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

CHAPTER FOUR Of Craftsmanship Compensation and Overcompensation Four Methods of Compensation—Compensation as a Function of the Total Personality—Social Channels of Compensation—How to Compensate for being Pampered—“ Plus Gestures ” and the Superiority Complex—Valid Uses of “ Plus Gestures ”—Funda¬ mental Techniques of Compensation—The Need for Creative Compensations—Hobbies as Old Age Insurance—Neuroses as False Compensations—Two Patterns of Life—The Substitution of Techniques for Goals—Money as a Fiction of Power—Recapitula¬ tion. IN our first chapters we discussed life as a fine art, the basic principles of creative self-sculpture, the nature of our material and some of the obstacles to the good life interposed by the universal feeling of inadequacy. In our third chapter we surveyed the special situations of human life which sometimes aggravate the vague sense of incompleteness to the proportions of an inferiority complex. Perhaps our description of the various obstacles to the task of successful self-sculpture may have appeared pessimistic at first sight, but the consideration and application of the precepts formulated at the end of each chapter will demonstrate that our problems are not as difficult as they seem. As a matter of fact it lies quite within your power to transmute the general and specific obstacles and handicaps of your life into very real assets. Knowledge of the stuff of which human beings are made, recognition of the existing dangers together with aware¬ ness of the sources of fear and inferiority, constitute the first step toward success as a human being. A general with a good map of a battle-field is far better prepared than his opponent who leads greater forces but is ignorant of the terrain of combat. The craftsmanship of life consists in taking stock of one’s defects and liabilities, mobilizing them to the best advantage and converting them into vital