Psychotherapy is a cyclical process from isolation into relationship. It is cyclical because the patient, in terror of existential isolation, relates deeply and meaningfully to the therapist and then, strengthened by this encounter, is led back again to a confrontation with existential isolation.
IRVIN D. YALOMMirroring, softly, barely audibly, just under the membrane of consciousness.
More Irvin D. Yalom Quotes
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There is some evidence, for example, that those who enter the death-related professions (soldiers, doctors, priests, and morticians) may in part be motivated by a need to obtain control over death anxiety.
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Live right, he reminded himself, and have faith that good things will flow from you even if you never learn of them.
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There was a time in our lives when we were so close that nothing seemed to obstruct our friendship and brotherhood, and only a small footbridge separated us.
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Life as a therapist is a life of service in which we daily transcend our personal wishes and turn our gaze toward the needs and growth of the other.
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Some have expressed the very opposite feeling–the fear that they would not be interesting enough to write about.
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What? ‘Borderline patients play games’? That what you said? Ernest, you’ll never be a real therapist if you think like that. That’s exactly what I meant earlier when I talked about the dangers of diagnosis.
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Some piece of ourselves, not necessarily our consciousness, but some piece of ourselves gets passed on and on and on.
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If I’m among men who don’t agree at all with my nature, I will hardly be able to accommodate myself to them without greatly changing myself.
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The path to decision may be hard because it leads into the territory of both finiteness and groundlessness—domains soaked in anxiety.
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I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit.
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When people don’t have any curiosity about themselves, that is always a bad sign.
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Life is a miserable thing. I have decided to spend my life thinking about it.
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I thought a lot about how someone very old is the last living individual to have known some person or cluster of people.
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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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Though the physicality of death destroys us, the idea of death may save us.
IRVIN D. YALOM