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Irvin D. Yalom Quotes

Author

Irvin D. Yalom is an American author renowned for his psychological novels and philosophical reflections. His works delve into the essence of human existence, as well as psychotherapy and interpersonal relationships.

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All Ifs Death Anxiety People Patient Psychology Therapists Thinking Therapy Way Life Looks Want Dies Oneself Persons Awareness Despair Existential Growth

Famous Irvin D. Yalom Quotes

“Rollo May quipped that anxiety about nothing tries to become anxiety about something. In other words, anxiety about nothingness quickly attaches itself to a tangible object.”

Fear Anxiety Terror Rollo May

Book:Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

Source: Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

“Despite the staunchest, most venerable defenses, we can never completely subdue death anxiety: it is always there, lurking in some hidden ravine of the mind.”

Mind Death Anxiety Defense Despite Lurking

Book:Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

Source: Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

“I feel strongly, because a man who will himself die one day in the not to distant future and, also, as a psychiatrist who spent decades dealing with death anxiety, that confronting death allows us, not to open some noisome, Pandora's box, but to re-enter life in a richer, more compassionate manner.”

Men Feels Death Dies One Day Anxiety Boxes Decades Compassionate Psychiatrist Confronting Pandora Dealing With Death Pandora's Box

Author:Irvin D. Yalom

“The death anxiety of many people is fueled ... by disappointment at never having fulfilled their potential. Many people are in despair because their dreams didn't come true, and they despair even more that they did not make them come true. A focus on this deep dissatisfaction is often the starting point in overcoming death anxiety.”

People Dream Focus Despair Anxiety Overcoming Starting Disappointment Fulfilled Dissatisfaction Starting Point

Author:Irvin D. Yalom

“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.”

Needs May Form Numbers Example Anxiety Evidence Doctors Soldier Oneself Profession Primaries Limitation Related Priests Motivated Spheres Transcendence Avoided Specialness Morticians

Author:Irvin D. Yalom

“The more unlived your life, the greater your death anxiety.”

Greater Anxiety

Book:Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

Source: Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

“Death anxiety is the mother of all religions, which, in one way or another, attempt to temper the anguish of our finitude.”

Way Mother Anxiety One Way Temper Anguish Finitude

Book:Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

Source: Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

“...the more unlived your life, the greater your death anxiety. The more you fail to experience your life fully, the more you will fear death.”

Greater Failing Anxiety Fear Of Death

Book:Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

Source: Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death

“The path to decision may be hard because it leads into the territory of both finiteness and groundlessness—domains soaked in anxiety.”

May Hard Decision Path Anxiety Territory Domain

Book:The Gift Of Therapy (Revised And Updated Edition): An open letter to a new generation of therapists and their patients

Source: The Gift Of Therapy (Revised And Updated Edition): An open letter to a new generation of therapists and their patients

About the Author

Born: June 13, 1931
Known for: Author
Quotes: 142

Books & Sources

Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of DeathRelated source material

Love's Executioner and Other Tales of PsychotherapyRelated source material

When Nietzsche WeptRelated source material

Love's Executioner: And Other Tales of PsychotherapyRelated source material

The Schopenhauer CureRelated source material

Existential PsychotherapyRelated source material

The Spinoza ProblemRelated source material

Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of PsychotherapyRelated source material

Momma and the Meaning of Life: Tales of Psychotherapy – A Therapist's Clinical Stories of Memorable Patients and TransformationRelated source material

The Gift Of Therapy (Revised And Updated Edition): An open letter to a new generation of therapists and their patientsRelated source material

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