The Shopenhauer Cure by Irvine D. Yalom

Author:Irvine D. Yalom [Yalom, Irvine D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Psychology, Fiction
Published: 2011-07-03T07:28:01+00:00

“Fair enough; let’s fill Pam in,” said Julius.

“Stuart, that’s your cue,” said Bonnie.

“I’ll give it a crack,” said Stuart. “Well, in the two months you were away, Pam—”

Julius interrupted. “This time, why don’t you just get us started, Stuart. It’s unfair for us to ask you to do all the work.”

“Right. But, you know, it’s not work—I like to give overviews.” Seeing Julius about to interrupt, he quickly said, “Okay, I’ll just say one thing and stop.

When you left, Pam, it was a downer to me. I felt we had failed you, that we were not good enough or resourceful enough to help you with your crisis. I didn’t like that you had to turn elsewhere—to India—for help. Next.”

Bonnie quickly said, “The giant issue here was Julius’s announcement about his illness. You know all about this, Pam?”

“Yeah.” Pam nodded gravely. “Julius told me when I phoned last weekend to tell him I was back.”

“Actually,” Gill said, “I want to amend that—no offense, Bonnie—but Julius didn’t tell us. What happened was that we went out for coffee after Philip’s first meeting, and he told us since Julius had told him in an individual meeting.

Julius was pretty pissed at Philip’s preempting him. Next.”

“Philip’s been here about five sessions. He’s in training to be a therapist,”

said Rebecca, “and, as I understand it, Julius was his therapist many years ago.”

Tony said, “We’ve been talking about Julius’s…uh…condition and uh…”

“You mean cancer . That’s a shocking word, I know,” said Julius, “but it’s best to look it in the face and say it.”

“About Julius’s cancer. You’re one tough old bird, Julius—I gotta hand it to you.” Tony went on, “So we talked about Julius’s cancer and how hard it was to talk about other things that were small in comparison.”

Everyone had spoken but Philip, who now said, “Julius, it would be okay if you were to tell the group about why I first came to see you.”

“I’ll help, Philip, but it would be better, when you’re ready, to describe that yourself.”

Philip nodded.

When it became clear that Philip was not going to continue, Stuart said,

“Okay, back to me—a second round?”

Looking around at nodding heads, Stuart continued, “In one meeting Bonnie had some reactions to Rebecca’s coming on to Philip.” Stuart stopped, looked at Rebecca, and inserted, “Rebecca’s allegedly coming on to him. Bonnie did some work on her feelings about her self-image, her sense of being unattractive.”

“And clumsiness and inability to compete with women like you, Pam, and Rebecca,” said Bonnie.

Rebecca said, “While you were away Philip made a lot of constructive comments.”

“But revealed nothing about himself,” said Tony.

“One last thing: Gill had a serious confrontation with his wife—even considered walking out,” said Stuart.

“Don’t give me too much credit—I waffled. That resolve lasted about four hours,” said Gill.

“A good review,” said Julius, looking at his watch. “Before we quit, let me ask you, Pam, how are you handling this—you feel more on board?”

“Still unreal. I’m trying to hang in, but I’m glad to stop. This is all I can deal with today,” said Pam, gathering up her things.

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