In this long-awaited follow-up to the bestselling “Love's Executioner,” master psycho-therapist Irvin Yalom once again probes the mysteries and marvels at the heart of the therapeutic encounter.

As the public grows disillusioned with therapeutic quick fixes, people are looking for a deeper psychotherapeutic experience to make life more meaningful and satisfying. What really happens in therapy? What promises and perils does it hold for them?

No one writes about therapy—or indeed the dilemmas of the human condition—with more acuity, style, and heart than Irvin Yalom. Here he combines the storytelling skills so widely praised in “Love's Executioner” with the wisdom of the compassionate and fully engaged psychotherapist.

In these six compelling tales of therapy, Yalom introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters-Paula, who faces death and stares it down; Magnolia, into whose ample lap Yalom longs to pour his own sorrows; Irene, who learns to seek out anger and plunge into it. And there's Momma, old-fashioned, ill-tempered, who drifts into Yalom's dreams and tramples through his thoughts. At once wildly entertaining and deeply thoughtful, “Momma and the Meaning of Life” is a work of rare insight and imagination.

Copyright © 1999 by Basic Books, Inc.