individual in society and his relation toward his surroundings.

The endeavor to overcome obsessions is likely to be ignored by two classes:
the self-centered individuals who see no reason for learning what they do
not want to learn, and the individuals who have no time for, or interest
in, self-training because of absorption in subjects of wider relation, as
art, or science, or reform. The philosophy of Haeckel applies to both:

"Man belongs to the social vertebrates, and has, therefore, like all social
animals, two sets of duties--first to himself, and secondly to the society
to which he belongs. The former are the behests of self-love, or egoism,
the latter love for one's fellows, or altruism. The two sets of precepts
are equally just, equally natural, and equally indispensable. If a man
desires to have the advantage of living in an organized community, he has
to consult not only his own fortune, but also that of the society, and of
the 'neighbors' who form the society. He must realize that its prosperity
is his own prosperity, and that it cannot suffer without his own injury."

The individual who is ruled by his obsessions not only paves the way for
needless and ultimate breakdown, but is in danger of gradually narrowing
his field of usefulness and pleasure until he is in little better case than
Simeon Stylites, who spent nearly half a century on the top of a monument.
Nor has he even Simeon's consolation that he could come down if he chose;
for it seems that the authorities sent messengers demanding his return,
with orders to let him stay if he showed willingness to come down--and he
stayed.