“The obsession is a distraction; it protects you from thinking about something else,” — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
Life is a miserable thing. I have decided to spend my life thinking about it. — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
I think we ripple on into others, just like a stone puts its ripples into a brook. That, for me, too, is… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
There was a time in our lives when we were so close that nothing seemed to obstruct our friendship and brotherhood, and… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
You know, I think everybody I've seen has come from some other therapy, and almost invariably it's very much the same thing:… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
What? 'Borderline patients play games'? That what you said? Ernest, you'll never be a real therapist if you think like that. That's… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
In a study we did of bereavement, we found that rather impressive numbers of widows and widowers had not simply gone back… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
One reason patients are reluctant to work in a therapy group is they fear that things will go too far, that the… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and… — 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… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
“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… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
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… — Irvin D. Yalom Copy Share Image
