On the Causes of Frequent Suicide: A Psychological Treatise

wealth. Not every zeal is rewarded with the success one counts on; he does not reach the goal of his wishes. Discontent and life-weariness seize the unsettled mind and lead to despair, which can indeed take the most terrible turn. We find this in the person who trusts his own infallibility too much and, with his passionate pride, will not reconcile himself to the admission of a mistake. Yet he has fallen into an error, and he has convinced himself in advance how little the same will remain hidden from others, and especially from his superiors. He lacks the cool level-headedness to reconsider and investigate once more whether the harm from the error might be countered. The delusion that with