Love’s Executioner

Across ten tales drawn from his work with patients, psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom examines the humor, pathos, frustrations and mysteries of the therapeutic encounter. His meetings with patients are sometimes tragic and sometimes inspiring. He gives a close view of their desires, motivations and fears, and tells his own story alongside theirs as he tries to reconcile his very human reactions with his sensibility as a psychiatrist. The cases come from the practice of existential psychotherapy. The collection became a New York Times best seller, and a later edition adds a new afterword.

Asked which books he would recommend to young people interested in his field, Stephen Lew, director of The School of Positive Psychology, named this collection.