worsener

— Make-believe worseners of human nature and human life, Wertherian, Byronic or à la Musset have given way to the trio of the blackening pen, Flaubert, Zola, Maupassant, and later on their heels comes a wit as brilliant and versatile as Voltaire's, but without Voltaire's hopefulness and faith in humanity — Anatole France. Balzac's work has immensely enriched the intellectual capital of the world, has it made the multitude, the "rascal many," happier or better?

— [There] is no suggestion that they were treated differently, for example, from the “worseners” or those who remained the same in the same groups. In reviewing the characteristics of improvers as compared with worseners, a multivariate analysis (to be reported on at a later date) shows no cluster of predictive variables among the almost 100 characteristics recorded. Our data then do not permit prediction of self-care change. It was noted clinically that “improvers” required less nursing care [...]