From bestselling author Irv Yalom comes a riveting blend of fact and fiction, a drama of love, fate, and will, played out agains the intellectual ferment of nineteenth-century Vienna on the eve of the birth of psychoanalysis.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Europe's greatest philosopher ...Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis ...a secret pact ...a young medical intern named Sigmund Freud: These are the elements that combine to create the unforgettable saga of an imagined relationship between an extraordinary patient and a gifted healer.
As the tale opens, the unattainable Lou Salomé begs Breuer to help treat Nietzsche's suicidal despair using his experimental "talking cure." As the eminent physician reluctantly accepts the task, he makes a powerful discovery-only through facing up to his own inner demons can he begin to help his patient.
In this compelling novel, two brilliant and enigmatic men plumb the depths of their own romantic obsessions and discover the redemptive power of friendship.