520 THE PRINCIPLES OF PERSONAL POWERtendency, of a certain type of depraved human being, to destroy repu-
tations. But these people wasted no time explaining or "striking back"
at their enemies. They exercised Self-Control.
It may even be that these attacks, cruel and unjust and untruthful
as they often are, serve a good purpose. In my own case, I know that I
made a discovery that was of great value to me, as a result of a series of
bitter attacks that a journalist launched against me. I paid no attention
to these attacks for four or five years, until finally they became so bold
that I decided to override my policy and strike back at my antagonist.
I sat down at my typewriter and began to write. In all of my experience
as a writer I do not believe I ever assembled such a collection of biting
adjectives as those that I used on this occasion. The more I wrote, the
more angry I became, until I had written all that I could think of on
the subject. As the last line was finished, a strange feeling came over me
-it was not a feeling of bitterness toward the person who had tried to
injure me, it was a feeling of compassion, of sympathy, of forgiveness.
I had unconsciously psychoanalyzed myself by releasing, over the
keys of my typewriter, the repressed emotions of hate and resentment
that I had been unintentionally gathering in my subconscious mind
over a long period of years.
Now if I find myself becoming very angry, I sit down at my type-
writer and "write it out of my system;' then throwaway the manuscript.
Or I file it away so I can refer back in the years to come-after the
evolutionary processes of time have given me greater understanding.
COMMENTARY
Elsewhere, Hill writes about a negative experience that motivated him: "I was once
engaged by the chamber of commerce in a small town to deliver a series of lectures.
One citizen took it upon himself to announce that I was a charlatan who was riding
into town to fleece the locals of their hard-eamed cash. He caused no small amount
of grief to the people who had hired me, and frankly, piqued my anger a little.