Personality flaws CAN be conquered Catholic University psychologist's celebrated guide has no equal in half a century.
First, said Dr. Rudolf Allers, face the unvarnished truth. Identify the flaws. Then, get to the root causes. Finally, take the action he prescribes for the particular flaw. Change will come in time. Allers was a past master not only at explaining personality traits, but also at dispensing simple advice. And it was all "based on Christian morals," noted the delighted Catholic Journal of Religious Instruction. His book caused a minor stir because it revealed, for the first time, that "many defects in behavior commonly excused as natural disposition or temperament have their source in willful attitudes" that are concealed even from ourselves, as Ave Maria magazine put it. More importantly: "Many of our faults and much of the difficulty that results in our lives because of them are of our own making."