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| The Schopenhauer Cure | 
 enlarge | Author: Irvin D. Yalom
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: £13.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 10497
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060938102
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780060938109
ASIN: 0060938102
Publication Date: January 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: New book. Due to problems with Standard Airmail delivery times from the USA, we have switched to using PRIORITY AIRMAIL ONLY. UK & European delivery is 7-10 days.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Two ways of confronting the problems of relationships October 31, 2008
Yalom is a psychotherapist who practises not only individual but also group therapy, and this novel is about the situation in a group therapy setting. After Julius Hertzfeld, the therapist, has been diagnosed with a fatal disease, he asks himself what in life he has achieved and where he has failed. He seeks out Philip Slate, a former patient of his of many years ago with whom he had failed, in order to find out whether after all some part of the therapy had been useful to Philip. It turns out that Philip, a cold fish if ever there was one, is training to be a therapist himself, though what he plans to offer is philosophical therapy, based on the teachings of Schopenhauer. But to qualify he needs a professional supervisor. Julius thinks Philip is totally unqualified to help others, but he agrees to act as his supervisor provided Philip first attends his group therapy sessions - partly because he hopes that he might succeed in helping Philip this time where he had failed previously. Philip offers to tutor him in Schopenhauer's philosophy in exchange, which Julius is not particularly interested to learn about: Julius believes that a rounded life requires warm human relationships and an affirmation of life, whereas Schopenhauer and his disciple Philip believe that wisdom requires you to detach yourself from human relationships and to come to terms with the ephemerality of life and to see that, sub specie aeternitatis, almost everything which seems important to us and about which we worry - attachments to things and to people, to love and to hate, and above all any concern about what other people think of us - is in fact quite insignificant. Philip at times seems to be taking over the group, dishing up Schopenhauerian advice which most members lap up.
Julius, like the therapist in Yalom's brilliant earlier book, Lying on the Couch [see my review], has problems of his own, which also become a subject for the group's discussions. He has told the group about his fatal melanoma, and so his impending death - and of attitudes to death in general - are frequently touched upon.
Once you accept the somewhat unlikely premise of the bargain between Julius and Philip, the book works very well. The characterizations are excellent. I don't myself have experience of group therapy, but I thought the dialogue during the sessions was very convincing, and towards the end is very cathartic. What I found particularly interesting is that, though Julius often asked the crucial questions, the other members of the group learnt to do this as well. For this, what is needed is not only a developing emotional intelligence, but an intellectual intelligence also, and it is clear that all the members of that group - even the one who was `uneducated', possessed it. Julius himself calls it `high-powered'.
The narrative is interspersed with chapters about Schopenhauer's life and aspects of his work, presented not by Julius or Philip, but by Yalom, with the occasional psychological interpretation and the firm conclusion that this brilliant but aggressive and solitary man, with whom Philip so closely identified himself, would certainly be a candidate for psychotherapy were he alive today. On the other hand Schopenhauer's insights anticipate so much of later Freudian theory that - even if, in Yalom's view, there can really be no `Schopenhauer Cure' - the author obviously has considerable respect for him. Schopenhauer's view of life is a defence, a wall behind which unhappy men and women may shelter for a while; but walls cut you off from real life. And in his last writings even Schopenhauer softened his bleak view and his insistence on isolation.
 Look what they've done to my brains, ma... September 10, 2007
8 out of 12 found this review helpful
If you happen to be of the opinion that:
a) Life is a pretty unpleasant experience, full of silly cravings, boredom and suffering;
b) This world really does not offer much comfort, rather resembling, as Hamlet would say, "a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours" (and this was before humans were surrounded by factories and roads!);
c) Most (if not all) human beings you meet are not only incredibly dull but full of unrealistic opinions and expectations...
Well then, look no further, Yalom has got just the cure for you! (Not that you had thought you were ill, of course, but believe us, you are!) In his wonderfully enlightening novel you can learn all about your true ailment. However sane (and soothing) your ideas may appear to yourself, if they aren't upbeat and optimistic and full of hope, then oh dear, you are an antisocial character in urgent need of help!
Yalom offers a very easy solution for your anomaly: group therapy. All you have to do is expose yourself to hour-long superficial chattering sessions with a bunch of strangers about their private little expectations and frustrations (as if one didn't get enough of that day in and day out). This, the experienced psychiatrist turned novelist explains, will help you understand just how WRONG you are. Forget about centuries of wisdom - from Buddha through Aristotle to the infamous Schopenhauer - that might in any way support your endeavour to distance yourself from the banalities and pains of everyday life. After all, as Yalom will gladly prove to you, those great sages lived in the awful past, when there was poverty and hunger and toil and wars and violence and hatred and ignorance - things we have long overcome, as you have surely noticed (if not, you're obviously reading/watching questionable things). What you need is to appreciate the elevating powers of human contact: such as evenings spent with your pals in a crowded bar, drinking beers and discussing the Giants (metaphysical issues are so passe!); or ever exciting emotional involvements with people who just crave to give you some love (never mind what that's supposed to be).
The highly therapeutic way in which Yalom chooses to prove just how lonely one may end up being if one indulges in the slightest negative thoughts regarding the company of other bipeds is quite astonishing and does deserve some careful reading: by creating a highly antisocial, arrogant and detached character supposedly resembling a modern-day Schopenhauer, the author shows us step by step the uselessness of following that great philosopher's wise advice in order to make life (slightly) more bearable. Confronting this (quite superficial) Schopenhauer-like character with a wonderfully caring psychotherapist plus his entourage of regularly confused but life-loving patients, Yalom's novel actually provides a very good example of the power of group-enforced conformity. Indeed, in the hands of this helpful bunch of astonishingly appealing one-dimensional characters, our protagonist undergoes a great transformation, gradually distancing himself from the most down-to-earth, but alas unappetizing, teachings of his supposed master, Schopenhauer.
You see, that German philosopher really was a cranky chap. Reading Yalom's novel will in fact provide you with countless quotations from his works, as well as a pretty good overview of his life. Sure, he was a genius and influenced many other brains (such as Nietzsche, Cekhov, Freud, Thomas Mann). But Yalom concludes also that Schopenhauer was an unhappy human (as compared to the rest of us, apparently) who could have well used a heavy dose of therapy to cure him from his dreadful pessimism and socio-phobia! Unfortunately for him (but very fortunately for his readers/followers), the wonderful business of psychotherapy had still not been invented back then. So our friend the philosopher was doomed to content himself with thinking and writing.
We are only so lucky nowadays that we can resort to doctors as soon as the slightest feeling of spiritual discomfort sets in. And there's even rumour of an anti-pessimism pill being manufactured as we speak... Schopenhauer no more!
But just in case you are mad enough to actually want to hold on to your negative views (at your own risk!), I would strongly advise you to skip this book and go to the sources instead: Schopenhauer's "Counsels and Maxims" is not only a great introduction to his wise words, but just about indispensable for anyone interested in understanding the roots of our sufferings (and how to deal with them). And Rudiger Safranski's "Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy" will provide you with a much more accurate (and less judgemental) portrait of this amazingly realistic philosopher's life and influences.
A must for anyone interested in group psychotherapy, and a good read too December 22, 2006
23 out of 23 found this review helpful
The Schopenhauer Cure may not be the great novel that When Nietsche Wept is but it is a brilliant text. As a fictional account of group therapy at its best, it offers excellent insights into group dynamics and the way that a skillful group analyst can guide and encourage them to unfold. There are sections of the book that read like therapeutic versions of Plato's Symposium, where the dynamics of the characters, enable them to discover voices within themselves that they would not have known otherwise.
The book's central character, Dr Julius Hertzfeld, a group analyst with a year to live makes his final year of weekly meetings with a group of patients his last will and testament. The accounts of what goes on during these sessions are utterly compelling, the best feature of the book. The presence in these group sessions of a patient from Hertzfeld's past, Philip Slate (a meaningful name for those familiar with 'microcosms'), a self-confessed sex addict who found solace and a cure for his addiction in the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer, is what gives them their unforgettable quality. Slate does not preach Schopenhauer, he lives him or at least tries to do so. The presence in the group of a victim of Slate's earlier addiction makes forces Slate to put his philosophy of life to the test. In the course of the therapy sessions, we rediscover the central characters afresh, share some of their preoccupations and struggles.
Two features of the book left me with more mixed feelings. The account of Julius, a man who has a year of life, is not as rich as that of the other characters. He comes across through the idealizing lenses through which his patients see him, or maybe Irvin Yalom, a fellow-psychotherapist, choses to portray him. When all patients confess a hidden part from their past, Julius, prompted by Philip, also makes a confession but it seems anodyne and defensive to the point where even cursory self-analysis would suggest that much more is hiding there. Julius's idealization of his dead wife also seems to conceal more than we are let in on. His attempt to live with the knowledge of imminent dying is only half-developed in the novel. What, however, is excellently portrayed is how his patients learn to live with their therapist's death, without experiencing him as a 'corpse', someone contact with whom is painful or embarrassing.
The other thing I found somewhat less compelling are the chapters that take us back to the life, thought and work of Schopenhauer. As a genre, it reminded me of Kundera's, episodic return to the world of Goethe in Immortality, but it does not work so well. Schopenhauer is a curious philosopher - I am not sure that anyone can get to know him through these brief excursions into his life. A misanthrope who came to advocate compassion, a fame-hunter who excoriated fame, a truly great thinker who disclocated Western philosophy from its firm pedestal of LOGOS and sought to relocate it on the WILL, he needs far more time and patience to understand than is available to Yalom. All the same, this is a formidable achievement and a must for anyone interested in group psychotherapy.
Yalom reached a target, I couldn't see April 18, 2006
38 out of 38 found this review helpful
I found it hard to put this book down. I read it in evey spare moment, until it was finished. Philosophy often poses the queston, 'how should we live'. The beauty of this novel, is it weaves many different perspectives on this question. Firstly it has the lives of the characters in the theapy group. How they are attempting to change themselves based on the fact that, how they act in a therapy group situation, is how they will act in the real world. If they can analyse and change, how they act in the group they can identify their problems and combat them. Secondly Yalom uses a character Philip Slate as modern day version of Arthur Schopenhauer. He becomes a mouthpiece for the philosophy of Schopenhauer, focusing on how Schopenhauer thought we should live and his pessimistic account of human existence. To add a futher dimension, biographical accounts of Schopenhauer's life are added and selected quotes begin each chapter. Although certain view-points are seen more sympathetically than others, different characters expess doubt and alternative opinions. We are not just force-fed Schopenhauers bleak opinions. I think that the book does two things, firstly it criticises psychotherapy for ignoring the fagitily and inherent weakness/ anxieties of the human condition. Our proplems are not all the result of individual neurosises. At the same time it highlights the fact that philosophical speculation on how we should live and how we view the world are heavily influenced by individual concerns, and personal past-experiences. This is just an overview, its well worth reading the book to find as it touches on subjects relevant to everyone. Yalom has created a book that any mere biped can understand, but leaves no easy answers.
Fascinating Until the Very End August 7, 2005
41 out of 44 found this review helpful
As a psychiatrist, now newly retired, who has read most of Yalom's books, including his standard textbook on group therapy, I knew more or less what to expect in terms of the descriptions of group process. What surprised me was the heavy interlarding of both biography and exegesis of the pessimistic and misanthropic Schopenhauer, surely one of the least understood and oft-lampooned philosophers -- I'm reminded of that line from one of Ira Gershwin's lyrics: "My evenings were sour/Spent with Schopenhauer" -- whose writings are quoted, in translation, extensively to make certain points. As one of the group's participants says late in the book, the quotations are highly selected to make a certain kind of point, and many of Schopenhauer's other writings that contradict those quotations are conveniently passed over. Still, it's a daring literary conceit and one that Yalom very nearly pulled off. One certainly admires his daring is attempting it. As a novel, one comes to care for the characters -- with some exceptions -- and the story carries one along. Unfortunately, the last fifty pages or so feel arbitrary, casually tossed off, and thus disappointing. One senses that Yalom cares for his characters, toward the end, as little as Schopenhauer cared for 'human bipeds,' to use his term. I am glad to have read this novel. Yalom is an interesting writer. I do wish it had been better edited, though.
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