Semrinvalidism is also a means in many cases of satisfying the instinct of self-assertion. The woman with no social accomplishments, who would probably be over. looked in a roomful of people, acquires a certain amount of prestige by her ailments.
Inquiries are sure to be made as to her health, and she can generally obtain a heaving for the recital of her symptoms.
Of the power which some people can wield in their own families through their ill-health there is no need to speak—we all can recall instances of veiled, but none the jess real, tyranny of some semi-invalid of our acquaintance.
We must remember that these people are in most cases not malingerers: their ailments are so genuine that a doctor can detect objective symptoms.
And they are quite incurable. The will to get better is absent; any remedial measures are foredoomed to failure because the Fatient is convinced that her case is hopeless.
_And if any suspicion of the actual state of affairs should enter her nund (which is highly improbable), this type of sufferer will at once get rid of it by that system of pseudo-reasoning known to psychologists as "rationalization."
A large proportion of our. women will always be "C 3." for that is the class in which they unconsciously desire to be placed. Selected.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.