*tat8 OJoUege of AgrUttUure At (ftotnell MnineirBitB 3tt)ata. £?. 1- Cornell University Library BF 173.T7 Psychoanalysis and behavior, 3 1924 014 101 947 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92401 41 01 947 PSYCHOANALYSIS AND BEHAVIOR BY ANDRE TRIDON "Since humanity came into being, man has enjoyed himself too little. That alone, my brethren, is our original sin." Nietzsche. NEW YORK ALFRED ■ A • KNOPF 1920 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc. (3 "Bri75 ^ I cj 3 % u| PBINTBD IN THB UNITED STATES OT AUSBIOA This book is respectfully dedicated to Dr. Edward J. Kempf of Washington, D. C. The author acknowledges his indebtedness to Dr. N. Philip Norman, Dr. Edward J. Kempf, Miss Helena De Kay, H. L. Mencken, Esq., Dr. Elizabeth Severn, Israel Spielberg, Esq., and Carl Dreher, Esq., who have either supplied him with material for the present book, or revised his manuscript or offered valuable editorial suggestions. PREFACE This is an attempt at interpreting human conduct from the psychoanalytical point of view. The un- conscious and involuntary play a tremendous part in human life, the more tremendous as they usually masquerade as conscious and voluntary. Courts and public opinion, disregarding that fact, either praise or condemn, either reward or punish. Psy- choanalysis passes no judgments and only seeks to understand and help. The author has not felt the necessity of restating historical and theoretical facts to which he devoted a previous book: "Psychoanalysis, its history, theory and practice." The various schools of an- alysis, however, having reached almost identical conclusions as to human behaviour, although they started from different premises, the last four chap- ters of the present book shall describe the paths followed by the four best known psychoanalysts, Freud, Jung, Adler and Kempf . Andre Tridon. 121 Madison Avenue, New York City. September 1920. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface, 7 I. THE ORGANISM I. The Unconscious, 13 II. Body and Mind, an Indivisible Unit, 23 III. Nerves and Nervousness, 34 II. PROBLEMS OF CHILDHOOD I. Childhood Fixations, 53 II. The Sexual Enlightenment of Chil- dren, 66 III. PROGRESS AND REGRESSIONS I. The Negative and the Positive Life, 87 II. Speech and Memory Defects, 107 III. Scapegoats, 115 IV. Dual Personauties, 129 V. How One Woman became Insane, 146 VI. The Neurotic Aspects of War, 165 IV. SLEEP AND DREAMS I. Sleep, Sleeplessness and Nightmares, 185 II. Self-knowledge Through Dream Study, 201 V. PROBLEMS OF SEX I. The Love Life, 219 II. Can We Subumate Our Cravings? 239 III, Puritanism, a Dignified Neurosis, 252 Contents VI. THE PSYCHOANALYTIC TREATMENT I. Hypnotist and Analyst, 269 VII. THE FOUR SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOANALYSIS I. Freud. The Pioneer, 289 II. Jung. The Zurich School, 305 in. Adler. Individual Psychology, 319 IV. Kempf. Dynamic Mechanism, 331 VIH. INDEX, 351 I. THE ORGANISM CHAPTER I: THE UNCONSCIOUS To the majority of people, our conscious life appears as the most important, if not the only im- portant, form of life. Most of our rules of behaviour, most of our judgments on human actions are based upon that estimate of our con- scious life. And yet we are conscious of very few things at a time and we are conscious of each one of those things only for variable, some times, very short periods. After a week, a day, an hour or a fraction of a second, the various things we were conscious of drop out of our consciousness, temporarily or per- manently. We may witness a theatrical perform- ance, be conscious of it that evening, think of it perhaps the next day, mention it several times in conversation, remember it years after when it is alluded to in our presence, and then "forget it." But the impression made on us by that per- formance does not die off. It only becomes un- conscious. That impression and millions of others are stored up in our "unconscious" where they con- tinue to live as unconscious elements. [13] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour These impressions meant either active or passive reactions to certain stimulations, the yielding to or resistance to those stimulations, memory-images of satisfied cravings and of repressed cravings, joy or pain, longing or hatred, in other words, all our life from the day of our birth, with all its struggles against reality, its compromises with reality, its victories and defeats, etc. All that past which we are constantly carrying with us and to which we are constantly adding, is bound, according to what elements predominate in it, to colour strongly our conscious view of life and to determine our conscious activities. A neurologist, a sexual pervert, a sculptor and a manicure would react very differently to the sight of a woman's hand. An egotist would be unable to notice in his environment things of a neutral type, that is, unlikely to affect his egotism favour- ably or unfavourably. To a farmer, a certain ac- cumulation of clouds might only suggest a danger to his crops; the same meteorological phenomenon might transport a painter with artistic joy. A chemist or a sailor would place a totally different construction on their observations of the same clouds. We know that unconscious factors cause us to engage in certain forms of activity, to become in- [14] What Made Me Do That? sane, to fall asleep or to remain sleepless, to love a certain type and to remain frigid to another. They influence our methods of reasoning, making us at times illogical and one-sided, stubborn and unjust. In other words our entire life is influenced, if not entirely determined, by unconscious factors. Our unconscious is the greatest time and energy saving machine, provided it functions normally. Some of our simplest conscious acts presuppose an enormous amount of unconscious work. Step- ping aside to dodge ah automobile, simple as it appears, is only made possible by innumerable "mental" and "physical" operations such as realiz- ing the nature, size, direction and speed, of the dangerous object, selecting a safe spot at a certain distance from it, performing the necessary muscu- lar actions, etc., etc. On the other hand we may, without any apparent reason, perform useless, absurd, harmful actions and be genuinely grieved or puzzled over our behaviour. We ask ourselves "What made me do that?" Our unconscious made us do that. Our be- haviour was dominated and determined by one or several factors unknown to us and which, unless investigated systematically, may remain unknown, [15] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour puzzling, detrimental, if not dangerous, and may at some future time be once more the cause of irrational behaviour. Our unconscious "contains" two sorts of "thoughts" : those which rise easily to the surface of our consciousness and those which remain at the bottom and can only be made to rise with more or less difficulty. Our unconscious is like a pool into which dead leaves, dust, rain drops and a thousand other things are falling day after day, some of them floating on the surface for a while, some sinking to the bottom and, all of them, after a while, merging themselves with the water or the ooze. Let us suppose that two dead dogs, one of them weighted down with a stone, have been thrown into that pool. They will poison its waters, and people wishing to use those waters will have to rake the ooze and remove the rotting carrion. The dog whose body was not fastened to any heavy object will easily be brought to the surface and removed. The other will be more difficult to recover and if the stone is very heavy, may remain in the pool until ways and means are devised to dismember him or to cut the rope holding him down. Another simile might be offered. Out of fifty persons assembled in a room, not one may be think- [16] The Unconscious Is Permanent ing of the multiplication table. Yet if some one points out three chairs worth six dollars a piece and asks the audience how much the three together are worth, the part of the multiplication table contain- ing the answer shall rise to the surface of every- body's consciousness, to sink back into the unconscious a second later. Other thoughts would not rise so willingly into consciousness: those associated with some painful or humiliating memory or with the repression of some human craving. Only a special effort aided by many association tests will in certain cases cut the rope that holds those "dead dogs tied to their paving stone." Such thoughts are called complexes and they are the most disturbing element in our life, for, unknown to us, they exert a strong influence on all our mental operations and on our bodily activities. It is not so much our consciousness as our un- conscious which IS our personality. Our conscious thoughts are fleeting and changing, our unconscious is more permanent. If we take a list of some himdred words and ask a person to tell us what comes at once to his mind when he hears each word spoken, it will be noticed that the answers which come without any hesitancy would be the same several months afterward. Those answers, in fact, [17] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour by their wording, present a striking picture of the personality, a picture which only changes when the personality undergoes distinct modifications. Only the words referring to the person's com- plexes are likely to change, as if the unconscious was trying to conceal the place where the "dead dogs" have been buried. In reaction tests, in fact, the subject's failure to give the same answer is taken to indicate a hidden complex. But even the varying answers given in such cases are closely related to one another. When we remember how our unconscious has "grown," that is, through the accumulation of memories and repressions from the day of our birth, or even from our prenatal existence to the present day, we must realize that a large proportion of the elements which constitute it is primitive, infantile or childlike, unadapted or only partly adapted. Its influence on our behaviour is not likely, therefore, to facilitate our adaptation to the innumerable rules imposed by a more and more complex civilization. Through all our life our unconscious follows us like the shadow of an archaic self, prompting us to seek a line of lesser resistance, or to give up the struggle with the modem world, to indulge ourselves in many ways which are no longer accept- [18] Wrong Suggestions able socially; when childlike or infantile elements predominate in it, its influence may unfit us com- pletely for life in modem communities unless we are brought to a clear realization of the ghostly power masquerading as ourselves and which tries to pull us back. When the man we were yesterday offers us sug- gestions as to conduct, we are probably safe in accepting them. When the boy we were at 15, en- deavours to convince us that his way was the only way, the struggle for mastery between ourselves and the boy may usher in a neurosis. When the infant we were at one or two years of age, coaxes us to indulge ourselves as he did and we yield to his entreaties, we may regress temporarily or per- manently to a level at which we shall be adjudged insane. Academic psychologists have suggested a num- ber of very interesting but meaningless words to designate the varying degrees of unconsciousness, such as foireconscious, preconscious, subconscious. For scientific purposes the word unconscious is sufficient. Instead of distinguishing degrees of un- consciousness which may easily change, it is pref- erable to assign reasons for unconsciousness. The multiplication table in the above illustration [19] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour was unconscious because it was not needed, for reasons of economy. It became conscious when needed. Other factors, mentioned previously, re- main unconscious because the thought of them is re- pressed or suppressed. Some are forgotten, be- cause they are insignificant, some because the memory of them is weighted with unpleasant con- notations as one of the dead dogs was weighted with a paving stone. It is the task of psychoanalysis to make us thoroughly familiar with the content of our uncon- scious that we may on every occasion determine whether the voices talking to us from the past buried in us are the voices of civilization or the voices of regression. Psychoanalysis forewarns us against any undue influence it may exert in the conduct of our lives and helps those of us who may have listened to the wrong voice to free themselves from their slavery. Instead of saying, as academic psychologists would put it, that the psychoanalytic technique can make unconscious factors foreconscious and finally conscious we should say that it can estab- lish a relation of cause-effect between certain acts and certain unconscious factors. For that reason psychoanalysis is the only key to an xmderstanding of human behaviour. Ethics [20] Every Case Is Peculiar and statute books only record the various com- promises which mankind in its onward march has had to make with reality. They have, however, no absolutely scientific value, because they are based upon the conception of an inexistent being, the average human being. Psychoanalysis on the other hand discards the "average" man or woman and deals solely with the individual. The neurotic applying for treatment who states that his case is a "very peculiar one" is both right and wrong. His case as a clinical picture is prob- ably a very common one but as the content of one man's unconscious is necessarily very different from that of any other man's unconscious, no case can be prejudged from the observations made in any other case. Every case is "peculiar." The law and current ethics criticize or punish a pool for containing a dead dog which is held down by a powerful weight, and for poisoning those who drink of its water. Psychoanalysis looks for the corpse at the bot- tom of the pool and endeavours to remove it. Neither before nor after the operation does it pass judgments or pronounce sentences. To understand is to forgive, but in spite of its frankly determinist attitude in matters of behaviour, [21] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour psychoanalysis does not condone unethical or criminal behaviour. Hygienists would not insult or punish the infected pool but they would fence it off until the contaminating substances had been removed. Irrational and criminal individuals should be likewise restrained and isolated, not for purposes of castigation, but until such time when dangerous factors in their imconscious have been removed and when re-education has enabled them to resume their place among normal individuals. BIBLIOGRAPHY The subject of the unconscious is discussed very clearly in non-technical language by William Lay in "Man's Un- conscious Conflict" (Dodd, Mead and Co.) pages 48 to 126. This book is an excellent primer for those who wish to familiarize themselves with the terminology of psycho- analysis. Advanced readers may study Jung's book "Psychology of the Unconscious" (Moffat Yard) which requires a certain knowledge of folklore, ancient religions and psychiatry. The chapters on Instincts, Memory Images and Trop- isms in Jacques Loeb's "Forced Movements, Tropisms and Animal Conduct" (Lippincott) will also prove very valuable from the mechanistic point of view. [22] CHAPTER II: BODY AND MIND, AN INDI- VISIBLE UNIT Academic psychologists simplify their tasks by allotting the body to physiologists and occupying themselves exclusively with the mind. Applied psychology of the analytical type has been com- pelled to discard that arbitrary division of the human organism into "mental" and "physical." Physiologists prying their way into obscure "physical" phenomena have innumerable times reached a sort of middle kingdom in which it seems impossible to produce anything "physical" without producing at the same tinie something "mental," in which, to every "physical" stimulation, there cor- responds a "mental" effect and to every "mental" stimulation corresponds a "physical" effect. After observing the constant interrelation exist- ing between secretions, attitudes and emotions, one no longer feels justified in speaking vaguely of the influence of the mind on the body or reciprocally. One can no longer understand life unless one admits that mind and body are one. The task of the psychoanalyst would be a hope- [23] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour less one if he ever attempted to study the so-called "mental" disturbances as purely "psychic" phe- nomena; the physician who would treat bodily ail- ments as purely "physical" manifestations would be baffled and impotent. It is only the profoundly ignorant who at the present day pretend to know the limits of the physi- cal and of the mental and attempt to attribute certain phenomena to the mind and others to the body. Cut off a frog's head, thereby removing the brain which is commonly supposed to be the seat of the mind, of the intelligence, of consciousness, etc. The frog then should be " entirely dead" or at least should not be expected to perform any act, except of a purely reflex type, showing any "intelligence." And yet if you apply a strong stimulus such as a drop of prussic acid to the skin of the frog's stomach, one of the legs will at once try to reach the burnt spot and to remove the harmful stimulus. Such a "reflex" act proves that, even in the absence of any thinking apparatus, the organism is aware that something harmful is happening to one of its parts and endeavours to perform appro- priate motions to protect itself against further destruction. If a set of nerves and muscles can "think" as [24] Nervous Hunger clearly as that, unassisted by any brain or mind, the so-called purely physical must be endowed with a remarkable proportion of "mentality." The deplorable inaccuracy of the words mental and physical is well illustrated by experiments made on dogs. Feed a dog every possible morsel that will induce him to overeat until the beast turns in disgust from the most appetizing food. Inject into that overfed dog blood from a dog who has been kept hungry for two days and the overfed dog will throw himself on food "as though" he were hungry. The same experiment could probably be per- formed as successfully on a man. The man, how- ever, would wonder at the possibility of his experi- encing hunger after being surfeited with all sorts of dainties. He would doubt the testimony of his "senses," and speak of "nervous hunger," of "imaginary himger," vague terms which explain nothing. If a dog is infuriated by the presence of a cat, he will display for "reasons" which to him and the onlookers appear "plausible" and "logical," symptoms of anger such as the dilatation of his pupils, bristling of the hair, snarling, stiffening of the body, defensive poses. [25] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour Inject a small amount of adrenin into the veins of that dog or any other dog of not especially vicious disposition, and in the absence of any cat or any other disturbing element, he will, "without any reason" stare, snarl, bristle up his hair, and gener- ally express, through threatening attitudes, violent anger. When large amounts of adrenin are released into the human blood stream owing to the abnormal functioning of certain glands, set in motion per- haps by some obscure unconscious thought, a man may likewise assume an attitude of anger, "without any reason," and may justify his attitude by "imag- ining" a grudge against some people, or impatience at certain things. His attitude may later on appear to him absurd and incomprehensible. He may then excuse himself on the plea that "he lost control of himself" or "he was not himself." A crowd may congregate and indulge in some ridiculous or violent deed of which, the following day, every individual member may feel deeply ashamed. "Crowd psychology," "mob suggestion" will then be invoked, the assumption being that all the individuals constituting the crowd had at one time a sort of "collective mind" dominated by one and the same obsessive "thought." A curious light is thrown upon the behaviour of [26] Moh Psychology mobs by the behaviour of copepods, small crusta- ceans, when carbonated water or beer or alcohol are poured into the aquarium in which they disport themselves. As long as their water remains pure, they are apparently in full possession of theii? "free will" and displace themselves as they please. As soon as the ingredients mentioned above are added to the water, they all abandon their occupa- tions and go to mass themselves at the end of the aquarium which is turned toward the light. If one continues to drop at intervals small quan- tities of carbonated or alcoholic liquids into the aquarium, the little mob remains in the same posi- tion. It cannot turn round. Nor can the helpless animals partake of their food, if that food happens to be placed at the opposite end of the aquarium, that is, away from the source of light. Drain the polluted water or place the copepods into fresh water and the mob will soon disperse, each small animal regaining its freedom of indi- vidual motion and of direction. Pour into the aquarium strychnin, caffein or atropin and the copepods will once more gather into a mob, this time, however, at the end of the aquarium furthest removed from the light. Their previous "fondness" for sunlight has been replaced by a "craving" for darkness. [27] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour Prophets, artists, reformers, lovers, may undergo all sorts of trials, brave starvation and death in order to seek their ideal, and some day they may forsake their ideal. Lovers having recovered from their "infatuation" may recall with astonishment or shame many absurd things they said or did once and look upon their former love object with disgust or even hatred. Certain animals like copepods can be fooled a number of times and be made to fall in love now with the sun, now with the darkness. Others which, were they human beings, would be said to learn very quickly from experience, are never victimized but once by their "idealistic cravings" and after- ward lead a perfectly "sensible" life. Take some newly hatched caterpillars and de- posit them at the foot of a rod or stick on which the sunlight is shining. They wiU all climb to the top and stay there, staring at the sun, apparently engrossed in the contemplation of their "ideal." In fact they would starve to death unless some one fed them a small piece of green leaf. As soon as they partake of that food, their obsessive sun worship seems to disappear. They climb down the barren stick and seek other stores of food, never bothering any more with the sun or other sources of light. [28] The Electric Dog Watch the behaviour of bees at mating time. Male and female can only fly in one direction, that is toward the sun, and their amorous ecstasy car- ries them into "higher regions," "uplifts" them, takes them "far from the earth." The sexual act performed, they both become once more crea- tures of the earth, fly back to thei^ native hive and no longer feel the "fascination of the empy- rean." An invention described recently in publications devoted to electrical science shows how difficult it would be to draw an absolute line of demarkation between actions apparently due to physical and chemical causes and actions apparently due to the exercise of our "wiU power" and promptedT by "feelings," etc. The electric dog has two eyes supplied with condensing lenses focussed on two selenium cells. Selenium is an element whose electrical properties change under the influence of light. The selenium cells control two electro-magnetic switches. Two motors, on the right and left, can propel the dog forward or backward. When light, as for instance from a small flash lamp, is thrown on both eyes, the current is switched on to both motors and the dog advances toward the light. When the lamp is held to the right, the right [29] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour motor only is actuated and the dog turns to the right. The dog follows the light in the most com- plicated mancEuvres. Shade the light and the dog stops; reverse the motors and the dog runs away from the light, dodging it wherever it may come from. Thus a moth will rush toward a flame, thus owls fly in distress from any bright light, thus human beings are perhaps "propelled" toward a goal, which they think they are striving for, thus the races of the earth once started on their westward wanderings, thus cities and towns, when not re- strained by natural obstacles of an insuperable nature, like mountains or bodies of water, spread to the westward. Naturalists manage to make the problem a little more complicated by telling us that animals and plants which are "fond" of light, that is which are involuntarily and unavoidably determined by light, are also "fond" of blue and green, while animals which are negatively heliotropic, that is "fond" of darkness and afraid of light, are "fond" of the colour red. And experiments on thousands of human beings have revealed that men are most deeply aff'ected by blue, women by red. Whenever experiments first made on animals [30] Cats, Dogs and Men have been tried on human beings their results have been found to confirm the first observations. We know that the same method of training makes both a man and a passenger pidgeon sexual per- verts. Laboratory experiments have proved that female cats and female dogs react more slowly to anger stimuli than the males of both species, the result being a smaller percentage of sugar found in their urine. Observations made on college students of both sexes prove that the rule holds good when human beings are concerned. Human subjects, un- fortunately, cannot be used as frequently as they should be to assure us of the universal application of certain biological and biochemical laws. Some day when we abandon our wasteful method of dealing with criminals and give imredeemable offenders an opportunity to pay for the damage they have inflicted by submitting to scientific ex- periments likely at times to result in death, we may be able to ascertain accurately in what measure chemical determinism, for example, rules the lives of men. Specialization being the only road to thorough knowledge and efficiency, body and mind must at present, for the sake of convenience, be treated separately when in distress. Internist and analyst, however, must co-operate, both applying the latest [31] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour methods devised in their particular field and sub- mitting to each other the doubtful details of every case. While analysts agree that innumerable diseases of the so-called physical variety are induced or invited by some unconscious predisposing factor, no analyst denies the value of medical help or would suggest doing without it. If a subject has been so weakened by a wrong mental attitude that his body has become an easy prey for certain bacilli, all efforts should be made to check or eliminate those bacilli in order to avoid the further inroads they might make on the organism. Specific medical treatment should be sought under the direction of a physician who keeps him- self well informed as to the latest therapeutic methods, the most efficient pharmaceutic prepara- tions, etc. The family physician, the surgeon, the average specialist, however, cannot be expected to follow all the research work done in applied psychology. Although Freud and other prominent analysts have stated that psychoanalytical practitioners need not have medical training, an analyst should possess a good working knowledge of anatomy, physiology and neurology. Reciprocally, every physician should receive some elementary training in applied [32] A Basis for Co-operation psychology, regardless of whether he is to take up the practice of general medicine or to specialize in some particular branch of the medical profes- sion. Then, those who treat the more obviously mate- rial part of the organism and those who treat the more intangible part of the personality can co- operate intelligently in relieving the ailments of the human unit. BIBLIOGRAPHY Two books are absolutely essential to readers desir- ing to study the problem of the interrelations of body and mind from the modern physiological point of view. Loeb's book mentioned in the bibliography for the pre- ceding chapter and W. B. Cannon's capital work "Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage" (Appleton). The latter book contains a very readable and entertaining summary of many experiments made by Cannon and his students not only on laboratory animals but on them- selves as well, showing the chemical changes which correspond to the various "emotions." G. W. Crile's "Man an Adaptive Mechanism," while not as recent as Cannon's book, should also be consulted. [331 CHAPTER III: NERVES AND NERVOUS- NESS Nerves, nervous and nervousness are terms which should be used less frequently and less carelessly. "My nerves are on edge" or "I am a nervous wreck" are picturesque expressions devoid of any meaning and which convey a very inaccurate picture of what is taking place in the organism. To the layman, nerves are just nerves; the nerve which a dentist "kills" and the nerve which makes our heart palpitate are to him identical things. In reality there are in the human body two nervous systems whose appearance, colour, make up, distribution and functions are as different as night is from day. There is the sensori-motor system, or the system of nerves which bring to the brain the information about the condition of the various parts of the body and about the way in which those parts are affected by the environment: the nerves which tell us what the eye "sees," what the mouth "tastes," what the nose "smells," whether the water in which we poke [34] The Autonomic Nerves our toe is cold or hot, whether the apple we hold is hard or soft. That system, also transmits from ihe brain to the various muscles definite orders based upon the in- formation received. Motor nerves open or close our eyes, cause us to chew or spit out certain kinds of food, to extend our arm toward a desirable object or withdraw it from a dangerous object, etc. The sensori-motor nerves are white fibres en- veloped in a fatty sheath interrupted at intervals by nodes. Besides this system there is another nervous system for which various names are being used, such as the vegetative system, the sympathetic system or the autonomic system. These nerves are white fibres covered by a very thin mem- brane instead of a thick sheath and presenting a more regular appearance owing to the absence of nodes. Instead of issuing' directly from the spinal column as the sensori-motor nerves do, the auto- nomic nerves, with the exception of the vagus which has its root in the brain, take their roots in a column of ganglia located in front of the vertebrae. Although this system disintegrates soon after death, for it is poorly protected and its ganglia lie close to tissues which putrefy readily (nasal mu- [35] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour cous membrane, buccal cavity and intestinal canal), it is older than the sensori-motor system and it is fully developed at birth. The autonomic Systran supplies the internal or- gans of the body, tear glands, sweat glands, salivary glands, hair roots, lungs, heart, stomach, liver, in- testine, adrenal glands, bladder, rectum and genitals. It carries motor impulses, but scientists are not agreed as to whether it carries sensations. It also controls in part the movements of the pupil. The autonomic system is divided up into two sub- systems which we shall designate as the cranio- sacral division or end division and the thoracico- lumbar division, or sympathetic division or middle division. The two divisions are absolutely antagonistic in action. For instance the cranio-sacral contracts the pupil, the sympathetic dilates it; the cranio-sacral division slows down th& heart action, the sympa- thetic division accelerates it. The cranio-sacral division promotes all the activities which build up the individual and assure the continuance of the race. The sympathetic division which extends from the neck to the upper sacral region, decreases or stops all those activities in emergencies and releases safety devices. [36] The Nervous Balance For instance the cranio-sacral division causes saliva to flow, which helps the disintegration of food in the mouth; it causes the stomach glands to secrete gastric juice and the stomach to contract regularly and vigorously, which activates the digestion and speeds the digested food on its way into the intes- tine; it contracts the intestine and hence assists the elimination of waste matter; it holds the rectum and bladder openings closed until the proper accumu- lation of feces or urine makes voiding necessary; it regulates the heart beats, prevents the pupil from admitting too much light and focuses it so that it throws a clear image on the retina; finally it fills the exterior genitals with blood and enables them to perform their specific f imctions. The sympathetic division, on the contrary, stops the flow of saliva and of gastric juice, stops the contractions of the stomach or reverses their direc- tion, so that food may be regurgitated into the aesophagus and, at times, vomited; it speeds the heart action; at times, it voids suddenly the bladder and bowels; releases into the blood stream a flow of adrenin which contracts the arteries and a flow of sugar from the liver which supplies the body with extra fuel; stops all genital functions; causes the pupil to dilate, thus giving the eye a staring glare; bristleg the hair, causing goose flesh, etc. [37] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour One can see at once how all the activities of the sympathetic protect the organism either directly, by initiating necessary activities, or indirectly, by inhibiting certain activities which are not necessary in emergencies. When the organism is in danger, that is, must resort to fight or flight, nutrition and sex activities should cease. Not only ^ould they cease because the organism in danger cannot attend to them prop- erly, but also because they deflect toward their specific organs a certain amount of blood which is needed elsewhere for defensive purposes. Hence the dry mouth, the arrested gastric action, the im- potence induced by fear. As the blood must circulate freely in the en- dangered organism and absorb as much oxygen as possible, the heart beats are increased and so is the rate of respiration. As a larger amount of energy has to be expended, the glycogen (sugar) stored up in the liver must be released into the blood stream, after the fashion of a motorist who "steps on the gas" in order to climb a steep hill; if a wound be sustained, adrenin is mixed with the blood causing it to coagulate more quickly and close the wound ; finally the hair must be raised, aff'ording to certain animals, such as cats and dogs, a certain amount of protection against teeth and claws and surround- [38] The Vital Urges ing the body, in the case of porcupines and hedge- hogs, with an impassable barrier of sharp daggers. The sudden voiding of the bowels and bladder caused by fright is another emergency measure taken by the sympathetic division. Empty bowels and an empty bladder present a more favourable condition in the case of deep abdominal injuries, while the same organs, if full, might cause compli- cations. The activities of the sympathetic division corre- spond to what we may call the safety urge, while the cranial division which promotes nutrition and assimilation would correspond to the food-ego- power urge and the sacral division to the sex urge. We may notice that the nerves of ego and sex work in unison. The two divisions of the autonomic system are not always balanced with perfect accuracy and one of them is bound to predominate. This will enable us to distinguish roughly three "nervous" types. The type in which the positive activities which build up the individual and further rile continuance of the race are not hampered by the negative activi- ties of the sympathetic except in emergencies. This is the type we may justly consider as nor- mal. The second type is one in which the positive [39] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour activities are so strong that they cannot be checked in emergencies by the safety nerves. When the personality is overwhehned by the cranio-sacral division, that is by the ego and sex urges, the individual is unadaptive and unsocial. Criminal, gluttonous, obscene imbeciles belong to that type for which the terms vagotonic has been suggested. In the third type, or sympathicotonic type, the sympathetic division functions in and out of season, flashing danger signals when there is no danger and holding back the natural cravings for nutrition, self-expression, acquisition, power, reproduction, etc. Neurotics suffering from anxiety, obsessions, phobias, nervous indigestion, psychic impotence, etc., belong to this type. A very simple test has been devised to determine to what type a subject belongs. It is known as the Aschner test. It is based on the fact that the ends of both divisions, the cranial and the sympathetic divisions, can be reached and stimulated by pres- sure on the pupil. The cranial division increases the heart beats and the sympadietic division decreases them. By applying the same stimulation to both divisions, the one which is more powerful will react more easily than the other. If after pressing on the eyeballs for half a minute, the initial pulse, let us say 90, [40] Ghosts from the Past has been reduced to about 80, the patient is prob- ably normal. If the pulse rate has been decreased by more than 10 or 12 beats, the patient is vago- tonic, and if the pulse rate has remained unchanged or has been increased the patient is sympathicotonic. A study of the autonomic system enables us to visualize complexes as defensive actions of the sym- pathetic division or safety urge which were initiated at some past time, generally in infancy when stimuli are likely to produce the deepest impression and which continue to be performed when no actual danger has to be warded off, or in emergencies which are not real emergencies but appear as such owing to wrong associations. A child, frightened imwisely, may all his life show defence and fear reactions, which means that the nerves of his sympathetic division will con- stantly interfere with his digestion, his heart action, his intestinal peristalsis, his sex life. A child hurt by a doctor with a black beard, a classical case in psychoanalytic literature, uncon- sciously associated in later life all men with black beards with the man who hurt him once and when meeting such a man suffered from arterial tension coimected with fright. Experiments made on dogs illustrate well the mechanism of association. [41] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour A dog was submitted to a delicate operation whereby the gastric juice secreted by his stomach would run into a graduated tube. For several days a bell was rung every time the dog was given food. To the sight of food there always corresponded a flow of gastric juice. One day the bell was rung but no food was offered to the animal. In spite of the absence of food, gastric juice began to trickle into the test tube. A "bell association" had been created in the dog's organism. In other words, as for several days the sound of a bell had been con- nected with the sight and taste of food, his auto- nomic nerves promoted the flow of gastric juice as soon as the bell rang. A study of the autonomic activities sheds a new light upon many actions which at the present day are considered as voluntary and subjected to criti- cism or praised from a purely ethical point of view based upon the distinction between body and mind. A sixty candle power bulb should not be criti- cized for carrying an amount of electrical power inferior to that which can flow through a hundred candle bulb. A coward is not a coward because he wishes to run away, but because his sympathetic nerves pro- moting flight are especially sensitive to fright stimuli which in other men would produce no re- [42] The Training of Nerves action or a reaction of fight. As Jacques Loeb would put it, a coward runs in the direction where his legs carry him. As the imscientific layman would express it, the coward "loses his nerve" or "is all nerves" or "cannot control his nerves." Punishing a coward and insulting him wiU not make him a brave man. It may compel him to , pretend for a time that he is brave, after which he may succumb to shell-shock when his cravings for safety, long repressed, assert themselves violently and abnormally. But he need not remain a coward and can be trained to master his fear by analyzing it and by disintegrating the absurd associations which set his organism in flight when no dangerous emergency exists. A coward with a well developed intelligence can be made, through education, as indifferent to cer- tain fear stimuli as other people can be made in- different to some apparently alarming symptoms of sickness. For example: any one taking the typhoid vaccine will after the first injection feel dreadfully sick. He will develop violent fever, suffer from head- aches, thirst, palpitations, nausea, he will feel very weak, etc., in other words, he will, within twenty- four hours, experience most of the symptoms of the [43] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour disease against which the vaccine is to protect him. Duly warned by a physician, the patient will not worry over those disturbances which are "ex- pected," as suppuration is expected after vaccina- tion for smallpox. The patient knows what is causing his malaise and what its duration shall be. While he could not very well "enjoy" the situation, he resigns him- self to it as to something temporary and unavoid- able. On the other hand, should a careless physician fail to warn the patient of the effects of the first hypodermic dose, the patient would add to the unpleasant condition induced by the vaccine a deep worry, a fear of possible complications and perhaps devise unnecessary plans for emergency action, thereby affecting his heart beats, his gastric and intestinal activities and so on. Knowing to what type he belongs is as necessary for a human being as knowing, for instance, whether one of his legs is shorter than the other. A cripple in ignorance of the disparity of his legs, would gather the impression that the road he was travelling was strewn with ruts and obstructions. The longer leg would seemingly encounter number- less obstacles while the shorter would be constantly descending into holes. [44] Know Thyself The man with a vagotonic tendency whose ego and sex urges are apt to disregard the warnings of his safety urge and the man with a sympathico- tonic tendency whose sympthetic division is con- stantly raising the danger flag are bound to have very distorted impressions of their mental states and of their environment. Knowing themselves better, they can discount considerably such deceptive impressions and there- by correct their behaviour. Those called upon to judge them can also by understanding better their nervous mechanism, help them to conform to standard conduct. Even the perfectly normal man can derive much comfort from knowing positively that he is normal at times when, in a crisis or emergency, he might conceive doubts as to his condition. A knowledge of the functioning of one's autonomic system is at all times of great assistance in remaining normal. That knowledge also enables one to adopt or to avoid for scientific, that is, plausible and compel- ling reasons, certain forms of behaviour. The following observation made on dogs by Pavlof teaches a lesson which should be remem- bered by every human being. A dog submitted to the surgical operation I men- tioned previously secreted some seventy cubic centi- [45] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour metres of gastric juice when fed a certain amount of meat. One day, a cat was brought into the laboratory while he was partaking of his meal and aroused his anger. On that occasion, the amount of gastric juice which flowed into the test tube was just one tenth that accompanying a peaceful undis- turbed meal. Anger and fear had raised the danger signal in his organism and prepared the dog for fight or flight, but not for the enjoyment of a meal. A quarrel at the dinner table affects human beings as the sight of a cat affected oux dog. Their flow of gastric juice is stopped or considerably re- duced and whatever food they take into their stomachs would linger in that organ much longer than it should normally. The result will be some form of "nervous indigestion," perhaps nausea and in extreme cases, vomiting. Observations of a similar order were made on a small boy suffering from a gastric fistula which allowed gastric juice to flow out of his body. When the boy chewed pleasant food, the flow was copious, whereas the chewing of some unpleasant or in- different substance was not followed by any se- cretion. The flow of gastric juice is not induced solely, as many people think, by the pleasant taste of food. [46] The Value of Pleasure The mere sight of appetizing aliments is sufficient to start the digestive fluids. Hence, a meal served in an attractive dining room, on clean linen, in dainty dishes, with flowers on the table, in a peaceful, soothing atmosphere, to the tune of caressing, unemotional music, is likely to be digested more easily than food served in slovenly, noisy surroundings. This applies to almost every experience in life. Pleasant memories of gratifying happenings create durable associations, like the food-bell asso- ciation which had such an appetizing effect on Pavlof's dog. Unpleasant memories produce per- haps even more lasting effects of the opposite char- acter and are responsible for a thousand "nervous" iUs. Every psychological theory will have to be re- vised according to the rather recent findings of scientists touching the autonomic functions. While space does not allow us to dwell at length on that aspect of the subject, we may say a few words on the new interpretation of will-power which can be based upon the study of the autonomic nervous sys- tem. The vagotonic, whose "animal" activities can hardly be checked by a weaker sympathetic divi- sion, is called "a creature of instinct," "led by his [47] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour cravings," "subservient to his lower nature," "lack- ing in will-power," etc. Hie whose sympathetic system acts in all emer- gencies and in emergencies only, that is, does not create absurd, unconscious reasons for illogical be- haviour, is credited with a great amount of will- power. He whose sympathetic system acts in and out of season, overpowering his ego and sex urges, creating emergencies and raising obstacles, is con- stantly "nervous," vacillating, considering one course and then another, "unable to make up his mind." Education undertaken by a trained psychologist, not by a disciplinarian, may alter the first type by developing in his sympathetic division a fear of the absolute privation which may be the consequence of vagotonic indulgence. The third type also can be trained to recognize a true emergency from an imaginary one and to gauge accurately the size of the obstacles rising in his path. Neither type should be dealt with by jailers or judges. Neither should be held responsible for behaviour due to weakness or self-deception. Both should, if their conduct is socially intolerable, be restrained and educated. Those whose nervous [48] Ethical Considerations system appears inadaptable should remain the wards of the state and be considered as victims of organic maladjustment for which they are in no wise responsible. BIBLIOGRAPHY The subject of nerves cannot be well understood unless the reader makes himself familiar with the autonomic nervous system which in the majority of medical books is designated as the sympathetic system. The most important publication on the subject is H. Higier's "Vegetative Neurology" (Nervous and Mental Disease Pub. Co.) which is very technical. Consult also M. Laignel Lavastine's "The Internal Secretions and the Nervous System" (Nervous and Mental Disease Pub. Co.) and Cannon's previously mentioned work. G. V. N. Dearborn's "The Influence of Joy" (Little Brown) and L. E. Emerson's "Nervousness" (Little Brown), are two small books casting interesting side- lights on the subject. [49] II. PROBLEMS OF CHILDHOOD CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD FIXATIONS The seed of all mental disturbances is sown in our childhood years. Whether we hold with Freud that childhood memories, habits and repressions disturb our mental balance in later years, or assume with Adler that the neurotic adult simply draws upon his childhood memories for the woof of his fancies, the fact remains that one's childhood, directly or indirectly, determines the content and form of one's neurosis. The problems of childhood are therefore the problems of the adult. To a normal, happy child- hood corresponds a normal, happy adulthood. We cannot state that to an abnormal, unhappy childhood there always corresponds an abnormal unhappy adulthood, for most people manage to remain normal regardless of what they do or have to suffer at the hands of others; but we can state that to every abnormality observed in an adult cor- responds some abnormal situation which dominated the subject's childhood. The most fateful complication in a child's life and one whose consequences are recognized by [53] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour analysts of all schools without any exception, is what Freud has designated as the Oedipus complex, or the excessive attachment of a child for the parent of the opposite sex, resulting in a more or less vio- lent dislike of the parent of the same sex. Freud called it the Oedipus Complex as an illu- sion to the well known legend of Oedipus, King of Thebes, who killed his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta. Students of ancient religions and folk lore have noticed that the. conflict between father and son, mother and daughter, constitutes the substance of thousands of mythological or popular legends. Psychiatrists have observed it re-appearing in many forms of mental derangement. Freud has stated that such an excessive attach- ment or ^'fixation" is unconsciously incestuous. The Swiss school of analysts would rather believe that the fixation is purely symbolical, the boy se- lecting his mother, the girl, her father, as an ideal of authority, intelligence, power, etc. Adler, of Vienna, on the other hand, believes that the incest situation is imagined by the neurotic as one of the components of his regression to a period of his life when he was absolutely dependent on one of the parents and did not have to face life and its struggles. [54] Imitation Versus Heredity None of those three views should exclude the others. There may be a slightly sensuous attach- ment in certain cases, encouraged by caresses of the mother for the son and of the father for the daugh- ter, in which there is a slight amount of veiled sexuality, each of the parents showing preference for the child of the opposite sex. But in many cases, Jung's and Adler's views appear very plaus- ible. To those three hypotheses we may add a fourth one: Imitation is probably the most potent factor in human and animal life. Like instinct, it prob- ably resolves itself into a set of little understood physical, chemical and nervous phenomena, some of which have been elucidated only recently. We are what we are because we have imitated some man or woman whose mannerisms, attitudes, mode of speech, and consequently, whose emotional life we have unconsciously reproduced. As in the first years of our life we have no one to imitate but our parents, our parents are likely to become our most obsessing model or ideal. This phenomenon presents many dangers. The normal child would be one who, up to the time of puberty, had imitated both parents without showing much partiality (admitting of course that the parents harmonized well enough not to create a con- [55] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour flict in the child's mind) ; who at puberty, woidd imitate the parent of the same sex, without exhibit- ing any hostility toward the parent of the opposite sex; and who finally would select secondary imita- tion objects outside of the family circle, thus build- ing up a consistent and original personality. The parental traits would be there, father and mother contributing varied qualities, and outsiders furnishing pleasing variations upon the parental type, introducing into the blend no discordant features. There are too many cases, however, in which that happy situation is disturbed. Sickness in child- hood may bring one child under the constant influ- ence of one parent to the almost complete exclusion of the other; and so may the death or continued absence of one of the parents. One of the parents may for rather regrettable reasons, attract and amuse the child; a neurotic, eccentric parent will have more influence upon his children than his normal mate (circus freaks attract children more than athletes), etc. Children coming home from the circus almost invariably imitate die freaks or the clowns, but even Freud would fail to drag a sexual explanation into that "fixation" which is often of long duration and incredibly powerful, considering the short time [56] The Family Romance in which the children were exposed to the influenpe of their favourites. Three hours at the circus may mean several weeks of attempts at performing certain stunts. A little boy of my acquaintance walked for several weeks like Charlie Chaplin after seeing him once. In many cases, the Oedipus situation resolves itself then into an exaggerated imitation of one parent by the child. A boy having selected his mother as the most perfect model, is bound to dislike his father who, not only is so unlike her, but wields too much influ- ence over her. If, on the contrary, he had selected his father as his exclusive model, he would dislike his mother, who is unlike the father and dominates him in cer- tain respects. The family romance of the neurotic girl would be similar to that of the neurotic boy. Imitation explains as much as sexuality and rids certain details of the romance of their apparently sexual aspect. The boy with a fixation on his mother, who con- stantly fondles her and has to be taken into her bed, is not attracted by any of his mother's physical qualities. He is, in all respects but one, a female who feels no embarrassment in close contact with [57] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour another female and does not expect her to feel any embarrassment either. The sexual fate of such boys, who later in life are very indifferent to women and not infrequently passive homosexuals, confirms the suspicion that it is rather imitation of the mother and self -identification with her than re- pressed incest cravings which dominate their be- haviour. The many male and female neurotics who are attracted solely to married men and women are subjects with strong fixations who seek, not pri- marily one physical or mental type for which they have a special affinity, but a situation, which in their childhood years was normal and habitual. The father they loved had a wife, the mother they loved had a husband. Their jealousy of their lover's wife or of their mistress's husband is what their dislike of the un- loved parent was, not sexual but egotistical. The boy with a mother fixation and the girl with a father fixation, will not only try to be like the favourite parent, but will on all occasions try to be as unlike the unloved parent as possible, (Clergy- men's sons.) One boy I have observed was the son of a pro- fessional man, very conservative, prudish and snob- bish to a degree. [58] A Restless Type His mother fixation had been nursed along by too much petting and fondling. At sixteen he still played in mother's bed mornings and evenings. At eighteen he showed absolutely no interest in girls and compared every girl he knew to his mother in a way most disadvantageous to the girl. After a severe crisis at the time of puberty when he once attempted suicide, his opposition to every one of his father's ideas and plans for his future began to manifest itself very clearly. The father was extremely conservative; the son embraced readily all radical beliefs. The father was conventional, the son unconventional in his behaviour and speech, and very slovenly in his way of dressing. The father was very settled in his habits, the son led the most irregular life, sleeping all day and loafing all night, having his meals at all times of the day or night. His revolt against the father-image, symbolical of authority, caused him to be involved in difficul- ties with various teachers and finally to leave college. In his sedulous avoidance of the father type he shunned all professional people and spent most of his time with menials and labourers. His distaste for work, which prevented him from holding a position for more than a few days at a [59] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour time, was in part an imitation of the comparative idleness of his middle class mother, financially de- pendent on his father, and in part an expression of dislike of his employers symbolizing the father's authority, and also a way of "getting even" with his father. His constant schemes for getting-rick-quick and his passion for gambling were attempted flights from,' reality and a search for the line of least ef- fort. The struggle between his normal and his abnor- mal tendencies revealed itself in his variable atti- tude to his mother whom he at times overwhelmed with caresses and at times treated very scornfully. Another neurotic with a decided fixation on his mother was unable to enjoy any food which had not been prepared by her or according to hei: recipes. Dishes which had never been served in his home during his childhood repelled him and when courtesy compelled him to eat of them, he generally developed nausea and vomiting. In this case, the mother fixation had not had any crippling effects as far as sexual cravings were concerned. He consorted with many women of different types but selected for his wife a woman of the mother type whom he constantly taunted by instituting un- pleasant comparisons between her and his mother. [60] Homosexual Fixations This man always voiced a frank hatred of his father and like the preceding type indulged con- stantly in dreams of get-rich-quick schemes which his restlessness never allowed to mature. Besides heterosexual fixations or fixations on the parent of the opposite sex, we must consider homo- sexual fixations or fixations on the parent of the same sex. They do not lead to conflicts as acute as those precipitated by the Oedipus situation. The boy with a father fixation is not impelled by his dislike of his mother to seek forms of behaviour which are eccentric or absurd, for, being a male, he will on all occasions act in ways different from hers. His dislike will be due to her dissimilarity to his ideal, which he will consider as an inferiority. Very different from the boy with a mother fixa- tion, the boy with a father fixation will not shun women but he will despise them and fear them. They will attract him as they attract the father he imitates but he will be more or less ashamed of yielding to their attraction. He will love them and torture them and the origin of many cases of cruel sadism is generally to be traced back to such a situation. Both forms of fixation have a crippling influence on a human being's life. Clinging too closely to [61] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour an ideal, he has a tendency to disparage all con- ditions which differ from the conditions under which he acquired a fixation. The man with a mother fixation will regret the days when he still was his mother's little boy; when life's emergencies threaten him with defeat he may regress to the childhood level on which he then lived. The man with a father fixation will follow the same deceptive line of least effort; there will be a difference, however. While the man with a mother fixation is likely to be a rebel, the man with a father fixation is generally a crusty conservative, a neophobiac, ranting over the good old days, old fashioned in every way, at times more conservative even than his father, for his father may have grown mentally while he lingers in the stage during which he acquired his fixation and still imitates his father as his father was when he himself was from five to fifteen years old. A conflict between the parents results often in a severe conflict in the child's organism. Parents living in disharmony lack fairness, measure and dignity. Their hostility to each other makes them repellent to the child who is constantly in doubt as to whom to imitate. In certain cases a fixation [62] Results of Family Strife on one of the parents may have disastrous effects. B. M.'s parents never agreed and finally separ- ated. B. M. realized her mother's mental infer- iority and drew farther and farther away from her in childhood. She was extremely attracted by her neurotic father whose lack of kindness and erratic ways, on the other hand, repelled her. Her psy- chology has ever since been complicated by the fol- lowing speculation: "I shall do this because my father would have done it but it is wrong for me to do it for my father was an unworthy type." The result has been acute hysterical suffering. I shall mention in the chapter on the Love Life the various perversions due to maladjustments of the fixation type in childhood. From a consideration of the mental growth of the child, one is forced to accept the conclusion that the presence of a male and a female in the household is absolutely necessary if the offspring is to be normal in later life. The child brought up by only one parent is likely to be one-sided or perverse. Affectionate parents are a source of great danger for their children and so are those who do not know how to restrain their children's affection when it gets out of bounds. [63] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour Indifferent parents or the removal of the par- ents by death in the child's infancy cripple the child in another way. Egotism of the positive, progressive, creative type is the most valuable human trait, the trait which differentiates man from the animals. A cer- tain amount of self-love, self-confidence, self-re- liance is absolutely necessary in life. The child whom no parent has praised and who has been treated like an intruder, the orphan com- mitted to some institution where teachers or keepers, however kind they may be, cannot lavish on fifty or a hundred children the love which individual parents would lavish on each of them separately, suffer from a certain sense of inferiority which often leads to negativism. Such children do not know that they are impor- tant for they have never seemed important to any one. When herded in institutions they only have distant models for imitation, the few adults they could imitate being strangers separated from them by a wall of indifference. The result is often a stunting in mental and physical growth due to the wholesale imitation of children by children. The solution of the fixation problem will not be within our reach until the phenomenon of imitation has been studied more completely. At present a [64] An Unsolved Problem few scattered observations made by biologists con- stitute the only material at our disposal. Those few and unrelated facts, however, are enough to make us suspect the tremendous importance of imitation as a factor in human development. [65] CHAPTER II. THE SEXUAL ENLIGHTEN- MENT OF CHILDREN One of the statements made by Freud and which exposed him to the bitterest criticism on the part of hostile or ill-informed opponents, was that in children, even for the tenderest age, the sexual life attains a much greater degree of development than was generally conceded and that its growth is gradual and continuous from the day of birth. Puberty is the culmination of that progressive ripen- ing instead of being, as it is considered by many, the sudden, unprepared outburst of the sexual instinct. Sexual, urinary and fecal activities being con- trolled by the same nerves develop along parallel lines. All of them, however, are submitted to a severe regulation which in the case of sex amounts to almost complete repression. In probably many more cases than parents and nurses are willing to admit, there is a certain amount of sexual self -gratification indulged in by children between the ages of three and five, that is, long before puberty. Much of it certainly escapes observation. [66] Where Do Children Come From? Whatever of it is observed is usually considered by the average parent as a mdhifestation of some "vicious" tendency, and is repressed either by threats and punishment or by mechanical means such as binding the children's hands at night, etc. The general opinion at the present day in scien- tific circles is that infantile onanism is simply one of nature's primitive ways of developing the child's sexual powers, a process to be watched closely by the parents and stopped if indulged in excessively by immobilizing the child's hands, but under no circumstances to be repressed by threats or punish- ment. To that period of infantile onanism corresponds naturally one of intense and stubborn curiosity on the part of the child about matters pertaining to reproduction. That curiosity is generally brought to its climax by the arrival of a baby either in the family or in a house of the neighbourhood and the child will have no peace until he knows "where babies come frotn." What shall parents do when such a question is put to them? The problem is simpler and yet more complicated than it seems at first. The question is not: "Must children be told?" but "Who shall tell them and how?" If every grown up will be honest with himself [67] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour he will have to confess that as soon as he attended a kindergarten or school his sexual enlighten- ment(?) was begun by the other children. Children cannot be kept in absolute ignorance about sexual matters because if the parents do not instruct them some one else will. Some one else always does. The choice is then as to between correct, seri- ous, sympathetic information, presenting sex as a tremendous fact of capital importance to the in- dividual and the race, a great source of happiness and misery and, on the other hand, whispered gos- sip of the most fantastic type, dealt out by children, by ignorant or vicious adults, casting upon sexual phenomena and activities an obscene, romantically attractive light, leading to overindulgence, per- versions, obsessions, etc. Sexual information imparted by the ignorant or the vicious does not satisfy the child, does not stop his inquiries, and only causes him to seek more details, to probe the fascinating fiction he has heard, to build up around it the most dangerous form of romance. Accurate information of a scientific type stops inquiries and day-dreams and vouchsafes to the child's mind the peace that comes with the securing of evidential facts, satisfactory to one's reason. [682 Neurotic Children Mental rest is necessary to the child. The child's mind is so burdened with the thousand prob- lems of adaptation and conduct, which confront a growing human being that the added pressure of sexual curiosity has been known in many cases to bring about neurotic symptoms. Three children have been studied at close range by some of the greatest analysts. One boy, little Hans, studied by Freud and in whom sexual curi- osity created an obsession which caused him to think of the male genitals in connection with almost every person or object he beheld; another boy, little Arpad, examined by Ferenczi and who, fail- ing to secure information from human beings, ad- dressed himself to the fowls in the henyard and identified himself with them; and finally, little Anna, treated by Jung, who in her search for a so- lution of the birth problem, propounded the most picturesque theories of life and death, lost all con- fidence in her mother and almost merged in a neu- rosis. The case of the 3^/^ year old Arpad, illus- trates well the mental distortions which, at the time when children begin to develop a strong sexual curiosity, fear may cause in them, if connected with the subject of their eager inquiries. Arpad and his parents went to spend a summer [69] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour in the country and stopped at a house which had a bam yard. Until then, Arpad's behaviour had been that of any normal, intelligent child of his age. He was interested in the various children's games and toys. That summer, however, a complete change came over him. His toys were forsaken and he did not seek the company of other children. From early morning till he was sent to bed, he would spend all his hours in the poultry house, watching the chickens ,with tireless attention, imitating their clucking and their motions and, when forcibly re- moved, grew generally very indignant. Even when led away from the fowl run, he did nothing but crow and cackle. He finally seemed to abandon words to use clucks, addressed people and answered their questions with soxmds that imi- tated the cock's and hen's calls until his parents became quite concerned and feared he might loose his power of speech. Arpad's attitude never changed during the sum- mer. When his family took him back to town, he resumed human speech but could not be made to talk of anything but cocks, hens, chicks, some- times of ducks and geese. No toy appealed to him any more. He would all day long form little cocks and bens out of [70] A Little Chanticler crumpled newspaper and offer them for sale to imaginary buyers. He then armed himself with some small object, called it a knife, went to the kitchen sink and declared that he was cutting the throat of his paper chickens. He imagined the animal bleeding and by various contortions mim- icked strikingly its agony. Whenever the family purchased live chickens, he showed extreme ex- citement and his greatest joy was to attend the slaughtering of those fowl. He was however quite afraid of live cocks. The parents plied him with many questions and always elicited from him the same story: once while playing in the chicken coop he wanted to micturate and a rooster pecked him painfully. The child was then two and a half years old. Brought into Ferenczi's office, Arpad at once caught sight of a little bronze representing a moun- tain cock and asked for it. ^ Given a pencil and paper he proceeded to draw a picture of a cock. Mental examination proved impossible and Ferenczi had to confine his study to the mother's observations. Early in the morning, Arpad would wake up the household with his lusty crowing. He sang con- tinually but all the songs had to do with chickens. [71] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour He drew all day long pictures of birds with large beaks. His parents yielded to necessity and bought him unbreakable toys representing chickens. They proved unsatisfactory as he could not cut off their necks. He would sometimes throw them into the oven, then take them out, clean them and caress them. Several times he attempted to break a vase which had cocks painted on it. He often expressed a desire to put out the eyes of live or slaughtered chickens he saw in the house, and gave vent to other sadistic and also masochistic tendencies. He identified himself and his family with barn- yard fowl saying that his father was the rooster, his mother the hen, he himself a chicken and he once told a woman of the neighbourhood that when he grew old and became a rooster, he would marry her, her sister, his three cousins and the cook, and perhaps his mother too. This remark was the key to the enigma of the child's conduct. Arpad had probably spied on his parents and the activities of the bamyardj the sexual activities of cocks and hens, the laying of eggs, the hatching of the little chicks had given him answers for all the riddles which his parents had refused to solve. [72] What the Fowl Knew With a certain logic he had that summer given up the language of human beings who were, so to speak, silent to his questioning, and he had adopted that of the barnyard beasts who answered all his questions and illustrated for him all the processes of reproduction. His cruelty toward chicketis and his constant de- sire to cut off their necks was a natural reaction to his being pecked and to a fear of castration due to a foolish servant's threat. A repetition of the same threat caused him to pro- pound many questions as to the problem of death, angels and heaven. Later he began to occupy him- self with religious thoughts. Old bearded beggars impressed him deeply and at the same time at- tracted and frightened him. Often after watch- ing one of them he would let his head hang down and say: "Now I am a beggar chicken." The animals who had satisfied his curiosity had also supplied him with a model with which to identify himself. Very logically he had decided to cast in his lot with the knowing instead of the ignorant. His parents and other adults "did not know," the chickens "knew." The little girl observed by Jimg, Anna, was a healthy, intelligent, lively child of three, who had [73] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour never been seriously sick and whose nerves seemed to be in excellent condition. She once asked her grandmother whether she would become young again. Her grandmother ex- plained to her that she would grow older and older and finally die and become an angel. And then, little Anna asked, "Will you again become a baby?" This was not the child's first attempt at solving the great problem of the origin of human life. Her father had explained to her that children were brought by the stork; then some one else imparted to her the supplementary information that the stork picked them up in heaven where they were living as angels. The remark made to her grandmother revealed the relatively enormous mental exertion, consider- ing the child's age, to which Anna had submitted herself. Children are angels brought down by the stork; grandmother after death will go to heaven and become an angel; then probably she will be picked up some time by the stork and become a baby. This solved more or less satisfactorily the prob- lems of birth and death. Death became a pic- turesque experience of a romantic type devoid of any horror and holding out hopes of rejuvenation. [74] Life and Death Theories Very soon after, her mother became pregnant. Anna apparently did not notice the fact or, if she did, failed to mention it. ^ A few hours before the mother's delivery, Anna's father took the child on his knee and asked her: "What would you do if you should get a little brother tonight?" "I would kill it," Anna an- swered simply, without emotion, which in view of her theories of death and resurrection, implied merely that she would send the child back where it came from. On the other hand, she undoubtedly had de- veloped by that time her death-birth theory, for she asked her mother when admitted to her room, "What is going to happen now? Are you not go- ing to die?" ^ 1 Bleuler cites the case of a little girl three and a half years old who, after the coming of a baby in the household, also con- structed a theory of life and death. She was extremely interested in the baby and its nursing. When bitten once by a mosquito she was heard to remark that a little breast was growing on her, and she resented greatly the disappearance of the swelling as the bite healed. One day her mother told her the story of the Ugly Duckling and she showed keen interest in it. She constantly asked to have the story repeated, especially that part of it in which the duck brings forth young ones. The wording of her request for the story reveals the problem which was on her mind: "Tell me about the lady and how the children come," although she knew that the tale dealt with a duck, not with a woman. Asked once why she liked the story so well she said: "Because it gives me so much pleasure." [75] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour Sent to spend a few weeks with her grandmother while her mother was recuperating, Anna constantly reverted to questions concerning the stork theory. When she returned she appeared annoyed and suspicious. While not hostile to the baby, she would keep away from it and sit for hours under a table, mournful and dreamy, at times singing to herself little songs she improvised and in which the nurse seemed to play an important part. At times, too, she would grow rebellious; she threatened to abandon her mother and to go to live with her grandmother. Once, finally, the result of her long cogitations revealed itself in an unex- pected outburst. "We are going into the garden," her mother said to her. "Don't tell lies. Mamma," Anna answered. "What are you thinking of? I always tell the truth," the mother said. "No, Mamma, you are not telling the truth." "You will see; come with me into the garden." "What gives you pleasure?" "The way in which the little children come out." Immediately after she added: "I dreamt that Suppenkaster (a character in a children's story) fell into the toilet." Suppenkaster in the story becomes thinner and thinner and finally dies. After death he grows again. This child's theory was not essentially different -from that built by little Anna. [76] Children and Flowers "And so it is really true? You were not lying?" This amazing conversation had only one mean- ing. Her observations had convinced her that the death-and-birth-stork-and-angel theory was an im- position and that, consequently, both her father and mother were liars. As the idea of relativity is very undeveloped in the young, if her mother lied in one case, she was bound to lie in every case and a simple statement like "We are going into the garden" was only another of her mother's fabrica- tions. About that time, the Messina earthquake caused the child to develop an intense scientific curiosity based mainly on fear. She spent hours in her father's library looking for pictures of volcanoes and lava flowing out of the earth. Her question- ing assumed a different aspect. She would ply her parents with questions like the following: "Why is Sophie (her little sister) younger than I? Where was Freddie (the baby) before? What was he doing in heaven? Why didn't he come down sooner?" Her parents, noticing her nervous eagerness, de- cided to tell her a part of the truth. Freddie, she was told, grew in the body of the mother as flowers develop out of a plant. This occasioned more questions: [77] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour "How did Freddie come out? Since he cannot walk, did he crawl out? And is there a hole in the breast or did he come out of the mouth? Why don't babies come out of the nurse or the servant?" One day, when her father was compelled by in- disposition to remain in bed, Anna approached him with the inquiry: "Have you a plant growing in you too?" Her dreams showed a constant preoccupation with the birth problem and were offering solutions for them; Noah's ark with animals falling out of it, spring and summer days with all the flowers coming out. A visit to a pregnant neighbour brought out a curious comparison between the woman's body and certain flowers and fruit. Then one day at the table, Anna took an orange announcing that she was going to swallow it, after which she would have a baby. We must point out the remarkable similarity be- tween the child's fancy and the various theories found in fairy tales and according to which preg- nancy is produced by the eating of certain foods. Thus Anna solved the problem of how children enter the mother's body. After which the role played by the father in the bringing forth of chil- [78] Horrifying Impressions dren began to occupy her thoughts. Certain re- marks she made seemed to imply that she had been spying on her parents. That manifestation of childlike curiosity often has disastrous consequences. The child who has watched the sexual act performed by his parents and cannot by any means understand its meaning may carry away the most horrifying impressions. Some children are terrified and obsessed by what seems to them a scene of violence. Some may de- velop frigidity or impotence later in life owing to the disgust they experienced. Some may be goaded into spying some more and waste much time and energy keeping themselves awake and waiting for a new opportunity. Some, identifying them- selves with the overpowering father, develop strong sadist, cruel traits, others, identifying themselves with the mother, will on the contrary, be masochistic perverts. Others will, owing to their ignorance of anatomy and physiology, develop curious obses- sive ideas of an analerotic type. Little Anna had, therefore, reached a very crit- ical stage at which definite action had become im- perative. Her father finally decided to satisfy her curi- osity. Confronted one day with a demand for ex- planations as to who planted in her mother the seed [79] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour from which her little brother grew, he gave her the following answer suggested by Jung: "The mother is like the soil of the garden, and the father like the gardener. The father plants in the mother the seed from which babies grow." The explanation proved satisfactory and the lit- tle girl, after receiving confirmation of the truth which she suspected, that children come out the mother's genitals, ceased to cudgel her brain with the vexing problem which for two years had dis- turbed her so profoundly. Little Arpad's and Little Anna's cases point out a practical solution for the problem of sexual en- lightenment of children. Explanations based upon botanical phenomena do not satisfy the children, their little minds un- used to generalizations cannot draw from stories of pollen and seeds conclusions applicable to hu- man beings. Parents must either become the sexual educators of their children or allow some one else to play that part. A teacher or the family physi- cian and no one else, is qualified to undertake such a task. The parents themselves, however, properly in- structed by a competent person, would be the best persons to open their children's minds to such im- portant facts. By denying them such knowledge, [80] The Revolt Against the Parents they give to their children an impression of ignor- ance and expose themselves to the implied scorn which little Arpad revealed unconsciously by ad- dressing himself to fowls. By telling lying stories they lose the confidence of their children and cause them to question every statement they may make later in life on vital subjects. The revolt against the father's authority is cer- tainly due in many cases to the hostility and jeal- ousy which the boy feels against the man who monopolizes his mother's attentions, but in many cases too, the apparent stupidity and unreliability of the parents as a source of information on impor- tant matters, as exemplified by their dodging and fibbing about sex, is likely to exacerbate a boy's egotistical sense of superiority. If parents wish to lead their children they must obviously be ahead of them. If parents appear either ignorant of certain facts known to many of the child's associates, or too bashful to discuss things which his little school chums or some shady characters with whom he may be in contact, dis- cuss openly and without much embarrassment, the child can only draw one conclusion, that his parents are either lacking in knowledge or in courage, or hopelessly behind the times. Parents often wonder why their children in [81] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour school and out of school generally follow the wrong leader. If a child is nice, modest, well be- haved and soft spoken, he wiU get very little credit in school from his associates. He will not be taken as a model, and never will be a leader. The little Lord Fauntleroy has a miserable time of it in school and gets a lot of hazing. The foul-mouthed urchin, on the other hand, who swears and knows obscene words and seems to lead a romantically indecent life out of school excites everybody's curiosity and his advice is taken on every occasion. He is supposed to know things. Children are great egotists, whose main ambi- tion is to become grown ups and to be treated as such. They wish to be taken seriously and resent being considered as mentally inferior beings. The bad boy acts "like a man" and his "wis- dom" and "knowledge" make it easy for him to assume the leadership of "the gang." With a little more knowledge and less fear of certain words and facts, parents could retain their authority and save their children from many mis- takes committed while emulating the bad boys. The question of the sexual enlightenment of chil- dren goes much farther than the mere problem of telling children accurate facts about sex. It has [82] Parents and Children an important bearing upon all the relations between patents and children. BIBLIOGRAPHY The analysis of Little Hans by Freud is not accessible to English readers. The cases of Little Arpad and Little Anna, however, are infinitely richer in their psycho- logical applications and can be found in all their detail in S. Ferenczi's "Contributions to Psychoanalysis" (Badger) and Jung's lectures on "The Association Method," published by Clark University. The treat- ment accorded to children in the various epochs of his- tory is well described in G. H. Payne's "The Child in Human Progress" (Putnam's). The various problems of childhood are discussed thoroughly by H. V. H. Hellmuth, a woman physician, in "The Mental Life of the Child" (Nervous and Mental Disease Pub. Co.) and by William A. White, superin- tendent of St. Elizabeth Hospital for the Insane, Wash- ington, D. C, in "The Mental Hygiene of Childhood" (Little, Brown), two books which should be read by every parent and educator. See also "The Problem of the Nervous Child" by Elida Evans (Dodd, Mead). [83] III. PROGRESS AND REGRESSIONS CHAPTER I. THE NEGATIVE AND THE POSITIVE LIFE The positive human being aims at a goal which is ahead, in time and space, and perhaps at a higher level than the one on which he presently stands. He makes plans for a future of useful activity, of beneficial endeavour and of social co- operation. He expects to encounter problems and to solve them in his own way, perhaps in a novel way. The negative human being, on the contrary, seems fascinated by the past, seems to live in the past. He is constantly seeking some abnormal, unpleasant, painful form of regression, resorting to unsocial, selfish means, avoiding problems, and when he has to solve them himself, proving a slave to precedents. Since all men should obviously be positive, why do so many lead a negative life? Why do so many 'regress instead of advancing? Why do so many destroy instead of being constructive? Neurotics, perverts and criminals regress: neu- [87] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour rotics ransack their past life for ready made solu- tions which, in the majority of cases, cannot be made to fit modified conditions; perverts seek sex- ual gratification in ways which are childish and imperfect; criminals revert to ethics of the prim- eval days, when each man or each beast, ignorant as yet of any form of solidarity, assaulted every other man or beast. Regression is invariably due to some feeling of inferiority. Some people develop a weak heart. After which a rapid ascent up steep stairs, over- indulgence in dancing, or a hearty meal may be fol- lowed by discomfort which makes the owner of the inferior organ keenly conscious of his inferiority. Some of us have capricious stomachs or fatigued eyes, bad teeth, a bald skull, thin arms, fat legs, lungs which are too sensitive to changes in the temperature, etc. And most of us take those imperfections as granted. We do not worry over them, we reach some crompromise between life as we would lead it if we could and the life which our inferior organ allows us to lead; the man with a weak heart shuns dances and avoids excitement; the man with a poor digestion may select from the bill of fare a hundred dainties which demand no gastric strenuosity; the man with poor eyes picks out [88] Mysterious Organs books in large print; the thin person favours a fat- tening diet; the obese one selects a diet likely to bring him back to pleasant proportions; the bald man avoids exposing his skull to icy blasts; the person with decayed teeth uses a nut cracker. . . . All of them, as long as they are normal, find enough enjoyment in the long list of activities which do not aggravate their condition; all of them come to the conclusion that "it cannot be helped" and let it go at that. In certain cases the problem is more complicated. Baldness or bad teeth or palpitations are obvious facts and the discomfort they bring in their wake is easily traced to its true source. There are many organs, however, whose location in our body is very vague to most of us, whose names we do not even know, which are not painful when diseased or deranged, and yet whose faulty functioning may cause distressing symptoms. Overactive adrenals, causing by their secretion of adrenin, a constant sense of arterial tension, may cause us to experience obscure feelings of discom- fort which we express by saying: "I don't feel right, I feel out of sorts, etc." The normal man has himself examined carefully by a physician and follows the treatment prescribed, and unless the treatment seems to fail absolutely to relieve him, [89] Psychoanalysis arid Behaviour goes about his business and does not pay too much attention to his condition. The neurotic, on the contrary, dramatizes his in- feriority, and instead of looking hopefully at all the opportunities which are open to him in spite of that inferiority, dwells constantly and stub- bornly upon the handicaps which it places on him, on the pleasures, advantages, privileges, which pal- pitations of the heart have removed from his reach, the attitudes his bald pate would spoil, etc. In the case of unlocalized, obscure feelings of discomfort, he may become despondent, expect death or a lingering illness, lose his desire for life, let himself drift. At times, a sense of inferiority is forced upon perfectly normal people by an environment which they have allowed to dominate them too completely. Healthy young men and women may develop a deep sense of sin when they find themselves con- stantly reproved for the "impulsive" acts, the un- restrained enthusiasm, the outbursts of demonstra- tive affection which are natural to strong, full- blooded human beings. In small communities, in puritanical circles, which are only too often dominated by oldish, sex- ually starved, narrow-minded old maids of both sexes, most manifestations of vitality are likely to [90] Repressing Normal Cravings he characterized as low, animal, bestial. Young women of an exuberant nature, who crave the perfectly legitimate excitement and the active life of an actress, of a concert artist, of an interpreta- tive dancer, are the particular butt for such at- tacks. Either they leave their environment in a rash way which not infrequently entails suffering or re- grettable entanglements, or they allow their en- vironment to indicate their conduct, they judge themselves as severely as their critics judge them, they co-operate with their critics in repressing normal cravings which soon proceed to seek an ab- normal outlet in the form of hysteria, headaches, torturing states of anxiety. Or they accept weakly their environment's esti- mate of their character with a discouraged "I am no good" as their justification and become a plague or a plaything for the world, drifting into promis- cuity, prostitution or "insanity." As neither normal nor abnormal people can carry happily through life a feeling of inferiority, they assume after a while a certain attitude which brings them consolation or compensation. The best and most fruitful attitude in such cases is the following: In one respect I am inferior but in other respects, I am or can be superior. [91] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour The positive man striking that attitude will strive for some form' of superiority: he may become an inventor of genius, a creator of new things, an artist, a writer. He may devise novel ways of curing his inferiority, of exercising the inferior organ (Adler has noticed that many people became chefs because they originally had a poor stomach and that many singers start singing as the best way of developing their inferior throat) . Accomplishment of some sort will restore the con- fidence which a feeling of inferiority may have weakened; it will compensate for the satisfactions which mere inferiority places beyond the inferior man's reach and offset jhe feeling that something is wrong somewhere in the organism. By accom- plishment, I mean the kind of positive, creative ac- tivity which receives a measure, however small, of recognition. Negative people and in certain cases, the origin- ally positive people who go to extremes, may be more tortured by their attempts at compensation than they were by the inferiority for which they are attempting to compensate. The world is acquainted with the many crazy in- ventors who are pestering their friends with some mechanical trifle they consider tremendous, with the cranks who would make the world an ideal place [92] Others Are Inferior by banishing cigarette smoking, the uninspired poets, the undramatic playwrights, and too often, the true men of genius whose fame is to be a post- humous one. Not a few merge into a deep melancholia on ac- count of their failure to impress the world with the importance of their fad, not a few are aroused to acts of maniacal violence by the indifference with which their "discoveries" are received. Another attitude which the inferior human being may adopt is expressed by the statement: Other people too are inferior. This may be a basis for a healthy and normal compromise with life. I should not take my in- feriority too tragically for many other people have a weak heart and yet enjoy life; many have im- perfect features and yet have found love, etc. A realization of mankind's imperfections is a good antidote for the romantic view adopted by many- sentimental beings and which in too many cases leads them to idealize strangers, to make gods and goddesses of people to whom distance lends m!any graces. Such a realization may be very constructive in its results, for with it may go an intelligent sym- pathy for fellow sufferers, more tolerance, more patience, more kindness for other members of the [93] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour social body, who are burdened with the same or similar handicaps. That understanding is often a source of definite ego-satisfaction and the inferiority is often ac- cepted gratefully on account of the mental su- periority to which it leads. "Not until I was a sufferer from . . . did I understand, etc." is one statement frequently met with, and which is uttered with a certain amount of pardonable pride. The negative type, on the other hand, the neu- rotic individual convinced of his inferiority, will not have any peace until he proves to himself and to others that ALL human beings are inferior, not only in ways similar to his but in many other re- spects. His level will appear to him extremely low until he has dragged mankind down to the same level or even to a lower one. Without doing himself any appreciable good and without accomplishing any- thing positive, he destroys his environment's equi- librium and ultimately his own. He begins a campaign of disparagement which impugns every statement, every act, every motive, aims at dwarfing every accomplishment, attributes sordid or unethical reasons to every form of ac- tivity that comes within his ken. He casts reflections on other people's morals, [94] Withdrawing from Reality spreads vague rumours about their health, their disposition, their financial status. The gossip- monger enjoys a measure of power due to his repu- tation for having a sharp tongue; some, deceived by his spurious fearlessness, may respect him, some of his victims may fear hini But there grows around him a more or less con- cealed hostility which he soon capitalizes in order to lend plausibility to his scorn and hatred of the world. Scorn and hatred may soon lead him into intro- version, that is, withdrawal from human society, from social groups, which he characterizes as too superficial, from crowds, which he denounces as vulgar, from friendly intercourse, which he pre- sents as a waste of time. The foundation is laid for the introversion of dementia praecox in which the patient gradually withdraws into himself paying no more attention to his environment, interested only in his own thoughts, staring at unseen things and in some cases assum- ing the prenatal position of the fetus in the mother's womb. Another attitude which individuals may assume in order to compensate for a feeling of inferiority is the "sour grape" attitude. Within certain limits it is helpful. The man who fails to attain a certain [95] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour object may console himself by letting his mind dwell on the advantages instead of on the unfor- timate side of his failure. "That position would have been advantageous but it would have meant less freedom, etc." The jilted suitor may remem- ber certain unpleasant traits of his sweetheart which might have made life with her a doubtful venture. The neurotic, on the other hand, proceeds to dispar- age all the goals which are beyond his reach. Un- prepossessing bachelors of both sexes are very loud in their denunciation of the badness of men and women respectively. Ugly persons destined to be wall flowers criticize the dances at which they are not welcome and the low neck gowns which would expose their lack of charms. Not only do they deny vociferously their desire for "sour grapes" but they condemn all attempts on the part of others at reaching the goals which have eluded them. Negative in their life, they become teachers of neg- ativism. They say "No" to life, because life said "No" to them and they avenge themselves by dis- couraging all those who, young and healthy, would say "Yes" to life. A craving for safety is natural in all living things and constitutes one of the essential conditions of individual or group survival. The race which is not afraid of other, more aggressive races, which [96] The Craving for Safety disregards the dangers accruing from epidemics and does not insure its future by permanent agen- cies of welfare, the individual who fails to stop, look and listen at crossings and never looks before he leaps, has an interesting but abbreviated career. It is especially when our organism is not abso- lutely perfect that we must exercise very special care to offset that handicap. The man with a weak foot should not take chances and cross avenues in front of swiftly moving vehicles. The man with weak eyes should not jump until he has estinfated very accurately the distance between starting and landing points; the man with weak kidneys should avoid strong beverages, etc. Normal and inferior persons can indulge their craving for safety in perfectly positive ways, arriv- ing at a compromise between what they would like to do and what they can safely do without injury to life and limb, without loss of money or of social prestige, etc. The positive person asks: "How can I safely do a certain thing?" The abnormal neurotic person on the other hand will ask : "What shall I avoid in order to be safe?" In other words the positive person stresses the accomplishment, the negative lays emphasis on safety- Here again, instead of looking into the future, the [97] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour negative neurotic looks into the past for prece- dents. "How did I once find safety?" This means, as usual, a regression to a younger and yoiuiger stage, to one in which safety was as- sured by the parents, guardians or teachers, who solved all problems as soon as they arose, constantly created precedents for conduct and made all plan- ning for the future unnecessary. Thousands of neurotics thus run back to father or mother in a symbolic way. We are all acquainted with the man who uses as a criterion of his and other people's actions what "his poor father" would have thought of them, with the woman who does a certain thing because "it would have made mother happy," and also with the men and women who refrain from doing perfectly simple, legitimate, harmless things because their father or mother disapproved of them. Thousands are Democrats or Republicans because of their fathers' political affiliations and for no other con- scious reason. Such people are naturally hostile to every change, be it in fashions or in government, because, very naturally, there was nothing in their past which constitutes a precedent for harem skirts or munic- ipal ice houses, for cubism or original surgical methods. [98] Nagging Men and Women The feeling of strangeness experienced by many neurotics is easily explained as a regression to the past. Life goes on, but they either linger at one level or sink to a lower one and reality is to them a more and more puzzling phenomenon. The old-fashioned type is often the product of a sense of inferiority, lack of adaptability and elastic- ity, low power of assimilation, coupled with an abnormal desire for safety. This attitude very often assumes a sexual com- plexion which may deceive superficial observers. The inferior male, who obscurfely fears that he might not come up to the expectations of a sexual partner, disparages all women and seeks safety on the pedestal of his self -assumed masculine superior- ity. The inferior female pretends to scorn all males. The inferior husband surrounds his wife with varied protective devices which are ostensibly meant to protect her, and imply her inability to pro- tect herself. He dictates what she may read, whom she may properly meet, what she should wear, in reality, isolating her as completely as possible from other more attractive and perhaps mlore virile males. The inferior wife nags her husband into giving up "habits," friends, clubs, membership in asso- ciations likely to supply him with alibis; in brief, [99] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour she protects him from women more attractive than she is by constantly asserting her ownership of him and excluding from his circle of acquaintances all sources of possible temptation. Inferior persons of both sexes only feel safe when the opposite sex has been humiliated. Men and women alike have contributed to the hostility be- tween sexes as a consequence of which the mascu- line dom'ination which is now gradually yielding to the onslaughts of feminists, implanted itself for many centuries. And this leads us to a consideration of the will-to- power from its positive and negative sides. The will-to-power is a normal striving of the liv- ing being for the natural result of regular, un- hampered growth, physical and mental, of the per- fect functioning of all the bodily agencies of ac- quisition, assimilation, metabolism and elimination: power. Health and power are synonymous; power to re- sist death, power to do one's tasks without a feeling of exhaustion; power to join in all the world's ac- tivities; power for enjoyment; power to be used in emergencies. Every normal m,an or woman de- sires and seeks that form of power. The will-to-power, on the other hand, becomes negative when the craving for it is synonymous with [100] Negative Compensation a desire to destroy, not to create, to overpower others, not to be their equal in every respect. Instead of the positive statement: I must be strong, the neurotic says, unconsciously: "I must appear as though I were strong." Ferenczi cites the very striking case of a weak, neurotic clerk who, when submitted to some humil- iation by his employer, went out to seek some male prostitute. Instead of being strong, manly, and either meeting the insult with proud rebuif or mak- ing himself more valuable and more worthy of respect, the poor neurotic spent some money, rep- resenting power, in order to subdue to his will and to humiliate some wretched man of the gutter. And indeed, that psychology is not as rare as one might think; to many a neurotic, physical relations are symbolical of a humiliation of the woman; many a jealous neurotic has confessed to me that his worse torture was not the suspicion that his wife's affection was growing less but that some other man might subject her to his will even as he himself did. Innumerable neurotic disturbances, epilepsy, sick headaches, dizziness, fainting spells, are ex- pedients enabling the sick to indulge their will-to- power in a negative way. Instead of accumulat- ing strength, they wear out the strength of those [101] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour with whom they come in contact and who have to take care of them. Many an epileptic, facing de- feat, "throws" a fit and thus gains an advantage he could not claim justly. The woman with a sick headache silences the entire household; the dizzy person suffering from agoraphobia, requires an escort; the person who faints commands the services and the attention of all those present. None of those neurotic sufferers is conscious of that procedure but almost all of them confess naively some time or other to the pleasure vouchsafed them by the prompt succour offered them. And in that naive avowal there is concealed one more egotistical satisfaction: "You see how ap- preciative I am. . . ." This is one form of uncon- scious hypocrisy very noticeable in people with a weak heart. They promptly exploit the popular superstition which makes the heart the centre of all the tender emotions and boast of their sensitiveness which naturally makes them more sympathetic and places a new duty upon those whom they uncon- sciously victimize. Self-knowledge as acquired through analysis or self -analysis, is the only protection against a nega- tive orientation, against an attitude which is dis- astrous to the sufferer and his environment. For [102] Neurotic Superiority while the neurotic derives infinite unconscious sat- isfaction from his abnormality he consciously goes through the tortures of hell. His spurious su- periority and power do not satisfy him consciously. And this is one of the reasons why he is so easily aroused, so vituperative and insulting in disputes. From this he again derives a certain superiority. People are afraid of discussing any subject with a neurotic and oftentimes yield point after point in order to avoid unpleasantness. The neurotic obscurely feels that his arguments are not valid, that his position is untenable, that his evidence could not stand any test and his anger at his own powerlessness is projected on those who cross-examine him. He is like a man who has been hypnotized and unconsciously invents very plausible reasons for proving that he did of his free will what the hypnotist commanded him to do. Insight into our unconscious, like the gradual and detailed explanations of the hypnotist to his subject, allows both neurotic and medium to realize that they were subjected for a while to an abnormal influence and that to a certain extent "they were not themselves." The problem to solve constantly in human con- duct is: "Am I myself, is it I myself who am speaking and acting or is it my unconscious self, [103] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour attempting to follow the line of least resistance, leading me toward regression instead of progress, toward the past instead of toward the future?" Conduct based upon that system alone might not be perfectly normal. Introversion and extro- version, that is the fixation of our attention upon ourselves or upon exterior objects, can both be normal and abnormal. Extreme introversion, the detachment of our interest from the entire world and its fixation on ourselves alone means absolute negativism;; extreme extroversion, the constant chas- ing of a new butterfly, exaggerated interest in every passing fad or detail of life, means the squandering of our resources, mental and physical, on a hundred goals none of which is ever reached. He who attempts too many things is almost as unproductive as he who withdraws from reality. Our reactions to stimulus words and our dreams alone can give us a clear picture of our orientation. Introversion and extroversion are easily determined by even a superficial examination of the first and our dreams reveal to us accurately what our uncon- scious is trying to make us do. The Aschner test described on page 40 is a sim- ple way of confimdng the diagnosis. He whose reactions reveal him as extremely self- [104] Positive Standards centred and introverted should be on his guard against that tendency and force himself to adopt attitudes which will lead to fewer conflicts with his environment. The overmodest person burdened with a feeling of inferiority can go through a systematic training of ego-building and personality development. In other words, those who have been deceived by their unconscious and who know to what extent the deception has gone, may discount their first im- pressions and withhold final judgment until they have ascertained whether their conscious I or their imconscious I is responsible for that first impres- sion and is dictating their judgment. We must now and then go through the process which the Catholics call examination of conscience and submit our attitudes to a test based upon the following five propositions: A tendency to constantly disparage is negative and should put ourselves on our guard. Desire for power that exalts us at the expense of others is also negative. The constant search for precedents is negative. In brief, whatever enables us to harmonize with our environment and to help it toward its goal is positive. [105] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour Whatever creates disharmony between ourselves and our environment and retards its onward march is negative. BIBLIOGRAPHY For a study of the neurotic temperament consult William A. White's "Elements of Character Formation" and "Principles of Mental Hygiene," both published by Macmillan. "Human Motives," by J. J. Putnam, is a very simple presentation of the hidden forces which com- pel us to act abnormally at times. The deepest and most searching analysis of the neu- rotic's mental workings will be found in A. Adler's "The Neurotic Constitution" (Moffat, Yard) which requires very careful reading, for it presupposes a certain knowl- edge of analytic methods and has been translated in rather heavy style. [106] CHAPTER II. SPEECH AND MEMORY DE- FECTS The neurotic type in its negative attitude to life refuses to face unpleasant facts. It adopts the os- trich's tactics and buries its head in the sand. The most efficient way to flee from an unpleasant reality is not to know any longer that it was once perceived. Oblivion is the simplest way to rid oneself of an unpleasant fact. If it cannot be entirely forgotten, avoiding to mention it is the next best negative ex- pedient. Loss of memory, partial or complete, ob- literates a part of our biography which we lack courage to acknowledge as our own. Aphasia, aphonia or stammering withhold conveniently state- ments which our unconscious considers damaging. A German woman of fifty who at the beginning of the war had been especially loud in her proger- manism and had thereby caused her family and relatives a great deal of annoyance, was absolutely prostrated when her son, a naturalized citizen, was drafted. A panicky fear seized her lest her indis- crete utterances might bring punishment upon her beloved boy's head. [107] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour The night when he left for camp, she became strangely silent and the next morning she was ab- solutely disoriented, being unable to recognize any member of her family or her environment. Her memory for everything which had occurred since August, 1914, was entirely gone; she could speak only with great difficulty and for a while her vocal cords lost all resonance; she regained to a certain extent her powers of speech when express- ing herself in English but she was absolutely unable to make herself heard when she talked German, On the other hand, her memory of events preced- ing the world catastrophe was absolutely unim- paired. While she never joined a conversation or addressed any one first she would very often supply with astounding accuracy facts or dates needed by those conversing in her presence. All the facts of her biography and of that of her children ante- dating 1914 were perfectly clear and well remem- bered, but when asked their age, she gave the age they had reached in August, 1914. Here is a case then in which partial amnesia and partial aphasia proved a negative asset to the neu- rotic. The war which brought her much misfor- tune was forgotten. The voice which had carried to hostile ears many indiscrete statements was muted and the language which at a time none could [108] The Ways of the Stammerer speak in public without being eyed suspiciously or ostracised, failed to make her vocal cords vibrate. A stammerer engaged in scientific research never had any difl&culty in mentioning a certain chemical whose methods of production he was trying hard to improve. One day, however, a fellow laboratory worker forestalled him in finding a more efficient device. At the next appointment, the stammerer was almost unable to tell me of the occurrence and could not for several minutes pronounce clearly the name of the chemical in question. His unconscious egotism was bent on withholding from me informa- tion of a humiliating character. As soon as the neurotic expedient became obvious to him, his im- pediment disappeared. A woman compelled in self-defence to tell her husband a very complicated story lacking in plaus- ibility, began to stammer whenever a word in her conversation seemed to be unconsciously associated with the compromising incident. A full confession in my office relieved the tension and the "watchful technique" did the rest. A study of all cases of memory and speech dis- turbances will soon convince the observer that our memory does not retain or lose words and facts indiscriminately. Stammerers do not stammer indiscriminately, [109] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour There always is an absurd unconscious reason, neurotically logical, which causes us to forget a word, a fact, a duty, a figure, or to lose partly or completely our powers of speech. We may forget anything which has an unpleasant unconscious connotation, we may stammer on any word which has an xmpleasant association or be totally unable to pronounce it. Hence the usual methods for improving the mem- ory are psychologically absurd. We may memorize long lists of words or sen- tences, poems and orations and yet at the crucial moment the right word may be withheld because some unconscious complex makes it impossible for us to utter it. Mnemotechnic methods which seek to create new and at times illogical and absurd associations of the "clang" type or of the pun type are better. They grant unconsciously what the analysts claim, that the associations conjured up by a word may be of such a nature that the word cannot be uttered and they seek to replace a natural and unconscious as- sociation by an unnatural and conscious one. This involves however a gigantic amount of ex- ertion and the results of this procedure cannot be permanent. The removal of the complexes which hold words [110] Why We Forget down is the only scientific method for "improving" one's memory. Psychoanalysis does not, however, "improve" one's memory; it disintegrates the ele- ments which impair our memory. Our memory is simply the faculty our autonomic nerves have of making use, in an emergency, of im- pressions received in the course of our bringing up. When some fear-impression causes the safety divi- sion of the autonomic system to repress the natural activities of the other divisions, the words are, if the repression is complete, entirely forgotten, or if the repression is less complete, remembered but unpro- nounceable and, if the repression fails, stammered on more or less painfully. The various cures suggested for stammering have never cured any one permanently. Any stammerer can be trained to read without any difficulty lists of disconnected words and sen- tences of varying length. Any stammerer can be trained to sing without stammering. This means that the words he studies lose grad- ually their present, unconscious associations and become mere sounds. As soon, however, as those words are grouped differently and acquire anew their imconscious associations, the stammerer once more becomes tongue-tied. Making the sufferer change the pitch of his voice, [111] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour one popular method of treating stammerers, is just as inefficient. Called upon to single out one word and to treat it as a "vehicle" for sound, not for thought, the stammerer no longer feels any embar- rassment. The embarrassment returns, however, when the stammerer has to speak in a natural, even tone of voice. Experiments show that fixation of the reading glance on one word only at a time, helps the stam- merer, for it accomplishes more simply the same purpose as a change of pitch. It disconnects each word from its context and hence rids it of its as- sociations. This is, however, little more than an expedient and does not go to the root of the matter. Nothing avails except to free the subject from the imconscious complexes withholding the words on which he stamm,ers. The stammerer who gains insight into the mech- anism of his disability, who realizes not only that every bothersome word, sound or even letter, is fraught with an unpleasant connotation, but, fur- thermore, that his stammering is a valuable nega- tive asset for him, will gradually acquire perfect fluency of speech. One stammerer I treated came to realize that his stammering enabled him to dominate his environ- [112] Memory and Speech Training ment, as his mother and sister had to do all his shopping, receive and send all his telephone mes- sages; he could keep his employer waiting for ex- planations, he could delay his answers and modify their wording (hereby satisfying his safety crav- ings). While he could pronounce without diffi- culty the name of any woman he was acquainted with, he could seldom pronounce men's names, es- pecially when those men wielded some authority over him. The usual memory and speech methods are based on the assumption that certain people are bom with a poor memory or a "heavy tongue." Psycho- analysis assumes that all human beings are bom with probably the same average ability but that in the course of their bringing up some of that average ability has been handicapped by complexes and cannot manifest itself freely. Instead of de- veloping memory or fluency, psychoanalysis busies itself with the rem,oval of the complexes which disable the patient. This precludes the relapses which are so frequent and so discouraging in the treatment of amnesia, aphasia and stammering by the old fashioned methods. [113] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour BIBLIOGRAPHY Very little has been published on stammering from the psychoanalytic point of view. See "Stammering as a Psychoneurosis" by Isador H. Coriat, Journal of Abnor- mal Psychology, Vol. IX, No. 6, and "Stammering as a Psychonem:osis and Its Treatment by Psychoanalysis" by M. D. Eder, Int. Med. Congress, Section of Psychiatry. Tr. XVII. See also A. Appelt: "Stammering and Its Permanent Cure." 1912. [114] CHAPTER III. SCAPEGOATS Ever since man appeared on the earth he has felt the necessity of scapegoats. Frazer's monu- mental work "The Golden Bough" reveals thou- sands of obvious or subtle attempts on the part of mankind to saddle the responsibility for individual or group shortcomings on some xmwilling or willing sacrificial victim, beast, man or god. The Greek drama blamed fate, the Middle Ages the devil; one civilization sacrificed a goat whose death wiped off the sins of men; in another civiliza- tion, Jesus died to save mankind. In our days, we no longer accuse the devil of causing our failures. "Popular science" spread thinly by Sunday newspapers and club lectures, supplies the masses with new impressive scapegoats. "Racial traits," "inbreeding," "heredity," "en- vironment," have been in a most hypocritical way substituted for the goat of old. The pagan who sinned and, afraid of the im- pending reckoning, killed a goat in order to mol- lify some heavenly policeman, did not deny his [115] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour guilt. The modem "sinner" who seeks excuses for his brutality or his lewdness in his heredity or his environment, is guilty of a much more complete flight from reality. The pagan admitted that sinning was pleasant but could not be indulged in unless there was one more goat to be offered to the gods. The modern sinner is consciously in fear of sin, but unconsciously preparing his escape by heaping up guilt upon vague biological processes which he does not understand. The pagan said: "I did not repress certain cravings and I am willing to pay the price." The modem sinner on the other hand says: "I could not repress certain cravings, because my ancestry, my bringing up or my environment have made it impossible for me to suppress such cravings." If the modem sinner has a conscience, such a disclaimer of guilt may be perfectly honest and straightforward and constitute for the person mak- ing it a great danger. The hypocrite who exploits heredity and other scapegoats as a convenient explanation for the gratification of his -own cravings is probably safe. The ethically-minded person who believes that his heredity or some other biological factor has un- fitted him to repress unsocial, inadmissible crav- [116] Pseudo-heredity ings may undergo very torturing "soul struggles" and be defeated in life's battle. Physical heredity cannot be denied and Mendel's experiments prove that it is ruled by absolute mathematical laws. Not only do we observe in nature that certain characteristics of the parents are reproduced in an invariable proportion of the off- spring, but we can, before crossing certain animal or vegetable species, predict accurately how many of the offspring will present certain characters and how many will not present such characters. This is as far as heredity goes. The transmis- sion of mental characteristics is probably due to what Freud calls pseudo-heredity, that is to the in- fluence wielded on the child by its environment, that environment consisting chiefly of the parents for the first years of the child's life. Biologists generally agree that while inherited characters or congenital characters cannot be modi- fied, acquired characters can be caused to disap- pear in later life. Those who consider themselves as "burdened with a bad heredity" should ponder that fact. They should remember that even a weak or defec- tive organ, stomach or lungs, may be, not inherited from the parents, but acquired under the same un- favourable circumstances which caused that in- [117] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour feriority to establish itseK in their parents' organ- ism. A changed environment, proper exercise and plenty of food have been known, together with imi- tation of the proper model, to modify entirely the physical appearance of various races. I have mentioned elsewhere that the so-called hereditary instincts can be absolutely "removed" by the influence of the environment. When a messenger pigeon refuses to mate with its kind if hatched by a ring dove and then will only mate with ring doves, we must come to the conclu- sion that training is stronger than instinct. When we observe that a change in temperature either shortens or prolongs the average life of a certain species or creates a different species, we must also conclude that environment is stronger than heredity. Eggs from the same butterfly or puppae of the same species will give entirely different species at different temperatures. The number of "hereditary characters" is de- creasing year after year as scientists become more thorough in their observations and include in their statistics a growing number of factors. It was admitted for centuries that some inherited [118] Fishes and Carbonic Acid instinct caused fishes to rise to the surface of the waters at night and to go down to the bottom at dawn. We know now that heredity has nothing to do with that phenomenon. The presence of carbonic acid in water causes all aquatic animals to direct themselves toward the source of light. At night the waters of pools and rivers become charged with carbonic acid as the green aquatic plants cannot absorb that gas in the dark. Fishes and other organisms are affected by that excess of carbonic acid and are compelled to rise to the surface where the light, however feeble, is stronger than at the bottom. In the morning, the supply of acid decreases rapidly and all the organisn^s regain their freedom and can seek safety in the deeper strata of the water. By liberating large quantities of carbonic acid in. the water during the day, one can compel all the aquatic organisms to rise to the surface, and by directing at night a strong light on the waters, which facilitates the absorption of carbonic acid by green plants, one can, on the contrary, cause the fishes to remain at the bottom. It is not improbable that in a few years, many [119] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour obscure facts attributed to heredity or to instincts will be traced to physical or chemical phenomena which can be produced or removed at will. A French scientist, Pouchet, has noticed that cer- tain fishes reproduce the colour or pattern of the aquarium in which they are kept PROVIDED THEY CAN SEE IT. Blind fishes of the same species, kept in the same aquarium, retain the whitish or greyish colour they had when they first came out of the egg. The so-called protective colouring of certain animals, the seasonal changes observed in the plu- mage of the ptarmigan, may not be more than mere unconscious imitation of the environment, devoid of any purpose. A very illuminating case of what we might call metachemistry. Insanity, feeble-mindedness or criminality are not inherited characters. They are often acquired through either imitation or suggestion or both. The insane and the criminal solve their problems by following the line of least resistance and least effort. The children they bring up are likely, un- less some healthier influence is exerted on them, to solve their problems in the same way, the only way which observation has made thoroughly fa- miliar to them. Auto-suggestion and involuntary suggestion by [120] Stupid Relatives others play a powerful part in the acquisition of criminal or neurotic traits. In a crisis, the in- dividual weakened by his superstitious belief in heredity, may either commit a crime or merge into a neurosis because his father, mother or grand- father established such a precedent. That precedent may not be more than a legend perpetuated by inaccurate, stupid or gossipy rela- tives. A man guilty of some act of brutality is easily catalogued in family archives as a man of criminal instincts. A man of rather morose disposition very often has his trouble diagnosed by amateur psy- chiatrists in his family circle as melancholia. A romantic legend may form after his death around his actual biography and invest some de- tail of behaviour, which on one occasion impressed the beholders, with the dignity of a life-long habit or of a serious mental disturbance. The stupid parent who vents his anger on his offspring by making remarks such as "You are as crazy as your father (mother, uncle, aunt)," "You will end in jail as your uncle did," may start a train of suggestive thought which is highly danger- ous. I have known personally three brothers who were [121] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour brought up by an exceptionally idiotic mother and who on several occasions had themselves committed to an insane asylum when they lost their money or their jobs. None of them succeeded in remaining "insane" for any length of time, although all of them repeated constantly that they were "going crazy like their father." Inquiry showed that their father, who died when they were very young, had several fits of blues coinciding with slumps in the family's finances but never showed at any time any "insane" traits. Men and women have been known to reproduce in their behaviour certain habits bad or good of their grandparents. Investigation showed in many of them, and would probably have shown in every one of them, that they were obsessed by the old be- lief that genius or vice, etc., "skips a generation." "Racial psychology," a limited form of "men- tal" heredity, is, like heredity proper, a weapon directed against our enemies and a scapegoat for our own sins. To the honest psychologist, so-called racial traits amount merely to different sets of bad manners tolerated or encouraged in one community, discouraged and held shameful in other communi- ties owing to reasons of temperature, climate, food supply, etc. The unconscious make-up of all races, however, [122] Unions Between Blood Relations is the same the world over as a careful analysis of all folk traditions, legends, religions, superstitions, ritual, neurotic psychology, etc., proves abundantly. It is as silly to expect a certain form of behaviour from one individual because he is a Jew or an Irishman as it would be for a Jew or an Irishman to excuse a certain form of behaviour of his on the plea that his antecedents determined certain psy- chological processes. Inbreeding is another cause for worry which neurotics are likely to seize upon as a conscious screen for their unconscious strivings to escape reality. There is absolutely no evidence of a scientific nature that the marriage of blood relations is pro- ductive of insanity or feeble-mindedness in the offspring. But there are good reasons to suspect that feeble- mindedness leads to unions between blood relations and in many cases to incestuous unions. Parent fixation being stronger in neurotics than in normal individuals, the family complex is bound to attract related neurotics to each other. The result is that the children whom they procreate may be bom normal but are brought up by their neurotic parents to adopt neurotic forms of action and thought. Goddard, who has made exhaustive studies of [123] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour feeble-mindedness, has reached the conclusion that the feeble-minded are constantly thrown together, congregate in certain places and intermarry more than normal individuals. That each neurotic family trains its children to one peculiar form of abnormal behaviour is well illustrated by the history of the sinister Juke family propagated by incestuous descendance: all the descendants of Ada were criminals, the descendants of Belle, exhibitionists or rapists, the descendants of Effie, beggars. As against the tragic results of inbreeding among the inferior, we may remind the readef of the re- markable results of inbreeding among individuals of superior stock. In Athens and her suburban communities be- tween 530 and 430 b. c, that is during the heyday of Hellenic brilliancy, there was a small popula- tion from which came about fifteen of the most remarkable geniuses the world has ever known. Inbreeding was the custom, marriage with half- sisters being lawful, and unions with aliens being discouraged. The decline of the Hellenic civilization was not brought about by any racial decay but by the over- whelming pressure of primitive races of a more savage type invading a highly cultured region much [124] Re-education Possible as the desert sand gradually invaded the centres of culture of Mesopotamia and North Africa. Some of the most wonderful specimens of agri- cultural products or animal breeds have been ob- tained through continual inbreeding. It is not riierefore inbreeding which influences the mental quality, nor even the fact that one of the parents or both are neurotically inclined, but the fact that children are trained in a neurotic way. Re-education, however, mental or physical, is fortunately a possibility which should never be overlooked. We are bom with general physical tendencies, that is, we reproduce closely the general type of the human variety to which we belong. We receive the bony, muscular and nervous structure of what will, according to the pains we take, become a statue or a scarecrow. Imitation is mostly unconscious and a negative way of dealing with problems. Our parents are the first models presented to us by nature while we are casting about for some one to imitate. But they need not remain the only models from which we shall shape our statue. Our parents may have fleshless limbs and poor lungs. But we can go to a gynasium, run around the track, lift weights, breathe fresh air, at least [125] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour all night long, regulate our diet scientifically, walk to and from work. Our parents may be abnormal mentally, but li- braries, lecture halls and meeting places will bring us into contact with active men and women who are normal and whom we can imitate, dispelling thereby the mental ghosts who thrive in the home atmos- phere. Animals are creatures of their environment and according to whether that environment is favourable or unfavourable, they die out or survive. Man is the creator of his environment and can change his surroundings at will. Most of our heredity is a pseudo-heredity which, being simply the shaping influence of our environ- ment, can be defeated as soon as we realize that it is not working for our welfare. One question every one of us must ask himself frequently is: "Am,' I myself, or am I imitating some one and if I am imitating some one, am I fol- lowing the line of least resistance?" Another question is: "Do I believe in a certain thing or have I accepted this belief at some one's suggestion, and if so, what necessary task am I trying to shirk?" One of Kempf 's patients let her parents bring her up as a perfectly irresponsible woman and later, [126] Fate and the Devil when that irresponsibility made her married life very unpleasant, instead of re-educating herself and solving her problems in a positive, constructive way, she accepted her relatives' dictum that "she was crazy," and became "crazy." Kempf re-educated her; after becoming herself, she threw off the yoke of suggestion imposed upon her by silly relatives. The day when the combined power of imitation and suggestion is realized, the knowledge of our abnormal ascendance will not trouble us. Instead of discouraging us and of causing us to say neu- rotically: "What can I do against such odds?" we shall study carefully the ways in which our progenitors or parents deviated from the normal standard and consciously train ourselves to avoid their physical and mental errors. Heredity shall cease to be a menace and shall be- come in certain cases a warning and a guide. When insight has delivered us from the absurd belief in fate, in the devil or some other overpower- ing metaphysical force which shall crush us and compel us to do what unconsciously we are crav- ing to do, we shall be better off for an accurate knowledge of our so-called hereditary handicaps. We shall not allow ourselves to use them neuroti- cally as scapegoats. [127] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour BIBLIOGRAPHY William White's "Mechanisms of Character Forma- tion " will enable the average reader to complete a picture which, owing to lack of space, had to remain rather sketchy. Advanced students should read the fourth part of J. G. Frazer's "Golden Bough" entitled "The Scape- goat" in order to fathom the psychology which has made scapegoats necessary. The latest data on heredity can be found in two extremely technical volumes published under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute, East and Jones "Inbreeding and Outbreeding" (Lippincott) and T. H. Morgan "The Physical Basis of Heredity" (Lippincott). [128] CHAPTER IV. DUAL PERSONALITIES Every human being has two personalities: an archaic, primitive, childlike, unadapted personal- ity, and a modem, sophisticated, adult, and, to all appearances, adapted personality. Civilization and education have superimposed the second over the first or rather built over the first a thin crust of manners which does not permit its sharp angles to protrude. When the operation of walling in the archaic per- sonality is performed in a bungling way some of its sharp points have a tendency to crop out and when civilization tries to force back all those sharp points by exerting on the thin crust a pressure which it cannot bear, the archaic personality breaks through entirely and for a certain period of time refuses to be buried again. Psychiatrists of the old school were extremely puzzled by cases of double personality and some spoke of dissociation of the brain, of two separate brains, of wrong associations of neurons or cell groups, etc. [129] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour To the psychoanalyst, a case of double personal- ity is not any more mysterious than the simplest of our day or night dreams. It is a neurosis which offers to the subject a means of escape from reality, which enables him to regress to a mode of life in which some or all of his responsibilities are removed, and which in no essential detail is different from the various forms of "insanity" for which psychiatrists have devised impressive and meaningless designations. A brief review of the best known cases of double personality will help me to make my point clear. The Rev. Ansel Bourne was a hard working clergyman of excellent character and reputation, enjoying the confidence of all his associates. His health was good and his muscular strength and endurance normal. Since childhood he had been subject to fits of "blues," and became easily de- pressed. One day he drew $500 from a bank in Provi- dence, boarded a Pawtucket car and disappeared for two months. Then his nephew in Providence received a telegram saying that a man claiming to be, Rev. Ansel Bourne was in Norristown, Pa., act- ing strangely. The m,an was not acting strangely, but very normally. He was in reality the Rev. Ansel [130] He Wanted Rest Bourne, who suddenly had found himself in a strange town and in a small fruit store. Six weeks before his awakening, Bourne had gone to Norristown, rented a small store, stocked it with candy and fruit and had been doing business as A. Brown, living in the back of his shop where he cooked his own meals. His manners never at- tracted any one's attention. He went regularly to church, and once, at a prayer meeting, made a rather good address. When the awakening came and he regained his former personality, he was very weak and had lost over twenty pounds in weight. William James examined him and induced him to submit to hypnotism. In hypnosis the Brown personality came to the fore with surprising readi- ness and with such insistence that the subject could not remember any of the facts of his life as Ansel Bourne. Brown didn't even "know" Ansel Bourne and repeated constantly that he felt "hedged in at both ends." He could not remember any of the inci- dents preceding the ride to Pawtucket, nor any of those following his awakening in Norristown. The only explanation he gave for his escapade was that "there was trouble back there" and "he wanted rest." [1311 Psychoanalysis and Behaviour In this case the first personality did not know the second, nor did the second know the first. In other cases one of the personalities was ac- quainted with the other, or both knew each other and in one case there was a distinct feeling of scorn and hatred, in the other a deep friendship mani- fested by both personalities for each other. Miss Beauchamp, studied by Morton Prince, was a serious minded person, fond of books and study, very idealistic, "with a morbid New England con- scientiousness" and a great deal of pride and re- serve, very unwilling to expose herself or her life to any one's scrutiny. One day "owing to some nervous excitement" she became an entirely different personality. She called herself Sally, a creature full of fun, imable to take anything seriously, scorning books and churchgoing, eager for all forms of amusement, lacking all the educational accomplishments of Miss Beauchamp, such as a knowledge of foreign lan- guages and stenography. Miss Beauchamp was a neurasthenic, Sally was always well, never fatigued and never seemed to suffer pain. During the first year, Miss Beauchamp and Sally constantly alternated with one another. Whenever Miss Beauchamp felt tired or upset, Sally used to [132] Sally's Sense of Humor appear, sometimes for a few minutes, sometim,es for several hours. Later, Sally's appearances lasted several days at a time. Miss Beauchamp never knew Sally, but Sally knew everything about Miss Beauchamp. Further- more Sally hated her and said so very frankly. She went as far as playing tricks on her to annoy her. She would mail to Miss Beauchamp a box full of spiders and snakes, she would ride to the end of a trolley line without return carfare and oblige her to walk miles or beg rides from passing wagons; she would unravel her knitting, she wrote her annoying letters, etc. Alma Z., observed for ten years by Dr. Osigood Mason, had been in robust health until her 18th year, when "owing to overwork at school," she underwent a curious change. She had been until then an educated, thoughtful, dignified, feminine type. She suddenly became a cheerful, sprightly, childish person, ungrammatical, and using a pecu- liarly limited vocabulary. She called herself Twoey and referred to her first personality as No. 1. Twoey would at first only remain a few hours but later her stay was pro- longed to several days. While "1" and "2" were apparently in every respect separate and distinct personalities, each [133] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour took up life and its occupations where the other had left off. Twoey knew "No. 1" well and "No. 1" became acquainted with Twoey through the descriptions given her by others. The two personalities became great friends. Twoey admired "No. 1" for her superior knowl- edge, her patience in suffering and the lovely quali- ties which she recognized and she willingly took her place to give her rest. "No. 1" also became fond of Twoey on account of the loving care she bestowed upon her and her affairs and for her witty sayings which she greatly enjoyed. As Alma Z.'s health improved, Twoey's visits became scarce, and only coincided with conditions of extreme fatigue or mental excitement. Then Alma married and became an excellent wife and an efficient mistress of the household. One night, however, Twoey re-appeared but merely to announce that she was to disappear and that another personality, "The Boy," would take her place. The Boy submitted to all the duties which Alma had to discharge but when questioned persisted in declaring her male and youthful char- acter. Alma knew Latin, mathematics, and philosophy, she had memorized entire poems by [134] What Music Did Tennyson, Browning and Scott. The Boy was absolutely ignorant, although he had an intelligent grasp of affairs and manifested a keen enjoyment of theatrical and musical performances. One evening at a concert in the Metropolitan Opera House, the Boy suddenly disappeared and Alma returned for a few minutes, but Alma soon closed her eyes and assiuned the harsher, more masculine countenance of her boyish personality. The Boy knew Twoey and "No. 1" and liked both of them. Like Twoey he expressed a constant desire that "No. 1" should get well and not need him any more. Ansel Bourne had regressed to a lower intel- lectual level, but remained on an adult level. Miss Beauchamp and Ahna Z. regressed to childhood. In the case of Mary Reynolds, we will observe a regression to infancy and in that of the Rev. Thomas Carson Hanna, to the condition of the newborn. Mary Reynolds, treated by Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, was a shy, morose, melancholy woman. She had suffered frequently from convulsions, loss of con- sciousness, loss of sight and hearing. After having been greatly weakened by a severe attack, she fell into a deep sleep from which she could not at first be aroused. On awaking she was found to have lost all her [135] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour former knowledge, to be unable to recognize her environment or any of her friends. She still knew how to eat, drink and walk, but she could neither speak nor understand spoken words. She was an infant, mumbling disconnected words. In her second state she was gay, lively and playful. The transition from "1" to "2" always took place at night, that from "2" to "1" during the day time. No case has been more completely described than that of Rev. Thomas Carson H'anna, treated by Dr. Boris Sidis and Dr. S. P. Goodhart. Rev. Hanna had never suffered from any illness up to his twenty-fourth year when the slight acci- dent, following which his personality changed, took place. He was a versatile man, endowed with not only intellectual, but mechanical ability, showing artis- tic taste in many directions; he had a strong will and perfect self-control. He was not demonstrative in his affections and was influenced more easily by reason than by emotion. One evening, returning home in his carriage, he lost his footing while alighting, fell head foremost and remained unconscious for two hours. When he regained his consciousness he had become as helpless as a newborn infant. He could neither [136] Return to Infancy speak nor understand what was said to him. He did not know how to control his voluntary muscles, he could not walk. He had no conception of dis- tance or time. ^ When food was offered to him he did not under- stand the purpose of it; nor, when it was placed in his mouth, did he know how to masticate and swal- low it. It was only when food was forced upon him and thrust far back into the pharynx and reflex swallowing movements excited, that he realized the purpose of food and learned the way of taking it. Like an infant, he satisfied his natural needs without regard to time or place. Like an infant, he began to learn a few words by imitating definite articulate sounds made in connection with certain objects. The first word he learnt was "apple" which to him meant all kinds of food. His intelligence, however, was that of an adult. His memory was excellent. A word once heard seemed indelibly impressed on his mind and he never again forgot it. Like an infant, he was trying to grasp things be- yond his reach, such as a tree he saw out of the win- dow. Like an infant, he did not at first discrimi- nate between his motions and those of other people. Nor did he analyse complicated objects into their component parts; a man, a man on a bicycle, and a [137] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour man sitting in a buggy were to him three different kinds of men. Life and motion were at first synonymous to him. He gradually learnt to speak, to walk, to sing and to play instruments but he only knew the things he had studied since his change of personality had taken place. Everything and everybody he had known previous to that time was absolutely forgot- ten. Once, the reading aloud to him of a Hebrew passage with which he was familiar brought to con- sciousness a flow of Hebrew quotations which he, however, did not understand. Seven weeks after the accident, about three o'clock in the morning, he awoke to find himself in a strange house in New York City. He de- manded explanations from his brother who was sharing his room. When Dr. Goodhart, at whose house he was staying, came into the room he took him for a per- fect stranger. All memory of the events intervening between April 15 at seven o'clock in the evening and June 8 in the early morning had faded. In fact he resumed his conscious life at the very hour of the day when he had sunk into unconscious- ness and insisted that it must be evening. On the other hand, he recounted as a part of his actual [138] The Final Crisis life some of the incidents of which he had been dreaming in hypnoidic states of his second person- ality. On June 9 about 4 p. M, he fell asleep and when he awoke he had relapsed into his second person- ality. This time, however, he merely continued the life he had led before in that state and carried on the memories of it. He had not regressed fur- ther than that. He gained much insight into his condition and, when told by his brother of his various changes of personality, appeared greatly depressed. He asked anxiously whether there would not be a third state in which he would not remember either his normal or his second personalities. All sorts of stimulation were resorted to, from chemicals to a variety performance, in order to arouse his mental activity. In his secondary state, the young clergyman enjoyed keenly the antics of the performers, drank beer with pleasure, etc. After innumerable changes of personality, gener- ally preceded by sleep, Hanna merged on June 14 into a curious state resembling mental stupor. To questions put to him and bearing upon his two dif- ferent personalities he answered very slowly and with great difficulty as though he were in both states at the same time. [139] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour For several days he remained in that condition; gradually his mind became clear and he informed the physicians treating him that he had passed through an intense mental struggle. The two per- sonalities, his normal and his second personalities, arose simultaneously and confronted each other. Each of them was Hanna and yet they were different from each other. He could not choose one only because both were of the same nature; and yet they were too dissimilar to be joined. Each personality rose and fell in turn. "The struggle," he said to his physicians, "was not so much to choose one as to forget the other. I was trying to find out which I might most easily forget. It seemed impossible to forget one; both tried to per- sist in consciousness. It seemed as if each memory was stronger than my will, and still I had to deter- mine which to drive away. Just before lunch, yesterday, in the psychological laboratory, I chose the secondary life; it was strong and fresh and was able to persist. ... At that time the question arose whether I could not possibly take both. ... I decided to accept both lives as mine, a condition that could not be worse than the uncertainty I was in. I then felt that the oft-repeated struggle would ruin my mind. . . . / am sure both are mine. They are separate and I cannot yet fit the two [140] What Preceded the Change well together. . . . Secondary and primary states have breaks and intervals in them, as though there were periods of sleep. The secondary state is stronger and brighter, but not more stable." Harmony gradxially re-entered Hanna's mind and the two personalities were merged into a new and healthy one, a compromise between the over- worked, overcivilized, over-repressed man of yore and the primitive, uncivilized and unadapted child who for three months had tried to prevail. In all but one of the cases I have reviewed and in many others which can be found in the literature of the subject, the change in personality was preceded by some "crisis." The crisis is not mentioned in Hanna's case but might have been found if the psychiatrists treating the patient had inquired into the events preceding the "accident." They prob- ably, as was usual in those days (1897), considered the accident as the primary factor in the mental derangement. Hanna's fall may have been, how- ever, what Freud calls a semi-intentional self- inflicted injury. Ansel Bourne was fleeing from "trouble back there" and "wanted rest," Miss Beauchamp was overcome by "some nervous excitement," Alma Z. was a victim of "overwork," Mary Reynolds had been weakened "by a severe attack." [141] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour In every case the subject, instead of evolving into a more complex, more intelligent, more developed personality, regressed to a more primitive one. The change implied an easier mode of living, fewer duties and responsibilities. In the case of Alma Z,, "The Boy" was obviously trying to save the normal personality from wifely duties. A. Brown, fruit dealer, avoided much of the mental exertion Rev. Bourne had to undergo. Sallie did not have to live up to the intellectual standard Miss Beauchamp had set for herself. Mary Rejmolds and Hanna, becoming infants, let the world minister to all their needs. Every change of personality either took place at night or after a period of sleep, the second per- sonality appearing preferably at night, the normal personality re-appearing preferably in the day time. The second personality assumes the aspect of a pro- tracted dream, and the fact that it appeared at night in so many cases, lends credibility to that view. The second personality appears in every case as a morbid wish-fulfilment, as a negative striving along a fictitious life-line, along the line of least resist- ance. Every one of the subjects observed was probably a person harassed and worn out by either monotonous tasks or an exaggerated sense of duty. [142] Leading an Easier Life The playful or infantile personalities into which they merged temporarily, took abnormally the vaca- tion they themselves should have taken normally. They all had repressed, if not over-repressed, the old Adam, and the old Adam avenged himself by bursting forth and assuming the upper hand. How many cases of so-called "insanity" are simply due to the persistency of a second personality which happens to be too violent or absurd to be tolerable in its environment. A patient now con- fined at Ward's Island became insane after being hit on the head by a small tin can which did not even abrase the skin. A journeyman before the accident, he has become a famous opera singer and holds frequent conversations with God. He, too, has entered an easier life, doing no manual labour, enjoying a prestige he could never aspire to in his former occupation and unburdened of the care of his family; the fulfilment of a dream which may have originated in the unconscious moments following the accident; another case in which the accident seems to have been a "pretext" seized by the unconscious rather than a positive cause. The more things we lack in our waking states, the more things we shall expect and receive from our dreams, but many of our dream accomplish- ments are archaic, regressive, infantile. Not in- [143] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour frequently when our conscious self deprives itself of gratifications which human nature craves, our unconscious self overpowers it and proceeds to lead even in our waking states a more human, more comfortable, sort of life. Like all the results of violent upheavals, however, that life is likely to be unbalanced and unadapted to our environment. The ascetic saints who, in their scorn of the flesh, fled into the desert, were a prey to horrible halluci- nations in which they beheld all the obscenities which consciously they had been avoiding but for which they unconsciously had been craving. Our archaic, unconscious self is a lusty caveman whose cravings modem civilization can no longer satisfy. He must, however, be appeased now and then by being given a sop of some sort. Starving him can only bring about his revolt; his attempts to free himself may mean sick headaches, hysteria, obsessions, phobias, "insanity" or the appearance of a new man in the body of the old, the domination of a second personality for a more or less extended period of time. BIBLIOGRAPHY Sims and Goodhart, "Multiple Personality" (Apple- ton) will supply the reader with a history of the best known cases. Neither of the authors is a psychoanalyst, [144] Bibliography one of them, Dr. Sidis, being in fact, bitterly opposed to that science. Their observations, however, are very valuable and do not in any way contradict those made by exponents of psychoanalysis. [145] CHAPTER V. HOW ONE WOMAN BECAME INSANE Psychoanalysts seldom have the opportunity of treating any of the "great psychoses." The patient who has lost all insight into his mental condition is generally confined in an institution and few in- sane asylums have analysts on their medical staff. One case treated by Dr. Kempf at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Washington, D. C, offers good evidence that many apparently "desperate" cases could be cured by the psychoanalytic technique. If an abstract of that case is presented to the reader, it is not merely owing to the success which crowned Dr. Kempf's efforts, but because it offers, besides, a striking and grewsome picture of the process by which people are at times "driven to in- sanity." It shows how well-meaning associates, lacking in sympathy and understanding, beset with many prejudices and affected by complexes of their own, may gradually make reality so unbearable for a weaker individual that he xmconsciously seeks to [146] A Puritanical Father escape it by the door which leads to an insane asylum. The various relapses which Kempf's patient suf- fered before she regained her normal balance il- lustrate perhaps more impressively than any other detail of the case that process of abnormal escape from unpleasant situations. The influence which education may have in de- termining the content of psychopathic fancies was made very clear by the analysis of Kempf's patient. The patient was a young woman of twenty-four, married and the mother of a child. She was the youngest of several children. Her father was an engineer, a hard-worker, sav- ing to the point of being stingy and obsessed by the fear of being destitute in his old age. He loved his children but tended to conflict with them owing to his prudishness. All sexual topics were taboo in his home. He berated his daughters when they sat with their legs crossed, he objected to their wear- ing kimonos. He owned some houses in a distant city which were for a time, through no fault of his own, converted into brothels. In his later years he depended upon his oldest daughter to manage his affairs and persistently in- clined to treat the youngest as a child. At the [147] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour time of the patient's illness, he was about seventy years old and suffering from chronic gastritis. The mother was a "nervous," kind, home loving woman, tall and heavy, and extremely fond of eat- ing. She, like her husband, encouraged her oldest daughter to be self-reliant and, on the other hand, trained her youngest daughter to depend upon her in every way, introducing her to visitors as the baby. She never allowed the "baby" to have any initiative and imposed her will upon her in all mat- ters, telling her what style and material to select for her clothes, what to wear for the day, how to act, to whom to talk, etc. Like her husband, she also excluded from her conversation all matters pertaining to sex and never tolerated any intimate confidence on the part of her children. The patient was whipped at the age of eleven for asking her mother about the meaning of a word she read in a toilet and for relating to her her fancies in connection with that word. The patient's oldest sister was mentally and physically very like the mother and she, too, de- manded constant submission to her decisions and opinions on the part of the patient. In other words the patient's training had un- fitted her for self-reliance and efficiency in real life. She was perfectly satisfied with that arrange- [148] Prurient Modesty ment and even was inclined to treat her own in- efficiency and irresponsibility as a joke. She was a lazy and rather obese type of girl. Her educa- tion was never planned systematically and she missed many school days on whimsical pretexts. Her early curiosity in regard to sexual problems only met with rebuke and on several occasions with punishment. Her parents' prudishness only increased her in- terest in all things pertaining to reproduction. She watched excitedly^ cats, dogs, chickens, horses and derived much secret enjoyment from her ob- servation of their sexual behaviour. On the other hand she would be morbidly embarrassed by the sight of a woman nursing a child. Her father considered it indecent for her to sit on his lap. When her sister began to menstruate and she tried to secure information as to that phe- nomenon, her mother scolded her and sent her to her room. She felt then that she lived on a plane beneath her mother and her sister and she devel- oped a distinct feeling of inferiority. She trained herself never to ask questions be- cause they might expose her thoughts and she would have remained in absolute ignorance of sexual facts but for the romantic stories told her by a coloured maid who had been employed once in a [149] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour house of prostitution. Those stories simply set her imagination on fire and far from enlightening her, caused her to derive sexual suggestions from al- most everything in her environment, the behaviour of her father and mother, the sight of attractive women, etc. At twenty-one, she married a young man whose family was in almost every respect quite the op- posite of her own. His father was also an engineer, but younger than the patient's father, a free spender and fond of gay parties. The patient's mother-in-law was a handsome woman with a girlish figure, small feet and ankles, well dressed, who had travelled a good deal and had a wide range of interests. She was proud of her youthful appearance and dieted in order to keep herself attractive looking. The patient's husband was a slender man who at thirty had the figure of a wiry, active boy of twenty. He also was an engineer, ambitious, earnest, spoiled by his mother, and at times irrita- ble and impulsive. During their engagement, the patient never al- lowed her fiance to kiss her or to put his arm around her. She was terribly upset and almost gave him up when he confessed to her that he had [150] The Husband's Plight had a hard struggle with his desire to masturbate and had consorted with other girls. She never communicated her wish to desert him to any one then but later in her psychose felt sure that their marriage was not legal. At that time she finally demanded that her mother enlighten her as to the origin of children and she felt extremely shocked by her mother's explanation and always hated her in later life for having deceived her so long. After the novelty of their relation and the ex- citement attendant upon the first months of mar- ried life had worn away, her husband began to be disturbed by what he called "asinine thoughts." He could not understand why dainty feet, hairless limbs, small firm breasts and a small abdomen (his mother's characteristics) should prove so at- tractive to him and why large soft breasts, a large abdomen, heavy feet and ankles and hairy limbs (his wife's characteristics) should prove sexually depressing. He was undoubtedly conscious of his mother- fixation and in his more or less conscious endeavour to escape incest had selected for his mate the op- posite type of a woman. His mother-fixation was clearly revealed by incestuous dreams which pur- sued him even after his marriage. [151] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour He was greatly relieved later when told of the simple biological significance of such dreams. Realizing obscurely to what causes his growing sex- ual indifference to his wife was due, he tried to in- duce her to diet, to exercise (in order to reduce her abdomen and breasts) and to remove the hair from her ankles. After a while she gave up those practices which would have made her a little more similar to the mother-image and became careless about her appearance. The two families did not harmonize at all. Her family appeared too coarse and bigoted to her hus- band's family which in turn was scorned by her family for its freer views and extravagance. The two families naturally made the unfortunate young woman their common battle ground because she was weak and unsophisticated. Her husband caused her much distress by threat- ening to leave her if she lost her beauty, if she did not take better care of her appearance, or did not write to him daily when he was away. Her sexual life was naturally very unsatisfac- tory and she masturbated during her pregnancy, after which she was overwhelmed with shame. To make matters worse, her sister told her that mas- turbation was a symptom of insanity. She was obsessed by the fear that her child might inherit [152] Dangerous Sex Books her bad habits. When the child was bom and her husband showed a good deal of indifference to it, his threats to leave, her caused her more and more anxiety. Both families resumed their strife over the child. Her mother-in-law insisted upon plenty of fresh air for the infant and her own mother protested that they were freezing it. The patient's-mother finally assumed complete charge of the child and treated it like her own. When her husband was away, his mother berated her for not travelling with him; her mother ob- jected to this because she would neglect the baby by going to meet her husband out of town. She was made to regard herself as a failure, both as a wife and as a mother. Her husband, thor- oughly frightened but well-meaning, decided then to educate her. For that purpose he gave her an absurd book on "sexology" filled with moralizing platitudes on masturbation and perversions. The only conclusion she drew from reading that drivel was that she was a pervert and a degenerate, abso- lutely imfit to raise her child, and that her child was doomed to become abnormal. She had fits of crying and depression and often told her family she wished she, her husband and baby were dead. She spoke of her husband re- [153] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour marrying and asked her sister to take care of the baby when she married her husband. She in- dulged more and more in masturbation and began to speak of it openly. Delusions appeared. She thought people sneered at her "as if she was passing disgusting odours." She insisted that she was not her father's daughter but a prostitute in a house kept by her father; she thought she saw a picture of herself in tights in the Police Gazette; she was afraid medicines might contain poison. Finally she drank tincture of iodine in an attempt to kill herself and thereupon was taken to a sanatorium. In that institution which she, in her delusions, considered as a house of prostitution, some stupid nurses yielded to the temptation of playing upon her sexual fears and told her many weird sadistic stories of immorality. Pursued by erotic fancies she tried hard to resist her cravings and adopted no end of devices to save herself from masturba- tion. She experienced a profound sense of her sinfulness and her letters to her husband contained many references to her worthlessness, to the fact that she had ruined her baby, etc. She was then removed from the sanatorium to St. Elizabeth Hospital. Her husband was deeply affected by his wife's mental derangement and was conscious of his re- [154] The Cause of Relapses sponsibility for her depression and anxiety. His first visits were very cautiously conducted and he always sought advice as to what to say to her. She reacted in a gratifying way to his kind attitude. She gradually accorded Dr. Kempf her confi- dence and learned to depend upon him for assur- ance and encouragement. She became adjusted to a higher level of interest. Suddenly, however, she began to regress, revert- ing to her prostitution fancies. The cause was not far to seek. One day her husband, losing his patience, had in the course of a visit threatened again to leave her if she did not get well. She learnt also that he had been drinking. Some time afterward she had another regression which was traced again to some stupid statements made by her husband. Her mother had died and willed all her property to the patient's father which necessitated the signature of all the heirs, including the patient. Her husband had carried the will in his pocket for several days trying to decide whether or not he would sign it. He brought up the whole family conflict again and told the patient that her mother must have been insane when she made that will. They were together at the patient's dance when it occurred and she changed in a few minutes [155] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour from a state of hopefulness and promise to one of serious confusion and inaccessibility. This lasted nearly two weeks and then she be- came more cheerful. Then the family difficulties were once more de- pressed upon her by her husband, sister and father and this time she regressed almost completely to a prenatal attitude. She was afraid of being smothered in boxes, of being passed into the toilet with feces, she had all sorts of terrifying hallucina- tions. Her dreams, however, showed affective treads which suggested that a reconstruction was possible. She developed more and more interest in her en- vironment, her child, her husband. She gathered much insight into her condition and could analyse her delusions very skilfully. About the twenty-third week she had rallied so far that a nurse took her out to visit her people. Then the old family quarrel about spending money flared up again. The patient wished to change the arrangement of the furniture and her sister, as domineering as ever, prevented her from asserting herself even during her brief stay at home. She returned to the hospital angry and worried. She had too much insight by that time, owing to the psychoanalytic treatment she had been un- [156] Her Re-education dergoing, to regress very far. She recovered and was finally discharged. Two months afterward, a crisis confronted her again. She was pregnant and some members of her family were urging her to resort to an abortion. She managed to assert herself, however, and bore the child. When she was discharged from the hospital, she seemed to be uncomfortable about two things, her inability to find a religion which was free from dogma and hypocrisy and a feeling that her educa- tion was not ample. Kempf gave her a rather in- definite reply on the subject of religion but ac- corded more serious consideration to her feelings of inferiority about her education. Her education had been badly supervised and her conception of her fitness as a woman was not commensurate with the magnificent affections of a practical nature which were natural to her. She had become more of a woman in her sympathies and insight than the average social light. She had a keen insight into the affective mechanism of people surroimding her. In order to free herself from her feeling of in- feriority she read, upon Kempf's advice, biog- raphies of famous women and gradually came to the conclusion that much of her suffering had been [157] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour due to her repression of her affections. She de- termined to join the movement for woman's eman- cipation. Her husband had to be educated too. Attentive and kind to her, he was still too completely en- thralled by his mother-fixation to co-operate with Kempf very faithfully. Hie could not restrain his tendency to criticize his wife and to show displeas- ure over her diet, her careless way of dressing, etc. Kempf told him explicitly that he should not sup- press, among other things, her interest in feminism, but frankly support it. He agreed to do so but was not quite able to keep his word. The patient, however, in spite of all the pressure which both families tried again to bring to bear upon her, asserted herself. She met their arguments with the statements that she must use her own judgment "because her physi- cian had insisted upon it," and that she did not care what they had to say. She could not please every- body and no matter what happened she knew her physician respected her personal integrity and sin- cerity. The way in which she managed her second preg- nancy and the rearrangement of her household were very encouraging. The only distressing note was a statement she made that if any hopeless family [158] A Complete Recovery estrangement should arise she would kill herself. Therein lurked the possibility of a fatfeful re- gression to the lowest possible level, the fatal level, for the committing of suicide is a regression to the eternal mother, an effort to return to the ancient state of intrauterine peace, comfort and depend- ence. Now, four years after her discharge from the hospital, she is in excellent mental condition, work- ing out most of her plans to her heart's desire and taking good care of her two children. Intelligent, sympathetic re-education, reducing her feeling of inferiority; the reliance she could place in a well known psychiatrist understanding her better than any member of her family and whose opinions had naturally more weight than that of any one else in her environment have en- abled her to become herself at last. A perusal of this remarkable case furnishes the reader with concrete applications of various state- ments contained in the chapters on the Love Life and the Sexual Enlightenment of Children. The puritanical father and mother who in their fear of facts allowed their daughters to remain in ignorance of the sexual truth until a former in- mate of a house of prostitution brought them the most spurious and romantic form of enlightenment [159] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour are familiar figures. The baneful influence of a prudish father continually throwing obscene sug- gestions into the minds of his children by his very efforts to instil "modesty" into them is graphically illustrated. This case also offers us a demonstration of the ef- fects which a man's mother-fixation can have upon that man's sexual partner, causing her to experi- ence a sense of physical inferiority because to his complex-beset mind, the mother type only can rep- resent feminine attraction and arouse his desire. The striking change which the crisis brought about in the patient's personality and in her atti- tude to life, makes good food for thought. It is difficult to avoid the conclusions that after being INSANE and recovering she was better fitted for life, and had become a more interesting human type than before the onset of her neurosis. To one who realizes that recovery from a severe neurosis means the acquisition of an enormous amount of insight into, not only one's own thinking functions and motives, but into the psychology of one's associates as well, it will be evident that many persons who lived through such a terrible experi- ence may have developed a more robust mentality than they ever had. Unfortunately that view is not held by many peo- [160] People Who Were Insane pie and the individual who was unfortunate enough to require treatment in an institution for the insane comes back to his former environment bearing an undefinable stigma. People are afraid of him and expect him to "go crazy" again at some time or other. And their fears are, if not justified, at least often realized. The insane man who made a recovery sometimes becomes insane again because he has been discouraged in his fight for reality by the very same people who once drove him into in- sanity. Kempf's patient having it dinned constantly in her ears by two absolutely dissimilar groups of people that she was crazy finally followed the line of least resistance and yielded to their absurd pro- nouncement. The pressure of such environmental forces together with the fact that the patient was actually insane once and may have a few linger- ing doubts about his complete recovery, may suc- ceed in sending him back to the institution from which he was discharged. As Kempf writes, "The thoughtless attitude *of the people is to be changed by educating them to have as much confidence in those who have recov- ered from mental diseases as they have in those who recover from other diseases, in order to help the patient to be less fearful of being distrusted [161] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour and disrespected. Both sides of this procedure have essentially a therapeutic value in that they are conducive to an easier and more durable re- covery for the patient as well as exerting a human- izing influence on the people. Hence the pro- cedure should be an important part of the thera- peutic method, a permanent, outstanding feature of the hospital life of the patient and the means of maintaining social contact between the hospital and the community." Finally the method employed by Kempf in re- storing his patient to a normal condition exposes the absurdity of herding the insane by the thou- sands in institutions where nature is mainly relied upon to bring about a cure. Let the average man, Kempf writes, imagine what distress he would suf- fer and what changes of character he would undergo if he were confined indefinitely in a hospital ward, his judgment discredited, and forced to associate constantly with twenty to fifty other worrying, un- happy people, many of whom had lost control of themselves and become sexually perverse either overtly or in fancy. The universal answer would be that the experience would soon become unen- durable to die sane man or woman and cause noth- ing less than prolonged misery and suffering. [162] HospUals Versus Asylums The hospital for mental diseases, he concludes, should be a first class vocational university for the practical re-education and rehabilitation of the people who have become abnormal and unable to adapt themselves to their social obligations and the social laws, due to their incompatible cravings and previous xmsuitable education and training. Such a plan would require for its realization a considerable increase in the number of physicians, nurses, attendants, and vocational and athletic trainers. This would at first appear very expen- sive, but, as Kempf remarks, owing to the great re- duction in the duration of the average patient's ill- ness, and the increase in recoveries, the annual cost would be greatly reduced after a few years. Eighty per cent, of the mentally diseased, he thinks, could be cured if properly treated. This applies, of course, to cases in which there is no de- struction of nervous tissues. Furthermore, the asylum would lose its depress- ing, ominous stigma and many patients in the in- cipient stage would be influenced to come and seek treatment before their condition had become chronic or incurable. What with the many who would not become insane owing to preventive meas- ures, and the many insane who could be helped to [163] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour regain their mental balance, the population of in- sane asylums would be greatly reduced by adopt- ing Kempf's suggestions. BIBLIOGRAPHY A 6ompIete report of this interesting case will be found in the Psychoanalytic Review for January, 1919, under the title "The Psychoanalytic Treatment of De- mentia Praecox" by Dr. Edward J. Kempf. Dr. Kempf's theories are discussed in the last chapter of the present book. His ideas on the management of hospitals for the insane, which are very progressive, have been published under the title "Important Needs of Hos- pitals for Mental Disease," New York Medical Journal, July 5, 1919. [164] CHAPTER VI. THE NEUROTIC ASPECTS OF WAR Civilization eliminates many of nature's waste- ful methods and reduces to a minimum the friction between human beings. It modifies individual habits and transforms them into clan or herd habits, later into national habits. It teaches individuals a certain measure of solidarity. The herd bands together to repel aggressors of a different species ; wolves hunt in packs and do not attack one another; flocks of migrating birds wait till a tired member of the flock is ready to resume the voyage. The advantages of solidarity, how- ever, are only obscurely realized by the majority of animals and when no emergency compels them to realize them, we see them often murdering one another to secure one favourite female or a larger allotment of the available food. Man, likewise, seldom adapts himself perma- nently to standards which are very superior socially to the purely individual standard. His ego, sex and safety urges can be repressed for a certain length of time, mainly out of necessity, physical or [165] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour social, but they are constantly striving for direct or indirect expression, sometimes through chance actions, cruel or obscene wit, day and night dreams. Not only does civilized community life compel a repression of the urges which is contrary to primi- tive human nature, but the demands it makes are growing by leaps and bounds. Such demands are growing faster than men, the world over, can make their urge repression really efficient. Thus a constantly increasing emotional strain is created which manifests itself in abnormal ways among the weaker members of the community. The robust and well-fed generally manage to re- main normal regardless of the physical and mental risks they run. The inferior organisms either break down under the strain or defy the customs of the community and pay the penalty or they seek the line of least resistance and submit in appearance. The population of the world, for that reason, consists of many more simulators than truly adapted human beings. Restrictions are burden- some to them but they either conceal the fact as a matter of policy or in many cases are ashamed of their own impatience and do not even confess it to themselves. In sudden crises, however, all the pent-up urges [166] Display of Cruelty are likely to break through with a violence which astonishes us. In times of war, we cannot help expressing our surprise at the amount of savagery and cruelty dis- played by the victorious armies, but that surprise simply shows our ignorance of the actual state of things. It is not, as Freud suggests, that people sink very low in war times; they never were as high in peace times as we imagined them to be. We all spend one-half of our life regressing to the archaic, individual, uncivilized level; for as soon as we fall asleep, we discard our morality, our ethics, and all our repressions even as we cast off our clothes, and indulge in a riot of egotistical and sexual gratification through our dreams. The only thing which generally holds us back in our waking time is, either the fear of punishment, direct or indirect, the fear of jail or of social ostra- cism, or a clear realization of the financial and so- cial advantages vouchsafed by apparent conform- ism. As soon as war is declared, the terrible tension is released and most of our animal instincts find gratification; that gratification entails no loss of caste, prestige or money; on the contrary. In war, the whole commimity regresses to the animal [167] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour level and punishes the individual who refuses to regress with the herd. Every animal is bom with a craving for food, which very soon evolves into a craving for power, power being the shortest road to more plentiful and better food secured with the least possible amount of exertion. Civilized man no longer starts out with a club to dispute dangerous beasts of prey or other hunters of a different clan their right to hunt, nor does he send out his slaves to run down game. He has covered the brutality of the quest under civilized veneer and manages to give partial satisfaction to his archaic instincts in ways which do not inflict too much suffering upon his environment. War removes the inhibitions introduced by modem business methods. Every nation wishes to conquer some piece of land for reasons which, at times, can well masquerade as humanitarian ones, as for instance the necessity of freeing some "en- slaved" race which we hope to dominate, or in order to "open up" markets, or to free men of our race who, in a more or less dim past, were submitted to forceful annexation by another race, etc. Whatever the pretence, the result is the same: all the individuals of one community are exhilar- [168] War the Adventure ated by the prospect of starting out to plunder the neighbour's land. As a matter of fact, very few members of the herd, not one out of ten thousand, will be bene- fited in any way by the foray, and those few, bank- ers and traders, never take part in the expedition, but the masses of the fighters enjoy the fact that they are engaged in an adventurous undertaking of a primitive, archaic type, which in ordinary times would be highly unethical but which now is authorized, financed and idealized by the com- munity. The civilized nation has regressed to the level of the robber herd of the caveman period. We may point out that in legends and in the real life of backward commimities, the successful robber is a romantic, privileged character, to whom the usual standards do not apply. At such times, some members of the community regress even lower than the herd levd. The herd on the war path is himting for the herd. No single member of the herd will profit by the conquests achieved, and the sense of herd solidarity is not abolished. The profiteer, on the other hand, is entirely devoid of that sense. While the herd is hunting, he does not hesitate to starve it if he can only comer the herd's food supply and then [169] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour sell it at the price his power can dictate and thus gratify his appetite. Profiteering is individualism gone mad. Like the herd's craving for hlood and spoils, it may as- sume a righteous mask: supplies are difficult to se- cure "on account of the war," those who protest are branded as tmpatriotic for they lack the "spirit of self-sacrifice," etc. Lying and deceit, two neurotic devices of the negative life, and universally tabooed in the in- dividual's life, become praiseworthy in war times and especially indulged in by the men who prepare wars, the diplomats. Diplomacy's greatest ac- complishment consists in attaining an object with- out letting any outsider suspect it and preferably convincing outsiders that an entirely different ob- ject is being sought. The greatest diplomats were those who not only had the greatest capacity for deceiving the rulers at whose court they were accredited but for cover- ing up their traces so carefully that they actually gained their confidence. In war times, lying about the enemy is not un- ethical. It is, on the contrary, highly commend- able as it sustains the morale of fighters and civil- ians alike. Exhibitionism is another deeply ingrained and [170] The Lure of the Uniform infantile craving of all races, made up in equal doses of sex and ego. The males of many species parade around the females at mating time, trying to arouse their sexuality and at the same time prob- ably frightening away other males. War offers many excellent excuses for a display of exhibitionism. The warrior is clothed in a uniform which once presented a dazzling array of colours and in cer- tain cases was enhanced by precious metals, and which, drab as it has become today, for reasons of safety, is sufficient to place those wearing it on a higher plane than the "civilian. The wearing of a uniform places all soldiers in one category in which every individual is supposed to be healthy and vigorous and hence fit for pur- poses of reproduction. The females respond properly and we see thou- sands of service clubs in which young women, some of them imitating the males and wearing uniforms, foster the men's belief that they are privileged characters; some of the women belonging to "so- ciety" converse or dance with men whom they would absolutely ignore if they cast off the distinguishing regalia of the fighting male and donned civilian's clothes. In war times, the desire for promiscuous inter- [171] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour course which lurks in every human being can be indulged in without calling forth undue criticism. The most jealous husbands are compelled to ap- prove of their wives' "war activities." The war regression is a boon to all the weak members of the community who are anxious to regress to a childlike level but are compelled by economic necessity to remain on the adult level. The useless, the shiftless, who for lack of intelli- gence or perseverance, never were able to accom- plish anything positive, who have been a butt for much scorn and contumely, are suddenly enabled to play a striking part in their little world by en- listing or being drafted. Not only are their failures forgotten, but an escape from stem reality is vouchsafed them. All of life's responsibilities are now shifted to the state. The state feeds, clothes and shelters them and as- sumes the charge of their dependents. Nothing that befalls the enlisted man's family can affect him very deeply, for as soon as he joins the colours his responsibility ceases. As soon as he dons a uniform, the useless and shiftless weakling becomes an object of attention on the part of women, even as the worthier males. That the sexual element plays a greater part in the devotion women show to fighters than a spirit of [172] Sexual License self-sacrifice is well proved by the fact that while social clubs had more volunteers at their disposal than they could possibly employ, the hospitals of New York City during the epidemic of influenza of 1919 were unable to find nurses. Although by that time the war emergency was over one nurse in ward Bl at Bellevue Hospital had to take care of as many as fifty patients for 12 hours at a time. One of the features constantly reported in war news are stories of sexual license and violence. The sex instinct, submitted to a terrible repres- sion in peace times, breaks through when so many other inhibitions are removed. In all epochs of history the fighting man's morality has been the sub- ject of special allowances. In the past, one of war's sequels was the seizing of the defeated enemy's women by the victorious tribe, Moses told his men to keep for themselves all the virgins of the Midianite tribe which they had defeated. The enemy's wife or sister has never been sacred. Training camps and garrison towns have always been known as centres of promiscuous sexual in- tercourse. Another one of the infantile activities which is carefully regulated from an early age and whose haphazard gratification is severely repressed is the anal and vesical activity, the passing of feces and [173] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour urine. A regression to such activities in their in- fantile form is reported quite frequently in war times. The invading soldiers often defile in the most nauseating way the quarters which they oc- cupy, not respecting even at times religious vessels or other paraphernalia of the enemy's cult. The necessities of the national defence enable any one with a neurotic strain of cruelty to satisfy his craving even in his immediate environment, without regard for the law of the herd. Thousands of people spy on one another, listen to conversations in public places and, whenever hearing something suspicious, have the offender ar- raigned, if not dragged in a spectacular way to the police station. This is a manifestation of the egotistical nega- tivism which, unable to achieve anything, lowers other people's level through disparagement and destructive hostility. War allows us to insult any one we dislike by calling him a traitor or a seditious person and de- nouncing him to the police authorities. If he is higher than we are, we "get even" with him, if he is our equal we make him our inferior, if he belongs to a lower social rank, we can then express our scorn without appearing snobbish. Atrocities are being committed in every war by [174] An Eye for an Eye the victorious armies. Whether they assume the form of cruel treatment of civilians or consist in using trench gas,' liquid flame or other means of torture, makes very little difference. Every one pretends to experience a profound indignation on reading about them, but no one ever suggests any- thing but reprisals, retaliation. In peace times, we do not disembowel Jack the Ripper because he resorted to that frightful form of violence, we do not bum alive the man who set fire to a house. In war the path of regression to primitive cruelty is wide open "for the sake of ex- ample." Primitive savages who wish something, represent it dramatically, sprinkling the ground to bring rain from the clouds, burning some one in effigy, etc. In war times, the population is made to behold at every step lurid posters representing the anni- hilation of the foe. Rabid statements are made vociferously as to what we shall do to the enemy, how completely we are going to crush him, to hit him so hard that he shall never rise again. In other words the task which confronts the nation is constantly represented as being successfully per- formed and brought to a glorious ending. There is also in the rage with which the commun- ity destroys the things symbolical of the enemy a [175] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour regression to the period of infamy which Ferenczi calls the period of belief in the omnipotence of thought and magic gestures. By forbidding the display of certain flags, by placing a ban on books and publications printed in the enemy's language, by interfering with mu- sical performances in which an enemy performer is taking part or at which the works of an enemy would be given, certain neurotics think they can destroy the enemy more completely. Whatever symbolizes the «hemy and makes him present symbolically is done away with. Here we behold a process akin to the withdrawal from real- ity in dementia praecox and to the ostrich's habit of burying his head in the sand. Such prohibitions show a regression to the belief in magic, a decided evasion of reality and a flight along the line of least resistance. Intolerance is the most marked characteristic phenomenon of war times. It also characterizes severe cases of neurosis. One cannot discuss with a neurotic. The psy- chiatrist who tries to bring insight into his patient's mind would lose the battle at once if he began by telling him that his story is absurd. The thing to do is to let the neurotic tell his [176] Patriots and Traitors ^story in his own way, to throw light gradually on the spurious evidence on which he has built it and thus to disintegrate it. But the more absurd the obsession, the harder the neurotic will fight to have his version accepted. The hopelessly insane who knows he is a king or god easily resorts to violence when some one betrays scepticism. The neurotic may obscurely feel that his story is wrong and cannot be defended. Hence his im- potence is easily enraged and he avoids all discus- sions in which he could not hold his own. In war times, rabid neurotics who monopolize the title of patriot do not allow any one to discuss the war or any of its problems. If they were sure of their ground they would gladly confute doubters, but being thrall to their emotions they have to fol- low the line of least resistance. "Only traitors," they say quite finally, "discuss the merits of a war after war has been started." Intolerance is the last refuge of the loser. Hav- ing no strong argument wherewith to silence you, he hits you on the mouth. The consequences of the wholesale regression which takes place during war are interesting to ex- amine. The states engaged in war disregard all the eth- [177] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour ical rules which have established themselves as the fundamentals of behaviour in all civilized commun- ities. They lie, they practise deceit at home and abroad, they deprive people of their freedom of speech, they sentence dissenters to incredibly long jail terms, etc. The masses of the population can only reach one conclusion: that is that, while ethics, morality and honesty are very fine in theory, they are non-ex- istent when tried by the reality test. Ethics, morality and honesty are valuable when no emergency has to be cop^ with. As soon as the great emergency of war arises, however, the state sets them aside as useless or detrimental. Hence ethics, morality and honesty seem to have only a relative value, not an absolute one and the danger is that, when the masses instilled with that doctrine of relativity want something very badly, they may also act as the state acts in emergencies. An enormous amount of savagery lingers in peo- ple's attitudes follo'wing a war. Men of a con- servative type who, before a war, would boast of their human feelings and deprecate all forms of violence, are heard suggesting violence against their opponents. "Shoot them at sunrise," "Get the rope," "Shoot them first and try them next," are [178] Neurotic Death Threats the favourite expressions of neurotics brutalized by the war spirit. Their opponents, their enemies are transformed through mental juggling into enemies of the coun- try, and hence deserving death. This is a typically infantile attitude. The child powerless against a stronger boy throws in his face a desperate "I wish you'd die." Here is again the line of least re- sistance. Nothing will save us from our opponent except his death. We then make that death a pub- lic necessity. The politician who goes about the country preaching a summary execution for those who dis- agree with him, is tmknowingly proclaiming their absolute superiority and his absolute incapacity to fight them fairly in a civilized way. The constant charge of intended violence brought by certain men against groups they intend to perse- cute is, generally speaking, a projection of their own murderous cravings upon their intended vic- tims. Suspecting a man of violence is the sim- plest excuse for submitting him to violence. By pretending that we saw a man put his hand to his hip pocket we can always plead self-defence when we do him to death. The description of many raids made upon the locals of labour organizations in recent months re- [179] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour veals that the leaders of those raids were not bent so much on preventing or punishing violence as on indulging without danger to themselves in an orgy of violence. Raiders entering premises ostensibly to seek damaging evidence have been known to smash everything in the rooms from electric lamps to me- chanical pianos and typewriting machines. It will be noticed also that all great wars are fol- lowed by epidemics. They are generally attri- buted to unsanitary conditions induced by the de- struction of hygienic appliances, the presence of dead bodies, the weakening of the population by famine, etc. The importance of all these factors could not be denied by any rational scientist. Another factor, however, should be added to the list. When al- most all the forms of approved regression made available by the war emergency have been removed, when active negativism has become impossible, passive negativism enters into play. The neu- rotic who could satisfy his ego through exhibition- ism and sadism and become by the performance of some simple standardized actions a centre of in- terest has to find some other means of dominating neurotically his environment. This is easily done by assuming unconsciously, [180] The Line of Least Effort (not by any means consciously) the symptoms of a simple, seasonable disease, whose description is to be found in all the papers, and in that way re- gress to a helpless level, into a privileged class which enjoys every one's sympathy and help, re- ceives medical care, is talked about, is never touched by suspicion of malingering, owing to the prevalence of the disturbance and is, for the time being, removed from and protected against reality into which it may fall back gradually. BIBLIOGRAPHY Freud, S. — "Reflections on War and Death" (Moffat, Yard) and White, W. A. — "Thoughts of a Psychiatrist on the War and After" (Hoeber) are two small and most readable books which show one Austrian and one Ameri- can psychiatrist reaching practically the same conclu- sions from their observations of the world war. [181] IV. SLEEP AND DREAMS CHAPTER I: SLEEP, SLEEPLESSNESS AND NIGHTMARES The most common explanation for the fact that we go to sleep is that we are tired and need rest. A close examination of the organism in its sleep- ing condition fails to lend plausibility to that theor)^ The heart continues to beat and to send the blood stream on its course through the body. The lungs continue to gather in oxygen, the liver to apcumu- late glycogen. The stomach and bowels keep on digesting and eliminating, our beard keeps on grow- ing, all our glands keep on producing various se- cretions. Some, like our sweat glands, are in- finitely more active in our sleep than in our wak- ing state. Our mind does not rest by any means for we probably dream every minute of every night. Our vagotonic activities, that is, the autonomic nervous activities which upbuild the body and tend to perpetuate the race, are infinitely stronger in sleep than the sympathicotonic activities which re- strain them. Our sense organs are as acutely sensitive in sleep [185] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour as in the waking state, for the slightest stimulus brings about a reaction of some sort, mostly in the form of a dream. Besides the fact that we do not move our arms and legs, or at least move them very little while asleep, it is rather difficult to mention any part of the body which actually "rests" in sleep. The explanation that sleep enables us to elim- inate from the organism the various fatigue prod- ucts is not convincing, for inactivity not accom- panied by unconsciousness would enable the blood to carry off those products as completely as in- activity does when accompanied by unconscious- ness. The same answer could be given to those who claim that in sleep we store up again the substances (for instance sugar) which waking activity has spent lavishly. It is not clear why unconsciousness would help that process. What is it, then, which a conscious state does not give us and which we only find in unconscious- ness? Only by studying dreams will we find a satisfac- tory answer to that question. Dreams secure gratification for thousands of ex- pressed or repressed desires; dreams find solutions, [186] Dream Symbols some of them absurd, some of them acceptable, to problems which have puzzled us in our waking hours; dreams, even though they seem frightening, painful or humiliating, always fulfil some con- scious or unconscious wish. The process is very obvious in gross sexual dreams, less obvious in dreams which cloak themselves with complicated symbolism, and not at all obvious in nightmares. When dreams transform the dreamer into an ir- resistible Don Juan or a millionaire, he is quite willing to accept the theory of wish fulfilment. When a young girl dreams that she is pursued or bitten by a dog she may feel rather sceptical as to the universal application of that theory. Most of our dreams, however, are symbolical, that is, they say what they have to say in a lan- guage which we ourselves do not understand, para- doxical as it may seem. We throw shoes and rice at newlyweds without actually understanding the meaning of that act. Yet we are expressing in that symbolical way a wish which is quite appropriate to the occasion, and which we would not dare to express in any other way. Shoes are a symbol of the female genitals, rice the symbol of the male fecundating element. Shoes and rice have that meeming not only in more [187] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour or less fantastic and in accurate dream books but in all the folklore of all races (rice being in cer- tain cases replaced by wheat or other local cereal) . Thus Tve express symbolically the wish that the newly married pair may be prolific, a wish which the delicacy or hypocrisy of our modem civiliza tion would not enable us to formulate too directly And curiously enough the symbol which uncon sciously we understand quite well, has been in vested by many with a diflferent conscious meaning, Many people whom I asked for their interpreta tion of that custom answered, "Well, I suppose it is meant to say: 'May the young couple always have enough to eat and shoes to wear.' " The orange blossoms which crown brides were originally an allusion to the great fertility of the orange tree which bears fruit twice a year. The shyness which the modem mind shows in the pres- ence of "brutal" sexual facts has gradually placed the stress on the colour of those blossoms and has caused them to symbolize maidenly purity, which after all is only another sexual fact. In both cases, the repression of sexual instincts by the growing complexity of community life has managed to add a conscious meaning to a ritual which has an entirely different unconscious mean- ing. [188] Anxiety Dreamt But it is the unconscious meaning which symbols retain in our dream life, for then the repression is infinitely less powerful. Dreams aim at giving us absolute freedom of action and expression but they do not always suc- ceed completely in spite of the symbolical mask which they assume in so many cases. Life's repressions may be so severe that even in sleep the pent-up urges encounter obstacles to their gratification. The result is anxiety dreams, popu- larly known as nightmares, which are at times the source of a great deal of suffering, until the subject understands their symbolic meaning. The woman pursued in her dreams by snakes, or trampled upon by horses, or bitten by dogs, etc., is one sufi"ering from lack of s^uaj gratification and attaining that satisfaction in her sleep in sym- bolical ways. A subject obsessed by suicidal ideas but who did not wish to leave his family unprovided for, owing to the suicide clause in his insurance policy, would dream night after night that he was put to death for some crime, thus accomplishing his object without causing his dependents any financial loss. While dreams of being trampled down by ani- mals or being put to death are not to be considered at first glance as constituting the fulfilment of [189] Psychoanalysis and Behaviour wishes, the first anxiety dream is clearly a symbolic form of wish fulfilment, the second, when inter- preted with the help of the subject, appears a simple solution of a problem which at one time agitated the subject's mind and hence is also a wish fulfil- ment. The fimction of sleep, then, is to compensate us for all the things we must forego in our waking life, for all the desires we must repress in order to conform to civilized standards. Sleep is a means of escape from reality and from the monotony of existence. The more complex civilization becomes the more necessary sleep becomes and the more frequent are mental disturbai|ces due to lack of sleep. At the same time, il^mubt be noticed that certain people whose lives are extremely strenuous do not require as much sleep as others d