Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.
Lionel TrillingRead
Every neurosis is a primitive form of legal proceeding in which the accused carries on the prosecution, imposes judgment and executes the sentence: all to the end that someone else should not perform the same process.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Neurosis reflects an internal struggle where one holds themselves accountable in ways that prevent others from facing their own judgments.
This quote by Lionel Trilling suggests that neuroses can be viewed as a misguided legal process we impose on ourselves, where we take on the roles of prosecutor, judge, and executioner. This self-inflicted judgment may stem from a desire to protect others from facing the same internal conflict, highlighting the complex dynamics of guilt and responsibility within the human psyche.
Themes
NeurosisJudgmentSelf-JudgmentResponsibilityPsychology
In practice
Example use cases
In a psychology class discussing the effects of self-criticism.
More from Lionel Trilling
All quotes →Our culture peculiarly honors the act of blaming, which it takes as the sign of virtue and intellect.
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The poet may be used as a barometer, but let us not forget that he is also part of the weather.
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Youth is a time when we find the books we give up but do not get over.
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There is no connection between the political ideas of our educated class and the deep places of the imagination.
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We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.
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