Philosophy, Psychology, and Therapy – An Introduction to Irvin D. Yalom

Perhaps the combination of philosophy, psychology, and therapy seems not only strange but impossible at first glance. Irvin David Yalom shows us, in a fascinating and thought-provoking way, that this is not only not impossible but is essential for existential psychotherapy, of which he is a staunch advocate. This piece attempts, based on four works by Irvin D. Yalom—whom I will henceforth refer to simply as Yalom—to acquaint the reader with him to some extent. Since good Persian translations of several of Yalom's books exist, familiarity with him might serve as an encouragement to read his works.

In 1980, Irvin David Yalom published the book "Existential Psychotherapy," in which he addresses the theoretical and practical foundations of existential philosophy in psychotherapy. This book was the fruit of several years of research. Although the book was written for psychologists and psychotherapists, Yalom's fluid and beautiful prose and his mastery of the subject he tackles make it appealing to a broader spectrum of readers. Yalom's fluid prose can be traced back to his interest in literature. He was born into a Jewish immigrant family that had emigrated to America after World War I from a region in Russia near the Polish border, and grew up in the heart of a poor neighborhood of Washington, D.C., alongside marginalized Black people.

By his own account, his parents were illiterate and spent all their time running a grocery store, which was their only source of income. Life in a poor neighborhood came with dangers, which is why Yalom preferred to occupy himself by reading books at home rather than playing in the alley. He was allowed to go to the neighborhood library twice a week, where, without any guidance, he would select and read books according to their arrangement on the shelves. At the age of nine, his aunt gave him the book Treasure Island for his birthday, and this marked the beginning of his fascination with reading novels. At that time, he dreamed of becoming a writer, but for Jewish families, the desirable and respected profession was medicine; they encouraged their children to become doctors. Yalom entered medical school and later chose psychiatry as his specialty.

Existential Psychotherapy

Irvin David Yalom's reliance in the book "Existential Psychotherapy" is on existential philosophy, a branch of which is called existentialism. Existential philosophy deals with the fundamental situations of human existence in the world, situations such as fear and the confrontation with death. Yalom dissects the categories of this philosophy and teaches therapists the importance of their application in treatment. Based on this teaching, we begin with the human being's existence in this world without seeking the reason for its being, by accepting its being, and we pose the question of how this being should be organized. The first part of the book begins by examining human awareness of its own death. As soon as this being becomes aware of the limited time it has on this planet, it experiences anxiety, an anxiety to which psychoanalysis has not given due weight. By accepting the fact that death is inevitable, the question is raised of how this limited time should be lived. The human being is free in choosing how to live; there is no predetermined script for living.

The individual is free in their choice, but the question immediately arises: if the human being is free in their choice, how should this freedom be used? The issue of responsibility is a clause for conditioning freedom. We must use freedom responsibly.

Is knowing that I am free the key to my happiness? Awareness of one’s own freedom and freedom of choice in life, rather than being a guide, leads to a sense of individual loneliness. For a religious person, solving the problem of being and how to live is not so difficult, since they have a sacred prescription for organizing the affairs of life; usually, they essentially have no need to think and can find the answers to all their questions in a book. But for a human being who chooses to find their own way of living through their own consciousness, the possibility of suddenly feeling alone in this world is high. There are many questions that must be answered, and this is an exceedingly difficult task that can lead to existential absurdity—that is, a sense of meaninglessness when confronting the fundamental issues of existence. If a person concludes that our final resting place is the silent valley and that this world and life within it are absurd, then suicide can appear to be the best solution. Giving meaning to life is another clause proposed to rescue humanity from absurdity. I must find a meaning for my life: life means kindness to others, life means love of one’s homeland, life means transcendence, life means reaching a goal, life means….

Although the book Existential Psychotherapy is a theoretical and specialized work, it is simultaneously written in such a way that any non-specialist yet interested individual can benefit from it. With his writing, Yalom pulls philosophy down from the throne of abstract thought to the ground and shows us that existential thought has therapeutic application. In his next three books, he places much more concrete images before the reader. He selects three philosophers and introduces them as living figures of exemplary importance for understanding the fundamental issues of existence and, on this basis, existential psychotherapy. These three philosophers are Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Baruch Spinoza.

When Nietzsche Wept

The title of the book alone is enough to disrupt the power of human imagination. For those who have seen Nietzsche’s grim and stern face with his thick mustache on the covers of his books, it is difficult to imagine how he could weep, or that he would weep at all. Yalom moves from therapy toward philosophy, and along this path, through reading the works of Sartre, Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Camus, Jaspers, and Nietzsche, he becomes acquainted with existential philosophy. Among them, he chooses Nietzsche to set forth his purpose: the encounter of a philosopher from the perspective of existential therapy. Nietzsche is a contemporary of Freud and the formation of the central nuclei of psychoanalysis, and this becomes a motivation for Yalom, in an educational novel combining historical facts and artistic creativity, to place a philosopher like Nietzsche alongside a physician like Josef Breuer (1842–1925)—who, together with Freud, founded psychoanalysis—so that they may treat one another. A skilled physician and a philosopher who deems self-knowledge and transcendence worthy of the human being so as to become the Übermensch, along with the young Freud who appears from time to time and offers an opinion, are placed together so that the human psyche and the fundamental questions of human existence may be illuminated in a new light. In the course of treatment, Nietzsche, this solitary wanderer in his own isolation, fleeing from company, realizes that he needs others and that without others, life is more difficult than one could imagine; yet, out of terror of being betrayed again and again, he chooses loneliness. Isolation is the solution Nietzsche chooses for himself, a choice whose price is the repression of the feeling of needing others and the denial of this need.

The Schopenhauer Cure

The story takes place in the present day, but parallel to the narrative, Schopenhauer's life is also briefly recounted in each chapter. The group therapist, Julius Hertzfeld, suffering from skin cancer—a fact the group is aware of—is the constant presence of death, standing over the gathering like the sword of Damocles. The intra-group dynamic reveals its effect on the collective and brings out Schopenhauer's hidden side—which is precisely the need for love—to the point where this stubborn, sullen man who deemed life futile can, for a moment, no longer control his emotions with reason, and logic is powerless to stop his tears from flowing. Life finds meaning with others, and others are human beings with their own daily worries and anxieties, each striving in their own way to overcome difficulties, and not everyone necessarily turns to philosophy in order to live.

The Spinoza Problem

The novel The Spinoza Problem is a display of literary creativity. Writing about the life of a man about whose personal life little information exists is no easy task. Based on the scant information available and a fluid writer's imagination, Yalom blends fact and fiction, artfully linking the life of this seventeenth-century philosopher to the life of Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946), the theorist of the German National Socialist Party and author of the book "The Myth of the Twentieth Century"—the lives of two men with two entirely different views of humanity and the world. What connects these two lives across different times and places is the Spinoza Museum near Amsterdam (Netherlands). The Nazi Party strike forces under the leadership of Alfred Rosenberg empty the Spinoza Museum, confiscating everything within and sending it to Germany to be used in the investigation of the Spinoza problem.

The question is: what problem makes Spinoza important to the Nazi Party theorist? For the racial supremacist theorist, it is incomprehensible that a Jew could be admired by Goethe, the great German poet; so, in his mind, there must undoubtedly have been some trickery involved; "that is the problem"; the solution to this enigma must be found within the books he owned.

In The Spinoza Problem, we become acquainted with the lives of two men who are polar opposites. Spinoza is the embodiment of human shame and conscience, for whom the other is noble as a fellow human being, whereas Alfred Rosenberg deems only a specific race worthy of being called human. The former does not bow in submission to religion as dictated decrees in law and chooses individual freedom in attaining faith through reason, while the latter, dissolved in the Führer, has dismissed reason and considers blind obedience his honor. The former, choosing a simple life and earning a living by grinding lenses, provides the material conditions for his own free thought, while the latter is the editor-in-chief of the party newspaper, seeking to gain the Führer's favor by praising him and serving to fulfill his desires. Spinoza is a thoughtful human being, and Alfred Rosenberg is a sick human being whose illness has no cure.

In The Spinoza Problem, the inability to cure people suffering from personality disorders[1] is acknowledged. What makes Alfred Rosenberg a dangerous creature is that he does not consider himself sick; rather, in his delusion, it is others who are sick, and he sees himself as a surgeon tasked with operating on society, without realizing that what he is doing is butchery, not surgery. He is a butcher. He takes pleasure in killing. In The Spinoza Problem, we become more familiar with this familiar type.

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Persian Sources

Existential Psychotherapy, Irvin D. Yalom, translated by Dr. Sepideh Habib, Ney Publishing, Fourth Edition, 2013

When Nietzsche Wept, Irvin David Yalom, translated by Sepideh Habib, Caravan Publishing, 7th printing 2009

The Schopenhauer Cure, Irvin David Yalom, translated by Sepideh Habib, Qatreh Publishing, 1st printing 2012

The Spinoza Problem, Irvin David Yalom, translated by Zahra Hosseinian, Taraneh Publishing, 4th printing 2016

Original Book Titles

1980 Existential Psychotherapy

1992 When Nietzsche Wept

2005 The Schopenhauer Cure

2012 The Spinoza Problem

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Footnote

[1] A distinction must be made between personality traits and personality disorders. Personality disorders are illnesses and are defined in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Antisocial personality and narcissistic personality are two examples of such illnesses.

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Philosophy, Psychology, and Therapy – An Introduction to Irvin David Yalom

Author: Abbas Moadeb

Source: Radio Zamaneh

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