Event

Author Irvin Yalom

A new novel by Dr. Yalom The Spinoza Problem explores the inner life of Spinoza - a man who changed the course of history by paving the way for the Enlightenment, who founded the field of biblical criticism, and who formulated many ideas highly relevant to the field of psychotherapy.
A second plot explores the personal development and inner life of Alfred Rosenberg, the major Nazi ideologue, who played a decisive role in the Nazi destruction of European Jews. Though Spinoza and Rosenberg lived three hundred years apart, Rosenberg and the Nazis had a thorny "Spinoza problem": many revered German thinkers, among them Goethe, revered the Jew Spinoza. This paradox is at the heart of the new novel.

"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.'"
Sir Anthony Hopkins, actor

Dr. Yalom is Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at Stanford University and the author of several highly acclaimed textbooks, including Existential Psychotherapy and The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy. He is also the author of stories and novels related to psychotherapy, including Love's Executioner, When Nietzsche Wept, Lying on the Couch, Momma and the Meaning of Life, and The Schopenhauer Cure. His latest non-fiction book is Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death.