The many thousands of readers of the best-selling Love's Executioner will welcome this paperback edition of an earlier work by Dr. Irvin Yalom, written with Ginny Elkin, a pseudonymous patient whom he treated--the first book to share the dual reflections of psychiatrist and patient.Ginny Elkin was a troubled young and talented writer whom the psychiatric world had labeled as "schizoid." After trying a variety of therapies, she entered into private treatment with Dr. Irvin Yalom at Stanford University. As part of their work together, they agreed to write separate journals of each of their sessions. Every Day Gets a Little Closer is the product of that arrangement, in which they alternately relate their descriptions and feelings about their therapeutic relationship.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

Met expectations:

Every Day Gets a Little Closer met my expectations. The afterward by Irvin Yalom is the most interesting and useful part and is a well earned reward for slogging through all the session notes. Throughout the book Yalom is open and honest about thoughts and feelings in a way that might prove helpful to other therapists. Meanwhile Ms. Elkin's perspective is also quite helpful, depicting some of the healing dynamics and relational aspects that therapists are often not privy to. The book does a great job of... more info

A real patient/therapist encounter:

What I love about this book is that it takes you into an unspoken territory of patient and therapist. In the same light as a photojournalist goes behind the scenes to capture events; We capture the inside life of both patient and therapist in a moving and human experience. In exchange for money, Dr. Yalom agrees to see Ginny on the basis that they will each write honest and open reports of each session, so he can create this book. We get an inside look into the passion and desire of a therapsit in his... more info

Not quite as interesting as I expected:

As I am not a student of psychology and not a therapist I read Yalom's books from a layman's point of view, as I find stories of personal development and change very interesting. However, I found this particular book to be somewhat tiresome and I must admit I got a bit bored as I longed for Ginny's process to move on. I guess that reading such detailed descriptions of each session was finally not as exciting as expected. I personally prefer to read the general story of a patient in Yalom's other books with... more info

Making Sense of the Therapeutic Relationship:

This is a very courageous book about a very courageous project. It touched me deeply. Brief entries from a master therapist and a writer patient in which each describes what happened for them in each session over a year or so personalize the therapeutic process. One can read a half dozen self help books about therapy and never come as near to understanding the meaning of the therapeutic relationship as well as in this book. While this is not Yalom's best book in literary terms - he was clearly still... more info

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