I once had a patient who used to practice the most horrible tortures on himself, and when I asked him why he did such things, he said, 'Why before the world does them.' I asked him then, 'Why not wait and see what the world will do?' and he said, 'Don't you see? It always come at last, but this way at least I am master of my own destruction.
Joanne Greenberg (2009). “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden: A Novel”, p.37, Macmillan