Tonight at the Ianos bookshop in central Athens, on Stadiou Avenue, the new book by the prolific and widely read American author and existential psychiatrist-psychotherapist Irvin Yalom is being presented. The volume, titled Hour of the Heart, is co-authored with his son, also a psychotherapist, Ben Yalom, who will take part in the event via an online intervention from the United States.
As I noted in this column last Saturday, Irvin Yalom, born on 13 June 1931, recently marked his 95th birthday at his family home in Palo Alto, California, alongside his second wife, the German psychologist and psychotherapist Sakino Sternberg, whom he married two years ago. His first wife, Marilyn Yalom, professor of French literature and mother of their four children, died in 2019 at the age of 87.
The book itself, published in 2024, will be discussed by neuropsychologist and psychotherapist Eva Danasi, as well as the translators of Yalom’s work in Greece, psychiatrist-psychotherapist Yiannis Zervas and psychotherapist Evangelia Andritsanou. In a related post, Andritsanou described Hour of the Heart as yet another work of Yalom’s deep transparency, “perhaps the last gift to his readers”. She added that, “struggling with his grief for his wife Marilyn, the isolation of the pandemic, and the relentless ageing of his mind, he strives to pass on what he has accumulated over almost 70 years of practising psychotherapy.”
In a post in September 2025, Ben Yalom referred to his father’s “reduced quality of life”, noting that he is now frail, not very mobile, and often very tired.
The publishers of the book underline that at this advanced age, and confronted with memory loss and the aftershocks of a pandemic that shifted much of human communication into the digital realm, the well-known psychotherapist makes a radical shift in his approach. He focuses on what can be achieved within a single one-hour encounter between therapist and patient, seeking the core of psychological distress and suggesting ways for therapy to continue beyond that point.
They also highlight Ben Yalom’s contribution to the book’s writing, describing it as a testimony from a major therapist about endurance despite decline, persistence despite old age, and the effort to continue serving the needs of those who still seek help, alongside the difficulties and internal conflicts encountered along this demanding path.
