Despair leads to doing nothing. Intellectually, we understand that we weaken ourselves and get stuck in a crisis situation for a long time if we blame others or fate for our misfortune, instead of doing the main thing for our salvation – taking it into our own hands. The largest American psychotherapist Irvin Yalom talks about how to get out of life’s impasse.
“As long as you think that the cause of life’s problems lies outside of you, there will be no favorable changes in your life. As long as you shift the responsibility onto others who supposedly mistreat you – this may be a rude husband, and a demanding boss who does not want to enter your position, and bad heredity, and irresistible pressure – you will remain in a dead end. . You and only you are responsible for the key aspects of the life situation, and only you can change them. Even while experiencing external limitations, you are still free to choose how to perceive them.”
Irvin Yalom “Peering into the sun”, from the book “The Way to Harmony” (Eksmo, 2014).
Books by Irvin Yalom
- Irvin Yalom Group Psychotherapy. Theory and Practice” (Publishing House of the Institute of Psychotherapy, 2010).
- Irvin Yalom “Stationary group psychotherapy” (Eksmo, 2011).
- Irvin Yalom “The Gift of Psychotherapy” (Eksmo, 2013).
About the Author:
Irvin Yalom is a psychotherapist, one of the creators of existential psychotherapy, professor at Stanford University (USA). He is the author of the autobiographical bestsellers The Cure for Love (Klass, 2012), When Nietzsche Wept (Eksmo, 2010) and others.