TQ 3298

From the collection, 1001 Windmills of the Mind Think of the mind as a theatre. Let the field of consciousness be represented by the stage. On it, from time to time, there come and go certain actors (ideas and desires), directed from the wings by a stage-manager (the censor or ego ideal), who has derived his standards and experiences from training and example and precept and pictured ideal - from the lives and mouths of parents, teachers, early friends, and other early influences. All of the actors - and we infer that there are very many of them - want to act. They will get on to the stage, if possible. The stage-manager holds some of them off stage merely until the proper time for their appearance. They are suppressed pro tem., and come or go as called. Others never get on the stage at all. They are poor actors, or unclothed and motley, or belong in another show, and so have no business clamouring for admission here. Most of them are not even in the wings (the fore-conscious), but ar