The psychic task which a person can and must set for himself is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The goal for a person should be to tolerate insecurity instead of seeking security.
- In plain terms
- Aim to handle uncertainty rather than trying to be safe.
- What can you take from it?
- Learn to accept insecurity as part of life.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What do you fear being insecure about?
- How would you handle more insecurity?
Another view
Some situations require seeking security.
More from Erich Fromm
The ordinary man with extraordinary power is the chief danger for mankind - not the fiend or the sadist.
Permalink to quote #96 The scars left from the child's defeat in the fight against irrational authority are to be found at the bottom of every neurosis.
Permalink to quote #98 The only truly affluent are those who do not want more than they have.
Permalink to quote #95
Related quotes
What often happens if you study this integral map is that it begins to make room in your psyche, in your being, in your soul, for all the parts of you that wer…
Ken WilberKen Wilber quote #42 The striving for significance, this sense of yearning, always points out to us that all psychological phenomena contain a movement that starts from a feeling o…
Alfred AdlerAlfred Adler quote #1 A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.
Abraham MaslowAbraham Maslow quote #1