I’ve recently started reading the famous book ‘How to win friends and influence people’ by Dale Carnegie, because I feel Im too retarded at dealing with people. As I read the book, I came cross one section particularly interesting. I think it illustrates a good point, so I quote the section here to share it with you.
Why do these people go insane?
I put that question to the head physician of one of our most
important psychiatric hospitals. This doctor, who has received the
highest honors and the most coveted awards for his knowledge of
this subject, told me frankly that he didn’t know why people went
insane. Nobody knows for sure But he did say that many people who
go insane find in insanity a feeling of importance that they were
unable to achieve in the world of reality. Then he told me this story:“I have a patient right now whose marriage proved to be a tragedy.
She wanted love, sexual gratification, children and social prestige,
but life blasted all her hopes. Her husband didn’t love her. He
refused even to eat with her and forced her to serve his meals in his
room upstairs. She had no children, no social standing. She went
insane; and, in her imagination, she divorced her husband and
resumed her maiden name. She now believes she has married into
English aristocracy, and she insists on being called Lady Smith.“And as for children, she imagines now that she has had a new child
every night. Each time I call on her she says: ‘Doctor, I had a baby
last night.’ ”Life once wrecked all her dream ships on the sharp rocks of reality;
but in the sunny, fantasy isles of insanity, all her barkentines race
into port with canvas billowing and winds singing through the masts.” Tragic? Oh, I don’t know. Her physician said to me: If I could
stretch out my hand and restore her sanity, I wouldn’t do it. She’s
much happier as she is.”If some people are so hungry for a feeling of importance that they
actually go insane to get it, imagine what miracle you and I can
achieve by giving people honest appreciation this side of insanity.
1 response so far ↓
John // Jul 21, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I’m reading that book right now and I was just scanning that section. I think the good doctor got it right on the nose. Most people place so many restraints and limitations on themselves that it becomes unbearable. We judge ourselves harshly and I think many of us think that others judge us harshly, thereby creating a very harsh reailty. However, if we can escape that realiy into a totally different one, then how much happier would we be. Besides, we have great control on our thoughts and in most instances, it is us that creates reality, not reality.
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