上外版大学英语写作精选第五册(3)

er hang-dog manner， her over-anxiousness to please， or perhaps her unconscious hostility towards those she anticipates will affront her - all act to drive away those whom she would attract. In the same manner， a salesman or a businessman will also find that his actual experiences tend to "prove" his self-image is correct.

    Because of this objective "proof" it very seldom occurs to a person that his trouble lies in his self-image or his own evaluation of himself. Tell the schoolboy that he only "thinks" he cannot master algebra， and he will doubt your sanity. He has tried and tried， and still his report card tells the story. Tell the salesman that it is only an idea that he cannot earn more than a certain figure， and he can prove you wrong by his order book. He knows only too well how hard he has tried and failed. Yet， as we shall see later， almost miraculous changes have occurred both in grades of students， and in the earning capacity of salesmen - when they were prevailed upon to change their self-images.
    2. The self-image can be changed. Numerous case histories have shown that one is never too young nor too old to change his self-image and thereby start to live a new life.

    One of the reasons it has seemed so difficult for a person to change his habits， his personality， or his way of life， has been that heretofore nearly all efforts at change have been directed to the circumference of the self， so to speak， rather than to the center. Numerous patients have said to me something like the following： "If you are talking about 'positive thinking'， I've tried that before， and it just doesn't work for me." However， a little questioning invariably brings out that these individuals have employed "positive thinking，" or attempted to employ it， either upon particular external circumstances， or upon some particular habit or character defect （"I will get that job." " I will be more calm and relaxed in the future." "This business venture will turn out right for me，" etc.） But they had never thought to change their thinking of the "self" which was to accomplish these things.

    Jesus warned us about the folly of putting a patch of new material upon an old garment， or of putting new wine into old bottles. "Positive thinking" cannot be used effectively as a patch or a crutch to the same old self-image. In fact， it is literally impossible to really think positively about a particular situation， as long as you hold a negative concept of self. And， numerous experiments have shown that once the concept of self is changed， other things consistent with the new concept of self， are accomplished easily and without strain.

    One of the earliest and most convincing experiments along this line was conducted by the late Prescott Lecky， one of the pioneers in self-image psychology. Lecky conceived of the personality as a "system of ideas"， a

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