e never actually let herself believe that her daughter was going to die, even though it was as plain as day. And because of that, she never dealt with the real issues with her daughter. After several meetings Penny was finally able to see her own life and how this guilt she had was causing problems for the rest of the family. She had two sons. After finding out that neither of them lived at home, Dr. Yalom asked how Penny felt about it. This opened up doors for Penny and allowed her to take responsibility for the things in life that she could control. In the end, she had a good understanding of death and therefore was able to live life more fully by getting both kids back into the home and rejoining the family. Freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. We are put in certain situations that we have no control over, but we also have a choice in that situation as to what direction we are going to go. The ability to make that choice is freedom and going in the right direction, the one that benefits humanity and us is the responsible choice. This topic brings us to the chapter Fat Lady. In this chapter Dr. Yalom treats a woman by the name of Betty. This woman walked into his office for the first time weighing 250 lbs. She was not only overweight, but she was very depressed as well. This was a hard case for Dr. Yalom because he had never viewed obesity in a positive way. He was very cautious of the fact that this might affect his ability to treat her, but eventually felt comfortable with taking it on. Betty moved from New York to California because of her job. It was not a move that she took willingly, but she did it anyway, because she saw no reason not to. She told this to Dr. Yalom early on in the sessions. This was the first step in determining the initial cause of Betty’s depression. Eventually Dr. Yalom got Betty to realize that she was not allowing herself to confront real issues. She was keeping them insid...
