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—Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Betraying Spinoza“The great-souled psychiatrist has written a novel about the great-souled philosopher. Ambitious, erudite, and engaging, The Spinoza Problem’s interweaving tale forces a reader to confront the fundamental question: can reason exert its force for good?” —Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone“Irvin Yalom does a masterful job in bringing to life Spinoza and his philosophy and connecting it to the apocalyptic history of Nazi Germany and the persona of Alfred Rosenberg. It’s the sort of temporal alchemy and alchemy of science and fiction that Yalom does so well. The Spinoza Problem is engrossing, enlightening, disturbing and ultimately deeply satisfying.” —Martin Seligman. author of Flourish, “Past President of American Psychological Association Irvin Yalom is the most significant writer of psychological fiction in the world today. I didn't think he could top When Nietzsche Wept or The Schopenhauer Cure, but he has. The Spinoza Problem is a masterpiece.” —Jay Parini, author of The Last Station and The Passages of H.M.“Spinoza had no 'real life' outside his reading and writing: he lived in his brilliant mind. So how do you write about a philosopher—a writer beloved of Goethe, Schopenhauer, and so many other thinkers—who spent most of his time in thought? And how do you regard Spinoza—a Jew whose work helped to usher in the Enlightenment—if, indeed, you're a Nazi? Irvin Yalom is just the writer to take on such a problem, and he solves it, with his own novelistic brilliance, in this vibrant book. In my view, Yalom is one of the most eclectic, wide-ranging, and dazzling writers of our time.” —Sir Anthony Hopkins, star of countless films“This is the most intriguing novel I've read in many a year. Irvin Yalom has created a taut, deeply informative page turner. I enthusiastically recommend The Spinoza Problem....” —Dilip V. Jeste, M.D. ,
Professor of Psychiatry,
University of California, San DiegoPresident-Elect, American Psychiatric Association “Irv Yalom’s The Spinoza Problem is going to be considered a classic without waiting for decades to achieve that label. It is an amazing novel that combines fact and fiction in a spell-binding manner. It juxtaposes the lives of two individuals who outwardly seem to be as different from each other as they could be – Baruch Spinoza, a seventeenth century philosopher and one of the greatest thinkers of all times who lived a solitary life after being ex-communicated by his Jewish community and censored by the Catholic Church, and Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi anti-Semitic ideologue who was in charge of looting for the Third Reich. There is little that is known about the psyche of either of these two men, especially Spinoza. Yet, using his extraordinary ability to peer into the minds of his patients, Dr. Yalom has produced a rare gem in existing literature. Only an incomparably empathic psychotherapist with a lifetime of experience of treating varied kinds of personalities and a gifted author can write such a fascinating and thought provoking novel. This is a real page turner. Thank you, Dr. Yalom, for yet another illustrious books but also one that is uniquely different from all others.” —Lou Marinoff, Chair of Philosophy, CCNYPresident, American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA) “The Spinoza Problem is a ringing endorsement of an authentically philosophical life, wherein a toweringly heroic philosopher is persecuted in two eras: one governed by medieval superstition; the other, by totalitarian racism. The novel is a masterpiece, depicting the ultimate triumph of clear and compassionate reason over religious dogma and political pathology alike. …Congrats to Irv on having written such a fine novel. I think it's his greatest yet.” —Alan F. Schatzberg, M.D., Kenneth T. Norris, Jr. Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Past-President, American Psychiatric Association “In The Spinoza Problem, Irvin Yalom has given us a suspenseful and meaningful novel spanning nearly three centuries and depicting how philosophy and wisdom can spur evil counter-responses that can continue for centuries. This book is another tour de force from a leading psychiatrist psychotherapist who has truly created a genre of fiction and whose novels engross and enlighten us as we anticipate turning the next page. The Spinoza Problem is another not to be missed work from one of the great contributors to the scientific and fictional literature of psychotherapy.” |
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