A curious thought experiment. . . Nietzsche’s message to us was to live life in such a way that we would be willing to repeat the same life eternally
IRVIN D. YALOMHe had learned long ago that, in general, the easier it was for anxious patients to reach him, the less likely they were to call. (107)
More Irvin D. Yalom Quotes
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Psychiatry is a strange field because, unlike any other field of medicine, you never really finish.
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Just as you were about to step on it, I asked you “Do you want to cross the footbridge to me?” – Immediately you did not want to anymore; and when I asked you again you remained silent.
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Indeed, the evidence supporting the efficacy of group therapy, and the prevailing sentiment of the mental health profession, are sufficiently strong that it would be difficult to defend the adequacy of the inpatient unit that attempted to operate without a small group program.
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Marriage and its entourage of possession and jealousy enslave the spirit.
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Heidegger makes the distinction between being absorbed in the way things are in the world and being aware that things are in the world.
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The pain is there; when you close one door on it, it knocks to come in somewhere else.
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Death, however, does itch. It itches all the time. It is always with us, scratching at some inner door.
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Live your life to the fullest; and then, and only then, die. Don’t leave any unlived life behind.
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Your greatest instrument is you, yourself, and the work of self-understanding is endless. I’m still learning.
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This was due to a kind of increased existential awareness that resulted from this confrontation with the death of another. And I think it brought them in touch with their own death, so they began to experience a kind of preciousness to life that comes with an experience of its transiency.
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A free man who lives among the ignorant strives as far as he can to avoid their favors. A free man acts honestly, not deceptively.
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You know, I think everybody I’ve seen has come from some other therapy, and almost invariably it’s very much the same thing: the therapist is too disinterested, a little too aloof, a little too inactive. They’re not really interested in the person, he doesn’t relate to the person.
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Only the wounded healer can truly heal. (97)
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Rather, love is a way of being, a “giving to,” not a ‘falling for”; a mode of relating at large, not an act limited to a single person.
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One comprehends oneself in order not to be preoccupied with oneself.
IRVIN D. YALOM