How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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collecting the early childhood memories of physicians we have found an exceedingly large number of recollec¬ tions of death and sickness in their families. In some instances these same experiences lead men to become undertakers, and Adler once saw a young boy who wanted to be a grave-digger because he felt this was the best guarantee against being lowered into the grave himself. Children who suffer from disorders of the digestion frequently devote themselves to the handling of food, the organization of food supplies, or its equivalents, money and securities. This accounts for the fact that so many bankers are either fat and well-fed, or very lean and cadaverous. Nature sometimes not only helps them to overcome their original difficulties by bettering their digestion, but also endows them with what Adler has called a “ psychic superstructure ” ot compensatory activities which continue to bear the mark of the original inferiority long after the actual need has passed. For example, the elder Rockefeller pursues his pattern, getting security and power through money, long after the original fear of hunger has passed. We see such a man suffering from the various diseases of the gastro¬ intestinal tract as he grows older, and usually any degenerative diseases that affect him are likely to attack the organs of lessened resistance which have determined the direction of his life’s pattern. Social Channels 0/ Compensation If an individual is faced with seemingly insuperable problems, and develops a neurosis as a defence measure, the neurosis is almost certain to involve the inferior organ or organ system. Recently we had occasion to see a man who had suffered during his childhood from various difficulties of digestion. His life’s compensation was a very unhappy one-1—he became a mean, avaricious miser who squeezed his employees to the limit of their endurance. For years he had suffered from a compulsion neurosis to collect all his old theatre tickets, programmes,