Sofie

“That was the first important discovery I made about Betty: she was desperately isolated, and she survived this isolation only by virtue of the sustaining myth that her intimate life was being lived elsewhere. Her friends, her circle of acquaintances, were not here, but elsewhere, in New York, in Texas, in the past. In fact, everything of importance was elsewhere. It was at this time that I first began to suspect that for Betty there was no “here” there.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner and Other Tales of Psychotherapy

“though the fact, the physicality, of death destroys us, the idea of death may save us.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner

“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. I hate to be love’s executioner.”
― Irvin D. Yalom, Love's Executioner