Irvin David Yalom, M.D., is an author of fiction and nonfiction, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University, an existentialist, and accomplished psychotherapist. Born in a Jewish family in Washington DC in 1931, he grew up in a poor ethnic area. Avoiding the perils of his neighborhood, he spent most of his childhood indoors, reading books. After graduating with a BA from George Washington University in 1952 and as a Doctor of Medicine from Boston University School of Medicine in 1956 he went on to complete his internship at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and his residency at the Phipps Clinic of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and completed his training in 1960. After two years of Army service at Tripler General Hospital in Honolulu, Yalom began his academic career at Stanford University. He was appointed to the faculty in 1963 and then promoted over the next several years and granted tenure in 1968. Soon after this period he made some of his most lasting contributions by teaching about group psychotherapy and developing his model of existential psychotherapy.
In addition to his scholarly, non-fiction writing, Yalom has produced a number of novels and also experimented with writing techniques. In Everyday Gets a Little Closer Yalom invited a patient to co-write about the experience of therapy. The book has two distinct voices which are looking at the same experience in alternating sections. Yalom's works have been used as collegiate textbooks and standard reading for psychology students. His new and unique view of the patient/client relationship has been added to curriculum in Psychology programs at such schools as John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.
The American Psychiatric Association awarded Irvin Yalom the 2000 Oskar Pfister Award (for important contributions to religion and psychiatry).
Yalom has continued to maintain a part-time private practice and has authoried a number of video documentaries on theapeutic techniques. Yalom is also featured in the 2003 documentary Flight From Death, a film that investigates the relationship of human violence to fear of death, as related to subconscious influences.
Dr. Yalom makes some interesting points about diagnoses. (He is talking about patients who don't need the heavy drugs often prescribed for any mental issue whether they are really appropriate or not). He says that, "Diagnostic categories are invented and arbitrary: they are a product of committee vote and invariably undergo considerable revision," and that they are subject to social pressure and what the insurance companies want. He says that people are diagnosed by what the insurance companies will pay out on rather than the diffuse problems a person might be having.
If you think of people with bi-polar disorder, this varies (in my personal experience with close friends) from people (like my grandfather) who need hospitalising because he would sleep for a month, getting up only for the necessaries, and wouldn't speak to people to neurotic people who get depressed and cry whenever things don't go their way. They are told they are bipolar because Americans are always running off to the doctor for pills and therapy if they have insurance cover from their employers (as encouraged by tv commercials which do their best to get people to self-diagnose and then go to their doctor and ask for the medication).
Bush in his great wisdom allowed drug companies to charge whatever they wanted. When I was in Florida, couldn't get home because of Irma, I had to get my prescription through Walgreen's. At home the two medications come to $20 a month (with no insurance) in Florida it was $250! And doctors are visited regularly by drug company representatives who give them all kind of kickbacks for prescribing their drugs.
Dr. Yalom feels that education in the field of psychology, again under the pressure of insurance companies, but also accreditation boards, consists of very brief, "empirically validated" therapies with specific techniques in addressing certain diagnostic categories, as " depression, eating disorder, panic attacks, bipolar disease, addictions, or specific phobias." There is no emphasis on looking at the patient in a humanistic, holistic way and there is no emphasis on the relationship between a therapist and patient, which, to him, is the crucial factor in determining the outcome of therapy.
This is why I read Yalom and why I give more credence to existential psychotherapy than the ridiculousness of Freud or Jung. I have no time for "penis envy" and Oedipal complexes when I am feeling miserable and lonely without a best friend after she proved to be far less than that during Irma and Maria. We were friends for 20 years and it hard to lose someone that close and think of the future without them. That is an existential crisis, we all lose friends and lovers, it is not one that needs medication but a doctor will fit me into a category, probably "depression" and then prescribe the appropriate drugs because that is what the insurance companies approve of, rather than a talking therapy that will cost more.
There was a moment of epiphany when Yalom was talking about Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor/philosopher. Marcus Aurelius said that if you had no opinion about something, it couldn't hurt you. So I thought if I don't think the really rather awful behaviour my friend exhibited towards me and my family was directed at us in a malicious way, it was just what she did, if I refuse to interpret it personally, I just think instead, this is what she did, then I am no longer hurt by it. And I'm not but I'm still lonely.
Four and a half stars not rounded up because the long chapters devoted to him writing some of his fiction books (which I don't like) were tedious to read. Other than that, a wonderful read from an inspirational man. _____
A rabbi had a conversation with the Lord about Heaven and Hell. 鈥淚 will show you Hell,鈥� said the Lord, and he led the rabbi into a room containing a large round table. The people sitting around the table were famished and desperate. In the middle of the table was an enormous pot of stew that smelled so delicious that the rabbi鈥檚 mouth watered. Each person around the table held a spoon with a very long handle. Although the long spoons just reached the pot, their handles were longer than the would-be diners鈥� arms: thus, unable to bring food to their lips, no one could eat. The rabbi saw that their suffering was terrible indeed.
鈥淣ow I will show you Heaven,鈥� said the Lord, and they went into another room, exactly the same as the first. There was the same large round table, the same pot of stew. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons鈥攂ut here everyone was well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The rabbi could not understand. 鈥淚t is simple, but it requires a certain skill,鈥� said the Lord. 鈥淚n this room, you see, they have learned to feed each other.鈥� ________________
Who would have guessed that the great existential psychotherapist, Dr. Yalom, ran a gambling book in school? He's such a romantic too, married his sweetheart from school who he took out on his very first date ever (and has been happily and gratefully married to her ever since).
I'm enjoying seeing another side to this wise man.
I very much enjoyed this book, so I feel obliged to explain why only 3 stars. Yes, the author covers his career in psychiatry and psychotherapy from the 1950s to the 2000s and how the field and his own practice has changed. Yes, he discusses his marriage, his children and his travels. Yes, I enjoyed his stories and found myself reminded of my favorite educated grandfather.
But I found myself wanting more...likely I am used to biographers who are more indiscreet. Irvin is ethical and I get the strong feeling that before writing anything negative about anyone he has checked with that person -- a great quality in a friend, but it makes for a less interesting biography.
I felt there was excessive name dropping and perhaps too much discussion on matters like the relative popularity of his books in different countries when he went on book tours.
He mentions briefly some interesting things, covers them in a sentence or two and then drops them. If you have read his other books and seen the documentary on him, you will notice repetition of ideas, stories and themes. Some of that is to be expected, however I was hoping for more depth.
That said, if his wife ever writes her autobiography, I'd be interested in her perspective.
I have read all of Dr. Yalom's books and I have really enjoyed all of them. After reading his memoir I would now like to go back and read all of his books again!! I truly enjoyed reading how rich his life is, and how he has lived it to its fullest potential. A true life without regrets. Enjoyed reading how he came up with the ideas for his books and feel truly enriched that he shared so much about himself. I hope Dr. Yalom continues to write.
My client鈥檚 memories more often trigger my own, my work on their future calls upon and disturbs my past, and I find myself reconsidering my own story.
Irvin Yalom鈥檚 lifetime professional achievements, his published books and his collection of important accolades received from both the psychiatric and literary societies speak for themselves: the praise is well deserved and hard-earned. How come his biography turned into such a slog for me? This was one of the most unappealing books I read in recent times. After almost every chapter, I put the book aside in order to read something else and, if not for this being a group read project, I would have abandoned the lecture after the opening chapters.
In the interest of full disclosure, these problems can probably be blamed on my ingrained skepticism about psychotherapy, as I became familiar with it through literature and cinema. So I was willing to expand my horizons and do a more in-depth exploration, but this memoir turned out to be not the best material about the profession. As the title should have warned me, the book is a biography of the author, with heavy emphasis on childhood, years of study, career projects, novels published and many, many holidays in exotic locations. The actual information about psychotherapy and the interpretation of new trends from the author鈥檚 perspective is mentioned mostly as a recommendation to read the other manuals and novels published by the author, with only a brief synopsis provided here.
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Me and Mr. Yalom started on the wrong foot right from the very first chapter, recounting a childhood dream from the perspective of the 85 years old narrator. As a person who has extreme difficulty remembering what he dreamt about five minutes after waking, I found the clarity of the childhood memories presented suspect. I do agree with the need to stress the importance of 鈥榚mpathy鈥� in a professional caregiver and felt it was the right way to start the lecture, but it made me doubly suspicious of the author鈥檚 candour.
The following pages reinforced this first impression of carefully rearranged facts to fit a narrative drive, and I know by the last page that Mr. Yalom is well aware of what he is doing. Almost every time I made a note of something fishy, it turns out a few chapters later or even in the closing remarks that he comes clean about his little 鈥榯eaching tales鈥� and how useful they are to underline an idea. Here鈥檚 an example:
Looking back now, I feel tenderness for that lonely, frightened, determined young boy, and awe that he somehow made his way through his self-education, albeit haphazardly, without encouragement, models, or guidance.
A lot of his childhood memories are used to reinforce an image of hardship and loneliness, the myth of the self-made man that has risen above the squalor of roaches, rats, drunks, racists, bullies, etc. to the highest peaks of his chosen field. These details often clash with the actual biographical details that slip through the narrative [his father was a successful business man, his mother loved him, he went to some of the best schools in the country, he married his highschool sweetheart and they had an uneventful, beautiful relationship with career success and many children and grandchildren]. Later in the memoir the author admits:
I know it鈥檚 time to discard my notion that I am entirely self-created. and, In many ways I have been insulated from hardship. and, This all sounds plausible and makes for a satisfying narrative. How powerful is our drive to fill gestalts and to fashion neatly composed stories! But was it true?
The pattern is repeated throughout his illustrious career, something that I feel the need to repeat is the result of hard work, dedication, ambition and a talent for communicating clearly and effectively. The closest approximation I have for Mr. Yalom, after checking out at the end of the book some of the references to existential psychotherapy he made [Alex Comfort, Viktor Frankl, Rollo May, Oliver Sacks] is that his main merit in not so much in breaking new ground in the field as in the successful promotion and application of the principles defined by his peers. Something along the lines of Isaac Asimov for hard science or David Attenborough for ecology. Which is high praise when you consider how well known these motivational speakers are. Mr. Yalom has excelled in early studies in group therapy, in changing the perception of the doctor as a cold, analytic observer and in writing teaching manuals and literary novels about psychotherapy. Based on his own account, he also seems to spend more time on the conference circuit than in his cabinet. He himself, towards the end of his career, sees his literary efforts as more, or at least equally important, as his work with patients.
... my experience in leading therapy groups turned out to be therapeutic, not only for my patients but for me as well: it greatly increased my comfort in group situations.
Learning more about group therapy was a primary interest in picking up the memoir. I did have some already made ideas about the importance of social interactions and probably looked only for confirmation bias in the account. I don鈥檛 think you need a degree in psychotherapy or years of research to discover that most of our modern problems are driven by loneliness and that the solution is often to rely on your circle of friends.
In general, though, his work helped me understand that most of our patients fall into despair because of their inability to establish and maintain nurturing interpersonal relationships.
or, ... the group offers comradeship, supervision, postgraduate learning, personal growth, and, occasionally, crisis intervention. I strongly encourage other therapists to create a group such as ours.
Ultimately, what is such a leaderless therapy group other than the close friends that you gather in a lifetime and that you can rely upon in your time of need? I know not all of us are lucky in this matter, and even if I do not consider psychotherapy to be major science, I do believe the guidelines established for group therapy and the many studies performed in a controlled ecosystem are useful to those who really need help.
Yalom himself considered throughout his career that he was as much in need of therapy as some of his patients (although I have my own suspicions that this was more in the nature of research than actual anxiety). Starting with his residency years until the time he wrote this memoir Mr Yalom has chosen to undergo therapy in an effort to grow as a person and to receive unbiased feedback about his life choices. Which sort of explains the title of the memoir and the choice of a lapidary image on the cover: becoming ourselves, being comfortable in our own skins is an effort of a lifetime, and you really need to know yourself before starting to advise others about the meaning of life.
Slowly I began to understand that, since the therapist鈥檚 chief professional tool is his or her own person, self-disclosure of personal shortcomings felt doubly risky: not only might one鈥檚 character be judged, but one鈥檚 professional competence as well.
or, I felt so isolated, unappreciated, and uneasy in my skin that year that I decided to find a therapist for myself, as I鈥檝e done at various difficult points throughout my life.
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The second major breakthrough in Mr. Yalom鈥檚 career has to do with existentialism. The author sort of claims he introduced this concept into mainstream therapy, although I believe his friends and mentors Rollo May or Viktor Frankl would beg to differ. Mr. Yalom still has a valid claim on the most widely used manual in North America on the subject, whose succesful and multiple revised editions speak volumes about his erudition.
More and more I grasped that many of the issues my patients struggled with 鈥� aging, loss, death, major life choices such as what profession to pursue or whom to marry 鈥� were often more cogently addressed by novelists and philosophers than by members of my own field.
I could have pointed out to the relevance of fiction in presenting and solving the problems in our daily lives before discovering Yalom. Once again, I feel common sense and an inquisitive mind are more important than a degree in psychotherapy, but I sort of enjoyed the numerous references the author makes to the books and the stories that shaped his life and informed his treatment decisions. These philosophers and storytellers are most probably the driving force in his career shift towards becoming a novelist, a field that has been as rewarding to him as his medical practice.
Through narrative, these writers had plumbed depths of existence in a way that psychiatric writing never seemed to have achieved.
and, All my life I have been a lover of narrative, and I have often smuggled therapy stories, some only a few lines long, some lasting a few pages, into my professional writing.
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Unfortunately, the last half of the memoir is dedicated to trivialities and self-congratulatory passages. Mr Yalom holiday recollections and his assortment of funny anecdotes from his travels hold little interest for me: Vespa adventures, hunting for ancient coins in Cyprus, experiments with drugs in Chiang Mai, meditation in an Indian ashram 鈥� funny party pieces that have been polished to a sparkle by repeated renderings in front of nephews or around the conference circuit until the line between fact and fiction disappears. Similarly the details of how he came to write his novels, instead of discussing their substance I found less appealing than an in-depth discussion on psychoanalysis in modern times. By far the most annoying aspect of the memoir is the self promotion, a little aspect of the author鈥檚 pride that would have been more palatable coming from other people who knew him (and he doesn鈥檛 lack for groupies]. Even here, there is an acknowledgement that mr. Yalom is aware of the pitfalls of self-delusion in a passage where he describes a commentary that he made to Frankl in a review of a book by that celebrated analyst.
I replied, as gently as possible, that such heavy focus on applause deterred from his presentation and might lead some readers to conclude that he was overinvested in the applause. He wrote back immediately, saying, 鈥淚rv, you just won鈥檛 understand 鈥� you weren鈥檛 there: they DID rise and applaud five times.鈥� Even the best of us are sometimes blinded by our wounds and our need for praise.
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In conclusion, I do not regret getting to know this eminent analyst, even as I struggled to get the end of his rambling memoir. My particular interest would have been better served by one of his other books, either one of his fictional novels or one of his collection of clinical tales.
I absolutely adore Yalom's books. However Yalom the author is very different from Yalom the person. I bought the memoir hoping to read about the struggles an adult faces and their existential questions and instead I found a bio of a psychiatrist and his professional life with few details about his perfect family life. This book might be better for the psychiatric community than for the literary community seeking to see what is hiding behind an amazing author. I would just recommend skipping this one and reading his actual books.
An inspiring, encouraging book that also gave me a good idea what to read next and how to go about on my path both towards becoming a therapist and towards becoming myself :) Inspiring through Yalom's own story, encouraging through his openness and vulnerability, even after decades of helping others and examining and developing himself.
Irvin Yalom daugiau ma啪iau pa啪寞stamas visiems, kurie nors 拧iek tiek domisi psichologija. Skaitytojai pam臈go jo knygas "Kai Ny膷臈 verk臈", "Melagis ant ku拧et臈s", "Gydymas 艩openhaueriu" ir Vagos leidykla tikriausiai pagalvojo, kad metas i拧leisti psichiatro memuarus. Manau, neapsiriko. Knyga tiems, kurie yra bent jau ka啪k膮 gird臈j臋 apie 拧寞 puik懦 ir savo srityje vertinam膮 specialist膮 bus 寞domi.
Memuaruose atskleid啪iama Yalom vaikyst臈, kaip jis pasirinko psichiatro keli膮, kaip jo gyvenime atsirado ra拧ymas, 拧iek tiek apie 啪mon膮, vaikus, draugus, na ir 啪inoma, karjeros vingiai. Itin 寞domu pasirod臈 knyg懦 atsiradimo istorijos: kas jas paskatino para拧yti, kaip sek臈si 寞gyvendinti sumanymus, kokios dvejon臈s kankino ir pan. Knygoje atskleid啪iama ir tai, kaip Yalom sek臈si darbin臈je aplinkoje, kaip jis ie拧kojo nauj懦 b奴d懦 problemoms 寞veikti. Tai taip pat 寞domu.
Gerokai blankiau atrodo asmeninis autoriaus gyvenimas. I拧 biografij懦 tikimasi platesnio sav臋s kaip asmenyb臈s bei savo aplinkos atskleidimo. Deja deja viskas 膷ia blankoka. Gal per daug diplomatijos, nenoro dalintis, o gal i拧ties viskas taip nuobodu: 啪mona - vidurin臈s laik懦 meil臈, b奴rys vaik懦, kurie tiesiog augo ir tapo puikiais 啪mon臈mis, persikraustymai, kelion臈s. Nieko intriguojan膷io, nieko to, kas rodyt懦 vidines dramas, ie拧kojimus ir tai, ko a拧 labiausiai laukiau bei tik臈jausi. Vaikyst臈 vis tik parodoma atviriausiai - ka rei拧k臈 b奴ti 啪ydu, susidurti su antisemitizmu ir nepatogiai jaustis d臈l nepasiturin膷i懦 bei daug dirban膷i懦 t臈v懦.
Yalom 啪mona - i拧skirtin臈 ir ne ma啪iau pasiekusi asmenyb臈. Autorius skiria d臈mesio j懦 santykiui apra拧yti. Moteris taip pat ra拧o, knygas, jos s膮skaitoje solidi akademin臈 patirtis, o taip pat u啪augintas nema啪as b奴rys vaik懦. Taigi dar kyla klausimas - kuris i拧 j懦 pasiek臈s daugiau. Nustebino tokio progresyvaus 啪mogaus kaip Yalom labai jau tradicinis po啪i奴ris 寞 拧eimos model寞. Kol jis dar臈 karjer膮, jo 啪mona viena augino vaikus ir taip pat band臈 nei拧kristi i拧 sav臋s realizavimo traukinio. Pagarba jai ir minusas Yalom.
Kam skaityti? Tiems, kurie jau yra gird臈j臋 apie 拧寞 psichoterpeut膮 - ra拧ytoj膮 Yalom ir nori susipa啪inti i拧samiau. Gero skaitymo
I'm going to echo the other reviewers and confirm their reflections. No matter how much of a fan you are of Yalom's work, you can really do without this memoir. Towards the end of the book, Yalom describes a group of therapist writers he is a member of called Pegasus. He gives them the manuscript of Becoming Myself to read, and they have the same criticism we do: the first third is the most interesting, we urge you to put more of your self into it. It's true: I don't know who he avoids offending by not getting into any titillating experiences, but past the first third about his childhood, the rest of the book I remember as a blur of vacations and sabbaticals taken, speeches given and groups Yalom presided over. As a bonus though for readers from Greece, Yalom tells us of how well received and well known he is in Greece, how during one of his visits he signed thousands of books with fans lining up for multiple blocks in order to meet him, with more than fifty women whispering "I love you" in his ear. We are his biggest fans as Greece has the highest number of readers of Yalom per capita in the world!
yalom'un temsil etti臒i psikiyatrist kimli臒ine, genel olarak doktor kimli臒ine, ihtiyac谋m谋z oldu臒unu ve bu ihtiyac谋m谋z谋n g眉n ge莽tik莽e artaca臒谋n谋 d眉艧眉n眉yorum. hepimiz hasta ya da hasta aday谋 oldu臒umuza g枚re yalom'un yazarl谋臒谋yla, elbette sacks gibi, ba艧ka 枚rnekler gibi, d眉nyan谋n bir ucundan bize ula艧abilmesi sevindirici ve umut verici.
yalom'un insan hikayesini esas almas谋, edebiyat谋n ve felsefenin birikimini somut olarak de臒erlendirmesi, bug眉n art谋k yokmu艧 say谋lan varolu艧 sorunlar谋n谋n, anlam aray谋艧谋n谋n, yaln谋zl谋臒谋n, yal谋t谋lm谋艧l谋臒谋n 眉zerine gitmesi 莽ok ama 莽ok de臒erli. an谋lar谋 maalesef bir veda mahiyetinde olsa da aslolan yazd谋klar谋yla bize ula艧maya, hayatlar谋m谋za dokunmaya devam edecek olmas谋. kendisinin 枚l眉mle y眉zle艧mek kitab谋nda anlatt谋臒谋 "dalgalanma" bu. 枚yleyse hem ne mutlu ona hem ne mutlu bize diye bitireyim 艧imdi.
Ser谩 que me gusta la forma en la que Irvin Yalom supo combinar psicolog铆a y filosof铆a y su forma 谩gil y amena de escribir, que tanto 鈥淓l d铆a que Nietzsche lloro鈥� como 鈥淯n a帽o con Schopenhauer鈥� me resultaron muy atractivos y me dejaron con ganas de conocer m谩s de su obra. En este caso el prestigioso psiquiatra y precursor de la terapia de grupos nos entrega a sus 85 a帽os un libro de memorias donde habla de su infancia, sus miedos, el desarrollo de su carrera profesional como psicoterapeuta y como fue la g茅nesis de cada una de sus obras. Un libro que puede resultar muy inspirador y me ha gustado mucho. Lo recomiendo sobre todo a aquellos que leyeron sus anteriores libros y quedaron conformes.
鈥淵alom scrie ca un 卯nger despre demonii care ne asediaz膬鈥� este, cu siguran葲膬, cea mai corect膬 葯i m膬gulitoare afirma葲ie despre 卯ndr膬gitul 葯i respectatul psihoterapeut 葯i scriitor Irvin D.Yalom, 葯i cel mai frumos compliment primit de c膬tre acesta din partea unui alt bine-cunoscut terapeut, scriitor 葯i filosof existen葲ialist, Rollo May.
Primul meu contact cu Yalom a fost prin intermediul c膬r葲ilor lui de fic葲iune, Minciuni pe canapea 葯i Pl芒nsul lui Nietzsche, ca mai apoi, destul de recent, s膬 citesc 葯i c芒teva titluri de non-fic葲iune. C膬l膬toria c膬tre sine. Memoriile unui psihiatru este cartea sa autobiografic膬, o lectur膬 onest膬 葯i introspectiv膬 pe parcursul c膬reia cititorul va fi martorul evolu葲iei sale 卯n primul r芒nd ca fiu al unei familii de emigran葲i ru葯i, ce depune notabile eforturi pentru a reu葯i s膬 se ridice deaspura condi葲iei sale de evreu marginalizat, student con葯tiincios al facult膬葲ii de medicin膬, so葲 al singurei femei pe care a iubit-o 葯i cu care a avut o frumoas膬 葯i impresionant膬 c膬snicie de peste 60 de ani, profesor emerit 卯n psihologie 葯i psihoterapie 卯n cadrul universit膬葲ii Stanford 葯i, nu 卯n ultimul r芒nd, f膬uritor de cuvinte, scriitor prolific cu numeroase c膬r葲i de fic葲iune 葯i non-fic葲iune, traduse 卯n nenum膬rate limbi 葯i recompensate de criticii de specialitate, un exemplu 卯n acest sens fiind cartea Pl芒nsul lui Nietzsche, aceasta fiind recunoscut膬 卯n Viena anului 2009 drept cartea anului, autorul sus葲in芒nd o prezentare public膬 de mul葲umire chiar 卯n incinta Muzeului Freud.
De-a lungul celor 400 de pagini, cititorul este invitat s膬 cunoasc膬 卯ndeaproape cele mai inime g芒nduri ale autorului, reu葯ind 卯n acest fel s膬 cunoasc膬 卯n profunzime detaliile pove葯tilor de via葲膬 ce stau 卯n spatele imaginii de om public.
Cu sinceritate, umor 葯i empatie, Yalom se dest膬inuie cititorului, povestindu-i acestuia propria sa c膬l膬torie de via葲膬, 卯ncununat膬 cu bucurii, reu葯ite, satisfac葲ii, dar 葯i 卯ndoielile 葯i regrete (una dintre acestea viz芒nd rela葲ia sa mai deloc apropiat膬 cu mama lui, pe care nu a apreciat-o la timpul potrivit 葯i pe care a 卯n葲eles-o prea pu葲in, cea de-a doua f膬c芒nd referire la timpul mult prea scurt petrecut 卯n compania propriilor s膬i copii, patru la num膬r, pe care i-a cam neglijat 卯n detrimentul succesului profesional 葯i al pacien葲ilor s膬i, so葲ia depun芒nd cele mai mari eforturi 卯n cre葯terea acestora, aceasta am芒n芒ndu-葯i propria carier膬 scriitoriceasc膬 pentru a-葯i ajuta familia).
Cel mai mult am apreciat capitolele dedicate c膬r葲ilor sale, afl芒nd astfel detalii surprinz膬toare 葯i interesante despre procesul de scriere, inspira葲iile autorului 葯i eforturile depuse 卯n vederea realiz膬rii unor romane menite s膬 trezeasc膬, s膬 inspire 葯i s膬 educe publicul de pretutindeni. 脦n cartea de fa葲膬 am descoperit nenum膬ratele fa葲ete ale apreciatului om de 葯tiin葲膬 葯i scriitor, un Yalom plin de via葲膬 (chiar 葯i la v芒rsta de 85 de ani), departe de a fi perfect 卯ns膬 extrem de sincer 葯i asumat, un b膬rbat demn, dedicat pasiunilor sale 鈥� scrisul, medicina, educarea 葯i ajutorarea semenilor s膬i -, extrem de modest, bine ancorat 卯n realitate, dar 葯i vis膬tor, prin prisma obiectelor sale de studiu 葯i a pl膬cerilor de zi cu zi.
Este o adev膬rat膬 lec葲ie de via葲膬, un (alt) cadou oferit de Yalom cititorilor 葯i sus葲in膬torilor s膬i din 卯ntreaga lume, o lectur膬 ce 卯ndeamn膬 la introspec葲ie, o carte care, pentru mine, s-a sim葲it de parc膬 a葯 fi f膬cut zilnic, pre葲 de c芒teva ore, terapie cu celebrul scriitor. 葮i 卯n 卯ncheiere, ca un g芒nd r膬t膬citor, simt c膬, poate, prin intermediul acestei c膬r葲i care dezv膬luie mult din el 卯nsu葯i, Yalom a f膬cut chiar el terapie cu noi, cititorii lui. C膬ci scrisul este unul dintre cele mai frumoase obiecte terapeutice din c芒te exist膬 pe p膬m芒nt.
鈥濫ram atras deopotriv膬 de psihiatrie 葯i de literatur膬. Cea mai mare pl膬cere era s膬 m膬 pierd 卯n universul unui roman 葯i-mi spuneam ne卯ncetat c膬 cea mai mare reu葯it膬 卯n via葲膬 este s膬 scrii un roman bun.鈥�