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. His other well-known books A Doctor's Casebook in the Light of the Bible and The Meaning of Persons were issued simultaneously as SCM Cheap Editions (13s 6d each). The SCM Press also publishes his The Strong and the Weak (215), The Adventure of Living (255) and four short books in A Doctor Reflects series The Meaning of Gifts, The Seasons of Life, Secrets and To Resist or to Surrender? (5s each). His Guilt and Grace is published by Hodder and Stoughton and The Healing of Persons by Collins.

Escape from Loneliness was widely praised when it was translated into English in 1962. 'It goes down to the deeper causes. Scientific as Dr Tournier's treatment is, it is always human, indeed Christian. Readers will find this treatment a revelation,' wrote the Expository Times. The recorded cases will provide guidance for all who minister to those under mental or spiritual stress,' wrote Mental Health. And the Church Times said that 'this profound little book should be read and re-read by all who have to deal with spiritual problems and that means everybody in the last resort'. 'Each reader will find himself in this book,' wrote Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans, adding: 'in the author's diagnosis and suggested therapy the reader could "find himself" in a deeper sense'.