"When we talk of marriage counseling we think immediately of the extreme cases, of threats to seek divorce, of couples in violent disputes who frequently come to blows," Paul Tournier states. But there are many other couples whose marriages are no less a failure. "They live side by side, without hurting one another, but poles apart, because of no real understanding of one another." According to Tournier, the ability to understand each other is what counts in working out marital happiness together. With wisdom and warmth, Tournier suggests ways to achieve this understanding.

Paul Tournier offers a variety of suggestions to help make growing old not an end but a new beginning, filled with purpose and hope. He suggests ways to remain active, using leisure to our best advantage and not letting it become a tyrant. He also provides insights on taking up new interests; becoming involved with young people and new ideas; and learning to pray, to meditate, to acquire wisdom, and to increasingly draw strength and inspiration from the reality of divine presence and power.

Our Western civilization is masculine and dominated by masculine values: cold objectivity, reason, power, efficiency and competition. This means the suppression of other values in the sphere of irrationality and subjectivity: sentiments, emotions,
personal relationships. It is no coincidence that women have been rejected from public life and culture and relegated all too often to the home. This situation has given rise to the enormous contrast between the great powers of science and technology and the decline in the quality of life. Men are interested in things and mechanisms, women in...

Paul Tournier, who now lives actively in retirement, was a general practitioner in Geneva for nearly fifty years. Although he never had a specialist training in psychiatry and disclaims the title of psychiatrist, his own experiences, and his discovery that many of his patients needed help going deeper than drugs or surgery, led him to develop and practise what he calls 'the medicine of the person', in which medical knowledge, understanding and religion are combined. His books include A Doctor's Casebook in the Light of the Bible, Escape from Loneliness, Learning to Grow Old, Marriage...

Paul Tournier has practised medicine in Geneva since 1928, as a physician who acquired psychiatric training and experience because he learned that many of his patients needed help going deeper than drugs or surgery. Many of his books are in paperback editions, including The Adventure of Living, Escape from Loneliness, Learning to Grow Old, Marriage Difficulties, The Meaning of Persons, The Person Reborn, A Place for You and The Strong and the Weak. About A Doctor's Casebook Dr William Barclay wrote in The Expository Times: This is a beautiful book, written by a man who is skilled in medicine...

Synopsis: When we give something to someone we enter into a many-sided relationship, for in return we hope for the gift of love. Endorsements: "Paul Tournier's discovery of a 'Medicine of the Person' came from his experience that a more open encounter with others (which challenged his natural shyness) was therapeutic. This discovery changed his subsequent medical approach to his patients. "This book looks beneath the surface of these human encounters. It was a gift to his wife--and is a gift to the reader. You will discover what makes these values of universal relevance." --John Cox,...

Synopsis: Keeping a secret is the first step in becoming an individual. Telling it is the second step. Endorsements: Paul Tournier's gifts as a communicator of the complexities of human relationships shine throughout this gem of a book. Follow his blend of developmental psychology and theology, and you will be surprised at this natural boundary-crossing, and also profoundly enriched. --John Cox, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Keele University, and former Secretary General of the World Psychiatric Association. Author Biography: Paul Tournier (1898-1986) was a general practitioner in Geneva...

Synopsis: In the light both of the Bible and of modern science we are confronted not with an abstract and generalized man, but with men who are concrete and personal. They are always in their context, in a certain relationship to the world, to others, and to God. They are always changing. This changing is made up of seasons, stages in their lives, each of which has its own characteristics and peculiar laws. It is in this life story that God's plan may be accomplished. This is what is intimated by the title The Seasons of Life: a man in movement, continually undergoing change, a man living in...

Synopsis: No one has the right to equate Christianity with weakness or to imagine that the Bible teaches us always to surrender. The biblical message proclaims the sovereign greatness of God which transcends all lesser principles or standards which we might wish to draw from it. Man's great temptation is to want to know by himself what is good and what is evil. He wants to know whether he should withstand or not, but without needing any counsel from God. What is good in the Bible is not this thing or that. It is not a matter of resisting or giving in. It is doing what God wants and when he...

Synopsis: In this warm, sensitive, fact-filled book, Paul Tournier deals specifically with many aspects of aging: society's attitude towards the elderly; second careers; the quality of life; financial difficulties; boredom; health; loneliness; and facing death. He believes we must all learn to grow old, and that the process is most successfully accomplished when we prepare and plan for it throughout life. Tournier offers a variety of suggestions to help make growing old not an end but a new beginning, filled with purpose and hope. He suggests ways to remain active and to use leisure to its...