This book gave a lot of insights into the therapeutic process, but I found the guy a total putz--very self-aware of his own reactions to the patients he describes, but not so concerned about their own experience of the process that he wouldn't describe them in great detail to the world at large. Also, just comes off as self-satisfied; it made the reading distasteful, and I didn't finish in the end. I couldn't stand the supercilious sense he gives of being in some way, better than his clients.

I started reading this book with the expectation that I would find an interesting but nonetheless mechanical look into the brass tacks of psychiatry... and found something far more dangerous and intriguing: Dr. Yalom is a creative writer. And he's utterly brilliant.Starting with the prologue, this work is filled with deep and genuine originality, taste, and introspection. Dr. Yalom's prose is sagaciously crafted, and a pleasure to read and reread. The entirety of the collection is used as an abs...

Psychiatrist Dr. Irvin D. Yalom is married to a feminist scholar, which is highly surprising considering the fact that he regards women in a very sexualized and demeaning way. Unless they were attractive women, he displayed a worrying degree of contempt towards his patients. He seemed to have one derogatory thought after another about them. In the story ‘The Fat Lady’ he even admits that his contempt for fat ladies ‘surpassed all cultural norms’. But the fat lady, Betty, offered him an opportuni...

Executing love, rationally. Overcoming the fear of death. Accepting one's mortality...Psychologists get some interesting tasks in their workdays, don't they?Q:That's when I will be truly dead - when I exist in no one's memory. (c)Q:I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit. (c)Q:I do not like to work with patients who are in love. Perhaps it is because of envy—I, to...

Turns out it's no fun reading about peoples mental afflictions or a creepy psychoanalyst therapy session. Here's what you'll get in every chapter: The author introducing a patient, then berating them (with the exception of if they are a 'sexy' attractive women - then author will muse if he is helping the patient out of the goodness of his heart or because the patient is a sexy woman). God help you if you're a fat woman, Mr. Yalom is absolutely sickened by this filth. You'll hear the patient desc...

This is not the book to read while you are actually in therapy. Although I think Love's Executioner Other Tales of Psychotherapy was meant to show people the "behind the scenes" of psychology, Dr. Yalom will make you question the motives of any practitioner, no matter how saintly. That's not to say that the book isn't intriguing, informative, or balanced; it is all of those things. It's just that Yalom comes across as unbearably arrogant in many of the case studies, which belies the work he's tr...

Love's Executioner. God that's a good title. Vaguely profound statements are the best. (Fortune cookies anyone?) In this book, Yalom gives accounts of patients he has had. I am not sure what criteria were used in picking the case studies he did for the book; I imagine he has rich history of intriguing patients and these are no exception. In Love's Executioner you will read about interesting characters and their neuroses and watch from behind the scenes as Yalom applies his psychological scalpel

Your therapist is judging you. Sorry, it sucks. I know the idea is that they are objective observers looking out for your best interest rather than the often hypercritical, dismissive average human being with a capacity for conversational boredom and bad advice, but they're not. Especially not Dr. Yalom. Dr. Yalom hates fat people, he develops a sexual attraction to one of his patients' multiple personalities and encourages her to incorporate this split-self into her overarching self so she'll b...

The stories of 10 patients' experiences in psychotherapy - but they feel like much more.The stories offer a surprisingly engaging window to peek into the struggles of patients w/ the very same existential pains and miseries everyone experiences. The author is a practicing therapist, and he based these stories on his patients (suitably amended to ensure anonymity). He reflects much on his own role in the therapeutic relationship, and these reflections are often as interesting as the stories of hi...

There is no adventure more exciting, nothing so wonderful and frightening, and so fraught with danger, as delving into the mind of a human being. On that point alone this book is moving and emotional and funny as few works of fiction can be. When going on such a perilous journey into the true heart of darkness it behooves one to have an experienced and trustworthy guide. Dr. Irving Yalom knows the terrain and the beasts that lurk within... yet I would prefer having Fred C. Dobbs showing me the w...

Ugh, I am so disappointed. I very, very badly wanted to love this book. Staring at the Sun was revolutionary, and The Gift of Therapy unequivocally changed who I am as a mental health professional. One of Yalom's greatest assets is that he has always been very open about his flaws, judgments, and humanness. But in this book, he reveals that he has many flaws and more judgments than most people I know. I started reading (well, listening, actually - I did this one on audiobook and managed to mostl...

I had originally started Irvin D. Yalom's newest release Becoming Myself, where he mentioned this collection of stories which sounded more fitting because my attention span was slight at the time.Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy offers a keen insight on ten patients, from all walks of life, who turned to therapy, “all ten were suffering the common problems of everyday life: loneliness, self-contempt, impotence, migraine headaches, sexual compulsivity, obesity, hypertension, gr...

"From both my personal and professional experience, I had come to believe that the fear of death is always greatest in those who feel that they have not lived their life fully. A good working formula is: the more unlived life, or unrealized potential, the greater one's death anxiety."In his book Love's Executioner, Irvin Yalom, a psychotherapist with several decades of experience, shares ten stories of individuals he counseled in a professional setting. Each of these tales revolves around differ...

I could get long winded here (in fact my colleagues and I half joked about writing a response to this book called “Yalom’s Executioner” in which we deconstruct everything wrong with it) but I won’t. Instead I’ll just say that Yalom, while a phenomenal writer, is a despicable and morally repugnant person. As a counselor I felt repulsed by how he described his clients. His hubris and inability to check his privilege made this incredibly difficult to read. In fact, I stopped reading it halfway thro...

A friend gave me this book a few days ago. My friend is very well-educated, has lived all over the world, and has experienced more than most people. When he gave me the book, he said to me, "This book reflects my vision of the world".How could I help but be intrigued?Opening the book, he then read the following passage from the Preface: "Four givens are particularly relevant for psycho-therapy: the inevitability of death for each of us and for those we love; the freedom to make our lives as we w...

Last year I started seeing a therapist for the first time in my life, although not by deliberate choice but rather as a side benefit of something else -- namely, I attended one of those "computer coding bootcamp" programs here in Chicago, and one of the things they provide for their students for no cost is a licensed therapist on staff for weekly sessions. I ended up responding so well to the process, though, that I've continued seeing her in private practice ever since.As part of this therapy p...

I finished this in one sitting and then bought every other book the author has ever written. Reading this book was a trip.

As a psychology student with plenty of knowledge about mental health but zero experience with what actually happens in real life therapy, this book was incredibly interesting and helpful for me. Yalom is refreshingly honest about his own thoughts and experiences in therapy, openly admitting to instances where he made wrong decisions and sharing his darker thoughts - thoughts that one would expect highly trained psychologists to be above as they operate in their supernatural realm free of judgeme...

Oh man. Did I hate this book. Yalom is a turd. I really tried. I really did, but I cannot. We're meant to appreciate his honesty and study his counter-transference, but I'm telling you right now. Any other therapist could have written a brutally honest account of their work, and not come off as such a whiny, self-aggrandizing putz. All Yalom does is piss and moan that he's bored in sessions because his client is ugly, or a fatty, or whatever else is not the height of entertainment for him. Then

Love's Executioner is a wonderful collection of psychotherapy tales of master psychiatrist Irvin Yalom. Although the book does have a sort of instructional focus, I believe anyone could enjoy the content. Yalom describes treating patients with a multitude of symptoms and presentations, and his intelligent and thoughtful approach to them all. Even though his theory of choice doesn't align with my own, I really do have to awe at and truly appreciate the true mastery of the therapeutic process. I r...