The Schopenhauer Cure
by Irvin D. Yalom
4.24 · Rating details · 18,273 ratings · 1,328 reviews
Suddenly confronted with his own mortality after a routine checkup, eminent psychotherapist Julius Hertzfeld is forced to reexamine his life and work -- and seeks out Philip Slate, a sex addict whom he failed to help some twenty years earlier. Yet Philip claims to be cured -- miraculously transformed by the pessimistic teachings of German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer -- ...more
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Paperback, 358 pages
Published November 10th 2020 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics (first published June 4th 2000)
Original TitleThe Schopenhauer Cure
ISBN0060938102 (ISBN13: 9780060938109)
Edition LanguageEnglish
Other Editions (96)
درمان شوپنهاور
علاج شوبنهاور
Soluţia Schopenhauer
La cura Schopenhauer
The Schopenhauer Cure
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I'm not reading the book in English so can someone please write the quote from the beginning of chapter 20 in English and tell me who is it from? It goes something like this: We climb the hill of life, unaware of the death waiting on the other side of the hill.
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Zoé In case you haven't found the quote yet, here it is:
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Ahmad Sharabiani
Feb 26, 2014Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: literature, 21th-century, psychology, fiction, united-states, novels
The Schopenhauer cure : a novel, 1st ed, c2005, Irvin D. Yalo
Julius Hertzfeld is a distinguished psychotherapist when a sudden confrontation with his own mortality forces him to re-examine his life and work. Has he really made an enduring difference to the lives of his patients? And what about those he's failed Ð what has happened to them?
His attempt to make sense of the past places him on a collision course with former patient Philip Slate a handsome but arrogant and misanthropic sex addict whom he had treated, unsuccessfully, 23 years before.
In a profound challenge to Julius's professional status, Philip claims to have cured himself by reading the works of philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Furthermore, he has become a philosophical counsellor, and asks Julius to act as his professional supervisor in order to obtain a license to practise.
Reluctantly, Julius agrees, and they strike a Faustian bargain Ð one which threatens to undermine his career and the well-being of his patients, but also brings with it the potential for extraordinary personal change through a unique combination of psychotherapy and philosophy.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز یازدهم ماه نوامبر سال 2016میلادی
عنوان: درمان شوپنهاور؛ نویسنده: اروین دی یالوم؛ مترجم: حمید طوفانی؛ زهرا حسینیان؛ مشهد، ترانه، 1390، در 496ص؛ شابک 9789645638953؛ چاپ پنجم 1393؛ چاپ هشتم 1397؛ موضوع آرتور شوپنهاور از سال 1788م تا 1860م، روان درمانی گروهی؛ داستان - سده 21م
عنوان: درمان شوپنهاور؛ نویسنده: اروین دی یالوم؛ مترجم: سپیده حبیب؛؛ تهران، نشر قطره، 1392، در 547ص؛ شابک 9786001196195؛ چاپ چهارم 1393؛ چاپ یازدهم 1395؛ چاپ ششم 1394؛ چاپ چهاردهم 1396؛ چاپ شانزدهم 1397؛ چاپ بیست و یکم 1399؛
عنوان: درمان شوپنهاور؛ نویسنده: اروین دی یالوم؛ مترجم: کیومرث پارسای؛ تهران، انتشارات مصدق، جامی، 1394؛ در 424ص؛ شابک 9786007436325؛ چاپ دوم 1395؛
عنوان: درمان شوپنهاور؛ نویسنده: اروین دی یالوم؛ مترجم: مرجان معتمد حسینی؛ تهران، نوای مکتوب، 1396؛ در 432ص؛ شابک 9786009666737؛ چاپ دوم 1396؛
عنوان: درمان شوپنهاور؛ نویسنده: اروین دی یالوم؛ مترجم: فروزنده دولتیاری؛ تهران، نیک فرجام، 1398؛ در 438ص؛ شابک 9786226395342؛
عنوان: درمان شوپنهاور؛ نویسنده: اروین دی یالوم؛ مترجم: زهره قلیپور؛ تهران، آتیسا، 1398؛ در 387ص؛ شابک 9786227182088؛
عنوان: درمان شوپنهاور؛ نویسنده: اروین دی یالوم؛ مترجم: زهرا ودادیان؛ تهران، نارون دانش، 1398؛ در 200ص؛ شابک 9786226632430؛
عنوان: درمان شوپنهاور؛ نویسنده: اروین دی یالوم؛ مترجم: ابراهیم حسنی؛ تهران، نیک فرجام، 1398؛ در 512ص؛ شابک 9786226395342؛
یالوم، در رمان «درمان شوپنهاور» خیال میکند، فیلسوف معاصری به نام «فیلیپ»، که فردی منزوی، و به نوعی رونوشت «شوپنهاور» است، به یکی از گروههای درمانی روان درمانگر مشهوری به نام «جولیوس»، وارد میشود، که خود به دلیل رویارویی ناگهانی با سرطان - و مرگ خویش- به بازبینی زندگی و کار خویش بنشسته است؛ «فیلیپ» آرزو دارد، با به کارگیری اندیشه های «شوپنهاور»، به یک مشاور فلسفی بدل شود، و برای این منظور نیازمند سرپرستی «جولیوس» است؛ ولی «جولیوس» میخواهد به یاری اعضای گروه، به «فیلیپ (شوپنهاور)» بقبولاند، که این ارتباط انسانی ست، که به زندگی معنا میبخشد؛ کاری که هیچکس برای «شوپنهاور» تاریخی نکرد؛
اروین دی یالوم - استاد بازنشسته ی روانپزشکی دانشگاه استنفورد، روان درمانگر اگزیستانسیال، و گروه درمانگر، در این کتاب نیز همچون رمان «وقتی نیچه گریست»؛ با زبان سحرانگیز داستان، به معرفی اندیشه های پیچیده ی فلسفی، و توصیف فنون روان درمانی، و گروه درمانی میپردازند
نقل از متن: «این موضوع اغلب مورد توجه قرار گرفته که سه انقلاب عمده ی فکری بشر، ایده ی محوریت انسان را تهدید کرده است؛ اول، کوپرنیک نشان داد که زمین آن مرکزی نیست، که همه ی اجرام آسمانی به دورش میگردند؛ بعد داروین روشن کرد که ما کانون زنجیره ی حیات نیستیم، بلکه مانند سایر موجودات، از تکامل اَشکال دیگر حیات، به وجود آمده ایم؛ سوم، فروید نشان داد که ارباب خانه ی خودمان نیستیم؛ به این معنا که بیشتر رفتار ما تابع نیروهایی خارج از آگاهی ماست؛ شکی نیست که آرتور شوپنهاور در این انقلاب فکری، نقشی برابر فروید داشت، ولی هرگز به تأثیر او اذعان نشد، زیرا شوپنهاور مدتها پیش از تولد فروید، فرض را بر این قرار داده بود، که نیروهای زیست شناختی ژرفی، بر ما حاکمند، ولی ما خود را میفریبیم، و فکر میکنیم، خودمان آگاهانه، فعالیتهایمان را برمیگزینیم؛ (از ترجمه خانم سپیده حبیب، صفحه 297)»؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 10/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی (less)
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Glenn Russell
Nov 14, 2013Glenn Russell rated it it was amazing
“Live right, he reminded himself, and have faith that good things will flow from you even if you never learn of them.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, The Schopenhauer Cure
This book receives a five star rating not because the author is on the level with Vladimir Nabokov or Leo Tolstoy, but because this novel is a real page-turner and teaches as great deal about two topics: the dynamics of group psychotherapy and the illustrious nineteenth century philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer. Highly recommended! Take this book with you when you travel by airplane or train and your six hour trip will seem like forty-five minutes - The Schopenhauer Cure is that riveting.
The novel opens with the main character, a seasoned sixty-five year old psychotherapist and leader of group therapy, Julius Hertzfeld, having been diagnosed with cancer and given a year of good health. So what to do with a year to live? Julius reviews his career as a therapist and asks himself if he had cured people or at least provided a degree of help. This self-examination leads Julius to unearth an old file going back twenty years of one patient who spent three years of therapy with him but the patient terminated treatment since what Julius had to offer was not helping. Julius calls the patient, Philip Slate by name, and requests a meeting for the purposes of research.
Turns out, Philip is a counselor himself as well as being a philosophy instructor at a local college. But Philip needs certification to continue his counseling. Without giving away too much of the novel's plot, it is enough to say Philip, as part of his certification process, becomes a new member of Julian's group therapy weekly gathering.
If you have never been part of group therapy, here is your unique opportunity to have the experience. Of course, your experience will be as a reader and not a participant, but, through the magic of the author's novel, you will have the feeling of being an actual member of the group. Not only will you come to know the men and women of the group and how they interact as part of the group, but you will be given the ongoing insights and observations that go through the mind of Julian as he acts as the group's psychotherapist. And the group has a certain energy that is shaken up and lifted with the entrance of Philip. After several sessions with Philip as the new member, the group energy is shaken up yet again with the return of Pam, who has spent a month in India at a meditation retreat.
Back on Philip. As a younger man he was a sex-fiend. That's why Philip was in therapy with Julius. Where psychotherapy with Julius didn't help, the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer did help, and Philip explains to everyone in the group how and why the philosophy of Schopenhauer worked and how Schopenhauer can help others. This leads the author to intersperse chapters in the novel about the life and philosophy of the great nineteenth century thinker, a thinker who had a profound influence on Sigmund Freud and thus psychology and psychotherapy. Schopenhauer didn't shy away from philosophizing about sexuality and other issues of the body; rather, his insights into nature's urges and energies are at the core of this thinking. Thus, the direct connection between what happens in the development of Schopenhauer's philosophy and what happens in the sessions of the group.
The cancer of the group's beloved friend and leader, Julius, adds a bond and emotional charge to all that happens in the group from week to week. To find out exactly how events unfold, please place an order for the novel today and read the first five pages. You will be hooked. You will want to continue reading and reading, nonstop till the end. Thank you Irvin D. Yalom for writing a fine novel and sharing your experience and wisdom as a group psychotherapist, as well providing a penetrating overview of one of the great philosophers in the Western tradition, who, as it turns out, was foundational in linking philosophy with psychology.
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BlackOxford
Sep 20, 2017BlackOxford rated it liked it
Shelves: american, philosophy-theology
Cancer Cures Neurosis
An episode of the British sci-fi comedy, Red Dwarf, has a disturbing female character with a heavy Germanic accent proclaiming, "Schopenhauer was rrrright: Without pain, life has no meaning. I am about to give your life meaning." This is more or less the central theme of Yalom's novel.
Like Robertson Davies' Manticore, The Schopenhauer Cure follows a series of psycho-analytic therapy sessions, interspersed with background material. But Yalom uses group not individual therapy as the binding story-line. And Instead of the Jungian technique of Davies, inserts the highly unlikely character of the German 19th century philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer as a model for psychological investigation and treatment.
Unlikely because, although Schopenhauer certainly inspired subsequent doctors of the mind through his philosophy, he himself was without question a neurotic of the first order. He had no stable relationships, male or female. He was alienated from his suicidal father, his emotionally distant mother, and his spinster sister for decades before each of them died without concern on his part. He spent his entire adult life in a sort of normalized isolation dominated by an abiding obsession with death.
On the other hand, Schopenhauer was not an unhappy person. Or to put it more aptly in terms of his philosophy, he experienced less pain than he might have, had he not learned to recognise the futility of his desires - material, social, professional, but especially sexual.
Schopenhauer's self-prescribed psycho-therapy involved training himself insistently that such desires could never actually be achieved, or more accurately that such desires once sated would merely be replaced by others, and so on ad infinitum as well as ad nauseum. So he adopted the life of a hermetic recluse - on the streets of 19th century Frankfurt rather than the deserts of 4th century Syria.
Yalom's motivating character, Philip, is a devotee of Schopenhauer's philosophy, who in a Luther-like attempt to heal himself by diagnosing his own as the world's problem, crashes an established therapy group in order to fulfill his training requirements as... a psycho-therapist!
So a person who is happily convinced that a primary source of pain is attachment to human relationships involves himself in a therapeutic group, the function of which is to intensify human relationships among its members. What could go wrong?
In fact the situation provokes some rather interesting insights by all concerned, including the reader. Without doubt, for example, Yalom's group, both individually and collectively, is improved by the insertion of the Schopenhaurian take on life, no matter how dismal it might appear. Every member of the group perceives an important contribution is made by Philip, although none understands precisely why or how.
More significantly the confrontation between two opposed views of the world pointedly raises the issue of what constitutes the success of a psycho-therapeutic process. What are the criteria of psychological or emotional 'healing'? Is it personal contentment? A feeling of acceptance within a group? Reduced compulsivity? Increased social skills? All or none of the above? It isn't at all clear that members of the group share the same criterion of success to begin with but Philip's arrival formalizes the issue, at least for the therapist-in-charge.
The therapist-in-charge dies with his boots on (from cancer), so we don't get his view on the issue. The only one to get the short end of the therapeutic stick, however, is poor Philip. 'Reconnected' to his desiring self, he suffers the pain and anxiety of human relationships once again. Is 'meaning' worth the price? By whose standard?
Postscript: Tomorrow is the anniversary of Schopenhauer's death. It seems more appropriate to celebrate his death than his birth. So here's to the inimitable Arthur for whom one of my sons is named. (less)
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Ladan
Aug 28, 2020Ladan rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: psychology, american-lit, drama, favorites, philosophy, deserves-a-reread, death
And above all there was Zarathustra’s oft-repeated question whether we would be willing to repeat the precise life we have lived again and again throughout eternity.
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Deea
Mar 22, 2017Deea rated it it was amazing
Recommends it for: Anyone interested in psychoanalysis and philosophy
Shelves: favourites, psychology, best-2017
Relationships are difficult: they can cause frustrations, misunderstandings, self-loathing and a whole range of negative feelings, especially if our own mental formation was biased by hurtful past events, even by traumas that we are not able to acknowledge as such. Human mind is a very powerful tool and most of us don’t have any clue how to understand it and use it to our advantage.
”Imagine an ancient city that built a high wall to protect it from the high torrents of an adjacent river. Centuries later, though the river had long dried up, the city still invested considerable resources in maintaining that wall." (about human-beings and their self-defense systems)
Most of the times we perceive our own actions as the exact expression of our desires. How often is it really so? Sometimes consciousness plays tricks on us and what we perceive as true might only be a mental disguise for something deeply hidden inside our minds. We think people are how we see them: sometimes cruel, not interesting or boring, but we forget that what we see is not what it’s really out there, but a distorted version of reality filtered by our own moods, passions, suffering, ideals (Kant).
Rene Magritte - The Glass House
This book explores how psychoanalysis and group therapy can contribute to the understanding of our actions and torments. It digs for the roots of unhappiness in certain individuals who have problems dealing with their relationships because their controversial actions are empowered by hidden psychological sufferings. The characters can be seen as prototypes of certain psychological afflictions: a beautiful woman whose relations with other people are heavily influenced by her unquenchable thirst to be admired, a woman that cannot get past her rage and destroys all the relationships she has with men, a sexually-addicted person that cannot relate to other human beings etc. and they become aware of their hidden motives only through discussions with the other members of the group during therapy sessions.
These discussions explore both psychological and philosophical realms: Schopenhauer and his views (together with the Buddhist influences on his philosophy) are explored and discussed in order to support certain opinions about behaviors. Together with this, other philosophical views are brought to discussion. The tone is erudite, but also light and entertaining and this makes this book a very enjoyable read. What I liked most about it is that it made me really want to know more about psychology (for which I seem to have quite a passion lately) and about philosophy (because of this book I started reading “A History of Western Philosophy” by Bertrand Russell which I really enjoy) and it made me understand more about my own behavior. (less)
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Ade Bailey
Sep 09, 2008Ade Bailey rated it really liked it
Shelves: fiction
Irvin Yalom, The Schopehahauer Cure
This is a lovely novel. Its apparently ridiculous ending is not so: it is a wink from the other side of the grave, a fatuous and caring slice of the humour by which we warm ourselves against death, perhaps Schopenhauer’s wink and rare shy smile. In fact, it is a brilliantly constructed novel of ideas. It’s theatrical in that most of the action takes place in a group therapy session, one set (with moveable furniture it turns out), and theatrical in its drawing of dramatic tension between sharply delineated charcters.
Yalom’s focus is as in When Nietzsche Wept, the only other of his novels I have read: how, beneath the hot drama of our furies and desires do we, in the ice cold stare of the great existential voids of death and meaningless, live a good life? When philosophy, religion and literature have been evacuated of comfort, how do we face our common dilemma? Conveniently for the novel, the therapist Julius has been given (almost precisely as it turns out) twelve months to live, the period during which these meetings take place. The other main character, Philip, is coldly philosophical, ironically one may say an inhabitant of a philia of bodiless communicants in the great universe of the eternal Logos, the apparent counterpoint to warm and human Julius whose practice is based upon caritas. In fact both characters are points in one mind, oscillating as do all the other characters between points of identity so dearly held but shown to be feeble and fragile: in the integration that occurs, it is this joint exposure that empties attachments and inward looking vanities. The novel is a practical guide to the doing of therapy, and the doing of it in the ordinary world of our friendships and relationships, and the world of our enemies.
Ultimately, there is not a conflict between the transcendent and the quotidian, Samsara and Nirvana cannot be separated. It is all here. Now.
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