I am a fan of Irvin D. Yalom's books. If anyone doesn't know who he is, Dr. Yalom is a legend in the field of psychology. Some of his books are short stories from his psychotherapeutic practice. His latest book Creatures of a Day: And Other Tales of Psychotherapy is also a collection of 10 cases from his practice.
Yalom leads his psychotherapeutic practice more than 50 years! As you understand, Yalom meets people who are hardly inspired. On the contrary. His clients are stuck, depressed, unhappy, disappointed people; some of them are suffering from fatal illness such as cancer.
The first thing that impressed me was the age of the writer. Yalom was 81 when he was writing this book.
I can compare his work with the work of one Ukrainian psychiatrist in one case in my legal practice. She diagnosed mental illness after conversation during 5 minutes with the man who has broken the leg. She did it without full range of medical and psychological tests. But in court room she couldn't name the signs and symptoms of this illness. Her arguments were "I know... because I am too old. I am 70 year old woman. I can not be wrong... This man was stupid, an old, impotent geezer..."
It should be noted how Yalom describes his age. He is aware of the fact that he is an old man and he doesn't deny this fact. But he doesn't relate his age to absolute proof of the truth of his conclusions about clients.
Yalom accepts his age and own vulnerability but he works till now because he loves what he does. He is fortunate to help other people especially those who are facing the same problems: the aging process, death of spouse and friends, retirement.
Yalom describes the real cases how people undergo transformation through raising question about self-esteem. One story is about a man who got married. The couple went to the island for honeymoon. It was the best time of his life. One year later their relations become worse and then they divorced. Shortly afterwards, this man knew that his ex-wife was fascinated by another man during their marriage. He comes to conclusion that their marriage was merely his solo activity.
Another Yalom's client was under the influence of elder successful man which mentored him and put on the right track in business. But some time later an elder man committed suicide. A young man understood that their relations were not honest because his mentor was engaged on the idea of suicide.
These stories teach us that reality can be sad. It can hit us. We are all vulnerable, we are all mortal. Therefore we have to rely on ourselves. It doesn't mean we shouldn't ever ask for help. We should never depend on anyone but ourselves. I really like this idea. For that reason I'd highly recommend reading this book.
Yalom leads his psychotherapeutic practice more than 50 years! As you understand, Yalom meets people who are hardly inspired. On the contrary. His clients are stuck, depressed, unhappy, disappointed people; some of them are suffering from fatal illness such as cancer.
The first thing that impressed me was the age of the writer. Yalom was 81 when he was writing this book.
I can compare his work with the work of one Ukrainian psychiatrist in one case in my legal practice. She diagnosed mental illness after conversation during 5 minutes with the man who has broken the leg. She did it without full range of medical and psychological tests. But in court room she couldn't name the signs and symptoms of this illness. Her arguments were "I know... because I am too old. I am 70 year old woman. I can not be wrong... This man was stupid, an old, impotent geezer..."
It should be noted how Yalom describes his age. He is aware of the fact that he is an old man and he doesn't deny this fact. But he doesn't relate his age to absolute proof of the truth of his conclusions about clients.
Yalom accepts his age and own vulnerability but he works till now because he loves what he does. He is fortunate to help other people especially those who are facing the same problems: the aging process, death of spouse and friends, retirement.
Yalom describes the real cases how people undergo transformation through raising question about self-esteem. One story is about a man who got married. The couple went to the island for honeymoon. It was the best time of his life. One year later their relations become worse and then they divorced. Shortly afterwards, this man knew that his ex-wife was fascinated by another man during their marriage. He comes to conclusion that their marriage was merely his solo activity.
Another Yalom's client was under the influence of elder successful man which mentored him and put on the right track in business. But some time later an elder man committed suicide. A young man understood that their relations were not honest because his mentor was engaged on the idea of suicide.
These stories teach us that reality can be sad. It can hit us. We are all vulnerable, we are all mortal. Therefore we have to rely on ourselves. It doesn't mean we shouldn't ever ask for help. We should never depend on anyone but ourselves. I really like this idea. For that reason I'd highly recommend reading this book.