William James Quotes

It does not seem possible to think of oneself as normal without thinking that some other kind of person is pathological.

I think that it's human nature to categorize and label things. That's generally the way that the medical and psychological professions work. You look at elements of what you have, and you are able to categorize it, and then you can cure it. That's generally what works.

It's easier to say people are crazy than to try to figure out why.

There are four types: the cretin, the imbecile, the stupid and the mad. Normality is a balanced mixture of all four.

I'm a pretty psycho-obsessed shrink.

Behavior is a symptom. If you look at it like a problem, you're just going to make a judgment. If you look at like a symptom, you can do something about it.

The other day I started to take a course in psycho-ceramics. What is psycho-ceramics? It's the study of crackpots.

If the national mental illness of the United States is megalomania, that of Canada is paranoid schizophrenia.

I like analyzing human behavior. It's complex. That's what keeps me going.

It's okay to be crazy, but don't be insane.

Analysis brings no curative powers in its train; it merely makes us conscious of the existence of an evil, which, oddly enough, is consciousness.

Studying psychology is fun because you're always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for, which is the story behind the story.

People are very complex. And for a psychologist, you get fascinated by the complexity of human beings, and that is what I have lived with, you know, in my career all of my life, is the complexity of human beings.

I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.

I've studied psychology. I'm fascinated by the human mind, and I love people.

I really enjoyed my degree, for me it was the best course you can do. To be able to study the brain and nervous system and the mind with a scientific approach is just incredible! Its philosophical, psychological and biological, three very interesting areas to me.

Every normal person, in fact, is only normal on the average. His ego approximates to that of the psychotic in some part or other and to a greater or lesser extent.

Our show is different, because it's not about law and order, it's about psychology, the intent of somebody.

I'm not psycho... I just like psychotic things.

This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever.

Abnormal is so common, it's practically normal.

It's not that you make a psychopath. They are - more likely, they come out that way, and they show their stripes over time.

I tend to look for pathologies everywhere.

Very few minds are strictly normal, and all religious fanatics are marked with abnormalities of various sorts.

We can understand both our nature and our nurture, but understanding is only the first step.