Today, I found and read some of the letters Sigmund Freud sent to his friend, Eduard Silberstein. They studied together in secondary school and were very close to each other. In one of the letters, Freud writes:

Without hands you cannot grasp
and without a [chest] you cannot [embrace]
and without eyes you cannot see
and without truth you cannot love!

What strikes me is the last line of the quatrain, "and without truth you cannot love!" I could go into the rabbit hole about the term "truth," but my initial association is to "authenticity." Another association is to a statement by Lacan, who I paraphrase: a demand to be heard is a demand to be loved.

As a psychoanalyst, when I listen to my patients, I hear their hope for love, and I am reminded that love cannot be offered unless I am authentic.

​Daedalus, the Master Inventor, and his son Icarus were prisoners in an island. In order to escape, Daedalus created wings using feathers and wax. Daedalus advised his son not to fly too close to the sun for the heat would melt the wax. Similarly, Daedalus advised Icarus not to fly too close to the ocean because the humidity would put a weight on the wings and bring him down. Icarus paid no attention to his wise father. Life balance is found in neither flying to high (excessive pride) nor too low (complacency).

Some individuals are trapped in a past with unresolved stories and loss. Many find it difficult to mourn what has been lost, or let go of what cannot be undone or changed. The lingering sadness some people experience in the present may have its roots in that past that will never come back ... except that it - the past - comes back into the present, again and again, as emotional energy is not invested or attached to new relationships and/or new opportunities in life. 

Other individuals are trapped in a future that has not happened yet... except that it - the future - is already happening in some corners of their minds, sometimes out of their awareness. Many find it difficult to live in the present moment as they fear something in the future will undo, shatter, destroy what is enjoyed today. These individuals are on guard, preparing, and the lingering anxiety they experience in the present may have its roots in this fear of a story that has not unfolded yet.

The therapeutic process is, in part, about making peace with the past and the future.