Irvin D. Yalom
Encyclopedia
Irvin David Yalom M.D., is an author of fiction and nonfiction, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...

 at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

, an existentialist
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...

, and accomplished psychotherapist
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...

.

Life and Work

Born in a Jewish family in Washington DC in 1931, he grew up in a poor ethnic area. Avoiding the perils of his neighborhood, he spent most of his childhood indoors, reading books. After graduating with a BA from George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...

 in 1952 and as a Doctor of Medicine from Boston University School of Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine
Boston University School of Medicine is one of the graduate schools of Boston University. Founded in 1848, the medical school holds the unique distinction as the first institution in the world to formally educate female physicians. Originally known as the New England Female Medical College, it was...

 in 1956 he went on to complete his internship at Mount Sinai Hospital
Mount Sinai Hospital, New York
Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States. In 2011-2012, Mount Sinai Hospital was ranked as one of America's best hospitals by U.S...

 in New York and his residency at the Phipps Clinic of Johns Hopkins Hospital
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

 in Baltimore and completed his training in 1960. After two years of Army service at Tripler General Hospital in Honolulu, Yalom began his academic career at Stanford University. He was appointed to the faculty in 1963 and then promoted over the next several years and granted tenure in 1968. Soon after this period he made some of his most lasting contributions by teaching about group psychotherapy and developing his model of existential psychotherapy 

In addition to his scholarly, non-fiction writing, Yalom has produced a number of novels and also experimented with writing techniques. In "Everyday Gets a Little Closer" Yalom invited a patient to co-write about the experience of therapy. The book has two distinct voices which are looking at the same experience in alternating sections. Yalom's works have been used as collegiate textbooks and standard reading for psychology students. His new and unique view of the patient/client relationship has been added to curriculum in Psychology programs at such schools as John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City.

The American Psychiatric Association awarded Irvin Yalom the 2000 Oskar Pfister Award
Oskar Pfister Award
The Oskar Pfister Award was established by the American Psychiatric Association , with the Association of Mental Health Clergy , in 1983 to honor those who have made significant contributions to the field of religion and psychiatry...

 (for important contributions to religion and psychiatry).

Yalom has continued to maintain a part-time private practice and has authoried a number of video documentaries on theapeutic techniques.Yalom is also featured in the 2003 documentary Flight From Death
Flight from death
Flight from Death is a documentary film that investigates the relationship of human violence to fear of death, as related to subconscious influences. The film describes death anxiety as a possible root cause of many human behaviors on a psychological, spiritual, and cultural level. It was directed...

, a film that investigates the relationship of human violence to fear of death, as related to subconscious influences.

Novels

  • (1992) When Nietzsche Wept
    When Nietzsche Wept (novel)
    When Nietzsche Wept was written in 1992 by Irvin D. Yalom. He was born June 13, 1931 in Washington DC. Yalom is also Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University, an existentialist, and accomplished psychotherapist....

  • (1996) Lying on the Couch
  • (2005) The Schopenhauer Cure

Nonfiction

  • (1970 1st ed, 1975 2nd ed., 2005 5th ed.) The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy
  • (1974) Every Day Gets a Little Closer
  • (1980) Existential Psychotherapy
  • (1983) Inpatient Group Psychotherapy
  • (1989) Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy
  • (1998) The Yalom Reader
  • (1999) Momma and the Meaning of Life
  • (2001) The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to a New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients
  • (2008) Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

External links


http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-big-questions/201104/overcoming-the-terror-death
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