The fact is that no abstruse complicated psychological analysis
was necessary here or in most cases. A man is "jarred" from
light-hearted health to a grim discouraged state. This
discouragement brings with it sleeplessness and loss of appetite,
and there gradually develops a series of habits which lower
endurance and energy. The habit elements in this condition are
not enough recognized, and also the fact that most of the
disability is physical in its development though psychological at
the start. That is, A. had a severe emotional reaction to a
horrible experience; this brought about insomnia and disordered
nutrition, and these, by lowering the endurance and ability,
brought to being a vicious circle of fatigue and depression, in
which fatigue caused depression and depression increased fatigue.
The treatment must be directed at first to the physical factors,
and with these conquered the acquired forms of anhedonia usually
yield readily.
It would be interesting to consider other types related to the
anhedonic personality. The complainer, the whiner, the nag, all
these are basically people who are hard to satisfy. The artistic
temperament (found rather frequently in the non-artistic) is
hyperesthetic, uncontrolled, irritably egoistic and demands
homage and service from others which exceeds the merit of the
individual; in other words, there is added to the anhedonic
element an unreasonableness that is peculiarly exasperating. I
pass these interesting people by and turn to the opposite of the
anhedonic group, the group that is hearty in tastes and
appetites, easily pleased as a rule and often crude in their
relish of life. There are two main divisions of these hearty
simple people,--those who are untrained and relatively
uneducated, and whose simplicity may disappear under cultivation,
and another type--cultivated, educated, wise--who still retain
unspoiled appetite and hearty enjoyment.
Briefly let me introduce Dr. O., an athlete in his youth and
always a lover of the great outdoors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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