Staring at the Sun

But every living creature wishes to persist in its own being-Spinoza said that around 350 years ago.

Perhaps no artistic piece quite reached the level she demanded of herself.

therapy situation is a social microcosm; that is, patients will sooner or later exhibit in the therapy situation the same behavior they exhibit in life outside.

Perhaps this is what Erich Fromm, in Escape from Freedom, meant by "lust for submission." It is the stuff from which religion emerges.

I would proceed by posing such questions as, How have you not lived well? What regrets do you have about your life?

"Now let's look at your responsibility, your ten percent, for the way things have gone this past year. What regrets do you have about your actions the last twelve months? What might you have done differently?"

Nietzsche's words and say this to you: `To become wise you must learn to listen to the wild dogs barking in your cellar."'

Thomas Hardy, who says that "if a way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst."

"These thoughts of death," I said, "let's keep analyzing them; let's dissect them. I know that the thought of death feels overwhelming-but stare right into it, tell me, what in particular is the most frightening thing about dying?"