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. YALOMA free man who lives among the ignorant strives as far as he can to avoid their favors. A free man acts honestly, not deceptively.
More Irvin D. Yalom Quotes
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…the more unlived your life, the greater your death anxiety.
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Psychiatry is a strange field because, unlike any other field of medicine, you never really finish.
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I never want to take away something when I don’t have anything better to offer him in a way.
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If you want to choose the pleasure of growth, prepare yourself for some pain.
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The drive for power is not uncommonly motivated by this dynamic. One’s own fear and sense of limitation is avoided by enlarging oneself and one’s sphere of control.
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I dream of a love that is more than two people craving to possess one another.
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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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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.
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Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you’ll always find despair.
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The creative members of an orthodoxy, any orthodoxy, ultimately outgrow their disciplines.
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We take pleasure not only in the growth of our patient but also in the ripple effect—the salutary influence our patients have upon those whom they touch in life.
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None of my patients are really troubled by the idea that some part of what they say might be in a book in the future.
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Self-awareness is a supreme gift, a treasure as precious as life.
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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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The spirit of a man is constructed out of his choices.
IRVIN D. YALOM