dr. Yalom demonstrates once again that in the right hands, the stuff of therapy has the interest of the richest and most inventive fiction."--New York Times

"Wise, humane, stirring, and utterly absorbing.... Irvin Yalom's book is charged with hope and generosity of spirit."--Newsday

"Inspired.... Yalom writes with the narrative wit of O. Henry and the earthy humor of Isaac Bashevis Singer."--San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

Irvin D. Yalom, M.D., is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University. He is the author of numerous books, including When Nietzsche Wept and Becoming Myself. He lives in Palo Alto, California.