Page:Psychology of the Unconscious (1916).djvu/118

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PSYCHOLOGY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS

their innocence against non-existent attacks; however, one discovers at a closer examination that the patient, while he apparently defends his innocence without reason, fulfils with that a "Deckhandlung," the energy for which arises from just those impulses, whose sinful character is revealed by the contents of the pretended reproach and calumny.11

Job suffered doubly, on one side through the loss of his fortune, on the other through the lack of understanding in his friends; the latter can be seen throughout the book. The suffering of the misunderstood recalls the figure of Cyrano de Bergerac—he too suffered doubly, on one side through hopeless love, on the other side through misunderstanding. He falls, as we have seen, in the last hopeless battle against "Le Mensonge, les Compromis, les Préjugés, les Lâchetés et la Sottise.—Oui, Vous m'arrachez tout le laurier et la rose!"

Job laments

"God delivereth me to the ungodly,
And casteth me into the hands of the wicked,
I was at ease, and he brake me asunder;
Yea, he hath taken me by the neck, and dashed me to pieces:


"He hath also set me up for his mark.
His archers compass me round about;
He cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare;
He poureth out my gall upon the ground.
He breaketh me with breach upon breach;
He runneth upon me like a giant."—Job xvi: 11-15.

The analogy of feeling lies in the suffering of the hopeless struggle against the more powerful. It is as if this conflict were accompanied from afar by the sounds of