How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.

desire to remain slender was actuated by a deep un¬ conscious desire to remain a child and to avoid responsi¬ bilities, and she would be amazed to know that her diet and her disinterestedness in the world of business and politics, her coyness, her cult of a perfect complexion, her choice of filmy and fluttery dresses were all related, all tools for the sculpture of the same figure of a grown-up baby-doll. And even if she knew all these things she would not know why she had chosen the ideal of being a baby-doll from the whole host of other available designs, nor why she persisted in pursuing this ideal in the face of all common-sense data about the unattainability of that goal in reality. How to Know Tourself A worm in a peach may knowr the inside of his peach with a precise and “ scientific ” knowledge, but it requires another worm, perhaps no better or more knowing, to tell the first worm where his peach hangs on the tree. Every individual knows something about himself within the fixed pattern of his personality, but usually he is unaware of the design of that pattern, that is, its goal, its significant form, its tempo of progression, and the material of the design. And what he knows least of all is the relationship of his design to the designs of other members of his family and to other members of his social group. The mere collection of data about our¬ selves is an interesting, but rather useless pastime. This is the so-called “ scientific ” method. To follow the Socratic dictum fully, you must “ know yourself” with the eyes of another person. This requires two distinctly artistic processes—identification and interpretation. Just as being a human being is a fine art, so knowing human nature is an artistic process. That is why poets, novelists, painters, generals, salesmen, and office-boys have usually known more about human nature than so-called “ scientists ”. Because we are all human beings, because we are all