ABSTRACT

Death' is known as the end but it is the period placed before the close of the sentence and followed only by memories. Youthful longing for the world and for life, for the attainment of high hopes and distant goals, is life's obvious teleological urge which at once changes into fear of life, neurotic resistances, depressions, and phobias if at some point it remains caught in the past, or shrinks from risks without which the unseen goal cannot be attained. The paradoxical formula is no more than a logical deduction from the fact that life strives towards a goal. Since the 'Age of Enlightenment' a point of view has developed concerning the nature of religion which, although it is a typically rationalistic misconception. It contains a fundamental truth about all neuroses. Consciousness moves within narrow confines, within the brief span of time between its beginning and its end, and shortened by about a third by periods of sleep.