g martyrs. They love to tell about the terrible
strain they have been under, the amount of work they have done, or the
number of times they have collapsed. One of my patients gave every
evidence of satisfaction as he told about his various breakdowns. "The
last time I was ill," or "That time when I was in the sanatorium,"
were frequent phrases on his lips. Finally, after I had asked him if
he would boast about the number of times he had awkwardly fallen down
in the street, and had shown him that a neurosis is not really a
matter to be proud of, he saw the point and stopped taking pleasure in
his mistakes.

Such signs of pleasure in the wrong things are evidence of suppressed
wishes which we do not acknowledge but try to gratify in indirect
ways.[46] The pleasure which ought to be associated with the idea of
good work well done has somehow been switched over to the idea of
being an invalid. The satisfaction which ought to go with a sense of
power and ability to do things has attached itself to the idea of
weakness and inability. The pleasurable feeling-tone which normally
belongs to ministering to others, regresses in the nervous invalid to
the infantile satisfaction of being ministered unto.

[Footnote 46: For a further elaboration of this theme, see Holt: _The
Freudian Wish_.]

But these things are only a habit. A good look in the mirror soon
makes one right about face and start in the other direction. Once
started, a good habit is built up with surprising ease. It is really
much more satisfying to cook a good dinner for the family's comfort
than to think about one's ills; much pleasanter to enjoy a good meal
than to insist on hot water and toast. Once we have satisfied our
suppressed longings in more desirable ways, or by a process of
self-training have initiated a new set of habits, we feel again the
old zest in normal affairs, the old interest and pleasure in
activities which add to the joy of life. Thus does re-education fit a
man to take his place in the world's work as a socially useful being,
no longer a burden, but a contributor to the sum total of human
happiness.

SUMMARY

=Knowing and Doing.= Having set out to learn how to outwit our
nerves, we are now ready to sum up conclusions and in the following
chapters to apply them to the more common nervous symptoms. It has
been shown that a nervous person is in great need of change,--not,
indeed, a change in climate or in scene, in work or in diet, but a