“psychic hygiene”

From the close of Alexander Herzberg’s 1920’s work The Psychology of Philosophers:

“Thus the biological value of philosophy is threefold. Philosophic thought firstly serves as a substitute for practical action in the discharge of excess impulse-energies. Secondly, it creates, in the place of harsh and intractable and therefore unsatisfying reality, a painless and tractable and therefore satisfying world. And thirdly, it leads, by means of a detour, to the real satisfaction of powerful interests. And in all three ways it serves to maintain mental health: its value lies in mental hygiene.”

It’s a quaint work that I discovered one day by accident on our library shelf. It must have been taken pretty seriously in its time, since this English translation of the German original was done by a major British press fairly quickly. Much in the book seems extremely dated and even implausible. But somehow I still enjoy it.