To-day there is much talk about self-expression. Children are being taught that thoughts or desires must be expressed. Parents are being influenced to believe that if these thoughts are not expressed they will be suppressed, and later in the child's life will cause him trouble, because they will remain in the so-called subconscious mind and will appear as conflicts of purpose or as what are known as complexes. How wrong all this is seen to be when Christian Science is understood!
Before there can be true self-expression there must be a realization that man's real self is the likeness of God, and that this likeness of God is all that the real man can express. Anything other than this is only a false sense of self, and should never be expressed. A false belief or wrong thought should not be expressed or suppressed, but destroyed by knowing the truth about man.
Due to the necessity of obedience, evil thoughts must be suppressed. For instance, the indulgence of the desire to steal must be suppressed for the protection of the community, and the victim of this false desire confined in jail. This, however, admittedly is not healing, but is merely a means of general protection. Healing is the annihilation of the false belief that one can gain by stealing from another.
