rlhartless's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
amy_park's review
reflective
medium-paced
1.5
This book had so much potential, but the author/psychotherapist's judgemental opinion on patients and society is terrible!
I was intrigued by this book a few years ago as it was referenced in 'Happy' by Derren Brown and with a psychology background I picked it up.
At the start the judgemental opinions were subtle and the book focuses on psychiatry approaches, and was clinical in it's approach which I enjoyed. But once it hit chaper 3 "Fat Lady" the authors judgemental philosophy and discrimination was so apparent it made me unbelievably uncomfortable. I hated the way he was so very judgemental towards patient's lives, and how he was only interested in treating a patient if it benefited him, I.e how he was repulsed by fat women but wanted to "challenge" himself, how he didn't find a patient attractive so he had little empathy, relating to male patient's wanting to "conquer" women. The judgemental observations and nasty remarks were utterly relentless. I found he had little empathy in his writing, his opinions were too much and I overall found it farcical on how he can treat people but yet be so negative towards humanity. Very misogynistic opinions, alot of emphasis on whther he found the women patients attractive, it just wasn't appropriate. If interested in reading, I would avoid!
I was intrigued by this book a few years ago as it was referenced in 'Happy' by Derren Brown and with a psychology background I picked it up.
At the start the judgemental opinions were subtle and the book focuses on psychiatry approaches, and was clinical in it's approach which I enjoyed. But once it hit chaper 3 "Fat Lady" the authors judgemental philosophy and discrimination was so apparent it made me unbelievably uncomfortable. I hated the way he was so very judgemental towards patient's lives, and how he was only interested in treating a patient if it benefited him, I.e how he was repulsed by fat women but wanted to "challenge" himself, how he didn't find a patient attractive so he had little empathy, relating to male patient's wanting to "conquer" women. The judgemental observations and nasty remarks were utterly relentless. I found he had little empathy in his writing, his opinions were too much and I overall found it farcical on how he can treat people but yet be so negative towards humanity. Very misogynistic opinions, alot of emphasis on whther he found the women patients attractive, it just wasn't appropriate. If interested in reading, I would avoid!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
bleeding_gold's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.75
dragonsandfoxes's review against another edition
4.0
3.5/5
A classic Irvin Yalom book. I personally liked Creatures of a Day more than Love's Executioner; however, i enjoyed this one as well.
A classic Irvin Yalom book. I personally liked Creatures of a Day more than Love's Executioner; however, i enjoyed this one as well.
fjette's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Really interesting and informative. Loved a lot of the essays. The way Yalom writes women, particularly in “The Fat Lady,” but also in several other stories, is so sexist that it’s distracting, but overall I was still able to enjoy the book and appreciate existentialist therapy in action.
oneskyolder's review against another edition
5.0
oh this was such a fun book to read, which is not an adjective i would usually use to describe books. part of the reason is because the cases are interesting, but another part of the reason is yalom’s refreshing candidness and candor and humor and remarks about his own approaches to therapy. he tells these tales in a really captivating way. i love that he situated his analyses of his clients in the format of the narrative, so it felt like i was listening to a story and could relate more, as opposed to just reading dry theory. if i had to pick a favorite thing about this book though, it would probably be his candidness. by now i’ve come to understand that therapists are not a blank slate, but i was pleasantly surprised by how open he was. the only time it kind of made me uncomfortable was in his story “fat lady”, but as he writes in the afterword, it’s a story about him and not the client, about his dealing with countertransference.
jcschildbach's review against another edition
4.0
It's been years since I've read any Yalom, and I've got to say it's a bit strange to read a book about therapy that's not a kind of "I was lost, but now I'm found" situation, or a super-positive "therapy is great!" book. What I mean by that is that a lot of the books out there now are in this realm of how psychology and therapy has super-positive impacts and everything about therapy leads in the right direction, or they are stories about how people came to be super-positive therapists after going through their own trials and tribulations. Yalom, in a much different vein, tells about what it's like to actually be a therapist, dealing with real clients, and having all manner of reactions to them, from thinking that a particular response or direction in therapy was a big mistake, to feeling relief that a particular response or direction didn't turn out to be a mistake, to other (non-therapist) 'human' reactions, like recognizing that certain clients will be annoying or frustrating or attractive, or...well, the same kinds of things you feel about people you encounter in general. It's so refreshing to read a book by someone 'in the field' who is not trying to gloss over all the weirdness, errors, and uncertainty that can go on in therapy.
agnevor's review against another edition
4.0
offered a lot of interesting insight into specific issues, loved his thoughts about labels and existentialism. the only downside was him fat-shaming a patient and the sexualization of one of his other patients alters. not cool, yalom. not cool.