How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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The training of memory, imagination, phantasy, and the dream are examples of the unconscious training which we are constantly undergoing in our efforts to prepare ourselves for the solution of our 'problems. Other methods of training ourselves fall into the conscious sphere, and include the world of humour, the arts, sports, literature, and history. The drama is no more than the crystallized dream of the dramatist. There are a great many men and women who have a veritable hunger for the theatre, because, in the observation of a dramatic spectacle, they are enabled not only to identify themselves with the players, and thus often to reassure themselves of their own validity as human beings, but are enabled, moreover, to solve some of their own problems as well, or to get guidance from those who, in the last analysis, are better dreamers than themselves. The tremendous vogue of the cinema represents a satisfaction of this need for guidance and identification. If you are an insatiable “ film-fan ” it is probably because the business of existing in a work-a-day world fails to give normal satisfaction to your ego-feeling. People need some tangible picture of power and security before them as an intermediate goal toward which to strive, and it makes very little difference whether it is a prince or a film star who offers the stimulus to renewed efforts. As with the dream, the cinema may become the symptom of an escape from life into a world of phantasy and cheap triumph for those who are too discouraged to deal with reality. Of Wit and Humour At this point we may well consider the role that humour, jokes, puns, comedy, and wit play in the economy of life. The old proverb, “ Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone ” indicates that humour is one of the most important devices for securing a deeper solidarity between civilized