Analysis: Love's Executioner And Creatures Of A Day

Love 's Executioner and Creatures of a Day, by Dr. Irvin D. Yalom, are two riveting and insightful compilations of Dr. Yaloms ' life work as a Psychotherapist. Both are composed of various tales that shed some light on some of humanities greatest struggles, and Yaloms ' journey to guide his patients through the darkest times in their lives. Through these two writings, Dr. Yalom, is able to depict not just the development of his characters, but reveal his own growth and development as a psychotherapist and as a human being through his interactions, some almost three decades apart. The varying structures of these two books, hint at some transition in his thought and growth as the years progress. The different roles that he takes on in his sessions and his manner of interacting with his patients, his style and his ability to empathize, all give us a marvelous image of Yaloms own journey; and even though the stories are about his patients, they are invariably tales of himself. When first picking up, "Loves Executioner," one can …show more content…
At some points in Loves Executioner, Yalom comes off as combative or confrontational and pushy; as in the story," If Rape Were Legal," where he tells his patient Carlos, who has terminal cancer, that he has no chance of having a relationship with a women he met after a church social(Yalom, 2012,pg.75). The tone of his interactions change, and though in, Creatures of a Day, he does prod a bit and sometimes lets his curiosity drive a little, but he will often check himself by saying things like, "careful," and "slow down" (Yalom, 2016, pg.132-133). In Love 's Executioner, Yalom is more career focused, and tries to sideline some of his patients needs to stay focused on his research; meanwhile the older Yalom often made exceptions to go above and beyond to help his patients; like in the story of Alvin in, "Thank You, Molly"(Yalom, 2016, pg.