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Creatures of a Day: And Other Tales of Psychotherapy Hardcover – February 24, 2015
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In this stunning collection of stories, renowned psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom describes his patients' struggles -- as well as his own -- to come to terms with the two great challenges of existence: how to have a meaningful life yet reckon with its inevitable end. We meet a nurse who must stifle the pain of losing her son in order to comfort her patients' pains, a newly minted psychologist whose studies damage her treasured memories of a lost friend, and a man whose rejection of psychological inquiry forces even Yalom himself into a crisis of confidence.
Creatures of a Day is a radically honest statement about the difficulties of human life, but also a celebration of some of the finest fruits -- love, family, friendship -- it can offer. Marcus Aurelius has written that "we are all creatures of a day." With Yalom as our guide, we will find the means to make our own day not only bearable, but also meaningful and joyful.
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBasic Books
- Publication dateFebruary 24, 2015
- Dimensions5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100465029647
- ISBN-13978-0465029648
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Creatures of a Day is just what the doctor ordered!"―Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
A remedy more powerful than any fad or pill could promise."―Washington Post
"Poignant and bracing."―Los Angeles Review of Books
"Stunning."
"These individual accounts of emotional challenges and resolutions--from a man ashamed of his hoarding to a woman with a terminal cancer diagnosis--shine a brilliant light on what it means to be human and to need help."―Daniel Menaker, author of The Treatment and My Mistake: A Memoir
"Irvin Yalom has produced a book of such piercing depth that to enter into it is transformative. You feel less like you are reading Creatures of a Day than that it is reading you."―Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, McArthur Fellow and author of Plato at the Googleplex and Betraying Spinoza
"Dr. Yalom has written a magical book. Anyone who has ever thought about his or her own aging or mortality will love this book."―George Valliant, professor of psychiatry, Harvard University, and author of Triumphs of Experience and Aging Well
"Yalom sees the therapist as a poet. He sees therapy as an art. And he sees his clients as fellow poets, working the high wire, along and with him."―Patrick T. Reardon, Chicago Tribune
"This book is the best of its kind I've read to date, offering a tender and credible look behind the curtain, through a powerful series of vignettes."―Miranda Palmer, PsychCentral
"[Yalom] writes amiably, certainly sympathetically, and always wisely from his point of view as an octogenarian therapist who has seen it all--well, maybe almost all--and how has some useful thoughts about the mysteries of the mind.... A humane, highly knowledgeable glimpse of the therapist's couch."―Kirkus Reviews
"This book will inspire therapists at any stage along with lay readers intrigued by the psyche, relationships, and the possibilities of change."―Library Journal, starred review
"Yalom has genuinely inspiring insights to share about the value of therapy.... The stories [he] offers of his patients' failures and triumphs are frequently moving and will invoke the reader's empathy."―Publishers Weekly
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Basic Books; 1st edition (February 24, 2015)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0465029647
- ISBN-13 : 978-0465029648
- Item Weight : 11.5 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #733,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #666 in Medical Psychoanalysis
- #931 in Popular Psychology Psychoanalysis
- #2,458 in Essays (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University. Author of nonfiction psychiatry texts, novels, and books of stories. Currently in private practice of psychiatry in Palo Alto and San Francisco, California.
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This letter is a declaration of gratitude for your newly published book, Creatures of a Day, and the artful legacy you’ve bestowed upon the field of psychotherapy. In the era of fast technology and mass production, your attention to relationship and the handcrafted nature of therapy is a life line. In all of your 50 years as a psychotherapist, you didn’t sell out for clinical blueprints and formulaic approaches. Instead, you opted to stay true to what you knew--the here and now, the importance of the therapeutic relationship, and your own internal thoughts and experiences as essential elements for your work with clients. Creatures of a Day waves a flag and asks us to take notice. It invites us back into the mystery of our work and reminds us to celebrate our humanness. Your masterful story telling allows us to see you and your clients in action, mistakes and vulnerabilities included, and shares pivotal moments that will provoke thoughtful learning for generations of therapists. So thank you for this.
You show us your mistakes
You see, your books (especially Love’s Executioner and Creatures of a Day) let us into your thoughts and experiences. We get to hear you talk to yourself and occasionally grapple with doubt. We get to know your own vulnerabilities and how they influence your therapeutic relationships. This is such a rare view. And I am hungry for it. There are too few books, too few videos, and fewer workshops or trainings that offer this kind of perspective for therapists. We don’t get to see masters make mistakes. We don’t get to hear supervisors or consultants narrate their doubts. So, I consider your book an invitation to write about my own similar encounters in my work. And to continue to make this kind of conversation central to my trainings and retreats for therapists. Thank you for the inspiration and the permission.
You offer central themes and an individualized perspective
As a collection of psychotherapy tales, I think of Creatures of a Day as a series. Like a series of paintings that are created around central themes, your tales invite us to look at the existential themes of aging, death, and connectedness. And, just like a painting series, each reader will take with them a message that is individualized and of unique importance to him/her. In this way, you are truly exhibiting your art as a writer and a psychotherapist. In Creatures of a Day, two patients read the same book and take from it a very different, but beautifully applicable, message. A nurse perceives the angry words she hissed to her dying patient completely opposite of the way in which they were received by the woman she was treating. And a case that you filed away as a blunder turns out to have been a life changer that is only revealed about a decade or so later. This is a reminder to me that while we can’t predict how our art is received, we can in fact commit to creating and collaborating in the very best way we can.
You invite humanness and the art of relationship
I’d like to let you know that in addition to the invitation to write about my experience as a therapist, I welcome your permission to be human with my clients. And, with that comes a renewed dedication to knowing and experiencing what being human is for me. This means deepening my relationship with my art, continuing my work in therapy, and showing up with the same honesty and openness that you let us see in your book.
You make risk a good thing
You ask your patients to risk and use this in as a very important subject during the course of treatment. You take several risks in Creatures of a Day, and show us that risks are a vital part of being an authentic and real therapist. You show us that in your work you are just being honest and attending to your experience and the client’s experience. In fact it is more risky to be untruthful or hide than it is to show up and attend the the relationship.
You inspire me
I won’t stop practicing. You inspire me to continue to write about my own work. And in my own small way, carry your legacy forward.
Once again, thank you for your guidance, your influence, and your legacy.
Lisa Mitchell, MFT, ATR, LPC
www.innercanvas.com
Yalom takes you through 10 beautiful, educational, and unrelenting interactions with his patients. Not only are the stories rich, but each are peppered with Yaloms reactions, thoughts, methods, and strategies. Its a beautiful insight into how true therapy happens. The book is deeply emotional and honest. The accounts told are personal and intense and several times I had to take a breather from the book.
It ends much too quick! I devoured this book even though I read certain pages several times over. CANNOT. RECOMMEND. ENOUGH.
Creatures of a Day contains ten "portraits" of clients and Yalom's work with them. Portraits is the right word since the descriptions are so vivid and compelling that one might actually feel they're in the room watching Yalom and the clients do the dance of therapy. The topics of death and meaning in life connect the stories as one might expect from a humanist/existentialist therapist. More than one of the stories were sadly sweet and brought tears to my eyes as I read... yet I could not put down the book and read it within just a few sessions.
As a therapist, who also eschews diagnosis and manualized treatments, seeing a master therapist at work was invaluable. And surprisingly, Yalom doesn't gloss over the "mistakes" he makes or focus only on his expertise. This book more than anything shows the power of moments that matter, the healing connection that can happen when one person fully meets another where they're at.
All therapists should read this book, but it shouldn't be limited to professionals. Everyone will relate to these stories and the people they depict so humanly well... Don't miss out on Yalom's work, especially "Creatures of a Day."
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Auch davon war ich begeistert.