deep-seated sense of inferiority. The splendid record of this unappreciated race is sufficient evidence in itself that their inferiority has found its glory in the healing balm of illustrious compensation.

e splendid rear evidence in ory in the heal

THE

CHAPTER VIII

SALVATION OF ARTHUR

SCHOPENHAUER

SCHOPENHAUER has always appealed to me, ever since I first became acquainted with his writings. It is a pleasure to find a philosophy which can be fathomed without excessive strain on one's powers of comprehension. Schopenhauer scrupulously avoids that "foggy stuff" so characteristic of the professoriate. He does not attempt to impress the reader with the depth of his thoughts by concealing them in a palaver of obscurity. There are no high sounding phrases to bewilder the understanding. His system is simple and clear. The problems he considers are so vital to him that it is easy for him to make them interesting. Though not an attractive character, he is certainly a fascinating one-fascinating because he is so "different." In studying his philosophy, the reader feels that he is witnessing the unfolding of the man himself. The personal or subjective element that colors philosophy is unusually marked in Schopenhauer, since he was a man of deep feeling and intense moods. In reviewing the interplay between his personality and his philosophy, it will be our purpose to see how his achievement may be attributed to one fundamental process, compensation for inferiority.

I must confess I feel a certain reluctance to delve

into his problems for the sake of uncovering his motives, when I read his caustic opinion of "those who earnestly strive to acquaint themselves with the subject matter of a poet's works, or to unravel the personal circumstances and events in his life which have suggested particular passages. This is as though the audience in a theater were to admire a fine scene, and then rush upon the stage to look at the scaffolding that supports it." In another passage he reënforces his assault: "Because a great man has opened up to them the treasures of his inmost being, and, by a supreme effort of his faculties, produced works which not only redound to their elevation and enlightenment, but will also benefit their posterity to the tenth and twentieth generation; because he has presented mankind with a matchless gift, these varlets think themselves justified in sitting in judgment upon his personal morality, and trying if they cannot discover here or there some spot in him which will soothe the pain they feel at the sight of so great a mind, compared with the overwhelming feeling of their own nothingness." 2 In spite of these scathing remarks, I shall proceed to the task against which the victim has issued so stern a warning. It is not with any spirit of stubbornness that I defy his counsel, nor is my purpose, I trust, to soothe any pains, but rather to live through his experiences sympathetically, to understand his nature, and not to pronounce judgment on his character.

When we begin to analyze Schopenhauer, "to pick him to pieces," we find that the will to power was unusually predominant in his nature. The lure of su

uncovering his

nion of or elves with thes o unravel the his life whi is is as though e a fine scene he scaffolding he reënforce pened up to nd, by a s ks which not tenment, but ath and twe mankind emselves justifi nal morality,

there some feel at the s he overwhel

In spite of the the task ag

warning. I that I def

oothe any pas riences S nd not to p

lauer, "to pic power was

he lure of s

periority beckoned him persistently to realize his ideal of greatness. His inferiorities were a matter of grave concern to him; his compensations were correspondingly exaggerated. We shall first consider how he defended his ego against physical, moral, social, and intellectual handicaps and then proceed to trace the intricate connections between his personality and his philosophy.

THE DEFENSE OF THE EGO

Schopenhauer's inferiorities were a special care to him on account of his sensitive temperament. The most trifling rebuffs were magnified by his delicate sensitiveness into gross personal insults and the hostility which his fiery protests excited only served to aggravate his troubles. We find, therefore, a wide range of personal injuries to which he was susceptible.

Handicaps and Failures... Constitutional weaknesses harassed him all through his life. He suffered continually from bodily maladies which spoiled his disposition-if he ever had been cheerful-and made him a burden to others. He was such a crank on diseases that his company became repulsive. He was terrified by the slightest annoyances and could not endure the barest allusions to his infirmities. Partial deafness aggravated his suspicious nature. A person who is hard of hearing can easily mistake a normally loud conversation for whispers and he concludes that he is being spoken of in a derogatory manner. A man recently stated the problems which were weighing upon him in regard to his deafness: "I am deaf as a post, lonely, sad, with a lot of things I would like to say, but few care to talk to me and they are not always near when I need

them. I am getting disheartened and at times I know I am cranky. What shall I do to avoid being sour and repellent?" Schopenhauer's defective hearing played an important rôle in the development of his persecutory delusions.3

Schopenhauer's moral life was a constant thorn in his side. Sex was a persistent trouble to him. He felt helpless before the natural urge of his impetuous passions, for sex "is a motive so strong as to be always certain of victory." 4 The ruthless way in which his parents neglected him in his youth facilitated the perversion of the mating instinct into lines of which he felt deeply ashamed. He paid the penalty for failing to guide his libido into acceptable satisfactions. Schopenhauer hated his weaknesses because they prevented him from attaining his ideal of superiority. It was the pertinacity of this ideal that made his conscience tender, so that he worried over trifles that do not upset the ordinary man. The more he hated his temptations, the more bothersome they became, and the battle for untainted manhood grew increasingly furious. Every defeat, he realized, was a blot on his moral escutcheon. The ignominy of it all made him hate life. The hostile attitude he assumed toward humanity was unfortunate, since it deprived him of those wholesome associations which his nature needed to complete its expansion. Schopenhauer, maladjusted as he was, renounced married life and embraced the perilous rigors of celibacy. He felt powerless before women.

3

Eugene Bleuler: A Textbook of Psychiatry, p. 533, "The Delusion of Persecution of the Hard of Hearing." 1924.

A. Schopenhauer: Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, II, p. 602. Translation. 1883.