Irvin D. Yalom Quotes

‘I believe that a different therapy must be constructed for each patient because each has a unique story.’ – Irvin D. Yalom

‘The ultimate goal of therapy… it’s too hard a question. The words come to me like tranquility, like fulfillment, like realizing your potential.’ – Irvin D. Yalom

‘When people don’t have any curiosity about themselves, that is always a bad sign.’ – Irvin D. Yalom

‘I do not like to work with patients who are in love. Perhaps it is because of envy – I, too, crave enchantment. Perhaps it is because love and psychotherapy are fundamentally incompatible. The good therapist fights darkness and seeks illumination, while romantic love is sustained by mystery and crumbles upon inspection.’ – Irvin D. Yalom

‘The amount of death terror experienced is closely related to the amount of life unlived.’ – Irvin D. Yalom

‘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 and see what they find helpful or not helpful.’ – Irvin D. Yalom

‘We’re passing on something of ourselves to others. I feel that’s what makes our life full of meaning. It’s hard to have meaning in a closet, encapsulated by nothing. I think you really have to expand yourself and your life and do what you can for other people.’ – Irvin D. Yalom

‘From the very early days of seeing patients, I noticed that many of them seemed to be concerned with issues of their mortality, and so the philosophy training I had taken began to seem rather important to me.’ – Irvin D. Yalom

‘During my childhood, Washington was a segregated city, and I lived in the midst of a poor black neighborhood. Life on the streets was often perilous. Indoor reading was my refuge, and twice a week, I made the hazardous bicycle trek to the central library at Seventh and K streets to stock up on supplies.’ – Irvin D. Yalom

‘I don’t want to be idealized by a patient because of what I’ve written.’ – Irvin D. Yalom