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away thousands of pounds in an evening in the hopeless
search for a thrill, when thrills entirely unknown and
undreamed of could be found at their finger-tips if they
were to invest the slightest effort in improving the
conditions of the sick and hopeless, or if they were to
devote themselves to the task of increasing our knowledge
r i i j r &
ot the world or science or art.
One of my patients who suffered a depression as a
result of her inability to experience another thrill was
given the task of spending the two thousand pounds she
usually gambled away in a season at Monte Carlo in
providing recreational facilities for a group of working
girls, many of whom were delinquent wards of a certain
charitable organization. The initial work opened her eyes
to a host of coincident social problems, and, at the present
time, this good woman spends eight hours a day, five days
a week, administering funds and actively participating in
the communal activities of these girls. Her depression
has disappeared,
A less common strategy of attack is that in which the
focus of life’s activities is on the social sector, with various
degrees of frustration and non-cooperation on the
occupational and sexual fronts.-
In this strategy, social contacts and social conventions
are elevated into a major interest in life. Form is every¬
thing. Snobbery and social prestige are the goals ;
elegance and manners the chief desiderata. Nothing else
matters. One must be graceful and gracious. Let others
soil their hands with work. Sex is possible only when all
the social amenities have been complied with. It is more
important that the bridesmaids at a wedding should be
correctly gowned, the wedding pictures published in the
“ correct” papers, than that the bride and groom should
be prepared for marriage and capable of making a normal
adjustment to one another.
Readers who have followed our philosophic approach
to the problems of life will see that a good attitude toward
work and toward sex is impossible when there is too much
emphasis on the purely social side of life. This type of