The book Irvin D. Yalom – On Psychotherapy and the Human Experience is much like Yalom himself: perceptive, open-minded, and reflective. It is a beautiful narrative for an outstanding storyteller. It captures the art and essence of psychotherapy.

Published by Agra Publications, this study by Yalom's collaborator includes extensive original material of interviews and discussions the author had with the great psychotherapist.

IRVIN D. YALOM is one of the most renowned modern psychiatrists, with a vast readership and significant impact. Through his books, which manage to be accessible to the average reader and constructive for the psychotherapist, he has composed a guide to life that helps us exist in a world that causes us anxieties.

A recent survey among American psychotherapists highlighted him as one of the three most significant living therapists, while the global success of his books indicates how important he is internationally as well.

While he is not promoted as a representative of any psychotherapeutic “schools” or approaches, Yalom conveys a message that touches the core of psychotherapy. Focusing on fundamental existential anxieties, his work deals with issues such as the search for meaning in life and the confrontation with death, concerns that once surpassed the subject matter of psychiatry.

Writing in a literary style that critics compare to Freud's, Yalom describes what truly occurs in the encounter between two people that takes place in psychotherapy. He does not hesitate to expose his personal thoughts and feelings about what happens in the session; he is also a vulnerable human being.

He allows his thoughts about his clients to become transparent, openly presenting his doubts, reservations, and inspired interventions. Throughout his work, he explores the limitless and complex healing possibilities that authentic human connection offers and the awareness of the dilemmas of human existence.

BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

RUTHELLEN JOSSELSON is a professor of Psychology at The Fielding Graduate University; she previously taught at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at Harvard. She has authored the books Playing Pygmalion: How People Create One Another; Revising Herself: The Story of Women’s Identity from College to Midlife, and The Space Between Us: Exploring the Dimensions of Human Relationships. She has been the editor of The Narrative Study of Lives annual publication for many years. She is the recipient of the Henry A. Murray Award from the American Psychological Association and holds a Fullbright scholarship. She also practices psychotherapy professionally, holding a degree in Group Psychotherapy.

COVER PHOTO REID YALOM