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Quotes by Psychologist

"The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water."

"What we call happiness in the strictest sense comes from the (preferably sudden) satisfaction of needs which have been dammed up to a high degree."

"For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment."


"To be a human being means to possess a feeling of inferiority which constantly presses towards its own conquest. The greater the feeling of inferiority that has been experienced, the more powerful is the urge for conquest and the more violent the emotional agitation."

"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."

"I always felt that a scientist owes the world only one thing, and that is the truth as he sees it."

"Analysis does not set out to make pathological reactions impossible, but to give the patient's ego freedom to decide one way or another."

"If your neighbor has a completely different view on abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, all of those things, you still are both Americans. Neither one of you is necessarily more patriotic than the other. Neither loves their country any more than the other one does."

"Is it possible that literacy standards are falling because young Australians are growing up in a culture in which they can be entertained and informed, and in which they can communicate effectively, without having to master any but the most rudimentary literacy skills?"

"It costs $30,000 to $50,000 per year to send someone to jail. You don't have to pay so much to send someone to school at Johns Hopkins."

"It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning."

"Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent."


"It is very difficult for people to believe the simple fact that every persecutor was once a victim. Yet it should be very obvious that someone who was allowed to feel free and strong from childhood does not have the need to humiliate another person."

"The consequences of an act affect the probability of it's occurring again."

"In the kind of world we have today, transformation of humanity might well be our only real hope for survival."

"And, in fact, you can find that the lack of basic resources, material resources, contributes to unhappiness, but the increase in material resources do not increase happiness."

"In other words, the man who is born into existence deals first with language; this is a given. He is even caught in it before his birth."

"It is impossible to overlook the extent to which civilization is built upon a renunciation of instinct."

"The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary."


"It is with children that we have the best chance of studying the development of logical knowledge, mathematical knowledge, physical knowledge, and so forth."

"Research challenges the materialistic understanding of death, according to which biological death represents the final end of existence and of all conscious activity."

"There is no fundamental difference between the preparation for death and the practice of dying, and spiritual practice leading to enlightenment."

"A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success."

"Many instances exist of small children who seem to remember and describe their previous life in another body, another place, and with other people. These memories emerge usually shortly after these children begin to talk."

"Good humor isn't a trait of character, it is an art which requires practice."

"Coming to terms with the fear of death is conducive to healing, positive personality transformation, and consciousness evolution."

"It is possible to see the intermediate state between lives as being in a way more important than incarnate existence."

"What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization."

"The materialistic paradigm of Western science has been a major obstacle for any objective evaluation of the data describing the events occurring at the time of death."

"Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one's identity as a being of worth and dignity."

"The psychical, whatever its nature may be, is itself unconscious."

"Patients reported that their psychedelic sessions were an invaluable experiential training for dying."

"Love, work, and knowledge are the wellsprings of our lives, they should also govern it."

"Dying people in pre-industrial cultures typically died in the context of an extended family, clan, or tribe."

"The knowledge of the realm of death makes it possible for the shaman to move freely back and forth and mediate these journeys for other people."


"Fortunately analysis is not the only way to resolve inner conflicts. Life itself still remains a very effective therapist."
Life,

"The correct didactic analysis is one that does not in the least differ from the curative treatment. How, indeed, shall the future analyst learn the technique if he does not experience it just exactly as he is to apply it later?"

"Radical constructivism, thus, is radical because it breaks with convention and develops a theory of knowledge in which knowledge does not reflect an 'objective' ontological reality."

"I have treated many hundreds of patients. Among those in the second half of life - that is to say, over 35 - there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life."

"To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable."

"Problems are not the problem; coping is the problem."

"In the different voice of women lies the truth of an ethic of care, the tie between relationship and responsibility, and the origins of aggression in the failure of connection."

"Creative people who can't help but explore other mental territories are at greater risk, just as someone who climbs a mountain is more at risk than someone who just walks along a village lane."

"Besides the practical knowledge which defeat offers, there are important personality profits to be taken."

"I recommend that the Statue of Liberty be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the west coast."


"I have always detested any departure from reality, an attitude which I relate to my mother's poor mental health."
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