The must-read new memoir from one of psychiatry’s most important figures.

Irvin D. Yalom has made a career of investigating the lives of others. In this profound memoir, he turns his writing and his therapeutic eye upon himself. He opens his story with a nightmare: He is twelve, and is riding his bike past the home of an acne-scarred girl. Like every morning, he calls out, hoping to befriend her, ‘Hello, Measles!’ But in his dream, the girl’s father makes Yalom understand that his daily greeting has hurt her. For Yalom, this was the birth of empathy; he would not forget the lesson.

As Becoming Myself unfolds, we see the development of the compassionate and insightful thinker whose books have been a beacon to so many. This is not simply one man's life story Yalom’s reflections on his life and growth are an invitation for us to reflect on the origins of our own selves and the meanings of our lives.

'I have been a Yalom fan for the longest time I always admired the deftness of his stories, the insights that came out of his obvious compassion and love for his characters. Of course psychiatrists are expected to have such insights, but it's not the rule that they can convey that as beautifully as Yalom does in his fiction. I've always wondered, as any reader would wonder, about the author, about the balance between the professional and the personal and how out of that alchemy the writing emerged. Finally, in Becoming Myself, we have the answer, and it is wonderful, compelling, and as insightful about its subject and about the times he lived in as you could hope for. A fabulous read.'  Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting For Stone