10 Quotes & Sayings By Theodor Reik

Theodor Reik was born in Vienna in 1902. He received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Vienna, where he was a student of Sigmund Freud. Reik joined the psychoanalytic movement in 1924, when he published his first book, The Trauma of Birth. He became famous for his work on trauma and was particularly associated with Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex Read more

From 1930 to 1933, Reik worked as a psychoanalyst at the Austro-Hungarian Psychoanalytic Institute in Vienna. In 1934 he emigrated to the United States, where he taught at New York University and analyzed Rene Spitz for several years. In 1954, Reik again immigrated to the United States, settling in Evanston, Illinois, where he taught at Northwestern University until his death in 1975.

1
…if you cannot hate you cannot love. If you cannot bite you can not kiss. If you cannot curse you cannot bless. Who cannot be a good hater will be a poor lover. Theodor Reik
2
The fear to love reaches sometimes the depth of a panic, resembles sometimes the fear to die. Theodor Reik
3
He who licks his wounds cannot be affectionate Theodor Reik
4
It was strange to find that love does not spring from abundance and richness of the ego, but is a way out of inner distress and poverty. We were surprised to discover that our first love is not directed either to another person or to ourselves, but to an imaginary ideal ego, to an image of ourselves as we would like to be. There are stranger discoveries awaiting us the more deeply we grope in the dark and the further we intrude into the secret places of the human heart. Theodor Reik
5
Work and love-these are the basics. Without them there is neurosis. Theodor Reik
6
In our civilization men are afraid that they will not be men enough and women are afraid that they might be considered only women. Theodor Reik
7
Even the wisest men make fools of themselves about women and even the most foolish women are wise about men. Theodor Reik
8
In our civilization men are afraid they will not be men enough and women are afraid they might be considered only women. Theodor Reik
9
Work and love - these are the basics. Without them there is neurosis. Theodor Reik