Existential Psychotherapy

De: Irvin D. Yalom

Narrado por: Douglas James

The definitive account of existential psychotherapy.

First published in 1980, Existential Psychotherapy is widely considered to be the foundational text in its field—the first to offer a methodology for helping patients to develop more adaptive responses to life’s core existential dilemmas. In this seminal work, American psychiatrist Irvin Yalom finds the essence of existential psychotherapy and gives it a coherent structure, synthesizing its historical background, core tenets, and usefulness to the practice.

Organized around what Yalom identifies as the four "ultimate concerns of life"—death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness—the book takes up the meaning of each existential concern and the type of conflict that springs from our confrontation with each. He shows how these concerns are manifest in personality and psychopathology, and how treatment can be helped by our knowledge of them.

Drawing from clinical experience, empirical research, philosophy, and great literature, Yalom provides an intellectual home base for those psychotherapists who have sensed the incompatibility of orthodox theories with their own clinical experience, and opens new doors for empirical research. The fundamental concerns of therapy and the central issues of human existence are woven together here as never before, with intellectual and clinical results that have surprised and enlightened generations of readers.

This audiobook is expertly read by Douglas James, with audio engineering by Mike Thal. It was produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.

©1980 Irvin D. Yalom (P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

More pertinent than ever

In one way or another, I feel like every human has encountered these 4 existential concerns throughout their journey in life, and while I'm not necessarily a licensed therapist/clinician, I found this book and its author resonating with me, challenging old beliefs, and providing me with new perspectives/modalities in order to grow. Thank you so much Mr. Yalom!

Complicated but satisfying, Yalom delivers!

The reader didn’t stop and punctuate properly at new headings and new parts of chapters, giving a hastily experience, while it’s a textbook, it really needed a systematic approach, not a novel-like approach.

One of the best books I have read

I first read this book as a graduate student in the 80s and I have referred back to it many times. So happy this is available on Audible.

Excellent!

I am studying to become a counselor and have faced my own existential crisis’ in life. I found this book full of good information and helpful in thinking of how I hope to help future clients.

A Clear, Human, and Transformative Listen

I loved the audiobook of Existential Psychotherapy. It’s remarkably well organized for such deep material, and Yalom’s ideas land with real force with relatable and engaging clinical anecdotes as always. Even as a non-therapist, I found it highly impactful. It sharpened my self-knowledge and subtly changed how I relate to other people. Big concepts (death, freedom, isolation, meaning) are handled with clarity and compassion, without dense academic distractions.

My only gripe: I kept wishing the narrator would pronounce the noun affect with the “a” like raft, instead of the usual American verb pronunciation. Minor thing, but the word comes up a lot and I found it confusing at times. Like, when discussing a person's flat affect, I would have to rewind and re-listen to sections after realizing what was going on with the pronunciation.

Highly recommended for anyone curious being human.