![]() Most of all I am indebted to my primary teachers: my patients, who must remain unnamed (but they know who they are). My four children, Eve, Reid, Victor, and Ben, were invaluable consultants, and my wife, Marilyn, as always, forced me to write better. Phoebe Hoss and Michele Jones provided excellent editing. My gratitude to Van Harvey, Walter Sokel, Dagfin Follesdal, my dear friends and long-term tutors in intellectual history. Philippe Martial introduced me to the La Rouchefoucauld maxim on the title page. A host of friends and colleagues have read parts of the book and offered suggestions: David Spiegel, Herbert Kotz, Jean Rose, Ruthellen Josselson, Randy Weingarten, Neil Brast, Rick Van Rheenen, Alice Van Harten, Roger Walsh, Robert Berger, and Maureen Lila. My agent, Sandy Dijkstra, and my editor, Alan Rinzler, were instrumental in helping me shape and focus this book. I am grateful to many who have helped along the way. These pages contain what I have learned about overcoming the terror of death from my own experience, my work with my patients, and the thoughts of those writers who have informed my work. I share the fear of death with every human being: it is our dark shadow from which we are never severed. Instead, this is a deeply personal book stemming from my confrontation with death. ![]() They have been widely translated,each into about fifteen to twenty languages, and have had considerable distribution abroad.This book is not, and cannot be, a compendium of thoughts about death, for throughout the millennia, every serious writer has addressed human mortality. These books went on t o be best sellers, and "When Nietzsche Wept" won the Commonwealth Gold Medal for best fiction of 1993. In an effort to teach aspects of Existential Therapy, Yalom turned to a literary conveyance and wrote a book of therapy tales called "Love's Executioner", two teaching novels, "When Nietzsche Wept" and "Lying on the Couch" and, "Momma and the Meaning of Life," a collection of true and fictionalized tales of therapy. "Existential Psychotherapy" followed, which was a textbook for a course that did not exist at the time, and then "Inpatient Group Psychotherapy," a guide to leading groups in the inpatient psychiatric ward. It has been translated into twelve languages and spawned four editions. His first book, "The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy" was widely used as a text for training therapists. His first writings were scientific contributions to professional journals. Yalom entered into medical school intent on studying the field of psychiatry. on June 13, 1931, of parents who immigrated from Russia shortly after World War I. Rollo May, author, "Love and Will, The Meaning of Anxiety, Man's Search for Himself, and The Courage to Create" "Irvin Yalom writes like an angel about the devils that besiege us." "Yalom is the Scheherazade of the couch, his work a marvelous exercise in storytelling." Rabbi Harold Kushner, author, "When Bad Things Happen to Good" People "One of America's finest therapists guides us through one of life's most challenging tasks in this profoundly helpful book. ![]() Andrew Solomon, author, "The Noonday Demon," winner of the National Book Award The book is witty and kind and unflinching, a generous meditation that should give comfort to the dying and to those they leave behind." "Staring at the Sun looks experientially and psychodynamically at our deepest fear and describes with uncommon eloquence and deep humanity how we may arrive at a form of peace. Christopher Hitchens, author, "God Is Not Great" "Staring at the Sun is a thoughtful reinforcement of the stoicism that we all need in a time when babble and denial are all the rage." Robin Meyers, minister of Mayflower UCC Church of Oklahoma City, and author, "Why the Christian Right Is Wrong" This is a wise book by a wise man about the most taboo of all subjects. Instead of fearing death, which gave birth to religion itself, we can confront it in a true act of faith and stop denying it through fantasies of immortality. "This thoughtful treatment of the ultimate fear has much to offer people of faith, especially Western Christians. Erica Jong, author, "Fear of Flying, Shylock's Daughter, Inventing Memory, and Sappho's Leap" "Irvin Yalom has written a brave, intelligent book on the last forbidden subject-death. I honor his courage and rare insight." -Erica Jong, author, "Fear of Flying, Shylock's Daughter, Inventing Memory, and Sappho's. Praise for "Staring at the Sun" "Irvin Yalom has written a brave, intelligent book on the last forbidden subject-death.
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