Momma and the Meaning of Life

August 30, 1999
Following the "tales from the clinic" formula that helped make his Love's Executioner a bestseller, psychiatrist Yalom reveals much more of himself this time around. He starts with a soul-baring account of his relationship with his mother, in Yalom's description a domineering woman who was intensely proud of her famous son. Their dance of mutual fear, control and deceit instilled patterns that took Yalom years to unlearn. Committed to egalitarian, mutually enriching relationships with his patients, Yalom tells of his grandiose fantasies of rescuing distressed damsels, as well as of his abiding need for a consoling mother figure. He found one such in Magnolia, a 70-year-old black woman working through her own feelings of childhood abandonment by her widowed mother. Another patient, Paula, a woman with terminal breast cancer, initially radiates an inner serenity but eventually unveils to Yalom her "anger rock," the symbolic repository of her pent-up rage and despair. We also meet Martin, an elderly, wheelchair-bound man whose exhausted caretaker son mocks his suicide attempt; Rosa, an 80-pound anorexic who is fed intravenously; Irene, an imperious surgeon who agonizes over her husband's terminal illness; and Linda, a furious divorc e whose privacy was abusively violated as a girl by her father. Yalom's therapeutic encounters, as recorded here, are often painful crucibles of personal transformation, in which people grow in unexpected ways by releasing reservoirs of guilt, fear, sadness, anger and denial. Author tour.

October 1, 1999
Psychiatrist and gifted storyteller Yalom (Love's Executioner) returns with six engaging tales of psychotherapy. In this collection, which includes two fictional narratives, Yalom explores his own dreams and fantasies, relationships with colleagues, and work as a hospital therapy group leader and director of research projects. Whether dealing with issues raised by his memory of the quintessential Jewish mother or supporting a widow working through her grief, Yalom reveals his thoughts, feelings, and reactions with sensitive honesty. Along the way, he portrays the therapeutic process as a journey of discovery for both patient and psychiatrist. Highly recommended for all collections.--Lucille M. Boone, San Jose P.L., CA

Copyright 1999 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 1999
Yalom, psychotherapist and author of "When Nietzsche Wept" (1992) and "Lying on the Couch "(1996), uses his experiences with patients and his own life challenges to explore the process of psychotherapy and the search for meaning in life. He begins this collection of six stories with his dreams about his mother several years after her death. He recalls a difficult woman and wonders at her continued hold on him until he is able to reconcile their relationship in his dreams. Paula is a patient with a voracious cancer eating at her organs but not sapping her sense of life. Their roles are blurred as the doctor is captivated by Paula's self-assurance and spirituality even in the face of her death, an admiration that allows her to "educate" him. Another story recounts a distrustful, almost hostile, relationship between a psychotherapist and a female patient. She begins to open up when she accidentally gets hold of the doctor's notes and defends herself against his off-the-cuff remarks. Throughout, Yalom absorbingly recounts the resilience some patients bring to the task of healing themselves and is brutally frank about the limitations of modern medicine. ((Reviewed August 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)