I finished reading Love’s Executioner by Irvin Yalom recently, and it has immediately become one of my favorites! Yalom is one of the foundational thinkers behind Existential Psychotherapy, and the book is a collection of ten case studies presented in a short-story format revolving around themes of love, grief, and authenticity.
It’s pretty refreshing to read case studies where the therapist doesn’t present themselves as an all-seeing, all-knowing genius; Irvin Yalom is very open about his uncertainties and mistakes with his clients. The cases he presents are fascinating, and he does a great job of illustrating his philosophical and therapeutic principles throughout. I highly recommend it for anybody interested in psychology, the human condition, or personality-centered short stories!
A few of my favorite poets that come to mind:
Charles Baudelaire
Arthur Rimbaud
Paul Verlaine
Ezra Pound
Gregory Corso
Sappho
Sylvia Plath
Li Bai
Dostoevsky is one of my all-time favorites! The Idiot made me weep the first time I read it.
I’m hanging on to my account until June 30th—so I can say a bittersweet goodbye to Reddit is Fun—and then I’m deleting it; Reddit is only going to get worse from here, and I don’t want to be around to see it. I’m grateful that this mess has driven so many of us to seek out kinder, more thoughtful communities, and I hope said communities can retain their exceptional cultures as the Reddit exodus continues to escalate.
Here’s a link to Cory Doctorow’s article on the ‘enshittification’ of TikTok, which reads as supremely relevant here.