THE NECESSARY STARTING PLACE FOR SELF-HELP

Whoever you are, you have a personal orientation, a complex set of feelings, attitudes, and beliefs, which are relatively constant. Your past actions have done a great deal to produce the pattern of thoughts and attitudes which now characterizes you. However, now that it’s here, you can’t wish it away: you’ve got to understand new modes of action to change it. There’s no sense blaming yourself for fear of authorities, or for the fact that you can’t enjoy sex, or that you’re lacking in confidence. If you blame yourself for anything, it must be for actions, since you can control them. Many people blame themselves for what they cannot control so as to divert attention form activities which they know would help them but which they don’t want to undertake.