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

Irvin D. Yalom Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllIfsDeathAnxietyPeoplePatientPsychologyTherapistsThinkingTherapyWayLifeLooksWantDiesOneselfPersonsAwarenessDespairExistentialGrowth

Famous Irvin D. Yalom Quotes

“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

“What? 'Borderline patients play games'? That what you said? Ernest, you'll never be a real therapist if you think like that. That's exactly what I meant earlier when I talked about the dangers of diagnosis. There are borderlines and there are borderlines. Labels do violence to people. You can't treat the label; you have to treat the person behind the label. (17)”

PeopleIfsThinkingPersonsSaidRealPlayGamesBehindsViolenceDangerTreatsPatientLabelsDiagnosisTherapistsBorderline
Author:Irvin D. Yalom
Create image

“There was a time in our lives when we were so close that nothing seemed to obstruct our friendship and brotherhood, and only a small footbridge separated us. Just as you were about to step on it, I asked you "Do you want to cross the footbridge to me?" - Immediately you did not want to anymore; and when I asked you again you remained silent. Since then mountains and torrential rivers and whatever separates and alienates have been cast between us, and even if we wanted to get together, we couldn't. But when you now think of that little footbridge, words fail you and you sob and marvel.”

IfsThinkingWantLittlesHas BeensWantedTogetherStepsOur LivesFailingMountainRiversCrossesSilentCastsBrotherhoodYou AgainGet Together
Author:Irvin D. Yalom
Create image