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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    many have that they are too tall or too short. The editor, however, seeking illustrations for the article, included a picture of a machine that was supposed to lengthen the spine just a little, thereby increasing height. No mention was made of this in the article, but immediately after its publication hundreds of letters came asking where such an apparatus could be procured. Eventually a letter came from the Philippine Islands from somebody who had read a reproduction of the article printed in Chinese. It had never before dawned on me that in every com¬ munity, however small, there are individuals who are greatly distressed because they think themselves too tall or too short. Instead of accepting a situation that cannot be changed, they make it one of the dominating and devas¬ tating influences of their life. It is a serious matter for them, but only because of their attitude toward it. Rarely do others give it any considerable attention, but the victims are constantly thinking of what they believe to be the mark of all eyes and as a result developing chronic sensi¬ tiveness and even irritability. They exaggerate what, at its worst, is merely a temporary and trivial handicap in one’s association with others until a feeling of inferiority is de¬ veloped. It is pathetic that some carry through life sensitiveness and inferiority feeling because of a temporary situation which has ceased to be true. The “bean pole” child, for example, who is noticed and perhaps made fun of because of his lankiness as he passes through adolesence often car- [34]