- The question is often asked: To what extent is it necessary to analyze childhood experiences in order to resolve
the psychological problems of an adult? I do not believe there is any general answer to this question that will fit all
cases. There are some problems that can be corrected without ever exploring the patient's childhood; in other cases,
extensive exploration and analysis is needed.
Where an analysis of childhood experiences is appropriate, the patient must be taught to recognize that it is not the
experiences as such that are generating his problem, nor even the initial conclusions he drew from those
experiences, but rather the fact that he keeps reinforcing those conclusions every day of his adult life. There are
persons who begin telling themselves that they are worthless at the age of three, and go on telling it to themselves
every day thereafter into their thirties or forties. On the other hand, there are persons who draw mistaken
conclusions about themselves or about life at an early age, but later revise those conclusions as a result of new
thinking and, perhaps, additional evidence, and who, therefore, escape painful experiences with no enduring harm.
However, instructive and valuable it may be for the patient to learn how his problems began, and it can be valuable
and instructive, he must still learn what he is doing in the present to keep his problems alive. There is nothing he
can do about his past actions. The solution lies in what he does about his present and future actions—in the new
conclusions he forms, the new psycho-epistemological policies he adopts, the new values he acquires, the new
goals he elects to pursue.
Conclusion
In our analysis of needs (Chapter Two), I discussed the fact that the frustration of a need does not necessarily result
in the immediate or direct death of the organism: it can result instead in a general lowering of the ability of an
organism to function, a diminution of the organism's effectiveness and power. This is applicable to psychological
needs in general and to the need of self-esteem in particular.