“There is a large class of persons who are often of acute and nimble intelligence, in general ability equal to or above the average, of an active, bustling disposition, but who are utterly devoid of industry.  For by industry we mean steady persistence in a continuous employment in spite of monotony and distastefulness; an employment that is followed at the cost of present gratification for the sake of future benefit.  Of such self-sacrifice these persons are incapable.  They are always busy, but their activity is recreative, in the sense that it is congenial to them, and from it they derive immediate gratification.  As soon as they tire of what they are doing, as soon as their occupation ceases to be in itself attractive it is relinquished for something else, which in its turn is abandoned as soon as it becomes tedious.

“Such people form a well-characterized class:  they are clever; they readily acquire accomplishments which do not need great application; and agreeably to the recreative character of their occupations, their natures are well developed on the artistic side.  They draw, paint, sing, play, write verses and make various pretty things with easy dexterity.  Their lack of industry prevents them ever mastering the technique of any art; they have artistic tastes, but are always amateurs.

“With the vice of busy idleness they display other vices.  The same inability to forgo immediate enjoyment, at whatever cost, shows itself in other acts.  They are nearly always spendthrifts, usually drunkards, often sexually dissolute.  Next to their lack of industry, their most conspicuous quality is their incurable mendacity.  Their readiness, their resources, their promptitude, the elaborate circumstantiality of their lies are astonishing.  The copiousness and efficiency of their excuses for failing to do what they have undertaken would convince anyone who had no experience of their capabilities in this way.

“Withal, they are excellent company, pleasant companions, good-natured, easy-going, and urbane.  Their self-conceit is inordinate, and remains undiminished in spite of repeated failures in the most important affairs of life.  They see themselves fall immeasurably behind those who are admittedly their inferiors in cleverness, yet they are not only cheery and content, but their confidence in their own powers and general superiority to other people remains undiminished.

“The lack of self-restraint is plainly an inborn character, for it may show itself in but one member of the family brought up in exactly the same circumstances as other members who do not show any such peculiarity.  The victim is born with one important mental faculty defective, precisely as another may be born with hare-lip.”

In neuropaths the mental mechanism of projection, which we all show, is often marked.

Any personal shortcoming, being repugnant to us causes self-reproach, which we avoid by “projecting” the fault (unconsciously) on some one else.