Watzlawick wrote this short story. A
man wants to hang a picture, but has no hammer. He wants to go to his neighbor
to borrow one. Then he starts to doubt: perhaps his neighbor won’t give him a
hammer. Just yesterday he had given him only a hasty greeting. “He probably has
something against me. But I didn’t do anything against him, did I?” The man
gradually works himself up into a rage against his repulsive neighbor. Finally he
runs over, rings the doorbell, and shouts at the neighbor: “Keep your stupid
hammer!”
Trying to solve a problem by
oneself is not a bad idea. But imagining a problem and trying to solve it is
not a great idea. It will at best make us fool of ourselves and at worst it
will take us mental asylum.
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