Loud, Modern, Imaginative with Catharsis

I have read several Yalom works and am unsettled by The Spinoza Problem. I am apt to listen to it again on Audible to make a better assessment. This book is more a work of psychology and imagination than a volume of specific history and raw philosophy. This makes sense as Yalom is a psychiatrist, so he uses the profession he knows to create inspired fiction with the talking cure. He projects himself into the past. He imagines deep conversations and applied philosophy with Spinoza and others. Perhaps the title is my first question: was the excommunication situation a Spinoza “problem” or a societal problem? I was uncomfortable with the loudness and impassioned performance of the book at the beginning, but I adjusted to it after a while. The needs of individuals in a group and the demands of the group to regulate its members repeat as frequent themes in society and literature. Here, the exclusivity of “Aryan” ideologies, and Judaica-related scenarios clash. Religious demands are subject to fashionable trends, even when the claim is for 5000 years of continuity. Nazi-era contrasts and the psychological issues of identity conflicts appear in an uncomfortable and judged way. I felt that Yalom achieved a personal catharsis with the project, and he clearly had a lot of pent-up tensions released in this projective drama. The result is sedentary, post-Freudian, loud, modern, and diseased, but I could enumerate the same list for modern society itself. Here is a question - - how would Spinoza feel about being “reclaimed” by those who banned him during his life? Does the idea, “Once a Jew, Always a Jew,” trump Spinoza’s experience of mutual rejection in his lifetime? It feels to me the snagging of Spinoza despite his philosophy and experiences to be more offensive than even a posthumous proxy baptism because he did not want or identify with the Bible’s legacy. Modern Judaism (generally speaking) would not ban him today, so, yes, the lesson persists: one century’s absolute dogmatism is another century’s shame.

4 persone l'hanno trovata utile

worth reading.

reading it in the end of 2020, this book seems too relevant. highly recommend a good read.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Narrator needs to pronounce putsch properly.

As Spinoza had a few problems that were reproduced with Rosenberg the titular problem should be spelled out.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Yalom comes through again!

Yalom does an outstanding job once again. With each book I become more and more of a fan. Pure genius!

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Love it,

highly recommend it, one of my favourite books of all time, it keep you interested on it with the overlapping of the story.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

History

Delving into a history that I had a little knowledge of has left me pleased to have picked up this book. Very interesting how influential writing can be taken up and driven to atrocious ends.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Philosophical thriller

This is the third book by Yalom I've read and I remain flabbergasted. Absolutely brilliant.

The master Yalom

Excellent concept and well executed. Yalom is a master of therapy and deserves as much for his work as an author.

Absorbing

I enjoyed the performance, thank you. It is truly rare to listen to a book in such a non-stop as this time.
Construction of the book, interchanging chapters on both protagonists one by one, keeps attention acute throughout the whole narration. Deeply loved the combination of writer’s fiction and psychoanalytic parts. This is my first book by Yalom, and I’m eager to read more.

Challenging to hear the vitriol

The spewing of the hate and so hard to read. But I found the Spinoza chapters and especially the epilogue very rewarding.