Understanding yourself : the mental hygiene of personality / by Ernest R. Groves.

  • Ernest R. Groves
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Understanding yourself : the mental hygiene of personality / by Ernest R. Groves. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    multitudinous, that no one person, though he makes it his life study, can hope to have anything but a general knowl¬ edge of these activities unless he concentrates his investi¬ gation and studies a small portion of this extensive human experience. The body is such a faithful instrument of the self, so quick to bring forth its elaborate protection against assault upon it as an organism, that its working deserves the description given by Cannon in his fascinating book, Wisdom of the Body. The purpose of the body is always to maintain life. When it surrenders to an overwhelming attack, death follows. We distinguish, in common speech, the mind from the body. Useful as this is, it often leads to misinterpretation. The mind is as clearly an instrument of the self as is the body. Indeed, these two features of the personality are so inter-related that the separation between them breaks down as soon as there is any searching of detail. The mind also is organized to maintain life. Its special feature, which we know as consciousness, has the same fundamental purpose. It, however, goes beyond merely at¬ tempting to conserve the physiological self, and this additional function can best be appreciated if we think of it as an attempt to fulfill the desires of the self. Emotionally this is the life of the personality. It is the task of the mind to fulfill desire just as it is the business of the body to minister to physiological needs. Satisfaction is the aim of the one; health, that of the other. In spite of this similarity of purpose, there is, as we all [19]