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

design which could have been formulated in the phrase : “ I must be greater than my father. If I find that I cannot compete with him in his own way, I will destroy his power. If I can raise myself at the expense of anyone else, that’s all in my favour ! ” Of course Robert really does not say these things. But he acts “ as if ” he were already hopeless. We see him in the meshes of a competitive struggle for power and authority with his father. We see Robert next in hospital. He is now nineteen years old. He has unsuccessfully attempted to commit suicide during his first year at the university. Has his pattern changed ? Not at all. Robert wanted to be popular with his fellow-undergraduates. He was not. Robert wanted the love of his tutor’s daughter, and she “ turned him down ”. He considered these two achieve¬ ments essential to his happiness, and when he failed, his self-esteem, always based on false subjective values, was shattered. He knew only one way out—suicide. And you must remember that suicide not only seemed to solve Robert’s problem, but pointed an accusing finger at his father, his fellow-undergraduates, and his girl, as if he were saying, “You see what you have done tome ! ” —thus shifting the responsibility from his own shoulders to those of society. It is a general human tendency to avoid responsibility for our failures, and this tendency is inordinately exaggerated in those who have too ambitious a goal, or those who are discouraged by the obstacles in their way. Perhaps the fact that Robert did not succeed in his attempt was part of his unconscious plan. It served as a warning, as though he were announcing to the whole world, “ Now you must take care of me lest I commit suicide.’’ And in a cheap, useless way Robert attained his goal of superiority by attempting suicide, because it brought his whole family to his bedside, concerned every member of his college, and no doubt wrenched the heart of his tutor’s daughter.