Many today recognize the subjectivity of human life—that our thinking largely determines our experience. Such a perspective may indicate, far more than we realize, that our fears are self-generated, our ills are self-constituted, our limitations are self-enforced.
One may appear to be his own worst enemy —and this is obvious in such things as drug abuse, self-destructive patterns of behavior, or even suicidal tendencies. More subtly, it appears as bad traits that seem stubborn (uncontrolled temper, chronic lateness, arrogance, disorder, procrastination) or as negative emotions (fear, grief, resentment, envy, hate). Indeed, certain diseases are believed to involve some sort of reversal or destruction of what is termed the body's immune system, so it appears that either the body is attacking itself or is particularly vulnerable to disease.
But can one really destroy himself? Can he truly be a disturbed personality, a victim of abusive circumstances or perhaps of inherited traits, chronic fears, ingrained emotions? Is one's nature inherently weak or frail, bound to suffer, prone to disease, trapped in self-afflictive attitudes or self-destructive tendencies?
