How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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CHAPTER SIX More About Tools Conflict and Emotion Vanity and Egoism—Ambition : Its Use and Misuse—The Meaning of Conflict and Doubt—Some Psychoanalytic Bogeys—The Dynamics of Evasion—Make-believe Superiorities—The Misuse of Mind— Fundamental Attitudes of the Good Life—The Profession of Worry _The Purpose of Worry—Analysis of Jealousy—The Relation of Jealousy to Love. FROM the description of the two cases in the foregoing chapter the reader must realize more clearly that character is not the resultant of the blind interaction of vague forces within our personality. Character and personality traits unveil themselves to the careful student of human "nature as tools chosen by the personality from a host of available devices and instruments—-consciously sometimes, unconsciously more often—for the attain¬ ment of the personality goal, for the execution of the vital formula, or as training for the personality ideal. A character trait can be evaluated only when it has been fitted into the style of life which the individual has chosen as a unit pattern of conduct, as a chord can be understood only when it has been examined in relation to the melody in which it occurs, or as a single figure in a large mural painting can be judged only when its relation to the total design is understood. Once you know the goal towards which a personality is striving, you can very nearly reconstruct the tools which that personality is going to utilize, and if you examine the tools which a personality employs in its life’s work, you can deduce the goal of that personality pattern with a fair amount of accuracy. Does the goal of the personality ever change ? Are there individuals who have one kind of a pattern for part of their lives and an entirely different pattern during another part of their lives ? These questions must be T34