Becoming myself A psychiatrist's memoir

Review by New York Times Review

Yalom, the eminent Stanford physician, novelist and pioneer in the field of existential psychiatry, has a wealth of experience that shapes the story he wants to tell. But "Becoming Myself" is not about the external world; it is the memoir of a storied career that fails to contain the richness of the life it chronicles. Memoir is a difficult literary form to pull off when dealing with discrete and poignant moments in a life, even harder when seeking to narrate over 80 years of existence. His is still an interesting book, despite its workmanlike prose, because it involves a journey that takes us from 1930s Washington, D.C., to present-day Palo Alto with pit stops around the world. Yalom writes less as a physician passing along profound clinical insights in his chosen field than as a grandfather meandering through different aspects of his life with unrelenting honesty and more than a little self-deprecation - such is the luxury of the successful, self-aware man. The best memoirists are able to fully situate themselves within the world, however internal their writing - what did it mean, for example, for Yalom, who grew up in a poor Washington neighborhood, to be a Jewish boy living with black people before the advent of the civil rights movement? While interesting, Yalom's memoir is somewhat disengaged from this wider context and, as a result, much less impactful than it could have been at a time when we know that we can no longer isolate or insulate ourselves from the absolute upheaval happening around us.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [March 11, 2018]

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Review by Library Journal Review

Psychiatrist, Stanford professor, and prolific author (Love's Executioner; When Nietzsche Wept) Yalom, a self-described disturber of the peace, engages the reader therapeutically. That term, from Greek, means healing: quoting Nietzsche, "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger." In 40 chapters, from "The Birth of Empathy" to "A Novice at Growing Old," the author writes with authority, energy, and humility. Of his mother we learn, "She never had a positive word for me, and I returned the favor." He addresses family, religion, encounter groups, world travels, and death, and is a fine example for writers, teachers, parents, and would-be leaders. He lets readers get to know him well through a personal, therapeutic dialog showing vulnerability along with strength. He recalls risky motorcycle tours, an experiment with LSD, his first psychiatric patient, and an unhelpful analysis followed by three happy years of training in psychiatry. He also notes that memoirs are "far more fictional than we like to think." Verdict An honest, engaging, and rewarding autobiography. For Yalom's admirers and those interested in the philosophy of psychology and memoirs.-E. James Lieberman, George -Washington Univ. Sch. of Medicine, Washington, DC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A distinguished psychotherapist reflects on his life and fulfilling career.After a prolific string of publications including fiction, nonfiction, and collections of case files from his practice, Yalom (Emeritus, Psychiatry/Stanford Univ.; Creatures of a Day: And Other Tales of Psychotherapy, 2015, etc.) turns his perspective inward. Braided throughout client profiles are colorfully drawn anecdotes of his younger days as a self-proclaimed "disturber of the peace" whose disrespect and rebelliousness were always assigned primary blame for any unrest within the family household, including his father's chest pain. Yet these are characteristics he regrets now, as an adult, as well as not being able to connect more emotionally with his frugal immigrant parents before time ran out. Valiantly leaving home for medical school meant seriousness and discipline, both of which Yalom mastered, even while making room for love. In smoothly conversational prose, the author ruminates on anger, his Jewish identity and the "ruins of my own religious education," the "encounter groups" of the 1960s, the evolution of his relationship with wife Marilyn, a stint in the Army, international sojourns, and his psychiatry practice, which eventually landed him at Stanford. In the most touching chapters, Yalom chronicles how he has wrestled with the integrative role that death plays in the everyday lives of his patients (as well as with his own mortality). At 86, the author, an avid bicycler and poker enthusiast, still writes daily and sees patients in his San Francisco apartment. The author believes their intimate histories affect how he personally views his present life and memorializes his past, a notion that fortifies much of this fecund memoir. "My clients' memories more often trigger my own," he writes, "my work on their future calls upon and disturbs my past, and I find myself reconsidering my own story." Fans of this eloquent and introspective author will welcome this innermost chronicle of his history, passions, and the keys to unlocking a fruitful life. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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