travel books: said. Who can think of him without recalling the many other needless cases of emotional collapse when the strap did not break? Certainly there is a way of life., known to those in whom religion has become a vital reality, which can in many cases forestall the need of psychiatry. One factor in that way of life is an inner secret of serenity. Multitudes today have no place inside themselves where, in a noisy and turbulent world, they can calm down and be quiet; and if religion is, as Professor Whitehead of Harvard says it is, "what the individual does with his own solitariness," they have no religion, for they have no idea what to do with their solitariness, except to run away from it. Activity without receptivity is their life, and the emotional effect of such peaceless living is disastrous. Another factor is magnanimity, good will. The psychiatrists' offices are littered with folk who, often behind smiling, amiable faces, have for years cherished grudges, nourished hidden anger and bedeviled themselves with jealousy. The initial cause of such hatred is sometimes concealed even from the one who hates, and only psychoanalysis can discover it. Meanwhile, the repressed ill will transfers itself to anyone who crosses the victim's path, and is conveniently used as an alibi-all responsibility for failure loaded off on someone else, against whom animosity accumulates. The result in broken families and vocational and business failure makes a sorry tale. Magnanimity is medicine. Far from being an impractical ideal, good will, even toward the ungrateful and hostile, is an indispensable factor in mental and emotional health; and whatever else the 13th chapter of First Corinthians is, it is preventive psychiatry of momentous importance: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.... And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." Another factor in the pattern of a healthy emotional life is selfrespect. A sane man must criticize himself, but he is a goner if selfcontempt takes charge of him. The popular idea that man's chief curse is pride can be overdone. Many who seem proud, cocky and books

Books > Old Books > Getting The Most Out Of Life (1948)

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HOW TO KEEP OUT OF THE PSYCHIATRISTS' HANDS

said. Who can think of him without recalling the many other needless cases of emotional collapse when the strap did not break?
Certainly there is a way of life., known to those in whom religion has become a vital reality, which can in many cases forestall the need of psychiatry. One factor in that way of life is an inner secret of serenity. Multitudes today have no place inside themselves where, in a noisy and turbulent world, they can calm down and be quiet; and if religion is, as Professor Whitehead of Harvard says it is, "what the individual does with his own solitariness," they have no religion, for they have no idea what to do with their solitariness, except to run away from it. Activity without receptivity is their life, and the emotional effect of such peaceless living is disastrous.
Another factor is magnanimity, good will. The psychiatrists' offices are littered with folk who, often behind smiling, amiable faces, have for years cherished grudges, nourished hidden anger and bedeviled themselves with jealousy. The initial cause of such hatred is sometimes concealed even from the one who hates, and only psychoanalysis can discover it. Meanwhile, the repressed ill will transfers itself to anyone who crosses the victim's path, and is conveniently used as an alibi-all responsibility for failure loaded off on someone else, against whom animosity accumulates. The result in broken families and vocational and business failure makes a sorry tale.
Magnanimity is medicine. Far from being an impractical ideal, good will, even toward the ungrateful and hostile, is an indispensable factor in mental and emotional health; and whatever else the 13th chapter of First Corinthians is, it is preventive psychiatry of momentous importance: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.... And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
Another factor in the pattern of a healthy emotional life is selfrespect. A sane man must criticize himself, but he is a goner if selfcontempt takes charge of him. The popular idea that man's chief curse is pride can be overdone. Many who seem proud, cocky and