How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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- Publication/creation
- London : George Routledge, 1932.
- Physical description
- xiv, 374 pages ; 22 cm
- Contributors
- Wolfe, W. Béran 1900-1935.
- Notes
-
This edition was reprinted in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1946 and 1948.
Copy 1 Note: 1937 reprint. X158203
- Attribution and usage
-
Wellcome Collection
Conditions of use: it is possible this item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
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in a desire for purely personal power to the same sense of
power through activity on a high plane of social
usefulness.
8. Human beings have always lived, and must always
live, in groups. This is mankind’s compensation for the
individual weakness of its members. It is the basic
law of human psychology. Any personality goal, and any
personality pattern, which leaves the social connectedness
of human beings out of account, runs counter to nature,
and must end in personal disaster. During the early part
of an individual’s life he is a parasite on his family, the
unit of most social groups. During this period of
individuation he is supported by his group while he trains
and grows, and thus obviates the greater inferiorities of
childhood in the “ normal ” way. He transforms his
childhood “ minus ” into a “ plus ” by physical and
mental growth and evolution. Thereafter he must
contribute to the commonweal; and the “ normal ” human
being socializes his childhood goal of power and totality
at this time by working out his personal deficiencies in
terms of social usefulness. It is the duty of parents to
initiate their child into the fellowship of human beings
and give him a sense of the dignity of work, which is the
individual’s dividend to society for society’s original
investment of protection, nutrition, and education during
the period of his individuation.
9. Every man fits his experiences into his pattern of life.
As we grow we meet many obstacles to our fixed pattern
of conduct. Some of these obstacles deflect us from our
course, some of them are surmounted or destroyed by us.
What we call experience is the impression that is left on
us by the interaction between ourselves and the world
in which we live. Most of us do not learn from experience,
because we have a definite standard of evaluation with
which we approach the world about us. This standard
of evaluation is called a “ psychic scheme of apper¬
ception ”. It is determined by our goal in life, and
because this goal is based on subjective interpretations
our reaction to any experience is seldom objective. We