ABSTRACT
WE HAVE seen that in struggling with his conflicts the neurotic person undergoes a great deal of suffering, that moreover he often uses suffering as a means of attaining certain goals which, because of existing dilemmas, are difficult to "attain otherwise. Though we are able to recognize in every individual situation the reasons why suffering is used and the ends that are to be achieved by it, there remains some bewilderment why people should be willing to pay such an enormous price. It looks as if the generous use made of suffering, and the readiness to recoil from an active mastering of life, grow out of an underlying drive which can be roughly described as a tendency to make the. self weaker instead of stronger, miserable instead of happy.
