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.
IRVIN D. YALOMNot to take possession of your life plan is to let your existence be an accident.
More Irvin D. Yalom Quotes
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In a study we did of bereavement, we found that rather impressive numbers of widows and widowers had not simply gone back to their pre-loss functioning, but grown.
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Hidden in disguise, leaking out in a variety of symptoms. It is the wellspring of many of our worries, stresses, and conflicts.
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To the best of my knowledge, every acute inpatient ward offers some inpatient group therapy experience.
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If one is to love oneself one must behave in ways that one can admire.
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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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Only the wounded healer can truly heal. (97)
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Specialness as a primary mode of death transcendence takes a number of other maladaptive forms.
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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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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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The more you fail to experience your life fully, the more you will fear death.
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Self-awareness is a supreme gift, a treasure as precious as life.
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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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And if you do the latter, you’re not so worried about the everyday trivialities of life, for example, petty concerns about secrecy or privacy.
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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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The more unlived your life, the greater your death anxiety.
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Despite the staunchest, most venerable defenses, we can never completely subdue death anxiety: it is always there, lurking in some hidden ravine of the mind.
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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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Absolute power, as we have always known, corrupts absolutely; it corrupts because it does not do the trick for the individual.
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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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If we climb high enough, we will reach a height from which tragedy ceases to look tragic.
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Many people are in despair because their dreams didn’t come true, and they despair even more that they did not make them come true.
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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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Pandora’s box, but to re-enter life in a richer, more compassionate manner.
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To the extent that one is responsible for one’s life, one is alone.
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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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If I had to pick out a therapist in a movie that I’d like to go see as a personal therapist, it would be Robin Williams in Goodwill Hunting.
IRVIN D. YALOM