Love's Executioner

De: Irvin D. Yalom

Narrado por: C.M. Carlson

The collection of 10 absorbing tales by master psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom uncovers the mysteries, frustrations, pathos, and humor at the heart of the therapeutic encounter. In recounting his patients' dilemmas, Yalom not only gives us a rare and enthralling glimpse into their personal desires and motivations but also tells us his own story as he struggles to reconcile his all-too-human responses with his sensibility as a psychiatrist. Not since Freud has an author done so much to clarify what goes on between a psychotherapist and a patient.

The audio version of the book includes an exclusive interview with Dr. Yalom.

©1989 Irvin Yalom (P)2013 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

Educational story-telling win!

I wasn't sure this book would hold my attention, although I love the subject. I was wrong. The client stories, and Yalom's sharing of what these brought up for him, and reflections on what he learned were absorbing. It's excellent nonfiction for those with an interestest in psychology or counseling, and a great learning tool for those doing this work.

The only downside was the production quality was truly terrible and distracting. The stories are a bit intense and have really profound endings that deserve a moment. However, there isn't even a normal pause at the end. Generally, when starting new chapters, Audible does a good job of inserting a bit of a break, even if just one or two seconds. The lack of transition in this recording was like one long run on sentence. The last word of the chapter was barely out of the narrator's mouth when the start of the next chapter began. It was jarring, and I often had to pause the book and give myself a moment.

There were also obvious splices where words were inserted later, so the entire flow and tone of the narration would jump on a word. This may have been because the narrator pronounced so many of the psychology terms incorrectly, but they didn't do a very smooth fix. It wasn't awful, just something that I noticed as slightly distracting.

Great novel about psychotherapy.

Loved to listen to this novel. The story does show it was written 30 years ago but the themes are relevant to today's culture.

Raw. Real. Refreshing.

Raw. Real. Refreshing. Thank you for such an amazing work. This meant a lot to a new Therapist starting on this journey in her middle age.

Espectacular read

Personal, incisive, honest and exposing. I enjoyed every single story and the connections that each patient had with my own fears, shame, anger and disappointments. Yalom's candid observations about himself were so meaningful as well. Wow...What a gift of a book!

Couldn’t stop listening!

Driving to and from daily activities became a joy with this audio book. Exquisitely written highly recommend. This book not only offers a peak behind the therapist doors, it also gives you a peak inside ones own life finding a bit of personal relevance in many of these stories.

Masterful & Insightful

Absolutely fantastic! Irvin Yalom’s writing style makes all the stories interesting; his self revealing is truly masterful and insightful—helpful and encouraging to Therapists of any age, as well as humans of any age who enjoy the inward journey.

Excellent!

Excellent reading, Yalom again delivered a great book with extraordinary and touchy stories that get right to the core.

Excellent

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Highly recommend it. Made Housecleaning a lot easier to do today!

The Messy Surgical Suite and Surgeon-Prostitute

Yalom’s books are accomplishments and worth reading if you have interest in the practice of psychotherapy or the purchasing of therapeutic services. I do not see these as books full of wisdom but as messy surgeries described by an experimental surgeon. In total, they suggest the questionable and uneven value of talk therapy. Why is there talk therapy? In my opinion, therapy has grown in popularity because of societal problems worsened by traumas of our modern lifestyles (isolation, lack of intimacy, lack of validation, insufficient skills to cope with external demands, lack of safety). In a better word, people would find the support and skills for like amongst people who love them, not robotic prostitutes. I have read this book two or three times, so I am invested in it. The ethical issues presented by Yalom inspire discussion and debate and help patients to see the emotional life of a therapist and how this one therapist measured his lifetime performances. He uses a ruler that favors his therapy organ. One topic (of many) I wonder about: if a psychotherapist has a universal prejudice, is he selfish and wrong-headed to accept patients that affect him negatively? For example, if a therapist is secretly disgusted by fat ladies, would it not be better to refer the patient elsewhere? Many doctors have the ethical wisdom to refer people they cannot serve (maybe youth, the elderly, borderline patients, transsexuals) elsewhere. Even if the practitioner eventually feels the outcome was positive for the patient, isn’t the selfishness of the therapist and dishonesty of the therapist a process contamination? Isn’t self-interpreted success by a therapist so subjective as to be a worthless assessment? I am someone who could be called a fat lady. Is the burden on me to ask a therapist if they are prejudiced? Would I ever, as a naïve consumer, even suspect that I should “interview” a therapist on this question? I am someone who might have been a fat lady therapist-in-training. Should I suspect that my instructors might have impeded my progress because of “universal” fat prejudices? What about other “universal” prejudices? How about anti-Semitism? Is that somehow a prejudice that can be justified as a “universal” like the fat lady prejudice was/is condoned? Well, at least there are practitioners who clearly denote the faith populations they serve. Counter-transference transparency as a teaching and self-catharsis tool speaks to ethical decisions that were likely mistakes. I project onto Yalom sinfulness as Yalom makes my heart hurt; I wonder if the firing squads in my therapy were based on issues of ugliness, weight, parenting, marriage, or other prejudices. Did prejudices mislead and hurt me in the long run? Did I share my heart’s tenderness with men who looked down on me with disgust and took my money in the process? Is my brokenness worsened by their actions and encouragements? How could Yalom assess his ethical choices as not without negative consequences? Is it a “universal” that all patients must “change?” Is there ever a patient that is less in need of change than the therapist? Is there ever a patient who needs something other than change? Perhaps safety? Perhaps validation that they are complete and meaningful people? Perhaps a contrary opinion to offer dissent to the people who criticize the patient in horrible ways? Is the need of the therapist to effect change driven by insurance reimbursement schemes? Is the therapist’s goal more about his own desire to create someone new or about the patient’s goals? If patients create their own problems, therapists likewise create their own problems with their patients. The therapist goes away with the gold of the patient in his pockets even when no dollar is charged, so the problems created by the therapist are enriching no matter what. The orientation of the therapist to cause change is not one for which the therapist is accountable. If the therapist precipitates bankruptcy, risk-taking, divorce, isolation, homelessness, alienation, broken spirits, or career changes that are negative, the therapist can walk away without any guilt or responsibility and say that it was all the patient’s doing. In the event of disaster, the patient is left alone to pick up the pieces. Maybe, as a masochist, I will revisit Yalom’s books from time to time.

Fascinating insight into a therapist's world

Beautiful short stories from the practice vault of Dr Yalom. Candid, heartwarming, sometimes shocking. I found some parts of the narration challenging. As each chapter is distinct from one another it was disconcerting to go from one to the next without so much as a pause. It was also difficult to tell the characters apart in some of the stories as there was no change of voice (or maybe i needed to concentrate more!).