How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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Conversion neurotics can cultivate a high blood pressure, a nervous stomach, sleeplessness, a vague pain, “ nervousness,” fatigue, or a supersensitive paranasal sinus, until it becomes their most precious jewel. The existence of a tendency toward any physical abnormality, such as a simple curvature of the spine, the ptotic habitus, or a vasomotor lability, is a boon to a conversion neurotic, because his abnormality enables him to make himself important not only in the eyes of his family and his doctor (who is often hard pressed to remove the symptom) but also enables him to avoid with a clear conscience the performance of his human obligations. It is a sad reflection on the psychological insight of the medical profession that so many major surgical opera¬ tions, so many unnecessary physical treatments, together with so many futile hours of examination and treatment, are worse than wasted on conversion neurotics each year. For the conversion neurotic does not wish to be rid of his symptom, and goes to the physician not for cure, but for a confirmation and legitimatization of his illness. The more the public learns about the rudiments of hygiene, the more conversion neurotics rush around from one doctor to another for unnecessary basic metabolism tests, sensitivity tests, and blood or urine analyses. The medical profession, as a whole, has not yet learned that a sick human being is not a broken-down machine, pure and simple. Few doctors investigate the possible social meaning or social value of a symptom, and many busy specialists are so blinded by their specialization that they have not the time to ask the most rudimentary questions about the mental hygiene of their patients. So long as physicians remain ignorant of the dynamics of the conversion neuroses, these neuroses will increase and multiply. The belief that a sound mind dwells in a sound body is one of the tragic misconceptions of our age. Most of the great contributors to human welfare have inhabited sick or malformed bodies. The perfect athletes have done little to better the human race, all the eugenists to the contrary. A sound mind may capitalize