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The purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free.

Rollo May

The amazing thing about love is that it is the best way to get to know ourselves.
ROLLO MAY

Amazing Best Know Love Ourselves Thing Way
In my clinical experience, the greatest block to a person’s development is his having to take on a way of life which is not rooted in his own powers.
ROLLO MAY

Block Clinical Development Experience Greatest Life Person Take Way
The creative act arises out of the struggle of human beings with and against that which limits them.
ROLLO MAY

Act Against Arise Being Creative Human Limit Struggle
The hallmark of courage in our age of conformity is the capacity to stand on one’s own convictions – not obstinately or defiantly
ROLLO MAY

Age Capacity Conformity Conviction Courage Hallmark Obstinately One Our Own Stand
To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive – to grief, sorrow, and disappointment as well as to joy, fulfillment, and an intensity of consciousness we did not know was possible before
ROLLO MAY

Love Mena Negative Ourselves Positive Well
There can be no stronger proof of the impoverishment of our contemporary culture than the popular – though profoundly mistaken – definition of myth as falsehood.
ROLLO MAY

Contemporary Culture Impoverishment Popular Profoundly Proof Strong Through
Love is generally confused with dependence; but in point of fact, you can love only in proportion to your capacity for independence.
ROLLO MAY

Confuse Dependence Fact Generally Love Point
A mien which seems to say, “You are looking at somebody now.” For this inner sense of worth that comes with being in love does not seem to depend essentially on whether the love is returned or not.
ROLLO MAY

Depend Essentially Fall Inner Look Love Men Now Return Seem Sense Somebody Sudden Today
Freedom does not come automatically; it is achieved. And it is not gained in a single bound; it must be achieved each day.
ROLLO MAY

Achievement Automatically Bound Come Day E Ach Freedom Gain Single
Creativity is not merely the innocent spontaneity of our youth and childhood; it must also be married to the passion of the adult human being, which is a passion to live beyond one’s death.
ROLLO MAY

Adult Being Childhood Creatively Human Innocent Marry Merely Passion Youth
Many people feel they are powerless to do anything effective with their lives. It takes courage to break out of the settled mold, but most find conformity more comfortable. This is why the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it’s conformity.
ROLLO MAY

Anything Effective Feel Live Most People Powerless
Recall how often in human history the saint and the rebel have be the same person. (p. 35)
ROLLO MAY

History Jhuman Often Person Rebel Recall Saint Same
The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt.
ROLLO MAY

Antagonistic Between Commitment Doubt Mean One Relationship
However it may be confounded or covered up or counterfeited, this elemental capacity to fight against injustice remains the distinguishing characteristic of human beings.
ROLLO MAY

Against Capacity Confound Counterfeited Cover Element Fight However Injustice
There is nobody who totally lacks the courage to change.
ROLLO MAY

Change Courage Lack Nobis Totally
Humor is the healthy way of feeling “distance” between one’s self and the problem, a way of standing off and looking at one’s problem with perspective.
ROLLO MAY

Distance Feel Healthy Humor Look Perspective Problem Self Stand Way
Courage is the capacity to meet the anxiety which arises as one achieves freedom. It is the willingness to differentiate, to move from the protecting realms of parental dependence to new levels of freedom and integration.
ROLLO MAY

Achieve Anxiety Capacity Courage Freedom Meet Write
Therapy isn’t curing somebody of something; it is a means of helping a person explore himself, his life, his consciousness. My purpose as a therapist is to find out what it means to be human.
ROLLO MAY

Curing Explore Help Himself Mean Person Somebody Something Therapy
All people are struggling to be creative in some way, and the artist is the one who has succeeded in this task of life.
ROLLO MAY

All Artist Ecraetive Life One People Some Struggle Succeeded Task Way
It is dangerous to know, but it is more dangerous not to know.
ROLLO MAY

Dangwerous Know More
Creativity arises out of the tension between spontaneity and limitations, the latter (like the river banks) forcing the spontaneity into the various forms which are essential to the work of art or poem.
ROLLO MAY

Arise Between Creativity Limitation Spontaneously Tension
A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.
ROLLO MAY

Make Myth Sense Senseless Way World
Memory is not just the imprint of the past time upon us; it is the keeper of what is meaningful for our deepest hopes and fears.
ROLLO MAY

Deep Feeling Hope Imprint Keeper Meaningful Memory Past Time Upon
The word courage comes from the same stem as the French word Coeur, meaning “heart.” Thus just as one’s heart, by pumping blood to one’s arms, legs, and brain enables all the other physical organs to function.
ROLLO MAY

Arm Country Courage Enable Function Heart Just Leg Mean One Physical Pump Same Stem Word
The essence of being human is that, in the brief moment we exist on this spinning planet, we can love some persons and some things, in spite of the fact that time and death will ultimately claim us all.
ROLLO MAY

Being Brief Essence Exist Human Moment Planet Spinning
Courage is required not only in a person’s occasional crucial decision for his own freedom, but in the little hour-to-hour decisions which place the bricks in the structure of his building of himself into a person who acts with freedom and responsibility.
ROLLO MAY

Courage Crucial Decision Freedom Hour Little Occasional Only Own Person Place REquired
Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair.
ROLLO MAY

Absence Ahead Capacity Courage Despair Move Rather Spite

The purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free.

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The purpose of psychotherapy is to set people free.

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