Death cures psychoneurosis. In a sense all these neurotic concerns–fear of rejection, interpersonal concerns–seem to melt away, and people get another perspective on their lives. The important things are really important, and the trivia of life is trivialized.
IRVIN D. YALOMAnd if you do the latter, you’re not so worried about the everyday trivialities of life, for example, petty concerns about secrecy or privacy.
More Irvin D. Yalom Quotes
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The death anxiety of many people is fueled … by disappointment at never having fulfilled their potential.
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This is what makes us human. But it comes with a costly price: the wound of mortality. Our existence is forever shadowed by the knowledge that we will grow, blossom, and, inevitably, diminish and die.
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One comprehends oneself in order not to be preoccupied with oneself.
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Some sort of greater awareness of their own finiteness and what their time on earth really is, and what they really want to do with their lives, could help improve them.
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Marriage and its entourage of possession and jealousy enslave the spirit.
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Living safely is dangerous.
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To the best of my knowledge, every acute inpatient ward offers some inpatient group therapy experience.
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Were not teaching our students the importance of relationships with other people: how you work with them, what the relational pathology consists of, how you examine your own conscience, how you examine the inner world, how you examine your dreams.
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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
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You will search the world over and not find a nonsuperstitious community. As long as there is ignorance, there will be adherence to superstition. Dispelling ignorance is the only solution. That is why I teach.
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The more you fail to experience your life fully, the more you will fear death.
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Perhaps the single most important therapeutic credo that I have is that the unexamined life is not worth living.
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I don’t let any personal views about religion cause me to want to take away something that’s offering the patient comfort.
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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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My hunch is yes. It would certainly do something for those who are most ruthless, who tend to make others most miserable.
IRVIN D. YALOM