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In the last 10 years I read a lot about psychotherapy and most of the time I learned something new and useful. However, most often, the author would try to "sell you" his truth, his method as something truly superior to all the others. His method should be present in everybody's life like the water on our planet. Instead Dr. Yalom's book is full of stimulating doubts. The question we should ask ourselves to get our answers and live to the fullest. It's an honest, warm book
Some readers are apparently unable to come to grips with one of the central theses of Yalom's book, which is that the therapist is just as human and prone to error and prejudice as his patients. If anything, Yalom is almost embarrassingly honest about his often extremely negative reactions to many of his patients. He doesn't candy-coat any of it. In this book we get Irvin Yalom, M.D., warts and all, just as he promises in his introduction. The critics who cannot accept a "human" doctor are symptomatic of the greater societal damand that medical professionals should be (no, MUST be) above all emotion save those of the most magnanimous and saintly variety. We expect doctors to be godlike, above pettiness and messy "unseemly" thoughts and feelings. Bah. Hogwash. Dr. Yalom's triumph here is the explosion of such myths. He is not St. Yalom, ministering from his pedestal of medical and moral perfection. He is Irvin Yalom the Man, as prone to judgment as any of us. His unflinching self-criticism and honesty -- with his patients, himself, and his readers -- is what makes this such a remarkable book and Yalom such a remarkable therapist. If you're the sort who feels a psychic need to see doctors as superhuman this book will prove very disturbing to you. Those realistic enough to know this is ridiculous fantasy will be enlightening, entertained, and touched.
I am reminded of the line from the movie, Dangerous Liasions, "Like most intellectuals, he's intensely stupid."
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