Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-16

IS mystery of Mrs. Thayer's where
abolts" Zahn said. II merely
drew a natural inference from
the fact that she had sent foI
YOU when she discovered the tragedy
and that she went off in cab with
you. The reporters are a little stupid
/ think not to draw the same inference.
at suppose they were" said Peter
amused. you're perfectly right. That's
where she is-with my sister"
will you tell her that i am at her
service, If she needs me? I make it a
rule not to make professional calls, but
this is, of course, an exceptional case.
"YeS-I'n get word to her" said Peter
He hesitated. MY sister sent for DR..
Watson this morning-she thought some
one might be needed in a hurry"
"Oh!" zahn laughed again, and made
a depreciating gesture. Il am not her
physician. Watson's an excellent man.
I suppose could still prescribe, in an
emergency, for ordinary physical all
ments, but the mind is my province, not
the body" He sighed. 1T is a pity,
is it not, My Wayne, that it is so much
easier to know what people should do
than to find way of implanting that
knowledge in their minds?"
You mean that your patients don't
take your advice?" said Peter, rather
bIuntly.
"Advice?" Zahn raised his eyebrows
II never give advice, Mr.. Wayne. That
is decidedly not my province. My task
is to help my patients to discover them
selves the nature of their real wishes
and, perhaps, to help them, also, to find
the courage to act in accordance with
them" He smiled, family. My diff
Guilty is to keep them from persuading
me to give them advice. They're only
too anxious to have it, and too ready to
act upon it, too, and so to evade the re-
sponslbility of making their own deci-
Sions. My task is to lead them to think
for themselves and act accordingly"
Peter nodded, thoughtfully. He knew
that that was, in fact a fair and ade-
quate statement of a pSchoanalySt'S con-
ception of his job But he had always
wondered whether, in practice, psyche
analysts lived up to that ideal and he
wondered very much whether Meyer
ZsLhn did. There was nothing meek
about Zahn, really; the lust for power
was in the lines about his mouth, and
in his cruel, predatory hands. And GER
tainly what Zahn had just said didn't
apply, Peter thought, to Martha. 1t
wasn't her way to seek advice, or try to
evade nSibility-although Peter
fully believed that most people did go to
a psychoanalyst precisely because they
lacked the courage or the strength to
decide things for themselves.
ITO know ones own mind"
Zahn was going on, and his voice, now,
was detached and remote, as If he
were not SO much speaking to Peter as
thinking aloud. ITO know ones own
1nmost thoughts, to have no secrets
from ones own consciousness, to face,
unafraid, ones most shameful wishes
as well as the nobler ones. To have
both the courage and the strength to
be true to ones self, to act in accord
ance with ones nature. That is to
live fully"
That's a dangerous doctrine, DR..
zahn," said Peter.
"Dangerous?" Zahn's eyes came back
to him. But life has always been dan
gerous, Mr.. Wayne, and it always will
be. What is the supreme danger?
Death! humiliation. Destruction, OBJ
liberation, of body and spirit. And that
is a danger no one living can finally
evade. Danger is of the essence of life,
1t is the price we must all pay for
the privilege Of living at all. 1t is the
entrance fee to a theater that has no
free list.
"That man who will not face danger
IS a fool. He is doomed to fail in his
effort to escape, and the punishment
for attempting 1t is that he does not
live at all before he dies-as, in the
end, he must. lie rejects all that mil
lions Of years of effort, all that had
led to the evolution of man as he is
today, all that had contributed to the
survival of the ftteSt, have done for
the race. AS scientist you will agree
with me, surely?''A
81 don't know" said Peter. I'm not
q scientist in your use of the word
perhops, DR.. zahn. I'm a specialist in
narrow and limited field of research"
You do yourself less than justice,
Mr.. Wayne"
Peter was puzzled; dattered, too.
eft didn't occur to me that you so