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Irvin David Yalom Character Analysis

Decent Essays

Irvin David Yalom is an American psychotherapist as well as author of both fiction and nonfiction. His novel, Love’s Executioner, consists of ten case histories where he documents his patient’s dilemmas and well as his own personal dilemmas. Yalom’s dilemma within the first case history is: Should I, under the banner of self enlightenment strip away an old woman’s irrational but sustaining and comforting love illusion? The first case history focuses on patient Thelma, a seventy year old woman who is immensely depressed and who claims to be in love. One of Thelma’s main issues is that she suffers from a very low self esteem and despite having not spoken to Matthew (the man she is in love with) in years it is evident that she still bases her own self-worth off of his opinion of her. Another one of the Thelma’s main issues is that she is unable to live in the present. She claims to be “living her life eight years ago”. This is so because she spends …show more content…

I became very depressed due to the desolation of my new environment. I would spend my days in constant contemplation of the joy of my life months before, reliving every memory in my head over and over again. This preoccupation with the joys of the past corrupted my ability to live, enjoy, or improve my present. This is why I resonated so deeply with Thelma’s statement “ I am living my life eight years ago”. I had already given up hope on my potential for happiness in life, so I did not try to adapt my situation. Thelma cannot improve her present life or forget about Matthew because her present is miserable and the memory of Matthew is the only thing that brings excitement to her. She is too riddled by depression and self-hatred to realize that she has the ability to alter her life and that new experiences and excitements are always available in this

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