A must read for those fearing or facing death. While difficult to open, you will feel more at peace in the end. Addresses the universality of our fear in a rational straightforward manner. We are not in this alone.

Perfect lessons for life (and death that we don't actually live)...

Having read some books by Yalom already, for me this one really set the tone in my search for meaning and understanding of existential psychology and all the issues human face when dealing with death or merely with the fear of dying. The ephemerality of life keeps us in a maze and rarely we can really be conscious about the fact that our lives are ending day by day. And this should only motivate us to live better. This book is not a gloomy, dark version of fearing death experiences, it's just a

Absolutely fascinating! The way Yalom writes about death, and the ideas and philosophies he shares with the reader are life-changing and powerful. In my opinion, the idea of Existential Psychotherapy is so refreshing and illuminating.I found lost of wisdom in this book on how to live a more meaningful life. I highly recommend it and it’s one I’m sure I’ll reread in the future.

This book makes the psychology of death anxiety accessible to everyone. The author’s lifetime of psychology research & practice are enhanced by his numerous case study examples. His gentle compassion in discussing death and the fear of death is very welcome and attractive. It would be very helpful for psychotherapists, hospice workers, nurses, and caregivers as well as anyone plagued by death anxiety (so, basically, everyone).

When I was in graduate school, one of my favorite text books was a book on Existential Therapy by Irvin D. Yalom. He approaches psychotherapy (and life) with intelligence, acceptance, and natural goodwill. Here again, he brings light and understanding to profound human questions and struggles through the lens of Epicurus, and we, his readers, get insight into Yalom's process with patients in his therapy practice. Highly recommended.

“I do not intend this to be a somber book. Instead,it is my hope that by grasping, really grasping, ourhuman condition—our finiteness, our brief time in thelight—we will come not only to savor the preciousnessof each moment and the pleasure of sheer being but toincrease our compassion for ourselves and for all otherhuman beings.”

A longtime psychotherapist, Yalom argues that it’s important for each of us to face our mortality head-on, with full awareness. Although such awareness is difficult, bringing with it great anxiety, it can motivate us to embrace life and to live more fully and compassionately. As he puts it, “Although the physicality of death destroys us, the idea of death saves us” (33). Yalom offers Ebenezer Scrooge, Pierre Bezukhov, and Ivan Ilych as literary examples of people who had “awakening experiences,”...

My psychiatrist recommended this book to me after the sudden death of a good friend. I was having a hard time with her passing but also talking about the topic of death to those around me. Many tried to offer comforting words and said that she was in Heaven or watching over me, etc. I would nod and keep my mouth shut because I know no one can answer my question, which is: How do you know??I had to take breaks from reading It but it really helped me.

LADY, THREE WHITE LEOPARDS SAT UNDER A JUNIPER TREE IN THE COOL OF THE DAYHAVING FED TO SATIETY ON MY LEGS, MY HEART AND MY LIVERAND THAT WHICH WAS CONTAINED IN THE HOLLOW ROUND OF MY SKULL. AND GOD SAID,SHALL THESE BONES LIVE? SHALL THESEBONES LIVE?T.S. Eliot, Ash WednesdayIrvin Yalom is right. We have to stare fixedly at the blazing sun of our mortality - as Merseault did on the beach, in Camus’ The Stranger - for it changes him. And it can change us.But ONLY if we daily, and in sometimes excr...

Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death (2008), Irvin D. Yalom Over the past quarter century Irvin Yalom has established himself as the world's leading group psychotherapist. In Staring at the Sun, Yalom 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...

One of the best quotes that I've heard is Turgenyev's: "Death's an old story, but new for each person". Every death around us or unfortunate life events become awakenings to start to read the story that belongs to us. But the process of this story is different for each of us. Many people do not even want to think about death and deaths around them, like a story book waiting on the shelf to be read. Many people are in grief. Many people are obsessively living in this story. But the most important...

This book helped me SO much. Ever since I was a little girl, death has always frightened me. The thought of being separated from the ones I loved or dying before I was ready has always troubled me. My fear of death intensified with the news that my dad has terminal brain cancer and intensified even more with the birth of my second child. After I had my second baby, being afraid of dying was all I could think about. Some days the fear would wane, but other days my fear would prevent me from doing...

Though a very special view (Epicurist) of the ageing process and the challenges man and woman face throughout (death included), it's a very important book for any psychotherapist, regardless of the philosophical or psychotherapy school espoused. Yalom cites plenty of clinical cases, including his personal record: as child (his view on Religion), as therapist (his masters,...W.H. Bion, namely) and himself (as father, husband...)... ageing. UPDATEhttps://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...MOREht

3.5A few months ago, after having several sleepless nights and panic attacks I found out that I have death anxiety. Which isn't really surprising when you counter the fact that we are living in 2020! I spent countless hours on YouTube, blog posts and Reddit to find a "cure" for my anxiety but came to no conclusion whatsoever.When I told the matter to my therapist, she recommended this book to me. The seemingly perfect book for someone who has death anxiety, a book that's about a therapist dealin...

Lovely!If you're starting to look into death and the fear thereof—something I guess we all do at some point, maybe many points in life—this is your best starting point :)The tone is gentle and compassionate, filled with examples from Yalom's therapy sessions, and he's a cultured chap who will lead you in the direction of great films and books to read next.The topic as you can imagine is bleak in the hands of most, so it's refreshing to consider that Yalom has reached his kindly optimistic outloo...

I've started seeing a therapist in 2016, an offshoot of meeting her as a staff counselor while I was a student at Chicago's DevBootcamp; and she's what's known as an "existential therapist," based on a number of ideas first developed by renowned academe Irvin Yalom, which is what's had me reading a whole series of this popular author's work this year. This 2008 title could very well be the one that he ends up being best remembered for, and touches on one of the base core concepts of existential

Some smart person, back in the early days of Amazon decided that, while books should be rated on a five-point scale, reviews should be either ‘useful’ or ‘not useful’. Good idea. Something that helps you decide to buy or not-a perfectly binary process-should be judged in a similarly binary fashion. Either it helps or it doesn’t.A book that makes the immodest claim of helping the reader overcome the terror of death can probably best be judged the same way. Did it help or not?In spite of the claim...

Yalom, a psychiatrist (Emeritus Stanford University School of Medicine) has written a manual and memoir to show us how he, his patients and many people have been able to transmute the foreknowledge looming before all humans that we will one day die into a catalyst for consummating one's own life. Yalom directly addresses the question of how can we, even if we are not theists leave our own traces of "immortality."Although Yalom maintains he is an atheist, he demonstrates a great respect and nurtu...

It's hard to go wrong with Yalom. Great book on death anxiety. In the couple of years before reading this book I had 4 acquaintances in their early 40's, all with young children, die of cancer. Having young kids myself, I was really starting to worry about an untimely death of my own. I wouldn't say reading this book fixed all that, because hey, none of us knows how long we have, but this was a good exploration of the topic.I read this about a year ago and had quit putting reviews up on Goodread...