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

are the sum total of our vital devices for gaining our unconscious goal, nor a more dramatic exposition of the corollary thesis that happiness cannot be attained by an unsocial human being. But for the sake of clarity and for the illumination of the sceptical reader who may desire further proof we shall illustrate our thesis with a second case, this time of Elsie G., whose neurosis is woven of very different cloth from John C/s aggressive assault on humanity. Elsie G. now thirty-five years old, a divorcee, spends most of her time in bed surrounded by rows of medicine bottles, pill boxes, hypodermic syringes and all the armament of the hospital ward. Unlike John C. she is the only child of kindly and wealthy parents. From her first day in this world she has had every difficulty removed from her path. Her mother, always a very solicitous and anxious woman, still, at the age of sixty-two, lives alone with her daughter and ministers to all her needs and desires. The Evolution of a Neurotic Character During Elsie’s childhood the tender ministrations of her mother kept the “ bad ” world from any possible contact with her. When Elsie was six, her father was killed in an accident and all information concerning this important event in her life was withheld from ,her. At the age of eight, she still believed in Santa Claus, had never crossed a street unattended by a nurse, had never played with a strange child in the street, had never bathed or dressed herself, and had assuredly never been in the position to make any independent decision. She was very beautiful as a child, and was highly praised for her model behaviour. At the age of nine no spark of initiative was left in her little soul. She was timid among strangers, and clung to her imperious, if somewhat anxious mother, whenever they entered a shop or the home of friends together. At the age of ten, despite the precautions of her mother, Elsie contracted a series of children’s diseases which