"Hysteria does not produce unhappiness, it produces useless-tess," said a well-known psychoanalyst when lecturing a few months ago to a Cambridge audience. And what is true of hysteria is true of many of the physical ailments which reduce a Jarge number of women to a state bordering on semi-invalidism.
'T'd give anything to be strong like other people," says one of these sufferers, and she sincerely believes she is speaking the truth. But in reality the last thing she desires is to be physically fit!
Her neuralgia, rheumatism, delicate throat, or whatever her affliction may be, smooths over life for her.
She can't do her share of the heavier household tasks: if she takes up voluntary work other people have the drudgery; if sho is tired she can lie down and rest with a clear conscience. Helplessness to a certain type of mind is an asset rather than a disadvantage.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.