Schopenhauer in Group Therapy: A Very Difficult Patient Indeed

Reviews the video, Group Therapy: A Live Demonstration by Irvin Yalom and Molyn Leszcz (2011). In the field of group therapy, Irvin Yalom is an icon. As part of an effort to preserve his wisdom and genius, his son Victor, the president and founder of Psychotherapy.net, has produced several videos of his father teaching his group therapy methods. Victor Yalom is the producer of the current two-DVD set, lasting three and a half hours, available with an instructor’s manual. The format of the video involves seven professional actors (four men and three women) designated to play the roles of the central characters found in Yalom’s novel The Schopenhauer Cure (see record 2004-19156-000). In addition to the video of the group’s experience, there is an introduction by Irvin Yalom, follow-up questions from a live audience at a meeting of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA), and interviews of Irvin Yalom by Victor Yalom. Although there are numerous other DVDs on psychotherapy available to general and specialized audiences, in the reviewer's opinion this is a superb video and ought to be included in every curriculum on the process of long-term group therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)