Books by Irvin Yalom

A deeply moving reflection on what matters to us most as we approach the end of life

This classic medium, first popularised by Freud and, more recently, by Oliver Sacks and Yalom himself, provides a fascinating insight into the human condition and our search for happiness. Contains six absorbing case studies which reveal the intricacies our psychological landscapes. Provides a fascinating insight into the human condition and our search for happiness. Explores the unique dynamic of the relationship between therapist and client. Absorbing and deeply thoughtful, Momma and the Meaning of Life is a work of rare insight and imagination.

Over the past quarter century Irvin Yalom has established himself as the world's leading group psychotherapist. In STARING AT THE SUN, he explores how the knowledge of our own mortality affects the unconscious mind of every human being. Tackling the effect of mankind's fear of death - both conscious and unconscious - on life and how we might live it, Yalom explains how we find ourselves in need of the comfort of therapy.At age 70 and facing his own fear of death, which he discusses in a special afterword, Dr Yalom tackles his toughest subject yet and finds it to be the root cause of patients' fears, stresses and depression. If therapists are to deliver 'the gift of therapy', they must confront the realities of life for themselves and their practice, as must we all.

"The Spinoza Problem is engrossing, enlightening, disturbing and ultimately deeply satisfying." --Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone

The classic work on group psychotherapy

Distills the essence of a wide range of therapies into a creative synthesis, opening up a new way of understanding each person's confrontation with four ultimate concerns: isolation, meaninglessness, death, and freedom.

What makes life worth living? What can we do to lead meaningful lives? And how do we confront our inevitable end? In his long career, eminent psychotherapist and author Irvin Yalom has pressed his patients and readers to grapple with life's two greatest challenges: that we all must die, and that each of us is responsible for leading a life worth living. In Creatures of a Day, he and his patients face the difficulty of these challenges. Although these people have come to Yalom seeking relief, recognition, or meaning, he and they discover that such things are rarely found in the places where we think to look. Like Love's Executioner and Yalom's other writing, Creatures of a Day provides an intelligent, compassionate, yet still unflinching look at the human soul and all the pain, confusion, and hope that go with it. The power of these stories is amplified by Yalom's reflections on his own life as he reckons with its inevitable end. Suffused with humor, great artistry, and a profound humanity, Creatures of a Day lays bare the necessary task we each face, each day, to make our own lives meaningful.