Creatures of a Day: And Other Tales of Psychotherapy (19 page)

Note to the Reader

In the service of confidentiality, I have heavily disguised each patient’s identity and, on a few occasions, introduced parts of other patients’ histories or, occasionally, fictional scenes into a story. I showed every living patient the final draft of his or her story and obtained approval and written permission for publication. Though Paul (“The Crooked Cure”) and Astrid (“Show Some Class for Your Kids”) had died long before, I disguised their stories and identities beyond recognition; I believe they would have been pleased for their experiences to be used to teach others. Ellie (“Get Your Own Damn Fatal Illness”) died as I was writing her story, but she approved my description of the project, was pleased I would be using her words, and insisted only that I use her real name.

Acknowledgments

My son, Ben Yalom, the primary editor for this book, negotiated with grace the perils of editing his fathers writing and was enormously helpful at all stages of this work. And my wife, Marilyn, always my toughest critic, provided assistance from start to finish. My literary agent, Sandy Dijkstra, was, as always, a treasure. My heartfelt thanks also to my many friends and colleagues who read one or more of these stories and offered useful suggestions: Svetlana Shtukareva, David Spiegel, Robert Berger, Herb Kotz, Ruthellen Josselson, Hans Steiner, Randy Weingarten, and all the members of the Pegasus writing group.