Quotessence
Home / Authors / Irvin D. Yalom
Irvin D. Yalom

Irvin D. Yalom Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsDeathAnxietyPeoplePatientPsychologyTherapistsThinkingTherapyWay

Famous Irvin D. Yalom Quotes

“But he gave no greater gift than the one he offered me shortly before he died, and it was a gift that answers for all time the question of whether it is rational or appropriate to strive for “ambitious” therapy in those who are terminally ill. When I visited him in the hospital he was so weak he could barely move, but he raised his head, squeezed my hand, and whispered, “Thank you. Thank you for saving my life.”

LifeDeathTerminally Ill
Book:Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy
Create image

“Unul dintre marile paradoxuri ale vietii este acela ca din constiinta de sine decurge o stare de anxietate. Contopirea elimina anxietatea intr-o maniera radicala – prin eliminarea constiintei de sine. Persoana care s-a indragostit si a patruns intr-o stare extatica de contopire cu obiectul dragostei sale nu se mai gandeste la sine, pentru ca stingherul si dilematicul eu (alaturi de angoasa insotitoare a izolarii) se dizolva in noi.”

IubireContopireConstiinta De Sine
Book:Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy
Create image

“Животът е изпит, в който няма правилни отговори. Ако трябваше да започна отново, смятам, че бих живял по същия начин, бих направил същите грешки. Онзи ден ми хрумна един добър сюжет за новела. Само да можех да пиша! Представете си следното: мъж на средна възраст, чийто живот е протекъл неудовлетворително, среща един дух. Духът му предлага възможността да преживее отново живота си, но без да забравя нищо от предишния си опит. Разбира се, мъжът се възползва от случая. Но за негово удивление и ужас се оказва, че новият му живот е напълно идентичен с предишния – изборите са същите, грешките са същите, измамните цели и богове са същите.”

животвтора възможностизбор
Book:When Nietzsche Wept
Create image

“Self-awareness is a supreme gift, a treasure as precious as life. 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.”

HumansSelfDiesGrowsExistenceForeverAwarenessSelf AwarenessWoundsSupremeTreasureMortalityDiminish
Book:Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death
Create image

“It's not easy to live every moment wholly aware of death. It's like trying to stare the sun in the face: you can stand only so much of it. Because we cannot live frozen in fear, we generate methods to soften death's terror. We project ourselves into the future through our children; we grow rich, famous, ever larger; we develop compulsive protective rituals; or we embrace an impregnable belief in an ultimate rescuer.”

TryingChildrenMomentsFacesDeathBeliefGrowsEasySunRichProjectsUltimateOur ChildrenMethodEmbraceTerrorStaringRitualFrozenProtectiveLive Every Moment
Book:Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death
Create image

“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.”

ProcessPatientTerrorRelateEncountersIsolationExistentialConfrontationPsychoanalysisTherapistsBack AgainPsychotherapy
Book:Existential Psychotherapy
Create 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: the therapist is too disinterested, a little too aloof, a little too inactive. They're not really interested in the person, he doesn't relate to the person. All these things I've written so much about. That's why I've made such a practice really, over and over to hammer home the point of self-revelation and being more of yourself and showing yourself. Every book I write I want to get that in there.”

ThinkingKnowsWantWritingLittlesPersonsMadeBookSelfHomePracticeWrittenRelateTherapyRevelationsHammersTherapistsDisinterestedAloofSelf Revelation
Author:Irvin D. Yalom
Create image

“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. This was due to a kind of increased existential awareness that resulted from this confrontation with the death of another. And I think it brought them in touch with their own death, so they began to experience a kind of preciousness to life that comes with an experience of its transiency.”

ThinkingKindFoundLossNumbersGoneStudyAwarenessDuesExistentialImpressiveBereavementConfrontationWidowsWidowers
Author:Irvin D. Yalom
Create image

“One reason patients are reluctant to work in a therapy group is they fear that things will go too far, that the powerful therapist or the collective group might coerce them to lose control--to say or think or feel things that will be catastrophic. The therapist can make the group feel safer by allowing each patient to set his or her limits and by emphasizing the patient's control over every interaction.”

ThinkingFeelsReasonMightLosesPowerfulGroupsLimitsPatientTherapyCollectivesAllowingInteractionReluctantTherapistsCoerce
Book:Inpatient Group Psychotherapy
Create image

“If people in their 20s had more death awareness, would that in fact temper their ambition or drive? My hunch is yes. It would certainly do something for those who are most ruthless, who tend to make others most miserable. Some sort of greater awareness of their own finiteness and what their time on earth really is, and what they really want to do with their lives, could help improve them.”

PeopleIfsWantFactsHelpingEarthGreaterAwarenessAmbitionMiserableTemperRuthlessHunchesTime On Earth
Author:Irvin D. Yalom
Create image

“To the best of my knowledge, every acute inpatient ward offers some inpatient group therapy experience. Indeed, the evidence supporting the efficacy of group therapy, and the prevailing sentiment of the mental health profession, are sufficiently strong that it would be difficult to defend the adequacy of the inpatient unit that attempted to operate without a small group program.”

Would BeStrongDifficultGroupsOffersEvidenceProgramMental HealthProfessionTherapySentimentsUnitsPrevailingSmall GroupsEfficacyAdequacyGroup Therapy
Book:Inpatient Group Psychotherapy
Create 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 morticians) may in part be motivated by a need to obtain control over death anxiety.”

NeedsMayFormNumbersExampleAnxietyEvidenceDoctorsSoldierOneselfProfessionPrimariesLimitationRelatedPriestsMotivatedSpheresTranscendenceAvoidedSpecialnessMorticians
Author:Irvin D. Yalom
Create image

“Some day soon, perhaps in forty years, there will be no one alive who has ever known me. That's when I will be truly dead - when I exist in no one's memory. I thought a lot about how someone very old is the last living individual to have known some person or cluster of people. When that person dies, the whole cluster dies,too, vanishes from the living memory. I wonder who that person will be for me. Whose death will make me truly dead?”

PeopleYearsPersonsWholeLastsDiesIndividualMemoriesKnownWonderAliveFortyClusters
Author:Irvin D. Yalom
Create image