How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
281/400

achieves the desired subjective sense of superiority or security. Instead of applying himself to the business of earning a living he takes refuge behind an unswerving belief in his constitutional laziness. If I were not lazy I could do just as well as anyone else ” says the neurotic, and thereby saves his face. Instead of taking her chances in a social gathering, a neurotic young woman, suffering from agoraphobia (the fear of open places), remains secure in her well-established despotism over the small domain of the home in which she can easily tyrannize every member of her family by means of her neurosis. She avoids all tests of her value by remaining at home, and, in restricting her horizon to the four walls of her bedroom, she achieves the subjective experience of queenliness. The compulsion neurotic who washes his hands eighty times a day similarly achieves a subjective sense of power and goodness, for by comparison with him, the other human beings who wash their hands only five or six times a day are filthy swine. The fourth neurotic commandment reads : Seeming is more important than being or doing. Thou shalt make believe. 5. A fifth, and most important aspect of every neurosis, is its purposiveness. Every neurosis has a hormic drift. It is a useful, rational, logical structure designed to bring the neurotic most speedily to the realization of his unconscious goal of super-superiority, super-security, and super-irresponsibility. No neurosis is an accident. No neurosis is the result of any blind interaction of instincts or “ drives ”. The purpose of the neurosis can best be interpreted by the observation of its effect on the environment. Thus the meaning and purpose of doubt, fear, vacillation, conflict, procrastination, and indecision is to avoid a test of personal validity. The purpose of homosexuality is the avoidance of mature sexual relations. The purpose of the fear of blushing is the avoidance of social responsibilities. Every neurosis, being purposive, demands a constant unconscious training and cultivation. To this end reality is distorted and denied, and experiences, feelings,