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withdrawal, guilt, low self esteem, pessimism and maladjustment.
Those who withdraw have pulled away from the embrace of their
fellows.  Those with guilt are certain that their sins have marked them
for social rejection.  The maladjusted have failed to mesh with those
around them.  And those with low self-esteem are convinced that
others have good reason to shun them.  In the study, low natural killer
cell activity wasn't linked to use of medication, alcohol, marijuana or
recent medical treatment--just to measures of impaired social
connection.51
Meyer Friedman, the doctor who delineated the Type A and
Type B personality and its relationship to heart disease, says, "If you
don't think what you do is very important, and if you feel that if you
died, nobody's going to mourn, you're asking for illness."52
Even the well-being of the men we would imagine to be most
invulnerable to social forces depends on the sense that the
superorganism needs them.  When President Dwight Eisenhower had
his heart attack on September 24, 1955, mail came in by the sackful
from all over the world.  Ike said, "It really does something for you to
know that people all over the world are praying for you."
Eisenhower's doctor sensed that the president's position in the social
network could heal him.  He insisted that Ike's aides continue to
discuss business with the recuperating president, making him feel he
was still important.  Eventually, Ike went to Camp David for five
weeks of rest.  It was the worst thing he could have done.  Stripped of
his sense of social purpose, he went into severe depression.  It was the
first setback Eisenhower had experienced since his heart attack.  The
ailing chief executive eventually recovered...when he was allowed to
go back to work.53
Finding himself necessary to the social organism had a similar
impact on another warrior--Colonel T.E. Lawrence, Lawrence of
Arabia. In the Middle East, Lawrence had been a dashing, energetic
figure.  He had dressed as an Arab, and worked hard to win the
respect of tribal leaders.  He had taught himself to jump nine feet onto
  ultiphasic Personality Test, demonstrate depression, social
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