Irwin Yalom is a world famous American psychiatrist and psychotherapist. As a medical doctor and professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, he developed a new look at the approach to psychotherapy. Yalom is the author of popular science and fiction.
Biography
Irwin David Yalom was born on June 13, 1931 in Washington to a Jewish family. Irwin's parents were from the Russian Empire, who emigrated to the United States due to the revolution. Ruth and Benjamin Yalom owned a grocery store in Washington, the boy spent his childhood reading books at home and in the local library.
After graduating from high school, Irwin attended George Washington University, and then Boston University School of Medicine, which he graduated in 1956.
The internship was held at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, as well as at the Phips Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After graduating, Yalom served for two years in the army at the Tripler General Hospital in Honolulu.
Carier start
After serving, Yalom begins his career at Stanford University. Irwin is a representative of one of the areas of modern humanistic psychology - existential psychology. Yalom wrote several novels about the history of psychotherapy and the professional activities of psychotherapists.
Irwin Yalom's views on psychotherapy
Irwin Yalom is considered the most consistent opponent of a de-individualized, bureaucratic, so-called formal approach to psychotherapy. The psychotherapist spoke out particularly sharply against, as he put it, "short-term diagnosis-oriented therapy." He is deeply convinced that “short-term diagnosis-oriented therapy” is driven by economic forces and is based on extremely narrow, formal diagnoses.
Such psychotherapy is one-way, protocol-driven, the so-called “therapy for all” does not take into account the most important thing - the patient’s personality and personality. Therefore, according to Irvin Yalom, it cannot bring any significant benefits.
Yalom rightly believed, first of all, that for each patient a new psychotherapy should be invented, because each person has a unique story. The basis of this "new" therapy should be a therapy based on interpersonal relationships "here and now" of the patient and the therapist, on their mutual revelations to each other. Therefore, no formal approach can be applied here and will even be harmful in work.
Psychoanalysis also had an important role in shaping the views of Irwin Yalom. In his literary works, Yalom has gone from psychoanalysis to an existentially humanistic therapist. A large place in his works such as “Mommy and the Meaning of Life”, “Liar on the Couch”, “The Gift of Psychotherapy”, is given to overcoming the existential fear of death.
In another of his fundamental works, “Peering into the sun. Life without the fear of death ”, published in 2008, Yalom summarizes the study of this problem. In particular, he writes: “As soon as a person is able to confront the fact of his own mortality, he is inspired to rearrange his priorities, communicate more deeply with those he loves, and appreciate the beauty of life more acutely. A person can increase his willingness to take the risks necessary for personal fulfillment and growth of his personality. ”
Scientific and popular science literature:
- Existential psychotherapy. - 2000.
- The gift of psychotherapy. - 2005.
- Group psychotherapy. Theory and practice. - 2007.
- Peering into the sun. Life without fear of death. - 2008.
- Stationary group psychotherapy. - 2016.
Novels and short stories:
- When Nietzsche cried. - 1992.
- Liar on the couch. - 1996.
- Treatment for love (and other psychotherapeutic novels). - 2004.
- Psychotherapeutic stories. Chronicles of healing. - 2005.
- Schopenhauer as a medicine. - 2005.
- Mommy and the meaning of life. - 2006.
- The problem of Spinoza. - 2012.
- How I became myself. Memories - 2018.
