How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
108/400
- 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
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contributing fellow-man, make your own decisions, stop
depending on the opinions of your relatives and neigh¬
bours, and branch out for yourself. Your deficient self¬
esteem is due to lack of real experience and the avoidance
of veritable opportunities for creative activity.
You are probably no better and no worse than the
average human being—you are merely unfortunate in
having been the victim of too much solicitude. Your ego
is hypertrophied. You have never tasted the greatest of
human pleasures—-that of being useful to someone in
your own right. Do not run away from responsibilities—
they will make a man of you. Widen your horizons,
devote yourself to at least one other human being,
surrender yourself to the task of being human. And if
you realize your deficiencies, and cannot find a way out
of the difficulties, consult a friend, a physician, a teacher,
or a psychiatrist who can show you the way.
All good compensations for the inferiority complex
have certain attributes in common. (1) They are all useful.
(2) They are all expressions of independent thinking
and acting. (3) They are all marked by a high degree of
social courage. (4) They are all surcharged with social
responsibility. (5) They say “ Yes ! ” to life. (6) They
result in happiness, self-esteem, social approval, and
eventually a normal sense of power which is the logical
compensation for the feeling of insignificance. (7) Good
compensations are immediately recognized by your
friends and neighbours, and create a sense of “ good¬
ness ” in your own heart which is often the greatest
reward of living. But not all compensations are good
compensations. If your feeling of inferiority is profound,
if you are very discouraged, you are likely to demand a
goal of power, totality, security, approbation, and esteem
quite beyond the reach of human efforts. Under these
circumstances when reality interposes insuperable ob¬
stacles which prevent you from attaining your goal of
power, you are very likely to make a quick about face,
and begin seeking the fiction of power instead of its
substance.