BOOKS ABOUT THERAPY



I. Yalom. Love's Executioner, and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

Newsday:
"Love’s Executioner is Yalom’s 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 Yalom’s book is charged with hope and generosity of spirit."



I. Yalom. When Nietzsche Wept: A Novel of Obsession

The Back Cover:
"In nineteenth-century Vienna, a drama of love, fate, and will is played out amid the intellectual ferment that defined the era. Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, is at the height of his career. Friedrich Nietzsche, Europe's greatest philosopher, is on the brink of suicidal despair, unable to find a cure for the headaches and other ailments that plague him. When he agrees to treat Nietzsche with his experimental “talking cure,” Breuer never expects that he too will find solace in their sessions. Only through facing his own inner demons can the gifted healer begin to help his patient. In When Nietzsche Wept, Irvin Yalom blends fact and fiction, atmosphere and suspense, to unfold an unforgettable story about the redemptive power of friendship."



I. Yalom. The Schopenhauer Cure: A Novel

Amazon:
"Yalom now turns to group therapy and the thinker sometimes known as the "philosopher of pessimism," in this meticulous, occasionally slow-moving book. Julius Hertzfeld, a successful therapist in San Francisco, is shocked by the news that he suffers from terminal cancer. Moved to reassess his life's work, he contacts Philip Slate, whose three years of therapy for sexual addiction Julius describes as an "old-time major-league failure." Philip is now training to be a therapist himself, guided by the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, and he offers to teach Julius about Schopenhauer as a way of helping him deal with his looming death. Julius and Philip strike a deal: Julius will serve as Philip's clinical supervisor, but only if Philip joins the ongoing therapy group Julius leads."



I. Yalom. Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

Publishers Weekly:
"Yalom now turns to group therapy and the thinker sometimes known as the "philosopher of pessimism," in this meticulous, occasionally slow-moving book. Julius Hertzfeld, a successful therapist in San Francisco, is shocked by the news that he suffers from terminal cancer. Moved to reassess his life's work, he contacts Philip Slate, whose three years of therapy for sexual addiction Julius describes as an "old-time major-league failure." Philip is now training to be a therapist himself, guided by the writings of Arthur Schopenhauer, and he offers to teach Julius about Schopenhauer as a way of helping him deal with his looming death. Julius and Philip strike a deal: Julius will serve as Philip's clinical supervisor, but only if Philip joins the ongoing therapy group Julius leads."



I. Yalom. Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy

Library Journal:
"Psychiatrist and gifted storyteller Yalom returns with six engaging tales of psychotherapy. In this collection, which includes two fictional narratives, Yalom explores his own dreams and fantasies, relationships with colleagues, and work as a hospital therapy group leader and director of research projects. Whether dealing with issues raised by his memory of the quintessential Jewish mother or supporting a widow working through her grief, Yalom reveals his thoughts, feelings, and reactions with sensitive honesty."



S. grosz. The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves

Amazon:
"We are all storytellers―we create stories to make sense of our lives. But it is not enough to tell tales. There must be someone to listen. In his work as a practicing psychoanalyst, Stephen Grosz has spent the last twenty-five years uncovering the hidden feelings behind our most baffling behavior. The Examined Life distils more than 50,000 hours of conversation into pure psychological insight without the jargon. This extraordinary book is about one ordinary process: talking, listening, and understanding. Its aphoristic and elegant stories teach us a new kind of attentiveness... These are stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love and the lies we tell, the changes we bear and the grief. Ultimately, they show us not only how we lose ourselves but also how we might find ourselves."



D. LODGE. THERAPY

Library Journal:
"A superb satirist of academic life on both sides of the Atlantic, Lodge here turns to a subject much hashed over in American fiction: male midlife crisis and the countless trendy therapies it's engendered. Laurence ``Tubby'' Passmore, bald and rotund in his 50s, suffers from a free-floating sense of dread... Tubby's jealous rage, his fumbling sexual adventures, his pathetic effort to develop a new series on his favorite Danish philosopher--all make for hilarious set pieces. Tubby's various therapies also provide some good fun: his acupuncture, his aroma therapy, his physiotherapy, his cognitive behaviorist, as well as his formerly ``Platonic mistress,'' Amy, a brassy divorcÇe who confirms her own dislike of sex. Finally, Tubby finds peace by delving deep into his past."



A. solomon. The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Amazon:
"The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policy makers and politicians, drug designers, and philosophers, Andrew Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease as well as the reasons for hope. He confronts the challenge of defining the illness and describes the vast range of available medications and treatments, and the impact the malady has on various demographic populations—around the world and throughout history. He also explores the thorny patch of moral and ethical questions posed by biological explanations for mental illness."



B. O’Brien. Operators and Things: The Inner Life of a Schizophrenic

Amazon:
"True story of a woman's descent into schizophrenia and her journey back to sanity."
Coevolution Quarterly:
"For six months she travels around the country on Greyhound buses, captive of the Operators, who push and pull, torment, confuse, and exhaust her. And at the end of her time of madness, she understands precisely what has been happening. Her insight is penetrating and irresistible. Her writing is delectable. She displays gut-wrenching humor and pungent metaphor with an eloquent, eminently readable style."



C. Yung. Memories, Dreams, Reflections

The Times:
"Jung's single-minded humility, his passion to unearth truth, is one of the loveliest impressions to emerge from this absorbing and many-sided book."
Observer:
"Can sometimes rise to the heights of a Blake or a Nietzsche or a Kierkegaard ... like any true prophet or artist he extended the range of the human imagination ... to be able to share Jungian emotions is surely an almost necessary capacity of the free mind."