Page:The Art of Helping People Out of Trouble (1924).pdf/127

 action and becomes an ineffective human being, useless both to himself and to others.

The interpretation of a man should not, therefore, be undertaken without some assurance that he will be able to profit by it. Usually one will do best to wait until the person in trouble asks for this service. His request may be direct or implied. That it is spoken may not, however, necessarily mean that it is intended. A man may ask for advice about himself when he is too overwrought to apprehend what may be said to him. He may urge that he be told the truth when it is not the truth that he wishes to hear. What he desires to be told is that in his attitude and behavior he is being the only sort of person he could be under the circumstances. On the other hand, often those to whom we long to tell the truth know it before we speak, and when we tell them that which we think is new to them we are only confirming what they have long suspected. On every count the burden of proof rests upon the person who feels that he must offer to help a man to face the facts about himself.

What this process of interpretation involves when once it is called for may be seen in part in the story of Salvatore Donato.