Creatures of a Day: And Other Tales of Psychotherapy - Softcover

Yalom, Irvin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 046509743X ISBN 13: 9780465097432

Publisher: Basic Books, 2016

Synopsis

In this stunning collection of stories, renowned psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom describes his patients' struggles--as well as his own--to come to terms with the two great challenges of existence: how to have a meaningful life yet reckon with its inevitable end. We meet a nurse who must stifle the pain of losing her son in order to comfort her patients' pains, a newly minted psychologist whose studies damage her treasured memories of a lost friend, and a man whose rejection of psychological inquiry forces even Yalom himself into a crisis of confidence. Creatures of a Day is a radically honest statement about the difficulties of human life, but also a celebration of some of the finest fruits--love, family, friendship--it can offer. Marcus Aurelius has written that "we are all creatures of a day." With Yalom as our guide, we will find the means to make our own day not only bearable, but also meaningful and joyful.

About this title

Review:

"Creatures of a Day is just what the doctor ordered!"--Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

"Poignant and bracing."--Los Angeles Review of Books

"Stunning."

"Irvin Yalom has produced a book of such piercing depth that to enter into it is transformative. You feel less like you are reading Creatures of a Day than that it is reading you."--Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, McArthur Fellow and author of Plato at the Googleplex and Betraying Spinoza

"Dr. Yalom has written a magical book. Anyone who has ever thought about his or her own aging or mortality will love this book."--George Valliant, professor of psychiatry, Harvard University, and author of Triumphs of Experience and Aging Well

"This book is the best of its kind I've read to date, offering a tender and credible look behind the curtain, through a powerful series of vignettes."--Miranda Palmer, PsychCentral

"[Yalom] writes amiably, certainly sympathetically, and always wisely from his point of view as an octogenarian therapist who has seen it all--well, maybe almost all--and how has some useful thoughts about the mysteries of the mind.... A humane, highly knowledgeable glimpse of the therapist's couch."--Kirkus Reviews

"Yalom has genuinely inspiring insights to share about the value of therapy.... The stories [he] offers of his patients' failures and triumphs are frequently moving and will invoke the reader's empathy."--Publishers Weekly

"Stunning."--Salon

A remedy more powerful than any fad or pill could promise."--Washington Post

Book Description:

Eminent psychotherapist and bestselling author, Irvin D Yalom, gives us a new collection of ten absorbing tales of psychotherapy, revealing the mysteries, frustrations, pathos and humour at the heart of the therapeutic encounter.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 046509743X
• ISBN 13: 9780465097432
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240