Books / Lived experience, memoir & fiction
Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy
Irvin D. Yalom’s Love’s Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy (1989) presents ten psychotherapy narratives about relationships, loss and other existential concerns.
Book details
Author of listed edition: Irvin D. Yalom
Edition: 1st edition (1989)
Publisher: Basic Books
Edition year: 1989
Language and origin: English (United States)
Form and genre: Memoir, Fiction & Lived Experience
Level: Introductory
Historical era: 1980–2009 · Evidence-Based, Trauma & Integrative Era
Covers: Ten psychotherapy narratives; The author’s reflections on therapeutic relationships; Existential concerns including loss and mortality
APA 7th reference: Yalom, I. D. (1989). Love’s executioner and other tales of psychotherapy. Basic Books.
What it is & historical context
Yalom’s collection was published by Basic Books in 1989. The author describes it as ten tales of psychotherapy. The narratives are presented through an author’s selection and perspective.
Core clinical themes & arguments
The author’s description presents stories involving love, loss, freedom and death. The collection can prompt reflection on therapy and relationships, but the catalogue does not establish details of every encounter.
Clinical practice, reception & legacy
The book presents clinical narratives rather than a controlled comparison of treatments. Readers should not infer from a single narrative that a particular approach will produce the same result for others.
Reader level & educational scope
This introductory entry offers educational orientation. The author’s description and a library catalogue were consulted; neither the full book nor the paired work was reviewed.
Paired academic and clinical scholarship
Paired work: Countertransference and the Therapist’s Inner Experience: Perils and Possibilities (Charles J. Gelso and Jeffrey A. Hayes, 2007)
Reference: Gelso, C. J., & Hayes, J. A. (2007). Countertransference and the therapist’s inner experience: Perils and possibilities. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
A later book on countertransference and the therapist’s inner experience. Its full text was not reviewed for this entry.
Source-mapped claims and evidence notes
Claim 1: The book contains ten psychotherapy narratives. (Based on the author’s description; the full book was not reviewed.) [Source 1: Yalom, I. D. Love’s Executioner. Author’s book page.]
Claim 2: The stories address concerns including love, loss and mortality. (Narratives are not comparative treatment studies and do not establish a universal therapeutic outcome.) [Source 1: Yalom, I. D. Love’s Executioner. Author’s book page.]
Sources and inspection notes
Yalom, I. D. Love’s Executioner. Author’s book page.
Supports: The author describes the ten narratives and their general themes; the full book was not reviewed.
Los Gatos Library. Love’s executioner and other tales of psychotherapy.
Supports: Catalogue identifies the Basic Books 1989 edition. The publisher record for the ISBN could not be independently verified.
Supports: Publisher record for a related work; the full text was not reviewed.