“Humans who are victims of that freakish twist of evolution that grants self-awareness but not the requisite psychological equipment to deal with the pain of transient existence. And so throughout the years, the centuries, the millennia, we have relentlessly constructed makeshift denials of finiteness. Would we, would any of us, ever be done with our search for a higher power… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share
“We humans appear to be meaning-seeking creatures who have had the misfortune of being thrown into a world devoid of intrinsic meaning. One of our major tasks is to invent a meaning sturdy enough to support a life and to perform the tricky maneuver of denying our personal authorship of this meaning. Thus we conclude instead that it was "out… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share
“Work, worry, toil and trouble are certainly the lot of almost all throughout their lives. But if all desires were fulfilled as… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“ALAS, IF ALL HUMANS WERE WISE AND HAD MORE GOOD WILL THE WORLD WOULD BE A PARADISE NOW IT IS MOSTLY A HELL” — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
I dream of a love that is more than two people craving to possess one another. — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
Therapists need to have a long experience in personal therapy to see what it's like to be on the other side of the couch… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“Beginning therapists must learn that there are times to sit in silence, sometimes in silent communion, sometimes simply while waiting for patients' thoughts to… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
If one is to learn to live with the dead, one must first learn to live with the living! — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
Specialness as a primary mode of death transcendence takes a number of other maladaptive forms. 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. There is some evidence, for example, that those who enter the death-related professions (soldiers, doctors, priests, and… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share
“Exactly. We know that the great Goethe carried a copy of Spinoza’s Ethics in his pocket for a year. Imagine that—an entire year! And not only Goethe but many other great Germans. Lessing and Heine reported a clarity and calmness that came from reading this book. Who knows, there may come a time in your life when you, too, will… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share
Absolute power, as we have always known, corrupts absolutely; it corrupts because it does not do the trick for the individual. Reality always creeps… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“Indeed, the capacity to tolerate uncertainty is a prerequisite for the profession. Though the public may believe that therapists guide patients systematically and sure-handedly through predictable stages of therapy to a foreknown goal, such is rarely the case: instead, as these stories bear witness, therapists frequently wobble, improvise, and grope for direction. The powerful temptation to achieve certainty through embracing… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share
