The term "existential psychotherapy" does not lend itself to a very concise definition, because the existential orientation is not based on empirical foundations but deeply intuitive ones. I will start by giving an official definition and then, throughout the book, I will present data that will clarify this definition: Existential psychotherapy is a dynamic therapeutic approach that deals with concerns rooted in human existence. [...] My digressions into Philosophy will be brief and practical; I will limit myself to areas that can be clinically utilized. A professional philosopher would not be wrong to consider me a pirate who takes only the gems and leaves behind the intricate and valuable settings. [...] Throughout the book, the voices of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Kafka, Sartre, Camus, and many other recognized masters will often be heard. Great literature survives because something springs from the reader's soul that embraces its truth, as Freud noted when analyzing Oedipus Rex.

For the preparation of the book, Yalom needed ten years of studying philosophical texts in order to delineate and construct the philosophical basis of existential theory in a way that could be integrated into the psychodynamic approach and applied in the daily practice of psychotherapy. The initial edition of Existential Psychotherapy was never revised, and as Yalom himself says, it was used as a source and basis for all his subsequent literary books, through which any revisions and specializations were made. This very element makes Existential Psychotherapy a valuable book for both specialists and the general public. For specialists, it opens the way to understanding the contribution of existential issues to the practice of psychotherapy. For the general public, it serves as a guide to understanding more deeply and fully the literary work they have come to love. The division of the work into four major categories of existential issues concerning each of our lives (Death, Freedom, Meaning, Isolation), enriched with psychotherapeutic material and, where necessary, personal examples, makes this volume both a manual for psychotherapists of all theoretical orientations and a guide to life for the general public.