Irvin D. Yalom

Irvin David Yalom (1931–2024) was an American psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and author, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in existential psychotherapy. Born to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents in Washington, D.C., Yalom pursued medicine at Boston University and completed his psychiatric residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He later became Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Stanford University. Yalom was renowned for integrating philosophy into psychotherapy, emphasizing existential concerns such as mortality, freedom, isolation, and meaning. His clinical and literary works, including Existential Psychotherapy, Love’s Executioner, The Schopenhauer Cure, The Spinoza Problem, and Creatures of a Day, combined case studies, fiction, and philosophy to make psychotherapy accessible to a wide audience. He also pioneered group therapy approaches and wrote influential textbooks on the subject. In later years, he co-authored A Matter of Death and Life with his wife, Marilyn Yalom, reflecting on love, loss, and mortality. Yalom’s legacy endures through his contributions to psychotherapy, his accessible writings, and his profound exploration of the human condition.