Now eighty-six and emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, Yalom is still both a practicing psychiatrist and an engaging, insightful writer. The author of fiction as well as classics of psychology such as Love’s Executioner and The Gift of Therapy, Yalom now gives us a look at his own life. This long-awaited memoir starts with the lesson of empathy, drawn from a childhood dream, and ends with reflections on mortality. In between, Yalom discusses family, religion, motorcycle trips, LSD experiments, and his pioneering work in existential psychotherapy and group therapy.
Though ♥ bears little resemblance to what’s shown in anatomy texts, no one ever has to be told that it represents a heart. Simple as it is, this ubiquitous icon crystallizes a wide range of ideas about love, and it has for centuries. In this beautifully illustrated cultural history, Yalom, senior scholar at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and author of books including A History of the Wife and The Social Sex, follows the heart through pagan love poetry, Christian theology, Tudor drama, Enlightenment reason, and into today’s tech-centered world.