Like Yalom but not Yalom

September 27, 2021 4:12 AM

I've been reading some of Irvin D. Yalom's vignettes and a novel, and while I enjoy his style, he personally annoys the shit out of me. It's the relentless male gaze on all his female patients and the coy, humorous allusions to his own vanity. So I was wondering if there's someone I could be reading who's not quite as white male genius about it. I have read Lori Gottlieb and found her book all right.
posted by Omnomnom to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

If you like Yalom I assume you also know and appreciate Oliver Sacks, but in the off chance that you don't, I commend you to him both for his writing style and for his genuine interest in the inner life and mental experience of his patients/clients. He does still have some of that Gaze of the Doctor thing but I don't think it's as pronounced as Yalom can come across -- fwiw Sacks was a closeted gay man who only came out publicly at the end of his life.
posted by tivalasvegas at 4:46 AM on September 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

"Good Morning, Monster" by Catherine Gildiner, a female psychologist/therapist recently came out and is in a similar vein as Yalom's case studies. I read it and found it to be very interesting and engaging, although she does go into explicit detail about her patients' extreme trauma experiences, so it deserves a warning.

I also like Eric Cowan's "Ariadne's Thread". I don't remember it being as "male gaze-y" as Yalom (who I like as well).

There's also Mary Pfifer- a therapist who writes case studies. I personally am not a huge fan of her books (just don't find them that interesting/insightful) but a lot of people like her.
posted by bearette at 5:25 AM on September 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

I read Schopenhauer's Porcupines: Intimacy And Its Dilemmas: Five Stories Of Psychotherapy by Deborah Luepnitz many years ago and loved it.
posted by daikon at 5:36 PM on September 27, 2021 [1 favorite]