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If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.
Sylvia Plath
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects the inner conflict of desiring contradictory things simultaneously.

In this quote, Sylvia Plath expresses the struggle of experiencing conflicting desires, illustrating the complexity of human emotions and the psychological turmoil that can arise from wanting mutually exclusive outcomes. The statement highlights the sense of being trapped in an internal battle, which can lead to feelings of neurosis as one oscillates between these opposing desires throughout life.

Themes

NeurosisDesireConflictPsychologyHuman Emotion

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a discussion about mental health and the struggles of conflicting desires.

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...we shall board our imagined ship and wildly sail among sacred islands of the mad till death shatters the fabulous stars and makes us real.
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Quote by Sylvia Plath | QuoteProject