
From the
internationally bestselling author of Love's
Executioner and When
Nietzsche Wept, comes a
novel of group therapy with a cast of memorably wounded characters struggling
to heal pain and change lives
Suddenly confronted with his own
mortality after a routine checkup, eminent psychotherapist Julius Hertzfeld is
forced to reexamine his life and work -- and seeks out Philip Slate, a sex
addict whom he failed to help some twenty years earlier. Yet Philip claims to
be cured -- miraculously transformed by the pessimistic teachings of German
philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer -- and is, himself, a philosophical counselor in
training.
Irvin D. Yalom, M.D., is the author of Love's Executioner, Momma and the Meaning of Life, Lying on the Couch, The Schopenhauer Cure, When Nietzsche Wept, as well as several classic textbooks on psychotherapy, including The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy, considered the foremost work on group therapy. The Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Stanford University, he divides his practice between Palo Alto, where he lives, and San Francisco, California.
"Yalom's enthusiasm is contagious. And he certainly knows how to tell a page-turning story." -- Los Angeles Times
"Yalom's melding of philosophy, pedantry, psychiatry and literature result in a surprisingly engaging novel of ideas." -- San Francisco Chronicle
"Considers the value and limits of therapy and those points at which philosophy and psychology converge." -- Washington Post
"A beautifully wrought tale of a therapy group's final year and a moving debate about the end of life." -- Kirkus Reviews
"As a novel of ideas, this book effectively explores loss, sexual desire, and the search for meaning." -- Library Journal
"The world's first accurate group-therapy novel, a mezmerizing story of two men's search for meaning." -- Greensboro News & Record
"Meticulous. [Yalom's] re-creation of a working therapy group is utterly convincing." -- Publishers Weekly