How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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Mr. B. could give her the car and the furs that she wants. These are conflicting considerations, but there is an even deeper cause for this hopeless conflict in choice between the only two men that Helen has ever loved. Helen has always been in keen competition with her younger brother. She has always felt that being a woman was something of a disadvantage. The thought of the pain and possible disfigurement of pregnancy and child¬ birth makes her shudder. If she could marry and be certain that she would not have any children, the decision would be easy. Helen is still in the toils of an infantile life-pattern. Further investigation shows that she has always shifted every real responsibility from her own pretty shoulders. She has always smiled her way out of difficulties, whether by flirting with the traffic policeman, or by arranging a conflict in the solution of the mature problems of love and marriage. If Helen were a good sport she could make a success of her marriage with either of her two suitors. But her unconscious, goal is not marriage, but the avoidance of all responsibilities. The unconsciously arranged conflict of choice, together with her apparent emotional pain (with which her entire family is visibly impressed) is the neurotic device which she utilized in order to avoid a necessary forward move¬ ment toward maturity. Here then, we have the meaning of conflict, and doubt, the twin sister of conflict. Both conflict and doubt are unconscious neurotic “arrangements”. Conflict and doubt are the character traits of those who are too timid to move forward. So few people really understand the meaning of conflict that if you can unconsciously arrange a good psychic conflict, as Helen D. did with her two suitors, you have effectually freed yourself from making a choice or from meeting an obstacle. Conflict, doubt, and indecision are common to almost every neurosis because they are such excellent devices for avoiding responsibilities. The fallacy of attempting an explana¬ tion of psychic conflicts in terms of a conflict between