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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    make full use of our opportunity. Without question there has been an over-stressing of the idea that in some mirac¬ ulous way we are free largely to reconstruct what we find to be characteristic of us as adults. The preachment that we used to hear more often than at present, that it is our business to develop an all-round personality, has led to an enormous amount of self-deception and much vain strug¬ gle. It is not desirable that we seek an idealized perfection but rather that we use to the utmost our special resources. The doctrine of an all-round development urges us all to approach a common standard, and it is just this that we cannot wisely seek. Success always comes from being our¬ self in the most effective and intelligent manner possible rather than trying to be somebody else. It might seem at first that this difference in life policy is of little practical importance. When one considers the ef¬ fect upon feeling and action that follows the failure to change greatly one’s personality, it appears at once that there is much at stake in this choice between the two kinds of program. There has been in the past too much futile effort to remake the fundamental personality on the part of the over-conscientious. Experience has proved how re¬ sistant our characters are to any deliberate striving for per¬ sonal reconstruction and how prone we are in such at¬ tempts to rationalize ourselves into self-deception. Fortunately what we most need for happiness is not to become another person but to use our opportunity in a sensible, efficient manner. Our life problem is similar to [36]