(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Of: Sigmund Karterud
A veteran, Irvin D. Yalom has become. Now 82 years. The California psychiatry professor at Stanford University, the psychotherapist, the textbook author and the literary writer. It's been 26 years since his fictional breakthrough The hangman of love and other stories from psychotherapy. In the meantime, several novels have come from his hand. The favorite approach has been to stage past philosophers: Nietzsche, Spinoza and Schopenhauer. Yalom constructs fictional scenarios around these philosophers where their existential favorite themes are allowed to play out. As in the book Then Nietzche cried. With his sense of continental philosophy, this American author has a special appeal to a European audience.
Death in the therapy room. This time, Yalom returns to the genre he has largely helped shape: stories from the psychotherapy room. IN We are all night flies – and other psychotherapeutic stories XNUMX people who have been treated by Yalom in recent years will have their say. Common to these is that they struggle with existential issues related to violations and new choices in life. For many of them, this is associated with life's final and final phase – and thus death. These are fascinating stories.
What does Yalom have to give these patients and us? First and foremost, an almost intrusive presence and an insistence on utilizing every second. Change is possible! Here it is most talked about to seize the day. Or in the football language: Yalom plays until the flute goes. Whether it is death itself that catches one, or that the hour or therapy is nearing its end. And often he doesn't have much to go on. He is sought out by people from different countries and places in the United States. Like people who have read his books. And Yalom accepts therapies that last an hour or two. Then it is not enough to sleep an hour or fall to "hm" or "what do you think?"
Intense presence. "Moments of meeting" is an expression from the psychotherapy literature. It is about the fact that there are certain moments, which often occur unexpectedly, where something special happens between patient and therapist. Something that patients later remember particularly well and which they place special emphasis on when describing the change process. Yalom holds such instant meetings.
Do they then lose their power when he actively pursues them? Apparently not. They seem to work just as well even though there is a technique behind it.
Yalom has helped define existential psychotherapy. It is distinguished by a penchant for special themes: death, breach, responsibility, autonomy, love, authenticity and honesty, to name a few. Here, diagnoses are secondary. And the therapist must be maximally present, give of himself, share his own life experiences (without being intrusive), actively offer a soundtrack, a resonance in another human being. "Minding a mind," to put it in the language of mentalization. And Yalom has special prerequisites for giving of himself when the theme revolves around death. At his age, the theme is also intrusive to himself. We hear a lot about that.
In these medical histories, we follow Yalom from the inside. His considerations along the way. For example, what he thinks when there are 15 minutes left of the class and the therapy and there has still been no redemption.
The therapist's feelings. In these medical histories, we follow Yalom from the inside. His considerations along the way. For example, what he thinks when there are 15 minutes left of the class and the therapy and there has still been no redemption. In this sense, these are good lessons for therapists as well. We identify with the man in the therapist's chair, and wonder what we ourselves would have done. For my own part, it is this with never giving up that makes the strongest impression. The therapist's own emotions, which we call countertransference, are known to be of great importance for the course of a psychotherapy. Some may each become discouraged. Yalom inspires by telling about how he processes his own doubts. He is able to install hope in patients as well as in therapists.
No to diagnoses. The book is provided with an instructive preface by Finn Skårderud. In an afterword, Yalom gives a kind of reading guide: His stories are aimed at most people, and he hopes the basic attitude in them is inspiring, especially for professionals who – especially in the US – are starving for this type of psychotherapy in their education. Yalom has little interest in modern psychiatric education, diagnoses and manual treatment. I have no objection to these views, as I do not think Yalom wants to generalize what he is doing to apply to all possible patients in all possible situations. But if you take him at his word, uncritically, you can be led to underestimate a lot of other good psychotherapy. I myself run manual-based psychotherapy for the emotionally unstable (formerly called "borderline"). I do not think Yalom would have opposed this, if he had seen what it was about. I rather think he would have recognized the form of therapy, which is intended for completely different types of people in completely different (desperate) life situations than those of Yalom's own, well-paying patients in California.
A missionary. Is this good literature? For many: Yes. For some: No. This is not "pure" fiction. And you have to like his slightly instructive style – Yalom has an underlying intention to be constructive. In a way, he is a missionary. He wants something social with his books – he wants to change something. Some find this disgraceful. I can understand the point of view, but for me it is outweighed by other qualities. First of all, that the stories (mostly) are fascinating. There is a narrative drive in them. And even if you get to know his technical grip, which therefore does not seem particularly surprising after a while, the stories do not become predictable. Yalom still delivers the goods.
Karterud is a professor of psychiatry.
wkarteru@online.no
