This is a broad, comprehensive treatise on the subject indicated by the book's title, an excellent introduction to the subject and more. It

contains a thorough review of the literature (of relevant existentialist philosophy as well as that of the existential psychotherapists) and a good deal of illustrative case material. Yalom is a splendid writer, serious always but never solemn, scholarly but not pedantic. Whatever the value to therapist or patient of this way of thinking about therapy, and whatever the quality of therapists this school produces, it certainly seems to develop—or perhaps to attract—a disproportionately high number of good writers. Yalom is as elegant and lucid as the best of them. This book is a valuable service to that school of thought and to those—laymen as well as professionals—who wish to understand its ideas on human nature as well as the practice of psychotherapy.