Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 13, No. 4, 1974
Editorial
Prescription for Sanity Martin Buber spoke continually of " t he life of dialogue." Paul Tillich made it a f u n d a m e n t a l poi nt of his teaching that life m ust be lived in dynamic tension b etween contrasting and sometimes conflicting values. Before them, Alfred North Whitehead taught t h a t the great ages of history were the unstable ones. We could go back to the dawn of history and find wise teachers who c o m f o r t e d their contemporaries with the t h o u g h t t h a t the upheavals, disasters, anxieties, and fears of the period would nonetheless lead to creative d e v e l o p m e n t in either t hat generation or the next. It is almost an axiom o f th e r apy t o d a y t hat true m a t u r i t y consists, at least in part, of the ability o f the individual to hold in his mind two contrasting or opposing ideas or values, each of which is true in certain situations. We do n o t question this conventional wisdom, although at times it seems to us like the little b o y whistling a cheerful tune as he passes the graveyard on a dark night. We c a n n o t help wondering whether, along with the acceptance of anxiety and tension as customary aspects of the hum an experience, there m ay n o t also be some sources of calmness and sanity t hat a person may discover and repair to occasionally along life's anxiety-ridden path. The difficulty with the search for a solution to or at least a relief from the co n tin u ed e f f o r t to deal and live with opposite or conflicting values was underlined b y the Swiss historian, Jacob Burkhardt, who, in the n i n e t e e n t h century, warned against the coming of the "terrible simplifiers," the people who would release us from the agonies of ambiguity, relativity, judgment, and decision by offering us ways t o follow and c o m m a n d s to o b e y t hat could be accepted w i t h o u t the efforts of continual reflection and the balancing o f values against one another. The terrible simplifiers came with a vengeance in the twentieth cent ur y, and the history of our times is essentially th e s to r y of the damage t h e y have done to f u n d a m e n t a l decencies and th at atmosphere of civility within which orderly c o m m u n i t y life is possible. Whether we think o f the terrible simplifiers as the Com m uni st revolutionaries or the Nazi reactionaries and the establishments t hat each created, or the more recent simplifiers who are u n c o n c e r n e d with ideas or values and are simply interested in the achievement, possession, and manipulation of p o w e r as an end in itself, the problem is the same. How can we rescue what remains of civilization and sanity from the forces, h u m a n and institutional, that scorn constructive dialogue and a t t e m p t to simplify life by removing from it all elements of d o u b t , comparison of relative values, and above all t h o u g h t f u l 225
226
Journal o f Religion and Health
and humane participation by the ordinary person in the risks and choices of civilized co m m uni cat i on? On the other hand, the individual cannot lose himself in the a n o n y m o u s mass and give up the pains and perils of decisionmaking, pleading t hat these responsibilities can be u n d e r t a k e n only by the group, whatever group he happens to belong to. J o h n Gardner, who has cont r i but e d m uch to the e f f o r t to preserve and e x t e n d the atmosphere of civility in our world through his nonpartisan C o m m o n Cause m o v e m e n t , tells of a young man who remarked to him that he did n o t mind making judgments that involved himself alone, but that he objected to making judgments t hat involved the lives of ot her people. "I s y m p a t h i z e d , " writes Gardner, " b u t had to tell him that his reluctance would make it impossible for him to be a second grade teacher, a corporation president, a husband, a politician, a parent, a traffic policeman, a weatherman, a chef, a doct or , or a horse-race handicapper--in fact, it would force him to live a hermit's life." The tr u th is t h a t civilization and sanity rest u p o n the capacity of millions o f people to preserve the precarious balance between individual desires and social responsibilities, personal aims and com m unal requirements, along with all the o t h e r uneasy contrasts that life confronts us with: the love of solitude and the longing for friendship and society, high ideals and practical compromises, courage and fear, hope and despair, confidence and anxiety. We must learn to live with t hem all as our const ant companions. Sometimes one will dominate, sometimes another, but the surest thing we know is that if one is in the saddle now a not he r is n o t far away, waiting for its chance, and the chance is b o u n d to come. Thus a possible prescription for sanity might be: " L e a r n t o live with these contrasts and tensions. Travel light, simplify, and thankfully enjoy what there is to be enjoyed, provided always t h a t it does n o t harm others, while enduring or preparing to endure what there is or will be t o be e n d u r e d . " We in America have lived until now in a civilization that assumed that nature was infinitely rich, her resources inexhaustible, and that all the good things of life could t her e f or e come to all who desired them or were successful in the ef f or t to possess them. It seems inevitable that a simpler and more austere c o n c e p t of the good life lies before us. We shall be co n cer n ed n o t so m uc h with affluence as with survival, with possession as with sharing, with exploitation as with conservation, with struggle for success as with h u m a n e concern for others as well as ourselves. Acceptance o f mo r e modest efforts and goals may bring with it a certain relaxation of tension. Pushing less, we may find life m ore interesting and enjoyable. Renouncing old ambitions m ay help us to discover new satisfactions t hat we could n o t see earlier because the ambitions got in the way. We have recently u n d e r t a k e n the study of music, having always been an avid and appreciative listener. We did so n o t with any hope of becoming a c o n c e r t pianist at this stage, b u t because we had always sensed the presence in music, as in all the arts, of a whole world of percept i on and depth t hat the
Prescription for Sanity
227
ordinary person only vaguely experiences. We have a long way t o g o before we can even play the scales passably well, but the experience has greatly enriched b o t h our intellectual and affective life. It has revealed t he richness and variety of the art, any art, and reminded us again of how difficult it is t o do anything really well. It is said t h a t when President Franklin Roosevelt went to make a courtesy call on the t h e n Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, he f o u n d the old man in his s t u d y reading Plato. " W h y do y o u read Plato, Mr. J us t i ce?" asked the new President. " T o improve my mind, Mr. President," replied the old man. The search for wisdom or b eaut y or t r ut h or skill in any of the arts puts objective c o n t e n t into the endless search for self-discovery and self-fulfillment in which we are all engaged, or should be if we are not. The search for mental health and personal fulfillment, which has taken so man y varied forms in our day, has a certain blandness about it t hat comes from the p r e o c c u p a t i o n of so m a ny of the seekers with themselves alone and their own emotional conditions. T h e y feel the need to be " s t r o k e d , " to use the language o f one popular therapeutic school. What t hey really need, we suggest, is something quite different. T h e y need to be drawn o u t of themselves and aroused by a passion for excellence in some art or science, or in the quest for knowledge and h u m a n welfare. We are m ost sane when we are most useful, most healthy when our skills and strengths are m ost fully called upon for ends t hat are self-evidently w o r t h seeking b o t h for ourselves and for the larger c o m m u n i t y . Our age, as is well known, has p r o d u c e d a proliferation of quasi-religious and mystical cults t ha t promise the seeker p r o f o u n d spiritual fulfillments through c o n t a c t with occult forces and truths as y e t hidden from the eyes of the great mass of the uninitiated. T he re is an abundance of gurus and teachers who, usually for a price, will make available to the unwary seeker the knowledge and skill he needs to b e c o m e one of the chosen. These chosen ones have f ound a new world from which wars and enm i t y have been banished and within which all live t o g e t h e r in peace, freed at last f r o m selfishness and worldly ambition, in tune with infinite forces. But there is something missing here. D. W. Harding, in an essay in the N e w York Review o f Books (July 18, 1974, p. 8) entitled "Soul F o o d , " which examines the rebirth o f interest in teachers like Gurdjieff and Oupensky, sums it up well when he says: " A good life w i t h o u t c o n t e n t , spent in h a r m o n y and m u t u a l helpfulness with others equally w i t h o u t c o n t e n t is not a compelling ideal. The need still remains for the magnificent wealth of hum an pursuits t h a t cultures have astonishingly managed to create in spite of the folly of wars and squandered resources. T o approach the full use of even a fraction of these possibilities--in the arts and sciences and hum an relations--demands at least as mu ch disciplined enterprise as the cults devote to establishing their intercourse with r e m o t e r cosmic processes." We agree with Mr. Harding's diagnosis. The best prescription for sanity in a confused, frightening, and of t e n evil world is neither to withdraw into t he
228
Journal of Religion and Health
i n n e r mysteries o f the self or the o c c u l t d e p t h s o f t h e p e r s o n a l i t y , n o r to lose oneself in the a n o n y m o u s group or mass. It is to m a k e some p a r t o f the h u m a n quest for excellence, k n o w l e d g e , b e a u t y , or t r u t h his own and t o immerse himself in it with enthusiasm and persistence, t h u s t o find the self, as Jesus suggested, b y losing the self. Such p r e o c c u p a t i o n m a y seem frivolous or irrelevant in the m o d e r n world; b u t m o r e o f t e n t h a n n o t , t h a t frivolity or irrelevance will be a c o m m e n t a r y o n the madness of the w o r l d a r o u n d t h e individual seeker r a t h e r t h a n on him and his efforts. It is possible, o f course, t h a t the seeker m a y be wrong. We should b e r e a d y t o a d m i t it if it is p r o v e d t o be the case. T r u e sanity consists in maintaining b o t h an a u t h e n t i c inward self-possession and a lively o u t w a r d c o n c e r n w i t h society and the h u m a n c o n d i t i o n . E m e r s o n ' s p r e s c r i p t i o n will d o f o r the p r e s e n t : " I t is easy in the w o r l d to live a f t e r t h e world's opinion. It is easy in solitude to live a f t e r one's own. B u t t h e great m a n is he w h o in the m i d s t o f the world keeps with p e r f e c t sweetness the i n d e p e n d e n c e o f s o l i t u d e . " T h a t is n o t an easy task, b u t t h e r e is n o easy way t o excellence in any area o f life and activity; and sanity is, in o u r view, i n e x t r i c a b l y e n t w i n e d with the pursuit of excellence. Harry C. M e s e r v e
Editorial
Prescription for Sanity Martin Buber spoke continually of " t he life of dialogue." Paul Tillich made it a f u n d a m e n t a l poi nt of his teaching that life m ust be lived in dynamic tension b etween contrasting and sometimes conflicting values. Before them, Alfred North Whitehead taught t h a t the great ages of history were the unstable ones. We could go back to the dawn of history and find wise teachers who c o m f o r t e d their contemporaries with the t h o u g h t t h a t the upheavals, disasters, anxieties, and fears of the period would nonetheless lead to creative d e v e l o p m e n t in either t hat generation or the next. It is almost an axiom o f th e r apy t o d a y t hat true m a t u r i t y consists, at least in part, of the ability o f the individual to hold in his mind two contrasting or opposing ideas or values, each of which is true in certain situations. We do n o t question this conventional wisdom, although at times it seems to us like the little b o y whistling a cheerful tune as he passes the graveyard on a dark night. We c a n n o t help wondering whether, along with the acceptance of anxiety and tension as customary aspects of the hum an experience, there m ay n o t also be some sources of calmness and sanity t hat a person may discover and repair to occasionally along life's anxiety-ridden path. The difficulty with the search for a solution to or at least a relief from the co n tin u ed e f f o r t to deal and live with opposite or conflicting values was underlined b y the Swiss historian, Jacob Burkhardt, who, in the n i n e t e e n t h century, warned against the coming of the "terrible simplifiers," the people who would release us from the agonies of ambiguity, relativity, judgment, and decision by offering us ways t o follow and c o m m a n d s to o b e y t hat could be accepted w i t h o u t the efforts of continual reflection and the balancing o f values against one another. The terrible simplifiers came with a vengeance in the twentieth cent ur y, and the history of our times is essentially th e s to r y of the damage t h e y have done to f u n d a m e n t a l decencies and th at atmosphere of civility within which orderly c o m m u n i t y life is possible. Whether we think o f the terrible simplifiers as the Com m uni st revolutionaries or the Nazi reactionaries and the establishments t hat each created, or the more recent simplifiers who are u n c o n c e r n e d with ideas or values and are simply interested in the achievement, possession, and manipulation of p o w e r as an end in itself, the problem is the same. How can we rescue what remains of civilization and sanity from the forces, h u m a n and institutional, that scorn constructive dialogue and a t t e m p t to simplify life by removing from it all elements of d o u b t , comparison of relative values, and above all t h o u g h t f u l 225
226
Journal o f Religion and Health
and humane participation by the ordinary person in the risks and choices of civilized co m m uni cat i on? On the other hand, the individual cannot lose himself in the a n o n y m o u s mass and give up the pains and perils of decisionmaking, pleading t hat these responsibilities can be u n d e r t a k e n only by the group, whatever group he happens to belong to. J o h n Gardner, who has cont r i but e d m uch to the e f f o r t to preserve and e x t e n d the atmosphere of civility in our world through his nonpartisan C o m m o n Cause m o v e m e n t , tells of a young man who remarked to him that he did n o t mind making judgments that involved himself alone, but that he objected to making judgments t hat involved the lives of ot her people. "I s y m p a t h i z e d , " writes Gardner, " b u t had to tell him that his reluctance would make it impossible for him to be a second grade teacher, a corporation president, a husband, a politician, a parent, a traffic policeman, a weatherman, a chef, a doct or , or a horse-race handicapper--in fact, it would force him to live a hermit's life." The tr u th is t h a t civilization and sanity rest u p o n the capacity of millions o f people to preserve the precarious balance between individual desires and social responsibilities, personal aims and com m unal requirements, along with all the o t h e r uneasy contrasts that life confronts us with: the love of solitude and the longing for friendship and society, high ideals and practical compromises, courage and fear, hope and despair, confidence and anxiety. We must learn to live with t hem all as our const ant companions. Sometimes one will dominate, sometimes another, but the surest thing we know is that if one is in the saddle now a not he r is n o t far away, waiting for its chance, and the chance is b o u n d to come. Thus a possible prescription for sanity might be: " L e a r n t o live with these contrasts and tensions. Travel light, simplify, and thankfully enjoy what there is to be enjoyed, provided always t h a t it does n o t harm others, while enduring or preparing to endure what there is or will be t o be e n d u r e d . " We in America have lived until now in a civilization that assumed that nature was infinitely rich, her resources inexhaustible, and that all the good things of life could t her e f or e come to all who desired them or were successful in the ef f or t to possess them. It seems inevitable that a simpler and more austere c o n c e p t of the good life lies before us. We shall be co n cer n ed n o t so m uc h with affluence as with survival, with possession as with sharing, with exploitation as with conservation, with struggle for success as with h u m a n e concern for others as well as ourselves. Acceptance o f mo r e modest efforts and goals may bring with it a certain relaxation of tension. Pushing less, we may find life m ore interesting and enjoyable. Renouncing old ambitions m ay help us to discover new satisfactions t hat we could n o t see earlier because the ambitions got in the way. We have recently u n d e r t a k e n the study of music, having always been an avid and appreciative listener. We did so n o t with any hope of becoming a c o n c e r t pianist at this stage, b u t because we had always sensed the presence in music, as in all the arts, of a whole world of percept i on and depth t hat the
Prescription for Sanity
227
ordinary person only vaguely experiences. We have a long way t o g o before we can even play the scales passably well, but the experience has greatly enriched b o t h our intellectual and affective life. It has revealed t he richness and variety of the art, any art, and reminded us again of how difficult it is t o do anything really well. It is said t h a t when President Franklin Roosevelt went to make a courtesy call on the t h e n Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, he f o u n d the old man in his s t u d y reading Plato. " W h y do y o u read Plato, Mr. J us t i ce?" asked the new President. " T o improve my mind, Mr. President," replied the old man. The search for wisdom or b eaut y or t r ut h or skill in any of the arts puts objective c o n t e n t into the endless search for self-discovery and self-fulfillment in which we are all engaged, or should be if we are not. The search for mental health and personal fulfillment, which has taken so man y varied forms in our day, has a certain blandness about it t hat comes from the p r e o c c u p a t i o n of so m a ny of the seekers with themselves alone and their own emotional conditions. T h e y feel the need to be " s t r o k e d , " to use the language o f one popular therapeutic school. What t hey really need, we suggest, is something quite different. T h e y need to be drawn o u t of themselves and aroused by a passion for excellence in some art or science, or in the quest for knowledge and h u m a n welfare. We are m ost sane when we are most useful, most healthy when our skills and strengths are m ost fully called upon for ends t hat are self-evidently w o r t h seeking b o t h for ourselves and for the larger c o m m u n i t y . Our age, as is well known, has p r o d u c e d a proliferation of quasi-religious and mystical cults t ha t promise the seeker p r o f o u n d spiritual fulfillments through c o n t a c t with occult forces and truths as y e t hidden from the eyes of the great mass of the uninitiated. T he re is an abundance of gurus and teachers who, usually for a price, will make available to the unwary seeker the knowledge and skill he needs to b e c o m e one of the chosen. These chosen ones have f ound a new world from which wars and enm i t y have been banished and within which all live t o g e t h e r in peace, freed at last f r o m selfishness and worldly ambition, in tune with infinite forces. But there is something missing here. D. W. Harding, in an essay in the N e w York Review o f Books (July 18, 1974, p. 8) entitled "Soul F o o d , " which examines the rebirth o f interest in teachers like Gurdjieff and Oupensky, sums it up well when he says: " A good life w i t h o u t c o n t e n t , spent in h a r m o n y and m u t u a l helpfulness with others equally w i t h o u t c o n t e n t is not a compelling ideal. The need still remains for the magnificent wealth of hum an pursuits t h a t cultures have astonishingly managed to create in spite of the folly of wars and squandered resources. T o approach the full use of even a fraction of these possibilities--in the arts and sciences and hum an relations--demands at least as mu ch disciplined enterprise as the cults devote to establishing their intercourse with r e m o t e r cosmic processes." We agree with Mr. Harding's diagnosis. The best prescription for sanity in a confused, frightening, and of t e n evil world is neither to withdraw into t he
228
Journal of Religion and Health
i n n e r mysteries o f the self or the o c c u l t d e p t h s o f t h e p e r s o n a l i t y , n o r to lose oneself in the a n o n y m o u s group or mass. It is to m a k e some p a r t o f the h u m a n quest for excellence, k n o w l e d g e , b e a u t y , or t r u t h his own and t o immerse himself in it with enthusiasm and persistence, t h u s t o find the self, as Jesus suggested, b y losing the self. Such p r e o c c u p a t i o n m a y seem frivolous or irrelevant in the m o d e r n world; b u t m o r e o f t e n t h a n n o t , t h a t frivolity or irrelevance will be a c o m m e n t a r y o n the madness of the w o r l d a r o u n d t h e individual seeker r a t h e r t h a n on him and his efforts. It is possible, o f course, t h a t the seeker m a y be wrong. We should b e r e a d y t o a d m i t it if it is p r o v e d t o be the case. T r u e sanity consists in maintaining b o t h an a u t h e n t i c inward self-possession and a lively o u t w a r d c o n c e r n w i t h society and the h u m a n c o n d i t i o n . E m e r s o n ' s p r e s c r i p t i o n will d o f o r the p r e s e n t : " I t is easy in the w o r l d to live a f t e r t h e world's opinion. It is easy in solitude to live a f t e r one's own. B u t t h e great m a n is he w h o in the m i d s t o f the world keeps with p e r f e c t sweetness the i n d e p e n d e n c e o f s o l i t u d e . " T h a t is n o t an easy task, b u t t h e r e is n o easy way t o excellence in any area o f life and activity; and sanity is, in o u r view, i n e x t r i c a b l y e n t w i n e d with the pursuit of excellence. Harry C. M e s e r v e
