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Title: The psycho-analytic study of the family
Author: Flugel, J.C. (John Carl)
Language: English
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THE INTERNATIONAL
PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL
LIBRARY
EDITED BY ERNEST JONES
No. 3
THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL LIBRARY
No. 3
THE
PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY
OF THE FAMILY
BY
J. C. FLÜGEL B. A.
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Psychology,
University College, London. Sometime John Locke Scholar in Mental
Philosophy in the University of Oxford. Honorary Secretary of the
International Psycho-Analytical Association.
THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL PRESS
LONDON VIENNA NEW YORK
1921
COPYRIGHT 1921
PRINTED BY
THE SOCIETY FOR GRAPHIC INDUSTRY
VIENNA III
I refer to those appetites which bestir themselves in sleep; when,
during the slumbers of that other part of the soul, which is
rational and tamed and master of the former, the wild animal part,
sated with meat and drink, becomes rampant, and pushing sleep away,
endeavours to set out after the gratification of its own proper
character. You know that in such moments there is nothing that it
dares not do, released and delivered as it is from any sense of
shame and reflection. It does not shrink from attempting in fancy
unholy intercourse with a mother, or with any man or deity or animal
whatever; and it does not hesitate to commit the foulest murder, or
to indulge itself in the most defiling meats. In one word, there is
no limit either to its folly or its audacity.
PLATO, "Republic," Book IX.
* * * * *
Man, forsooth, prides himself on his consciousness! We boast that we
differ from the winds and waves and falling stones and plants, which
grow they know not why, and from the wandering creatures which go up
and down after their prey, as we are pleased to say without the help
of reason. We know so well what we are doing ourselves and why we do
it, do we not? I fancy that there is some truth in the view which is
being put forward nowadays, that it is our less conscious thoughts
and our less conscious actions, which mainly mould our lives and the
lives of those who spring from us.
SAMUEL BUTLER, "The Way of All Flesh,"
Chapter III.
PREFACE
The circumstances that have led to the production of this little book are,
I think, sufficiently explained in the introductory chapter; there is,
therefore, no need to dwell upon them here. It is only necessary perhaps
to warn the reader that he will find in what follows but little that
is original. With the exception of small contributions and suggestions
upon special points, in the last few chapters alone does there exist
anything that has not already found a place in the literature dealing with
the subject; and probably it will be the earlier rather than the later
portions of the book that will most often be consulted. Nevertheless,
a work of compilation, such as the present for the most part aims at
being, may have its justification and a certain sphere of usefulness;
especially so perhaps in the present case, since a certain proportion
of the original papers to which reference is here made is contained in
books and periodicals that have at no time been readily accessible to the
English-speaking public and were for some years practically unobtainable.
The reader may possibly experience some surprise and disappointment at
finding that, while the relations between parents and children and between
brothers and sisters come in for much attention, those between husband
and wife (which will probably be regarded as equally fundamental to any
consideration of the psychology of the family) are but lightly touched
upon. That this is the case is merely a consequence of the lines along
which psycho-analytic knowledge has for the most part advanced. It is
perhaps less to be regretted than would at first appear: for in the first
place, the amount of consideration given to the marriage relationship has
been fairly generous during recent years, while the relations between
parents and children and among the junior members of the same family,
have been relatively neglected: in the second place, the study of the two
last named, chronologically earlier, relationships (and especially the
filio-parental one) is--as will be seen--capable of throwing considerable
light upon the subsequent marital relationship; it would seem probable
indeed that a thorough understanding of the problems of love, sex, and
marriage cannot be attained without a preliminary knowledge of the nature
of the psychic bonds that unite parent and child--a knowledge that
psychology is only now beginning to afford.
On the other hand, I feel a very genuine regret that I have been unable
to include some discussion of the problems connected with the _size_ of
families. These problems are, I am convinced, of the greatest importance.
At a moment like the present when large portions of the human race are
suffering from a shortage of the very necessities of existence the
question of family limitation, in particular, becomes one that is of
enormous, one might almost say of paramount, urgency. Nevertheless, the
treatment of this question from the psychological, as distinct from the
ethical, sociological or economic standpoint, has as yet been so slight
and fragmentary, as to make a full consideration of the question scarcely
suitable to a volume of expository character; and I have thought it
better to omit the subject almost altogether than to deal with it in a
manner that would be either inadequate and superficial or else manifestly
inappropriate[1].
I am of course aware that much with which we have here to deal makes
far from pleasant reading. The unpleasantness arises mainly from the
fact that, in the pursuit of our present purpose, we are chiefly brought
into contact with the unconscious and more primitive aspects of the mind
rather than with the more recently acquired and more morally edifying
aspects. But those who realise the importance, for human welfare and
progress, of a true understanding of our mental nature, should no more
be deterred from the consideration of unpleasant aspects of the mind,
than should the student of economics neglect to take account of poverty
or the student of hygiene turn away from the contemplation of disease.
From personal observation and experience, as well as from more theoretical
considerations, I have acquired a deep conviction of the significance
of those aspects of the human mind with which we are here concerned.
It is principally because I am assured that a wider realisation and a
deeper study of these aspects--both by the student of the mind and by the
ordinary reading public--will contribute in very considerable measure
to the solution of many of the most important moral and social problems
with which humanity is faced, that I have ventured to embark upon the
following, I fear very inadequate, presentation of our knowledge on the
subject.
It only remains for me to express my sincere thanks to those who have
assisted me in one way or another; particularly to Dr. Ernest Jones who
was the first to interest me in the work of Freud and his followers, and
without whose personal help in more than one direction, the present pages
could not have been written. I am also deeply indebted to Mr. Cyril Burt
for many valuable criticisms and suggestions, to Mr. Edward de Maries
for several interesting comments on the subject matter of the last few
chapters, to Mr. Eric Hiller for assistance in seeing the work through the
press, and to my wife for help in a variety of ways throughout the work.
J. C. F.
Wood End Lodge,
Raydale, Yorks.
August 1, 1921.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: I have recently attempted elsewhere a preliminary treatment
of this question. See "On the Biological Basis of Sexual Repression and
its Sociological Significance", _British Journal of Psychology_ (_Medical
Section_), 1921, Vol. I, Part 3.]
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
CHAPTER
I. INTRODUCTORY 1
II. THE PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS IN RELATION TO THE FAMILY 6
III. THE ORIGIN OF CONFLICT IN RELATION TO THE FAMILY 21
IV. THE FAMILY AND THE LIFE TASK OF THE INDIVIDUAL--FREUD
AND JUNG 31
V. THE FAMILY AND THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY 40
VI. ABNORMALITIES AND VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT--LOVE AND HATE 48
VII. ABNORMALITIES AND VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT--DEPENDENCE
ASPECTS 61
VIII. IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL LIFE 66
IX. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INITIATION AND INITIATION RITES 79
X. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES 88
XI. FAMILY INFLUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE 102
XII. FAMILY INFLUENCES IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 117
XIII. FAMILY INFLUENCES IN RELIGION 133
XIV. THE ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN 156
XV. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES--HATE
ASPECTS 175
XVI. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES--LOVE
ASPECTS 184
XVII. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES--THE
REPRESSION OF LOVE 200
XVIII. ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS--LOVE AND HATE
ASPECTS 217
XIX. ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS--DEPENDENCE ASPECTS 230
INDEX 243
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
[Sidenote: The needs of social reconstruction]
There is now some very general measure of agreement that if humanity is
to escape the fate of having passed through the ordeal of world-wide
war in vain, the recent era of destruction must be followed by a period
of reconstruction and reorganisation, in which many of our systems,
institutions, customs and beliefs must be tested, and where necessary
refashioned, in the light of our changed ideals and points of view and
of the widened experience of human needs and possibilities which our
existence through these years of conflict has brought us.
[Sidenote: Science and reconstruction]
The degree of success attained by any such attempt at readjustment
on a large scale to changed standards and conditions, must to a very
considerable extent depend upon the advance that is achieved by, and
the application that is made of, the various branches of science
dealing with the phenomena of human life in all its aspects. Biology,
physiology, medicine, hygiene, economics, politics, law and education
must all contribute their share to the solution of the great problem of
reconstituting human society upon a satisfactory peace footing. Above
all perhaps, it is to the science of the human mind that we should
most naturally turn for enlightenment in dealing with many of the most
important aspects of this problem.
[Sidenote: The present status of Psychology]
Unfortunately it so happens that Psychology is among the youngest of
the sciences; its state of development, in comparison with that of
many other disciplines, is as yet in no wise commensurate with the
relative importance for human welfare of the problems with which it is
concerned. Conscious of this disproportion between our present knowledge
and the weight of the matters that are at stake in any application of
psychological theory to practical affairs, many leading psychologists
have preferred to postpone any attempt at such application until the more
important results of recent research, many of which are still matter for
controversy, shall have been firmly established upon a wider and more
unassailable foundation.
[Sidenote: The application of Psychology to practical problems]
Perhaps as a consequence of this attitude (praiseworthy no doubt in
itself), and of its effects--direct and indirect--upon psychological
outlook and procedure, there exists at the present time a fairly
widespread notion that Psychology is largely a matter of empty
speculations or trivial technicalities, "a happy refuge for the lazy
industry of pedants[2]," as a well known author has recently called it,
with little or no bearing upon the larger problems of human life and
conduct. It would appear, however, that the war--with its urgent call
for immediate practical action--may have proved the means of inducing
psychologists to adopt a less academic attitude in the pursuit of their
science; of compelling them to carry out a stocktaking of the results
already achieved with a view to ascertaining which, if any, are of a
nature to throw light upon the actual problems of the time, and to work
out in detail the application of psychological principles to these
problems in all cases where such application promises to be of importance.
Thus, immediately following upon the entrance of the United States into
the war, the psychological resources of that country were mobilised by
the American Psychological Association with a view to the immediate
investigation of urgent questions affecting the conduct of the war.
Under a central committee there were constituted no less than twelve
subcommittees, each in charge of a special field and each acting under the
chairmanship of a psychologist of special eminence in that field. Previous
to this there had already been formed in this country a War Research
Committee of the Psychological Subsection of the British Association to
deal with problems of practical and theoretical importance connected
with, or arising out of, the war. Assistance on a considerable scale in a
variety of matters of direct military importance has also been rendered by
several of the psychological laboratories attached to the Universities of
the United Kingdom.
[Sidenote: Medical Applications of Psychology]
[Sidenote: War-shock]
It is perhaps, however, more especially on the medical side that the
question of the utilisation of psychological knowledge for practical
purposes has been brought into prominence by the war. The very large
number of soldiers and civilians suffering from war-shock in its various
forms has emphasised the need for psychological treatment of the
functional nervous disorders; and has drawn further attention to the
various methods of treatment by suggestion, re-education, psycho-analysis
and other psycho-therapeutic measures, which even before the war were
beginning to attract widespread interest. The work that had been done
by these methods before the war had indicated that there existed a very
considerable prevalence of nervous troubles even among those who were
apparently subjected to no abnormally high degree of mental strain. The
examination of many cases of war neuroses has shown that there is little
if any qualitative difference between the case of those who break down
under the abnormal pressure of war conditions and the case of those who
are unable to stand even the relatively mild stresses and difficulties
incidental to a time of peace. All persons are, it would appear, liable to
suffer nervous breakdown if subjected to emotional strain beyond a certain
limit; this limit varying, however, very considerably from one individual
to another. Modern war increases to some degree the strain to be borne
by almost everyone, the increase being very great in the case of those
actually engaged in fighting; as a consequence the limit is passed, and
some form of nervous disability or breakdown occurs in a large number of
persons who would have remained unaffected during peace.
[Sidenote: Psychic integration]
[Sidenote: Importance of correct mental development]
The amount of strain that can be actually borne with impunity by any
individual is no doubt dependent upon a considerable number of complex
conditions. Recent research has shown that among the _psychological_
conditions one of quite special importance is constituted by the general
state of integration of the motive forces of the mind. A person whose
instincts and impulses are co-ordinated sufficiently to maintain,
as regards all the leading aspects of life, a relatively harmonious
functioning of the whole personality, can preserve mental health in
circumstances under which a less integrated mind would fail, owing to the
waste of energy occasioned by the internal struggles of the conflicting
tendencies and emotions aroused in situations of difficulty or danger.
The attainment of the desirable degree of mental integration is itself
very largely dependent upon a process of successful mental growth and
development, in the course of which the conflicting tendencies and motives
(of which the mind is so largely made up) so modify and mould each other
as to permit of the proper discharge of psychical energy along all
suitable channels without undue friction or inhibition. Great importance
attaches, therefore, from the point of view of mental efficiency and
stability in adult life, to the influences which control the development
of the conative trends during childhood and adolescence.
[Sidenote: Family influences]
It is to the consideration of one of the most potent of these influences
that the present pages are devoted. Even on a superficial view it is
fairly obvious that, under existing social conditions the psychological
atmosphere of the home life with the complex emotions and sentiments
aroused by, and dependent on, the various family relationships must
exercise a very considerable effect on human character and development.
Recent advances in the study of human conduct indicate that this effect
is even greater than has been generally supposed: it would seem that, in
adopting his attitude towards the members of his family circle, a child
is at the same time determining to a large extent some of the principal
aspects of his relations to his fellow men in general; and that an
individual's outlook and point of view in dealing with many of the most
important questions of human existence can be expressed in terms of the
position he has taken up with regard to the problems and difficulties
arising within the relatively narrow world of the family.
[Sidenote: their importance, difficulty, and complexity]
Besides showing the importance for mental development of the problems
connected with family life, modern psychological research has also
revealed something of the nature of these problems. It is true that
of the results obtained in this field there are as yet few, if any,
which can be regarded as definitely settled; many, no doubt, will, in
the light of future work, be seen to require more or less extensive
revision, qualification or addition; some perhaps may have to be rejected
altogether. Nevertheless it would appear that, as a consequence of the
work already done, certain main principles at least have emerged so
clearly as to justify, if not indeed to demand, the serious attention
of all those who, at this critical period of human history, have to
deal directly or indirectly with questions affecting family life in one
or more of its numerous aspects. The sociologist, the moralist, the
spiritual adviser, the teacher, the family physician and the parent are
all intimately concerned with such questions; and it is primarily with
the needs of such as these in view that the present brief exposition of
the subject has been undertaken. After what has been already said, it is
perhaps unnecessary to offer any further warning against accepting all
the results of psychological investigation which are here set forth as
claiming equal validity or as being equally capable of generalisation
or application on a large scale. No dogmatic enunciation of facts or
principles is here attempted or desired, even where, owing to the
endeavour to avoid entering upon the discussion of matters too intricate
or controversial to fall within the scope of our present treatment,
the statements may possibly appear somewhat dogmatic in form. Our aim
is rather to produce a more widespread realisation of the immense and
far-reaching significance of the psychological problems connected with
family life; to indicate some of the ways in which psychological knowledge
has thrown light upon the solutions of these problems; and perhaps, by
these means, to be of some assistance to that very large class of persons
who, at one time or another during their lives, find themselves compelled
to deal with such problems--whether as entering into their own lives, as
affecting others for whom they are responsible, or as forming part of
larger questions, social, religious, medical or pedagogic, in which they
have an interest. To those who have once realised the complexity, the
obscurity, and above all the tremendous intensity of the psychic factors
entering into these problems, there can be little doubt that in so far as
Psychology is able to afford some reasonably sure guidance as to their
solution, it will have achieved one of the most successful and valuable of
all applications of science to social and ethical phenomena. The time for
such application on a large scale has not yet come. But the progress that
has been already made would seem to indicate that the expectation of some
very real assistance in these matters from the science of Psychology is no
longer hopeless.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 2: H. G. Wells, "The Passionate Friends", 195.]
CHAPTER II
THE PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS IN RELATION TO THE FAMILY
[Sidenote: Psycho-analysis and the study of the Unconscious]
The progress that has recently been made in our understanding of the
importance and nature of the psychological problems connected with family
life is to a very considerable extent due to the work of a single school
of psychologists--the so-called psycho-analytic school, which owes its
origin to Prof. Sigmund Freud of Vienna. The success that has attended
the efforts of this school has arisen principally from the fact that
the psycho-analysts have not confined their researches to the conscious
contents of the mind directly discoverable by introspection, but have
sought also to investigate the subconscious or unconscious factors which
enter into human conduct and mentation[3].
To assume the existence of unconscious mental processes has seemed to some
to involve an open contradiction in terms; but at the present day there
are few if any psychologists who think that a satisfactory science of the
mind can be erected on the basis of the study of consciousness only. Even
before Psychology had definitely acquired the status of an independent
science, thinkers like Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Fechner, Helmholtz,
Hartmann, Nietzsche, had realised that a complete account of the nature
and origin of the phenomena of consciousness required the postulation of
some force outside consciousness, or at any rate outside the main stream
of consciousness, which yet appeared to react upon and co-operate with
consciousness, and which could be interpreted and understood in terms of
conscious process.
This result of more or less _a priori_ speculation subsequently received
striking _a posteriori_ confirmation from the work of a large number
of those engaged in different branches of psychological investigation;
including psycho-pathologists like Charcot, Janet, Morton Prince,
students of Psychical Research like F. W. H. Myers, Gurney, Hodgson and
experimental psychologists like Müller and Schumann, Knight-Dunlap and
Ach. The extensive data contributed from these sources seemed to afford
convincing proof that processes such as we are ordinarily inclined to
regard as being invariably accompanied by consciousness, can occur, at
any rate under certain circumstances, without the knowledge or conscious
co-operation of the person by whom they are accomplished. The penetrating
insight, the fearless logical consistency, combined with the exceptional
ability of detecting widespread but hidden identities and similarities
which have distinguished the work of Freud enabled him to show that, far
from being operative only under certain special or rare conditions, the
unconscious mental forces of the human mind are continually active during
waking life and even during sleep, and exercise a profound influence on
the whole course of consciousness and conduct. As the result of the far
reaching investigations of Freud and of his followers, it would seem
indeed that we shall probably have to look to the Unconscious for an
understanding of the ultimate nature of all the deepest and most powerful
motive forces of the mind.
[Sidenote: Psycho-analysis applied to the study of the family]
As is now well known, the psycho-analytic method originated as a method
for the study and treatment of hysteria and other functional nervous
disorders, which were found to depend upon the influence of unconscious
mental factors. The discovery of the importance of the feelings and
tendencies connected with family life, especially as affecting these
unconscious factors, dates from this time of the earliest use and
application of Psycho-Analysis. As in the case of so many other problems
upon which the method has cast light, Freud himself was the first to show
something of the intimate nature of the influence exerted by the family
relationships. Certain aspects of the subject were already revealed in the
Papers on Hysteria, published conjointly with Breuer in 1895--a work which
indicated for the first time something of the importance and nature of the
subsequently developed psycho-analytic method.
[Sidenote: The child's love to its parents]
Here and in the other early works of Freud there gradually emerge the
fundamental conceptions which distinguish the psycho-analytic school[4].
Among these conceptions is that regarding the very important part played
in the moral and emotional development of the child by the psychological
factors which connect the child with its parent, and more especially by
the child's feelings of love towards its parent. This love is shown to be
of exceptional importance for a variety of reasons. In the first place it
constitutes as a rule the earliest manifestation of altruistic sentiment
exhibited by the child, the first direction outwards upon an object of
the external world of impulses and emotions which have hitherto been
enlisted solely in the service of the child's own immediate needs and
gratifications. As such it constitutes in the second place the germ out
of which all later affections spring, and by which the course and nature
of these later affections are to a large extent moulded and determined.
Further (and this is perhaps the most significant, as it is certainly the
most startling of Freud's discoveries in this field) there is shown to be
no clear cut difference between the nature of this early filio-parental
affection and that of the later loves of adolescent and adult life. The
sexual aspect, which imparts the characteristic and peculiar quality to
the most powerful affections of maturity, is found to be present also,
in a rudimentary form, in the loves of childhood and of infancy and to
exert an important influence upon the earliest of all attachments--that
of the child towards its parents. These strong emotional forces concerned
in the love of children to parents--and particularly the sexual or
quasi-sexual elements of these forces--were found, moreover, not only to
be of the greatest importance for the normal emotional development of the
individual, but also to play a leading part among the factors determining
the causation and nature of the neuroses.
[Sidenote: Repression]
In this last conception regarding the continuity of the young child's
love of its parents with the sexual emotions of later life we are brought
face to face with one of the most striking and characteristic features
of Freud's work. The mere idea of such incestuous or quasi-incestuous
feelings and tendencies as are here indicated provokes astonishment,
repugnance and incredulity. The arousal of an attitude antagonistic to
the reception of such views--even though such an attitude be inevitable
and invariable--must not however, be regarded as constituting in itself a
disproof of the existence of the feelings and tendencies in question. Such
an attitude is, on the contrary, only what is to be expected if Freud's
theory of the matter be correct. According to Freud's general conception
of mental development tendencies which--like these--are more or less
openly irreconcilable with prevalent moral sentiments and traditions,
become in the course of time (as we shall see more fully later) opposed
by other powerful forces of the mind; which dispute with them the right
of expression in thought or deed and which eventually tend to refuse them
admission to consciousness at all. This action of opposing forces with
regard to the more primitive aspects of the mind is termed Repression
and so far as it manifests itself in consciousness finds its most usual
expression in the emotions of disgust, anger and fear. As a result of this
repression (which is of course only a particular instance of the more
general process already well known to psychologists and neurologists
under the name of Inhibition), the sexual aspects of the child's love
towards its parents (together with many other tendencies which conflict
similarly with the notions of propriety developed as the child grows up)
are, to a greater or less extent, thrust out of consciousness into the
unconscious regions of the mind, there to drag out a prolonged existence
in a comparatively crude and undeveloped form, and to manifest themselves
in consciousness and in behaviour only in an indirect, symbolic or
distorted manner. The very fact that, when brought into consciousness,
such ideas are often greeted with exaggerated antipathy or incredulity,
constitutes therefore, if anything, a confirmation of the real existence
of these ideas in the Unconscious; the feelings of repulsion and disgust
to which their introduction into consciousness gives rise being but a
manifestation of the motive forces of Repression to which the original
expulsion from consciousness of the repugnant thoughts and tendencies was
due.
[Sidenote: Dreams]
As the result of further study with gradually improving technique, Freud,
in his later works, confirmed, elaborated and extended his observations on
the influence of the family relationships in the growth and development
of the individual mind. Of particular importance, both in itself and
because of the general influence of the book as in some respects the most
thoroughgoing presentation of Freud's methods and point of view, is the
treatment of the matter in the "Interpretation of Dreams." Here Freud
introduces the subject in connection with that of the so-called typical
dreams, _i. e._ dreams which occur to a large number of persons and to the
same person on a number of separate occasions. Among such dreams, some of
fairly frequent occurrence are, as Freud points out, concerned with the
death of near and dear relatives who are still living at the time at which
the dream takes place[5]. The consideration of such dreams leads Freud to
maintain that they are to be interpreted (in accordance with the general
principle of wish-fulfilment)[6] as the manifestation of an actual desire
in the Unconscious for the death of the person concerned.
[Sidenote: The hostile element in family relationship]
In explanation of this astonishing and repellent conclusion, Freud draws
attention to the fact that the relations of the members of a family to one
another are in many respects of such a nature as to call forth hostile
emotions almost if not quite as readily as they call forth love; that
brothers and sisters, parents and children, owing to the very closeness
of the mental and material ties which bind them together and to the very
considerable degree to which they are mutually dependent, often find
themselves in opposition to, or in competition with, one another. The
antagonisms thus produced are frequently of such a kind as to meet with
the same opposition from the moral consciousness as is encountered in
the case of the sexual or quasi-sexual aspects of love between members
of the same family. In their more intense degrees, therefore, they too
are often subjected to a process of repression and become banished to the
Unconscious. They are, moreover, especially when so banished, very far
from being incompatible with the existence of a very genuine affection at
the conscious level. In view of the conflicting nature of the tendencies
that may be thus aroused, it is not surprising that as psycho-pathological
research has revealed, hatred towards near relatives may be of very
considerable importance also as a determining factor in the production of
neuroses. It has, in fact, been found that a repressed hatred may underlie
a whole series of pathological symptoms in precisely the same manner as a
repressed love.
[Sidenote: The correlations of love and hate]
The love aspect of the family relationships itself however often plays a
part in dreams, both in a distorted and symbolic representation and, more
openly expressed, in a directly incestuous form. In fact very frequently
both love and hate aspects may be combined in a dream or in a series of
dreams or set of pathological symptoms. In such cases love for one member
of the family is usually accompanied by jealousy or hatred towards some
other member who possesses or is thought to possess the affections of
the first. In its most typical form this conjunction of love and hate
aspects occurs in the attitude of the child towards its parents. Here the
dawning heterosexual inclinations of the child (which, as Freud, and other
students of the mind, have shown, begin to manifest themselves at a much
earlier age than is often supposed, though full heterosexual maturity is
not attained, if ever, until after puberty) usually bring it about that
the love is directed towards the parent of the opposite sex and the hate
towards the parent of the same sex as that of the child.
[Sidenote: The Œdipus Complex]
The feelings and tendencies in question have found expression in
innumerable stories, myths and legends, in various degrees of openness
or of disguise, and with sometimes the love and sometimes the hate
elements predominating. It is more especially in the myth of Œdipus, who
unwittingly becomes the murderer of his father and the husband of his
mother, that the ultimate nature of these tendencies is most openly and
powerfully revealed; and it is for this reason that the combination of
love and hate aspects with all the feelings and desires to which they give
rise has come to be shortly designated as the Œdipus complex[7].
Tendencies, which, like those revealed in the Œdipus myth and its
numberless variations, have continued to manifest themselves in the
productions of the popular and the artistic mind for many generations,
would seem to show by their universality and tenacity that their
origins lie deeply embedded in the very foundations of human life and
character; and this view of their importance is corroborated by the very
significant place which they are found to occupy as etiological factors
in the production of neuroses. Freud has gone so far as to say that the
tendencies centering round the Œdipus situation form the "nuclear complex
of the neuroses," _i. e._ the fundamental point of conflict in the mind
of the neurotic, about which the other conflicts gather and upon which
they are to a great extent dependent. In the light of Freud's fruitful
conception of the neuroses as due largely to the fact that a part of
the emotional energy has suffered an arrest at, or a "regression" to,
a relatively early stage of mental development, this fundamental rôle
of the Œdipus complex in the neuroses would seem to indicate that the
proper development and control of the child's psychic relations to his
parents constitutes at once one of the most important and one of the most
difficult features of individual mental growth. That this is in fact the
case has been shown both by the researches of Freud himself and by those
of all other psycho-analytic investigators, and may without difficulty be
confirmed from the experience of ordinary life by those whose eyes have
once been opened to the full significance and innumerable manifestations
of the psychic relationship between parents and children.
[Sidenote: The normal course of development of the child's affections]
[Sidenote: Auto-erotism]
[Sidenote: Object love]
In the light of these researches and observations the normal course of
development of the child's affections, so far as they concern us here[8],
would seem to be somewhat as follows[9]: In the earliest period of its
existence those tendencies which are afterwards to develop into love,
affection and desire for persons or objects in the outer world are at
first connected with sensations from various parts of the child's own
body. This constitutes the auto-erotic stage in which the child is for the
most part concerned with outer things as objects of desire merely in so
far as they serve to bring about his own bodily comfort and satisfaction.
To begin with there is indeed in all probability no clear distinction
between the self and the environment or between the animate or inanimate
objects of the environment. Corresponding to the gradual development of
these distinctions there is found the beginning of what is called by Freud
"object love", the experience of desire for, and affection towards, some
object or person of the environment, the highest manifestation of which is
found in the passionate and all absorbing loves of subsequent adolescent
or adult life. This beginning of object love is a most important stage of
development, since on its success depends not only the possibility of a
normal growth of the sexual trends to full maturity, but also, to a great
extent, the occasion and opportunity for the unfolding of many of the
higher altruistic tendencies and motives.
[Sidenote: Heterosexuality]
It is natural that, in the gradual transition from auto-erotism to object
love, the first object of the child's affection should be chosen from
amongst those who administer to its bodily needs and comfort. Thus it
is probable that in the conditions of normal family life, the mother or
the nurse is, in nearly all cases, the first person selected. It would
appear, however, that at a relatively very early age, the sex of the child
begins to exert an influence on the choice of the loved object, so that
(as we have already noted) we find after a time a predominant tendency for
selection of the parent of the opposite sex as the object of affection.
This perhaps takes place to some extent in virtue of an already ripening
tendency to heterosexual selection in the child. But there can be little
doubt that in many cases another factor is to some extent operative
in bringing about this result, _i. e._ the tendency of the child to
appreciate and to return the manifestations of affection that are shown
towards it. Now the parents in virtue of their developed heterosexual
inclinations tend very frequently to feel most attracted to those of their
children who are of the opposite sex to their own and thus (consciously or
unconsciously) to indulge in greater manifestations of affection towards
such children; this unequal distribution of affection being in turn
perceived and reciprocated by the children themselves.
This reciprocation on the part of the child of the heterosexual
preferences of the parents undoubtedly plays a very large part in the
development of normal heterosexuality: just how large is this part
compared with that played by the instinctive heterosexual reactions of
the child, it is difficult or impossible to say in the present state
of our knowledge, since in any given case the two factors are apt to
be very closely interrelated. The question is of interest because the
relative influence of the two factors must, it would appear, largely
determine the extent to which the direction of a child's sexual desires
is dependent upon innate and upon environmental causes respectively.
Should the direction of a child's object love toward persons of one
sex rather than toward those of the other be largely determined by the
manifestations of affection that the child receives, it would seem that
the sexual inclinations of the parents must exert a great influence in the
formation of the sexual character of their children, _e. g._ that marked
heterosexuality in the parents would tend--through its effects on parental
preferences and quite apart from any hereditary influences--to produce
equally developed heterosexual inclinations in the children, whereas
homosexually disposed parents would tend in a similar way to bring up
homosexual children.
If on the other hand, the direction of a child's object love depends
chiefly upon innate instinctive factors, the sexual dispositions of the
parents will play a much less important rôle in the mental history of
the child and will be influential only in so far as they are directly
inherited. The progress of psychological research, statistical and
psycho-analytic--will, we may hope, cast much light upon this problem in
the near future.
[Sidenote: Homosexual and heterosexual development in girls]
Another interesting question relating to the direction of object love
towards the parents is connected with the fact that, in the case of
female children, the influences making towards heterosexual choice of
object would seem, under normal conditions of upbringing, to be liable
to conflict with the tendency for the affections of the child to go out
in the first place towards those to whom the child is chiefly indebted
for the satisfaction of its more immediate bodily needs. Under these
circumstances it might perhaps be expected that it would be usual for
girls to pass through a stage of mother love before transferring the
greater part of their affection to their father. There is much reason
to think that the number of girls retaining an unusual or pathological
degree of mother love in later years is greater than the number of boys
retaining a corresponding degree of father love; if this be the case, it
may perhaps be held to show that the mother is indeed the first object of
affection in both boys and girls and that some of the latter retain marked
traces of this stage of their development throughout subsequent life.
Additional evidence pointing in the same direction seems to be forthcoming
from a number of pathological cases among adult women, the study of which
has revealed the existence of a persistent and intense attachment to the
mother; this attachment being of an infantile character and situated
in a deeper and more inaccessible layer of the Unconscious than the
father love, which appeared to have been, in the process of growth, as it
were, superimposed upon the earlier affection. If father love in girls
should prove to be normally built upon the remains of an earlier period
of exclusive mother love which is common to both girls and boys, it is
evident that in this respect the development of heterosexual object love
in girls is a rather more complex process than it is in boys. This greater
complexity of the process of development may, as Freud himself has pointed
out in a somewhat different but not altogether unrelated connection[10],
become the cause of a number of those failures of adjustment to the
conditions of adult life--sexual and general--that are found to underlie
the neuroses. The greater incidence of certain neurotic disturbances among
women as compared with men may perhaps ultimately be due in part[11] to
the greater complexity of the original process by which the object love of
the child comes to be directed to the parent of the opposite sex.
[Sidenote: Jealousy]
With the firm establishment of object love towards the parent of the
opposite sex, the conditions are present for the arousal of jealousy
towards the parent of the same sex, since this latter is soon found to
possess claims upon the affection and attention of the loved parent which
are apt to conflict with the similar claims of the child. Thus the young
girl begins to resent the affection and consideration which her mother
receives at the hands of her father and comes in time to look upon her
mother as in some sense a sexual rival who competes with her father's
love. In imagination she will allow herself to occupy her mother's place
and may even attempt to put this fancy into practice, if opportunity
should offer; as in the case cited by Freud[12] of the eight year old
girl who openly proclaimed herself as her mother's successor when her
mother was absent on occasion from the family table, or in the still more
striking case of the four year old child who said:--"Mother can just stay
away now; then father will have to marry me and I shall be his wife."
Boys experience a similar jealousy towards their father and often come to
regard his presence in the family as that of an intruder or interloper who
disturbs the otherwise peaceful and loving relations between his mother
and himself. This view of the father as intruder is particularly liable to
occur if (as so frequently happens) the father is absent from the home for
relatively long periods during the working hours of the day or even for
several days or weeks on end[13]. Even in the cases where the father is
not frequently away from home, his continued presence is sooner or later
found to be irksome in the same way as is the mother's in the case of
girls, and the desire for his removal will gradually begin to make itself
felt, if not in consciousness, at least in the unconscious levels of the
mind.
[Sidenote: Causes of parent-hatred]
The hate aspect of the Œdipus complex would thus seem normally to arise
in the first place as a consequence of the love aspect, the affection
felt by the child towards the parent of the opposite sex bringing about a
resentment at the presence of the other parent; this latter parent being
looked upon as a competitor for the affections of the loved parent and
a disturber of the peace of the family circle. But though in its origin
the hate aspect is thus usually a secondary phenomenon, it may under
suitable conditions grow to equal or even to excel in importance the love
aspect from which it in the first place arose. This is especially liable
to be the case when, in addition to the specific interference with the
love activities of the child, the parent in question causes more general
interference with the child's desires and activities, by adopting a
harsh, intolerant or inconsiderate attitude towards the child in their
everyday relations or as regards matters in which the child's interests
and ambitions are more especially concerned. To the envy and jealousy felt
towards a competitor and rival there is then added the hatred and desire
for rebellion against a tyrant and oppressor; and the complex emotions
thus aroused may engender a hostile sentiment of such intensity as, in
some cases, to constitute one of the dominant traits of character, not
only of childhood but of the whole of adult life.
[Sidenote: Hatred between brothers and sisters]
Only second in importance to the attitude of the child towards its parents
are its relations to its brothers and sisters. Under the conditions of
normal family life, brothers and sisters are, after the parents, the most
important persons in the environment of the young child, and it is but
natural that these persons should be among the earliest objects of the
developing love and hate emotions of the child. Whereas, however, in the
child's relations towards its parents, love would seem to be the emotion
that is usually first evoked, in its dealings with the other junior
members of the family, the opposite emotion of hate is in most cases
the primary reaction. This fact can be easily explained as to a great
extent a natural consequence of the necessary conditions of family life.
Brothers and sisters possess claims upon the attention and affection of
the loved parent (especially when that parent is the mother) which are
apt to conflict seriously with one another and may on occasion be felt
by the respective claimants to be almost if not quite as irksome and
exorbitant as those of the other parent, whose competition with the child
in this respect we have already noted. From this source there frequently
arise feelings of violent jealousy between brothers and sisters, and
the attitude of hostility thus evoked may be increased, or at any rate
prevented from disappearing, by the fact that children of the same family
have to share not only the affection of their parents but, to some extent
at least, their material possessions and enjoyments also.
The works of psycho-analytic writers contain numerous examples of such
brother and sister hatreds in early years. As a rule the younger child
resents the advantages and privileges of which it finds the older children
already in possession; it finds itself in many respects compelled to
submit to the superior size and strength and experience of the older
children, whom it is therefore inclined to regard as tyrants, the only
refuge from whose brutal power lies in appeal to the still higher adult
powers who control the destinies of the nursery. Older children, on their
part, are inclined to regard any new arrival in the family circle as an
intruder upon their own preserves and a competitor for their own cherished
rights, privileges and possessions. Hence the announcement of such a new
arrival is in many cases greeted, in the first instance, with anything
but joy, and the wish is often expressed that the intruder should depart
again whence he came. Indeed it would seem probable from some cases that
not a little of the interest displayed by children in the processes of
conception, gestation and (more especially) birth, is due to the fact
that these processes are intimately connected with the appearance of a
new brother or sister to disturb the peaceful monopoly of the family
possessions and affections which the elder children have hitherto enjoyed.
In other cases, again, the resentment felt towards the new intruder may be
so great that it may even find expression in an actual attempt on the part
of an older child to do away with the younger one[14] should a convenient
opportunity for this present itself.
[Sidenote: Love between brothers and sisters]
Although jealousy and hatred are thus apt to be the first emotional
reactions of brothers and sisters towards one another, there can be
no doubt that a brother or sister may from the beginning be an object
of affection, the object love of the child being directed towards its
brother or sister in much the same manner as towards its parent. This is
much more likely to happen in relation to an elder than in relation to a
younger member of the family and occurs most frequently when there is a
considerable difference in age between the children concerned, so that
interests and desires no longer conflict and overlap to the same extent
as they do in the case of children of approximately equal age. The most
favourable conditions for the direction of a child's object love in this
manner are to be found in those large working-class families, where an
elder sister frequently takes over some of the attributes of the mother as
regards the younger children. In such a case the feelings of the younger
child (particularly if that child be a boy) towards its elder sister are
usually of an affectionate nature from the very start.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 3: I make no attempt here to give a systematic account of
the general nature of the methods, discoveries and hypotheses of the
psycho-analytic school, except in so far as they directly touch our
present problem. Some at least of the general principles underlying the
work of the school together with some of the results they have achieved
are now becoming fairly well known. Those who would pursue the subject
further may be referred to the following books: Brill, "Psychanalysis,"
2nd. ed. 1914; Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 2nd. ed.
1918; Pfister, "The Psychoanalytic Method," 1917; White, "Mechanisms of
Character Formation," 1916; Barbara Low, "Psycho-Analysis," 1920. A more
detailed study would include reference to Prof. Freud's own works, of
which the principal are:--"Selected Papers on Hysteria," 1909; "Three
Contributions to the Theory of Sex," 1910; "The Interpretation of Dreams,"
1913; "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life," 1914; "Wit and its Relation
to the Unconscious," 1916; "Totem and Taboo," 1918; "Vorlesungen zur
Einführung in die Psychoanalyse," 1918; also four volumes of the "Sammlung
kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre," published at various times, and two
volumes in the series entitled "Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde".
For the meaning of the term Unconscious see Hart, "The Conception of the
Subconscious," _Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, 1910, Vol. IV, 351.
Hart's small book "The Psychology of Insanity," 1912, affords an excellent
general introduction to abnormal psychology. (Here as elsewhere the titles
and dates of English translations of foreign works are given, wherever
such translations are available.)]
[Footnote 4: The most important work dealing with this matter and with
other questions of development generally is Freud's "Three Contributions
to the Theory of Sex."]
[Footnote 5: "The Interpretation of Dreams," 219.]
[Footnote 6: The dreams falling within this class (together with some
others) appear to exhibit what is, at first sight at least, a puzzling
exception to the general rule governing the formation of dreams which
give expression to repressed tendencies, inasmuch as the obnoxious wish
is gratified openly and undisguisedly instead of appearing in an indirect
and symbolic form, as is usually the case. It would seem however, that
this departure from the rule may to a large extent be explained and
reconciled with the ordinary methods of repression by the following
considerations:--(1) although the content of the wish appears directly
in consciousness, it nevertheless fails (both during the dream and after
waking) to be appreciated in its full significance for the mental life
of the personality, _i. e._ there is no realisation of the fact that the
dream represents in any way the fulfilment of a wish; there is present
a sort of functional agnosia, in virtue of which the thought of the
death is dissociated from its actual psychical concomitants, which alone
can endow it with its full meaning; (2) in addition to this cognitive
dissociation there is an emotional substitution, the emotion actually
experienced being one of sorrow instead of one of joy, which the simple
gratification of a wish would by itself most naturally occasion. This
sorrow corresponds of course to the very genuine grief which would be
felt at the conscious level in case of any real mishap to the relatives
concerned and at the same time serves as an additional screen to hide
the underlying hostile wish in the Unconscious; (3) on rarer occasions
it would seem that the process of emotional substitution may be replaced
by one of deëmotionalisation which prevents the cognitive elements from
calling up any of the feelings which would normally accompany them; thus
the death of a near relative will appear not as a sorrowful (or as it
would be at certain levels of the Unconscious, a joyful) event, but as one
devoid of all affective significance or as one that is absurd, ridiculous
or unthinkable.]
[Footnote 7: Or sometimes, in the case of women, the Electra complex;
though the Electra myth gives a rather less complete expression of the
combined love and hate tendencies in the female than is found in the
Œdipus story for the corresponding tendencies of the male.
The whole subject of the manifestations of these complexes in legend and
literature and in the mind of the poet and the artist is treated at length
in Otto Rank's comprehensive and most valuable work "Das Inzestmotiv in
Dichtung und Sage".]
[Footnote 8: This is a most important and far-reaching limitation. In
order to avoid entering upon many difficult but weighty matters which are
not strictly relevant to our present theme, we have here--and throughout
the book--necessarily had to content ourselves with a somewhat one-sided
and misleading portrayal of human psychic development as a whole. This
deficiency is most marked with regard to the treatment of the great group
of self-preserving and self-regarding tendencies, which we have only
touched upon occasionally and of which we have nowhere attempted any
adequate presentation. As a consequence of this, it must be borne in mind
that from the point of view of general psychology, we have frequently
laid too much stress upon the object-regarding tendencies (see below),
to the relative neglect of much that is more primitive and fundamental
in human nature. Our excuse must be that our subject naturally brings us
into far closer touch with the social and (to use a convenient term of
Ferenczi's) allo-erotic aspects of the mind than with those other aspects
which are more intimately concerned with the individual as an independent
microcosmic organism. To correct and amplify the inadequate conception
of the human mind and of human mental development to which our present
treatment might lead if taken by itself, the reader should consult Freud's
"Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex" and his important paper "Zur
Einführung des Narzißmus," _Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse_, VI, 1. The works
of Alfred Adler, though often both exaggerated and, especially in their
English form, very nearly unreadable, contain some interesting material in
this connection.
A very illuminating consideration of the problem with which we are
immediately concerned at this point--the early development of object love
in the child and the relations of this object love to the activities of
the auto-erotic stage--will be found in a paper on the "Psychology of
the New Born Infant" by David Forsyth. (To be published in the _British
Journal of Psychology_).]
[Footnote 9: _Cp._ especially Freud, "Three Contributions to the Theory of
Sex."]
[Footnote 10: "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex," 80, 81.]
[Footnote 11: Among other reasons for the greater liability of women to
neurosis, one of great importance is the transference, in the course of
sexual development, of the chief seat of erotic sensibility from the
clitoris to the vagina.]
[Footnote 12: "The Interpretation of Dreams," 219.]
[Footnote 13: Many instances of the influence of the father's absence
could be observed in connection with the war. Thus a small boy of five
known to the writer solemnly assured his mother that now that his father
was permanently away, it would be only right for her to marry him, her
son, instead.]
[Footnote 14: Mr. Cyril Burt informs me that he has encountered two quite
definite cases of attempted fratricide in the course of his work as
Psychologist to the London County Council.]
CHAPTER III
THE ORIGIN OF CONFLICT IN RELATION TO THE FAMILY
[Sidenote: The primitive a-moral nature of the child]
In the emotional and affective attitudes of the child towards its parents
and the other important persons in its environment, so far as we have now
traced them, the child's conduct is in some respects more nearly allied
to that of the fully developed human being than is generally recognised
or admitted. In the depth and intensity of its love and hate, in its
sexual or quasi-sexual activities and in its distinctive attitude towards
persons of different sex, the child reveals characteristics which have
often hitherto been regarded as exclusive manifestations of the adult
or adolescent mind. In another very important respect, however, the
child's conduct and feeling differ markedly from those of the adult. The
emotional and affective reactions with which we have been dealing exhibit
a straight-forwardness and simplicity which is not found in the more
developed minds of normal adult persons, and which is due to the fact that
the child's early conative tendencies are able, to a relatively large
extent, to work themselves out without any serious opposition, hindrance
or modification caused by the presence of other conflicting tendencies
within the mind. The child's mind is a relatively dissociated one;
incompatible thoughts, emotions, feelings and desires may successively
invade the seat of consciousness, lead to their appropriate reactions
and be but little modified or checked by one another. For this reason
the child is, during the earliest part of its life, a relatively a-moral
being, for morality implies the possibility of two or more courses of
thought or action--a better and a worse--and the lack of integration in
the child's mind only permits of this possibility to a very limited
extent. Thus it comes about that the very young child is able to indulge
openly in the expression of sexual or hostile tendencies in a manner which
is impossible in later life; for to the child the expression of these
tendencies does not yet possess the moral and affective meaning which it
is destined subsequently to acquire. In the earliest years of life the
manifestations of quasi-sexual love, even in an incestuous direction, are
at first only the natural expression of a desire, which is gratified as
a matter of course and without any hesitation produced by a sense of the
immorality of these manifestations. Similarly, when the child seeks, by
death or otherwise, to bring about the permanent removal of a rival or
competitor, the ideas of death and murder are, as Freud points out[15], at
first quite uncomplicated by the thoughts, feelings and sentiments which
later come to be associated with them; the infliction of death--real or
imaginary--is simply the most natural way of dealing, at the earliest
stages of emotional development, with unwanted persons who interfere with
the child's desires and tendencies.
[Sidenote: Modification of conduct as the result of Conflict]
This open and unrestricted expression of primitive tendencies is, however,
confined to a phase of relatively short duration in the history of the
child's mind, being generally found only in the first few years of life.
The crude love or hate for mother or father, brother or sister, which we
have so far been considering, does not long persist in its original form;
the normal development of the mind requires that these primitive emotional
attitudes shall undergo grave and far reaching modifications, the
production of which constitutes an important step towards the attainment
of the adolescent or adult point of view.
[Sidenote: The forces of Repression]
[Sidenote: Sexual inhibition]
These modifications are the result of a conflict which takes place in the
mind between the love and hate impulses in their original form and certain
tendencies of an antagonistic nature which (as already indicated in the
last chapter), make their appearance after a certain time and threaten to
inhibit the cruder manifestations of the primitive impulses. These new
tendencies are themselves, in all probability, derived from more than
one source. Those which produce modification in the love impulses of the
child, may be regarded as constituting, no doubt, only so many particular
instances of that inhibition of sexual and quasi-sexual activity which
exercises such a large influence in the formation of human character in
general.
[Sidenote: Herd Instinct]
The precise history and nature of the motives that are at work here are
not as yet completely understood, and we shall have occasion to consider
the subject again at a later stage of our present enquiry. There can be
little doubt that one of the factors concerned is to be found in the
suggestive influence of social pressure and tradition manifesting itself
in the case of the child, through the behaviour and expression of the
adult persons with whom it is brought into contact[16]. In appreciating
and responding to these influences, the child is probably helped by a
special instinctive mechanism which tends to make it conform to the
behaviour, opinions and emotional atmosphere of its human environment.
A "herd instinct" of this kind is regarded by some psychologists as
constituting the moral force operating as one of the opposing tendencies
in all intra-psychical conflicts such as that with which we are here
concerned[17]. It is indeed almost certainly a factor of very considerable
importance in this connection; the manner in which sexual restrictions
and inhibitions so markedly vary from one time, place or social condition
to another indicates that there is no deep rooted instinctive tendency
towards the suppression of any particular manifestations of sexuality,
but rather that the nature of the modifications and restraints undergone
by sexual activities is determined for the most part by prevalent moral
conventions passively taken over by the individual from the society in
which he finds himself. Nevertheless, it would seem doubtful whether the
practically universal existence of some kind of sexual restriction can
be entirely accounted for in this way. For other reasons it would appear
probable that a tendency to some sort of quite general inhibition of
primitive sexual activities is part of the original mental endowment of
each human individual, even though the particular manifestations of this
inhibitory tendency are principally determined by suggestive influences
from the environment. To this point also we shall have occasion to revert
later on, when we shall be in a more favourable position for forming an
opinion with regard to it.
[Sidenote: Love, gratitude and admiration]
With reference to the moral tendencies which are operative in producing
modifications of the primitive hatreds of the child there can be
little doubt that here also herd instinct is in many cases a factor of
importance. At quite an early age, the child begins to learn that it is
"right" to love and obey its parents and "wrong" to resist the dictates
of the parental authority or to quarrel with its brothers or sisters:
and these precepts are constantly inculcated with all the impressive
suggestiveness which social, educational and religious influences have
at their command. Of equal, if not greater, importance, however, is the
tendency of the child to feel affection towards those with whom it lives
in intimate relationship, to whom it is indebted for all or most of its
material possessions and enjoyments and whom it in many cases admires and
looks up to as the ideal of fully grown humanity to which it may itself
one day attain. The natural growth and development of these feelings
are, however, it is true, helped and encouraged by the moral suggestions
received from outside, whereas these same outside influences tend
powerfully to inhibit the contrary feelings of hatred and hostility.
[Sidenote: The nature and results of Conflict]
After this brief consideration of the nature of the psychic forces which
at a certain stage of development come to be arrayed in opposition to
the primitive manifestations of love and hate as brought out by the
circumstances of family life, we turn now to contemplate the nature and
outcome of the conflict that takes place within the mind between the
two sets of antagonistic tendencies. Our knowledge concerning this and
other similar intra-psychical conflicts has during recent years been very
considerably increased by the work of Freud and other psychologists of
the psycho-analytic school. Generally it may be said that the outcome
of such a conflict varies according to the relative success of one of
the conflicting tendencies over the other. If the two combatants are of
approximately equal strength, there may be a continuous struggle between
them of such a kind as to make itself clearly felt in consciousness;
the individual being then as a rule incapable of vigorous action in
gratification of either tendency. In other cases the competing tendencies
may alternately dominate consciousness and conduct; so that the behaviour
of the individual becomes characterised by impulsiveness and want of
balance rather than by want of energy.
At the opposite extreme there are conflicts which end by the complete
exclusion of one tendency from any direct influence on consciousness or
on behaviour; the individual becoming then normally quite unaware of
the existence of any such tendency within his mind. This exclusion from
consciousness or from any direct manifestation in behaviour does not,
however, of itself bring about a complete annihilation of the tendency
in question. It would seem, on the contrary, that such a tendency may
continue to exist for a long period (even for a whole lifetime) in the
unconscious regions of the mind, where its presence may be demonstrated
by the use of suitable methods. Such an outcome of conflict, in which
one tendency is driven down to the Unconscious and confined there by the
other, is--as we have already stated--usually designated by the term
Repression.
[Sidenote: Displacement and Sublimation]
The process of Repression is, however, rarely carried to such a degree as
to render one of the conflicting tendencies completely and permanently
incapable of direct expression. Most frequently all that is effected
is a modification of such a kind that in its new form the repressed
tendency no longer conflicts to the same extent as before with the
repressing tendency. This process of modification has received the name of
Displacement and consists essentially in the abandonment on the part of
the repressed tendency of its original end or object in favour of a new
one which meets with less resistance from the opposing motives. When the
new end or object is of such a nature as to be culturally or ethically
of appreciably greater value than the original one, the modification
undergone by the tendency in question is often spoken of as Sublimation--a
term which thus comprehends all the "higher" and more desirable cases of
Displacement[18].
[Sidenote: Incest Repression]
In the conflict with which we are here concerned, those motives of a
relatively social or ethical character which we have already considered in
this chapter, act as the repressing force; while the original primitive
tendencies of love and hate, with which we were concerned in the last
chapter, suffer the repression. As regards the degree to which the
repression is carried, it would appear that in a considerable number
of cases the more strongly tabooed among the socially and ethically
objectionable elements become forced out of consciousness without
producing any immediate conscious equivalents. This, perhaps, is liable
to take place more especially as regards some of the more directly
sexual aspects of the child's attitude towards its parents. As Freud
has pointed out[19] there occurs at some time in the early period of
childhood--perhaps most usually at about the sixth year, a relatively
latent sexual period, during which all sexual manifestations are more
or less in abeyance. The existence of this period would seem to imply a
temporary general sexual repression, in which the erotic aspects in the
affection of the child to its parents suffer, together with all other
sexual elements. This initial period of repression seems to play an
important part in the production of a permanent dissociation between the
sexual desires and the feelings experienced in relation to the parents, so
that sexual emotion and filial affection are thereafter seldom permitted
to enter consciousness together. Indeed it would appear that this general
repression of sexual activity is to some extent removed only in so far
as this dissociation has taken place; for on the reappearance of a
more vigorous sexuality at the close of the latent period, the erotic
tendencies would seem normally to have undergone a process of displacement
so that they are no longer so intimately connected with the parent-love as
on their first appearance.
[Sidenote: Displacement as regards the object of love]
In all the more favourable cases of development, however, it is probable
that even from the first the conflict between the primitive elements of
love and hate and the newly unfolding ethical tendencies results to a
great extent in the displacement and gradual sublimation of the former and
not merely in their repression or return to a latent state. The process
of displacement here takes the form of a dissociation of the more erotic
aspects of the child's affection from the loved parent--these aspects
being thus set free for bestowal upon other persons. The choice of such
fresh objects for the child's affection is determined in accordance
with what would appear to be a general law governing the process of
displacement, viz., that the new end or object, to which the psychic
energy is directed, must have some associative connection with the old
object which has been abandoned. For this reason, it is very frequently
possible to trace some kind of resemblance between the loved parent and
the new object of affection; though this resemblance may be of very
various degrees or kinds. Thus, the new object of affection may bear
some resemblance to the parent in one or more of the following points:
physical appearance (either general or as regards some special feature),
mental characteristics, circumstances of life (both these last again being
either general or special), age, name, past history, occupation or family
relationship. Sometimes, moreover, the resemblance may be of an opposing
or negative kind, the later object of love being markedly different from,
or contrasting with, the original object in some one or more of these
characters. In the case of a succession of such loved objects, it is
not unusual for the resemblance to the original object of affection to
become gradually less pronounced, in accordance with a further general
characteristic of Displacement, in virtue of which the higher sublimations
(_i. e._, those which imply ends very different from, and of higher
cultural value than, the original objects of desire) are only attained
slowly and through a number of intermediate steps.
[Sidenote: Parent Substitutes]
A first step of frequent occurrence and of great importance in a large
number of cases is the transference of erotic love from the parent to
some other member of the family, e. g., brother, sister or (usually at a
somewhat later stage of development) cousin. In the first two cases the
new choice of object has the additional advantage of tending to abolish
the hate or jealousy which, as we saw, is apt to characterise the original
attitude towards such members of the family: and this in two ways:--(1)
negatively, by removing the cause of the jealousy, since, as the parent is
now no longer the sole object of affection, the rival claims of brothers
and sisters upon the attention of the parent are no longer felt to be
objectionable; (2) positively, by investing the brother or sister with
the attributes of lovableness formerly reserved for the parent.
In the same way, the diversion of the erotic tendencies from the parent
of the opposite sex removes the principal cause of jealousy and hatred
felt towards the parent of the same sex, so that, in the absence of other
causes of hostility, this hatred--in itself, as we pointed out, originally
in some respects a secondary phenomenon--may give place to the affection
which, in their capacity of protectors and benefactors, tends normally
to be inspired in some degree by both parents alike. But even in so far
as the hate may be primary (due as a rule to frequent thwarting of the
child's desires and activities or to bullying, nagging or generally
unsympathetic behaviour on the part of the parent in question), it tends
to undergo a considerable degree of repression or displacement on its
own account, so that after a time the child no longer experiences in
consciousness any violent aversion to its parent; such aversion being
either confined to the Unconscious or displaced on to other objects in a
manner which we shall study later on.
[Sidenote: The infantile attitude in early love]
The fact that the first choice of loved object other than the parent is
associatively connected with the original object of love, is shown not
only in the nature of the objects selected but also to some extent in
the attitude of the child or adolescent towards the objects of his love.
In the loves of the young towards persons of the opposite sex, there is
usually a strong element of reverence and admiration, a deep feeling of
gratitude for any favours that may be received, combined with a sense
of the lover's own unworthiness and inferiority; a total attitude very
similar to that not unreasonably adopted towards their own parents, to
whom they are indebted for the very necessities of life throughout their
childhood and to whom they naturally feel themselves to be inferior
in knowledge, experience and moral worth. Thus in the early loves of
the young boy, the objects of his affection are apt to be regarded as
queen-like or semi-divine beings--models of beauty, virtue and wisdom--to
whose perfections they themselves (the lovers) can never hope to attain
and of whom they must remain for ever to some extent unworthy. Similar
elements constitute the most important factors in that tendency to
_Schwärmerei_ which so frequently distinguishes the early attachments of
young girls[20].
The adoption of this attitude by the young in their early loves is of
course often facilitated by the fact that the objects selected are
older than the youthful lovers themselves. But this is not a necessary
condition. Something of this attitude may indeed persist throughout the
love life of the individual, since the exaggeration of the desirable
qualities of the loved person, which forms a normal feature of sexual
(and probably of all) love, easily brings with it a sense of the relative
inferiority of the lover's own self. In the loves of a more mature age,
however, this relatively childlike attitude towards the object of love is
usually replaced by one in which the lover plays a more active, vigorous
and self-reliant part, such as is suitable to a person of fully developed
capacity and experience.
[Sidenote: Emancipation from infantile love objects]
Simultaneously with this latter change there goes on a continuance of the
process of liberation of the love impulse from its original object. This
would seem to take place by a further use of the mechanisms of Repression
and Displacement. The love as redirected to the first parent-substitutes
after a time itself begins to meet with opposition from other psychic
tendencies on account of the too great similarity or the too firm
associative connection between the original object and its substitutes.
Thus the existence of anything like erotic feeling towards brothers,
sisters, or other members of the family or towards persons resembling the
parents in age or appearance ceases to be tolerated and at each fresh
choice of object the associative link becomes less marked, so that finally
it may cease altogether to be traceable. Thus at maturity the individual
should, for practical purposes, be free to direct his love towards those
who show no resemblance of any kind to the first object of his dawning
affection. This may be looked upon as the normal goal of the development
of the love impulse in relation to its objects. Any failure to attain
this goal must, it would seem, be regarded as constituting to some extent
a failure or arrest of development with respect to this highly important
aspect of the individual's mental growth.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 15: "The Interpretation of Dreams," 215.]
[Footnote 16: The earliest manifestation of the disapproval of sexual
activities is of course encountered in the autoerotic stage of the child's
development and in relation to the autoerotic activities. It is in
connection with these activities that the sexual inhibitions in their more
general and primitive forms at first arise.]
[Footnote 17: _Cp._ Trotter, "Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War."]
[Footnote 18: For a more thorough treatment of the mechanisms of
Repression, Displacement and Sublimation by the present writer, see
"Freudian Mechanisms as Factors in Moral Development," _British Journal of
Psychology_, 1915, vol. VIII, 477.]
[Footnote 19: "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex."]
[Footnote 20: Mr. Cyril Burt, who possesses both abilities and
opportunities of an exceptional degree as regards the observation of
children, has suggested to me that two types of transference corresponding
roughly to different stages of development, should be distinguished in
this connection. In the first type (characteristic of children of between
4 and 9) there is a well marked displacement of the erotic or quasi-erotic
aspects to some older person, usually of the opposite sex, while the
child continues to feel tenderness for the parent. In the second type
(characteristic of children of 10 up to the period of adolescence) the
attitude towards the love object (parent substitute) is more reverential,
tenderness being complicated by submissiveness and fear and the affection
being in general far less physical and demonstrative than in the first
type. "The attitude" adds Mr. Burt, "of emotional girls in Standard II and
Standard V respectively toward their teachers seems to me typical. The
former maul and kiss (if allowed): the latter reverence from afar."
If this distinction be generally true, it would seem that there are two
main stages of displacement of the parent regarding feelings:--(1) in
which the more erotic elements are displaced, the more tender aspects of
affection being still directed to the parents; (2) in which these latter
are in their turn transferred, in whole or in part, to new love objects.]
CHAPTER IV
THE FAMILY AND THE LIFE TASK OF THE INDIVIDUAL
FREUD AND JUNG
[Sidenote: Non-sexual aspects of Individual development in relation to the
family]
In this short sketch of what--from the results of psycho-analytic and
other investigations--we may regard as the normal development of the
individual mind in regard to the family relationships, we have hitherto
been concerned more particularly with the sexual emotions and tendencies,
using the word sexual in the wide sense current among writers of the
psycho-analytic school. This has been the case, partly because in our
account we have been largely governed by historical considerations with
regard to the actual chronology of recent psychological progress in this
field (and it was chiefly the sexual aspects of the family relationships
that were first brought to light in the course of this progress); partly
also because it is with regard to these sexual aspects that the increase
of our knowledge through the application of new psychological methods has
been in many ways the most extensive, the most startling and the most
difficult to assimilate. The results considered in the last two chapters
are of such a nature as to have been for the most part unrealised and
unsuspected either by the professional psychologist or by the ordinary
student of human nature: they are, indeed, of such a kind as could only
be obtained by means of a special technique capable of overcoming the
formidable resistances which, as we have seen, are interposed between the
conscious and the unconscious levels of the mind.
The positive results of recent research on the psychological influences of
the family as regards matters less directly connected with sexuality are
of a less unexpected kind, and seem to lie to some extent in the direct
path of psychological progress even apart from the introduction of the
methods of psycho-analysis. Nevertheless, it is the use of these methods
that has given some precision to our knowledge in these respects also, and
rendered more certain and definite what before was but vaguely suspected.
At this point, therefore, it becomes necessary to review the principal
results of psycho-analytic research with regard to these non-sexual
aspects of mental development in relation to the family environment.
[Sidenote: Controversies on this subject]
The treatment of these non-sexual aspects is of special difficulty for
two reasons. In the first place, these aspects are, in their actual
occurrence, intimately bound up with the processes of sexual development
with which we have been dealing; and are often difficult to disentangle
from them. In the second place, this very question of the distinction
of the sexual from the non-sexual aspects of the observed facts of
development has recently been, and still is, a subject of keen dispute
among certain members of the psycho-analytic and post-psycho-analytic
schools. The authors who have dealt more especially with the non-sexual
aspects have written largely under the influence of this dispute and from
a somewhat different point of view from that of the writers who have
laid the principal emphasis upon the sexual side. Hence a comparison of
the chief contributions on the two aspects is not always easy. In spite
of these difficulties, however, certain conclusions stand out with some
degree of clearness from the mists of controversy, and these are of
considerable importance for our present purpose.
[Sidenote: The work of Jung]
In the course of his pioneer work, Freud himself had in more than one
connection drawn attention to the importance of the family relationships
in regard to the general development of character and vital activity of
the individual. It is however more especially to C. G. Jung of Zürich that
we are indebted for a more explicit, vigorous and extended treatment of
the problems of the family from this point of view[21]. The more recent
work of Jung is marred by an exaggerated insistence on a single aspect,
and by a tendency to mysticism which is apt to confuse and obscure the
scientific consideration of the problem. But in spite of these defects
it undoubtedly contains many contributions of value and, especially when
taken as complementary to, rather than opposed to, the work of Freud,
Rank and others of the orthodox psycho-analytic school, it would seem to
constitute in some ways an important step forward in our knowledge of the
matters with which we are here concerned.
Jung's present position is, in many respects, a reaction against Freud's
views as to the extreme importance of the sexual tendencies in mental
life. With Freud the term Libido had been used to signify the sum total
of these tendencies taken in a sense much wider than that which seems to
have been contemplated by any previous writer; so wide indeed that many
inferred that there could be but a small field left over for the operation
of the other instincts and tendencies. With Jung the reaction against this
attitude takes place not by a restriction of the term Libido to its former
narrower sense, but by a still further extension of its meaning so as to
include all the conative tendencies which manifest themselves in mental
life. By so doing Jung is enabled to take up a relatively non-committal
attitude as regards the sexuality or non-sexuality of many of the factors
which Freud had regarded as definitely sexual in character, while at the
same time he succeeds in minimising the importance of certain unmistakably
sexual manifestations by ignoring their specific character and regarding
them rather exclusively from the point of view of the development and
value of the individual as an independent vital unit.
[Sidenote: The family and the development of the individual]
As regards the application of this general attitude to our own immediate
problem, Jung appears to look upon the family influences as principally of
importance in so far as they afford the necessary conditions and mental
environment for the growth of the general life force of the individual
personality. The child at birth is entirely dependent on his parents for
the satisfaction of his vital needs. His development and education would
appear to consist ultimately in the process of learning to satisfy these
ever increasing needs himself. Hence if the child remains dependent on
his parents for an abnormal length of time or to an abnormal extent, we
may infer that an arrest of development has taken place. Such arrests
are however liable to occur in a great many cases, since the process
of learning to satisfy our own needs by our own efforts is an arduous
business which (in virtue, we may suppose, of some aspect of the law of
inertia) many of us would fain escape if we could. Undue dependence on
the family would therefore appear to indicate a shirking of the "life
task," _i. e._ an unwillingness to make the effort which adult life itself
demands, manifesting itself in an exaggerated tendency to remain at the
stage of relatively slothful ease and maintenance through the efforts of
others which is enjoyed in infancy and early childhood.
[Sidenote: Attachment to the parents regarded as symbolic of deficient
individual development]
In the neuroses the patient suffers, according to Jung, from an
unconscious tendency to return to this happy state of affairs rather than
to face the hard struggle which adult life may entail. This tendency
expresses itself in a symbolic way, according to the mechanisms which
are characteristic of the neuroses; and what better or more appropriate
symbol is possible than some form of exaggerated attachment to, and
dependence on, the parents--through whom alone that happy time, to which
return is now desired, was possible? Thus it would appear from this point
of view that the incestuous fancies and wishes, to which Freud had drawn
attention, are not to be taken literally as the expression of ultimate
desires, but are only symbols of the wish to escape the hard task which
life imposes and to return once more to the irresponsible condition of
childhood.
[Sidenote: Difficulties presented by this view]
There are probably no experienced psycho-analysts who are prepared to
follow Jung to this last extreme position, in which he appears to deny
all ultimate significance to the sexual aspects of the family complexes.
Jung's view would seem indeed to involve a number of serious difficulties,
amongst which the following are perhaps the most important.
[Sidenote: It does not accord with the general importance of sex]
(1) It does not (as does the view expounded in the earlier chapters)
cast any light upon the origin and development of, nor is it altogether
consistent with, the very important part which the sexual tendencies
play in the conscious and unconscious mind, quite apart from incestuous
desires and fancies. If the principal problem of the neurotic lies in the
difficulty of bracing himself to face the tasks which life imposes, it is
hard to see why sexual feelings, thoughts, phantasies and symbols should
appear in his mind so frequently and so persistently as they are now
generally admitted to do in a very large number of cases.
[Sidenote: It does not explain the strong repression of incest]
(2) Jung's view does not explain why the thought of incestuous relations
should be subject to so much repression as it actually is. If there is in
reality no deep-rooted tendency to such relations, there is no need for
the formation of any powerful mechanism for preventing the fulfilment of
the tendency; whereas if we suppose that the arousal of object love in an
incestuous form is a normal stage of libido development--a stage however
which is superseded in the course of further normal development--the
existence of a strong counter-mechanism, manifesting itself in
consciousness as repulsion and disgust, and in social life in the form
of sexual taboos and "avoidances" connected with the various prohibited
relationships, is precisely what our knowledge of the general conditions
of the development of conative tendencies in the human mind would lead us
to expect.
[Sidenote: Nor the choice of incest as a symbol]
(3) Even if we are prepared to grant that this repression may have arisen
from some other cause, it still remains difficult to account for the fact
that the desire to return to infantile conditions should persistently
avail itself of such an objectionable symbolic form. We should expect
that the path of least resistance would lead to some means of symbolic
expression calculated to arouse less opposition on the part of conflicting
tendencies than that to which the idea of incestuous relationship is
exposed. This leads to a fourth and still more serious objection on
general grounds.
[Sidenote: It is not in harmony with the general laws of symbolism]
(4) Jung's view seems incompatible with all we know as to the general
relations of Repression and Displacement to conscious and unconscious
factors respectively. The general rule, which is exemplified in
innumerable dreams, myths, neurotic symptoms and cases of "everday
psychopathology" would appear to be that the symbol expresses some
tendency or desire in the unconscious which is more opposed to conscious
tendencies and desires than is the symbol itself[22]. But in the present
case, if Jung's view were correct, this rule would no longer hold. The
desire for incestuous relations with one's parents is obviously exposed to
much more serious inhibitions at the conscious level than is the desire
to escape from the labours and responsibilities of adult life. The latter
desire, although it may of course become the object of moral disapproval
is generally of a nature to be freely admitted to consciousness. The idea
of our own laziness or want of courage in meeting the difficulties of
life can be faced by most of us (including the class of neurotics who,
according to Jung's hypothesis, must, it would seem, have fallen ill owing
to the repression of the desires connected with these ideas) without
arousing any overwhelming sense of moral turpitude; whereas the idea of
incest, even in the case of others, meets with the greatest abhorrence,
and in relation to ourselves usually encounters sufficient opposition
to be kept out of waking consciousness altogether. It would therefore
seem that, on Jung's view, it is the conscious which is symbolised at
a relatively unconscious level--a complete reversal of the usual order
which, on the ground of the psycho-analytic knowledge already gained, must
be regarded as highly improbable, at any rate in so far as it is to be
looked upon as a full explanation of the phenomena under discussion.
[Sidenote: Such a view cannot afford a complete explanation though it may
contain certain valuable elements of truth]
It would thus appear that we have good reasons for rejecting the view
that the apparently sexual manifestations of love by the child towards
its parents are only symbols of the desire to return to the state of
tutelage and protection enjoyed in early years. It does not follow,
however, that the whole of Jung's conclusions as regards the relation of
the parent complexes to the development of individuality in the child are
to be rejected. On the contrary, it is almost certain that they contain
valuable truths which had to some extent been overlooked, or at any rate
had received less attention than they deserved, in some of the earlier
investigations. Even as regards the symbolisation of the developmental
tendencies in the incest fancies, Jung may be right in a number of
important points. It is only so far as he would maintain that such
symbolisation exhausts the whole significance of the incest tendencies
that he is almost certainly in error.
[Sidenote: Overdetermination and the multiple interpretation of symbols]
The possibility of a further analysis of the incest tendencies in a
non-sexual sense is implied by what Freud has himself taught as regards
the laws governing the formation of symbols, more especially by the
doctrine of Overdetermination[23], according to which a single dream
symbol or neurotic symptom may often be found to constitute a complete or
partial fulfilment of two or more distinct wishes or conative tendencies.
Moreover, at least two authors besides Jung have carried out analyses
in this sense. Silberer[24] has shown that a number of myths and fairy
tales may be interpreted in at least two ways:--first, as an expression
of the Œdipus complex as outlined in our previous chapters; secondly, as
the expression of certain moral or religious strivings, which he calls
the anagogic aspect; the symbolism in this latter case being of the
"functional" kind (_i. e._ expressive of mental processes and tendencies
rather than of the objects of feeling and cognition), to the existence
of which Silberer had already drawn attention in his earlier works[25].
Ferenczi[26] (following Schopenhauer) has seen in the Œdipus myth the
existence of certain functional symbolisms in virtue of which the
character of Œdipus and Jocasta (as drawn by Sophocles) stand for opposing
tendencies in the mind brought out by the tragic situation, _viz._ the
tendency, on the one hand, to bring all the facts of the case into the
clear light of consciousness, even at the risk of painful discoveries;
and on the other hand the contrary tendency to repress and prohibit all
further inquiry for fear of such discoveries.
[Sidenote: Overdetermination in the case of the Œdipus Complex]
In so far as these attempts have been successful (and in the case of
Silberer's work at any rate the evidence brought forward in favour of the
simultaneous existence of the two tendencies as symbolised in the same
legend would appear to be very considerable) they afford some ground for
accepting Jung's interpretation of the incest fancies as constituting,
in one of their aspects, an expression of certain ideas and tendencies
relating to the original conditions of dependence in which a child stands
towards its parents--tendencies which exist alongside, and to some extent
independently, of the sexual tendencies to which expression is more
directly and obviously given.
The symbolic expression in this case, however, would appear to differ
in some important respects from symbolic representation (in dreams and
elsewhere) of the Œdipus complex proper. In the latter the symbolic form
is largely, if not entirely, due to the action of Repression, which does
not permit the morally tabooed incestuous and hostile tendencies to find
expression in any but an indirect manner, whereas in the present case the
aspects symbolised are not in any sense repressed, so that the reason for
the adoption of the symbolic form must be sought in other conditions.
[Sidenote: as a product of repression]
Among these conditions the most important is probably to be found in the
still active repression of the Œdipus complex itself. In so far as the
ideas connected with this complex can be given another meaning, such
as that indicated by Jung, their offensiveness is not felt to be so
great as would be the case if their only significance were that which
most naturally attaches to them: the assumption of the new symbolic
meaning is indeed, in all probability, largely due to the effort of the
repressing tendencies to prevent their true significance from being
realised in consciousness[27]. The new meaning, therefore, as interpreted
by Jung, Silberer and others, obviously corresponds to a more recent and
superficial (though not therefore less real) mental level than does the
original significance in terms of the Œdipus complex.
[Sidenote: and as serving to reinforce the moral tendencies]
Another reason for the adoption of this secondary symbolism is probably
sometimes to be found in the fact that the ethical or religious
strivings expressed in the anagogic aspects undergo a very considerable
reinforcement through association with the primitive trends which manifest
themselves in the Œdipus complex. The latter lie very much nearer to the
ultimate sources of human feeling and emotion than do the former, which,
by themselves in their abstract purity, are apt to be only too ineffectual
as motives of desire and conduct. But when clothed in the symbolic form
of the Œdipus complex, they at once acquire some of the primitive energy
inherent in the latter and so become themselves more powerful at the same
time as they serve to purify and elevate what remains of the grosser
elements of the original love and hate that the child has felt towards its
parents. Symbolisation of lofty aims and motives in terms of primitive
emotions called up by the family relationships is thus, from this point
of view, an example of the process of sublimation, whereby the energy of
the simpler and cruder human tendencies becomes diverted to the service of
ends of higher cultural and social value[28].
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 21: Many of the most important contributions of Jung are
contained in "Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology," 2nd. ed. 1917,
translated by Constance Long, and "The Psychology of the Unconscious,"
translated by Beatrice Hinkle.]
[Footnote 22: For an important discussion of the general laws of
symbolism, see Ernest Jones's "Papers on Psycho-Analysis" 1918, 129. The
whole Chapter is worth careful study in connection with the questions
considered in the present chapter.]
[Footnote 23: "The Interpretation of Dreams," 286.]
[Footnote 24: "Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism," translated by S.
E. Jelliffe.]
[Footnote 25: As Silberer points out, students of mythology had already
shown the possibility of still a third interpretation, the "naturalistic"
one, according to which the representations of the incest motive in myth
and legend may be taken as a symbolic portrayal of certain important and
impressive natural occurrences--the sequence of day and night, summer and
winter etc.]
[Footnote 26: "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," translated by Ernest
Jones, 214.]
[Footnote 27: It is interesting to note that in the naturalistic
interpretation of myths the same influences are pretty clearly at work, as
when Max Müller observes that one of the advantages of this naturalistic
interpretation is that it absolves us from the necessity of taking
literally many of the more objectionable features of the myths as they
actually stand.]
[Footnote 28: In order to distinguish more clearly between the two kinds
of symbolism with which we have been here concerned--that in which an
unconscious (repressed) thought or tendency is expressed by something
more permissible to consciousness, and that in which the thing expressed
is of as high or even higher cultural value than the thing through which
it finds expression, Ernest Jones has, in the chapter already referred
to ("Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 129 ff.) proposed to confine the term
symbolism to the former class, all examples of the latter class being
included under the term metaphor.]
CHAPTER V
THE FAMILY AND THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY
[Sidenote: We must recognise both the sexual and the individual aspects of
development]
The considerations raised at the end of the last chapter were somewhat
in the nature of a digression. Such a digression was however inevitable,
for the questions involved in the controversy between the psychological
schools of Vienna and Zürich (whose leading exponents are Freud and Jung
respectively) are of fundamental importance for our present inquiry. Our
whole attitude towards the psychological problems presented by the family
relationships must to a very considerable extent depend upon whether
we believe, as the more extreme exponents of the Zürich school would
sometimes seem to do, that the whole significance of these problems lies
in the fact that they are intimately concerned with the development of the
vital energies and independence of the individual, or whether (following
the Vienna school) we feel bound to recognise also the existence of a
number of highly important sexual aspects which, directly or indirectly,
play a fundamental rôle in the psychology of the family.
Our short review of the principal points concerned in this controversy
(so far as they touch our present purpose) has led us to the conclusion
that the sexual aspects with which we were dealing in Chapters II and
III possess more than a mere symbolical significance--that they must in
fact be looked upon as, for the most part, actually being that which they
appear to be, _i. e._ manifestations of (relatively) infantile tendencies
which, as regards their nature and origin, are continuous with, and
comparable to, the fully developed sexual tendencies of adult life.
We concluded also, however, that besides these sexual aspects there
are other important aspects of family life, which may legitimately be
looked upon as fundamental factors in the psychic growth and development
of individuality. These factors it is now our duty to study somewhat
more closely, before we pass on (as we shall do in the next chapter)
to consider the variations and abnormalities that may occur in the
development of the individual's mental attitude towards the other members
of his family.
[Sidenote: Difficulties of individual development]
Apart altogether from the questions of mysticism and symbolism, with which
Jung and his followers have tended to surround the whole matter, it is I
think, abundantly clear that normal psychic development involves a gradual
emergence from a condition of dependence on parental authority and care
to one in which the individual is dependent to a greater or less extent
upon his own efforts as regards his livelihood, and upon his own judgment
as regards his conduct[29]. Failure in such development will result in a
relatively feeble adult personality--one which still seeks the support of
its parents (or their substitutes), when it should have learnt to stand
alone. Such failures are, however, (as all psycho-analysts will admit) of
very frequent occurrence. Normal development in this respect appears to
be at least as difficult as in the case of the sexual tendencies we have
already considered, and is liable, as in their case also, to arrests and
retardations at various points and to regressions to earlier stages of
development, whenever serious obstacles and difficulties are encountered.
[Sidenote: Self-preservation]
It would seem possible to distinguish two main aspects of this
process of development, though in real life these two aspects are,
it is almost needless to say, throughout intimately connected with
one another. The first, and more primitive aspect, is that which is
concerned with the actual manifestations of vital activity for the
purpose of self-preservation and for bringing about the fulfilment of
the individual's aims and desires. During babyhood the child is almost
entirely dependent on his parents or other grown-up persons for the
accomplishment of these objects: at best he can only indicate by cries or
gestures the nature of his wants, in order that others may satisfy them.
As he grows older however, he has to learn to fulfil an ever increasing
number of these wants himself--to feed, to wash, to clothe himself and to
satisfy his other bodily needs, to walk abroad without the protection and
guidance of his elders, and generally to attain his desires by his own
efforts rather than to wait for the attentions of others. To keep pace
with the ever growing wants and desires of the individual, a continuous
output of energy is required, and it will sometimes happen that the
motive force immediately available (the strength of the conation) is
not sufficient to overcome the obstacles which prevent the fulfilment
of a want. When this is the case, the individual may react in a variety
of ways. If the conation is a relatively weak one, he may abandon his
attempts to attain the desired end, at least in its original form; or he
may content himself with an imaginary fulfilment of his desire. If the
conation is sufficiently strong, however, it may continue to manifest
itself in different ways; if the first means of approach is unsuccessful,
other means will be tried, until the end is eventually attained. Of these
other means, one that is frequently among the most effectual is to call in
the assistance of others. Especially is this the case in infancy when many
feats that are difficult or impossible to the child are easily performed
by its parents or other adult persons, and when such persons (especially
the parents) often take a delight in assisting the child in this way. That
the child should receive such assistance is natural and inevitable at a
certain stage of development, but it is easy to see that help thus given
may constitute a source of danger to the child's development, if it is
granted not only in cases of real difficulty (having regard to the child's
age and capabilities) but in cases where, by the expenditure of a little
additional effort, the child could attain his end unaided. If assistance
is given indiscriminately the child may acquire the habit of relying upon
the help of others whenever any difficulty arises; and this habit may
persist throughout life, rendering the individual a relatively useless
and helpless member of society, incapable of any prolonged or intensive
effort[30]. Normal development, however, implies that the occasions on
which assistance is required should grow fewer and fewer as ability and
experience increase, so that the adult should finally be able to transact
the ordinary business of life and to maintain himself, entirely by his
own efforts, except of course in unusual or exceptionally difficult
circumstances, or where the economic principle of the division of labour
makes it desirable to call in the assistance of other persons possessing
ability or training of a different nature to his own.
[Sidenote: Self-determination]
The other main aspect of the principle of development that we are
considering, is concerned with the matter of self-guidance rather than
with that of self-help. In this respect also, normal development implies a
change from dependence upon others to dependence upon self. In infancy a
very great part of the individual's mode of life is determined by others,
and especially by his parents. Just as he is dependent upon the efforts
of his parents for the necessaries of life, so is he also dependent upon
their decision as to how and when he shall enjoy these necessaries. He
feeds, walks, sleeps, works and plays very largely according to their
pleasure. At most the nature of his play activities is left to his own
discretion. Later on during the school period the authority of the parents
is to some extent exchanged for that of his teachers, but it is not till a
comparatively late stage of development that an individual is allowed to
dispose of the bulk of his time as he himself thinks fit.
On the moral side, again, he is at first almost entirely dependent on the
judgment of others. He hears certain tendencies, activities and sentiments
condemned as wicked, others upheld as praiseworthy, and even when he
begins to pronounce moral judgments on his own account, these judgments
must, for a long period, consist for the most part merely of fresh
applications of the moral code that he has learnt from others.
This subservience to the will and opinion of others (and especially to
those of the parents) is a necessary and natural condition of early
childhood, but it is plain that the successful development of mind and
character must demand a gradually increasing degree of autonomy as regards
both thought and conduct, as capabilities mature and experience widens.
Success in adult life requires the capacity for determining for oneself
the nature and course of the principal activities--indeed, the degree of
success that is attained is to a very considerable extent dependent on
the amount of such capacity. He who can only carry out the instructions
of others, however obediently and skilfully, is only fitted to occupy an
inferior position in the economic or the social scale. Hence, one who has
never progressed far from the infantile condition of dependence on the
commands and opinions of others will be lacking in one of the character
qualities which are essential for the attainment of any high degree of
individuality or of social and economic responsibility.
[Sidenote: Autonomy and Moral Development]
On the moral side also, he is debarred from the higher levels of ethical
development. At the best, his morality will be one of hard and fast rules,
the dictates of parental, ecclesiastical, legal or social authority,
incapable of enlightened growth or modification to suit the ever changing
flow of circumstances and the widening experience of life. At the worst,
he may grow up destitute of all true moral consciousness whatsoever,
morality being regarded by him as a certain (usually unpleasant) kind of
conduct, arbitrarily imposed by external authority, and only fit to be
abandoned as soon as the pressure of this authority is relaxed.
Sound moral development is characterised by an ever increasing degree of
autonomy in place of the heteronomy which distinguishes the immature,
and to some extent, the primitive mind generally. At first the child
learns to act in accordance with the desires of its parents, as expressed
in threats, punishments or rewards. Thereafter, the idea of "good," as
signifying conduct in accordance with these desires, becomes operative
as an inner motive force in the mind of the child, independently of the
occurrence of the rewards or other incentives. This is the first stage
of autonomy. As development proceeds, the ideas concerning right conduct
(continually enlarged by the experience of new persons and new situations)
become more and more dissociated from their original authoritative
sanctions, new "inner" sanctions being substituted for the old "external"
ones which are abandoned. These inner sanctions are themselves capable
of many different levels of development, ranging from the simple idea of
the individual's own benefit in the immediate future, to the desire for
the ultimate benefit of humanity as a whole or the concept of action in
conformity with the general principles of the Universe. If the individual
is to progress satisfactorily from the stage of outer sanctions to that of
inner sanctions and to attain in due course to the higher levels of these
inner sanctions, he must have opportunities for the gradual development of
his own powers of initiation, deliberation and self-control; this implying
a corresponding gradual emancipation from the jurisdiction of the parents
and their substitutes in later life (teachers, advisers, superiors,
_etc._), until there is obtained at full growth the completest possible
autonomy of thought and action that is compatible with the individual's
position in the society to which he belongs.
[Sidenote: Autonomy should come about gradually]
[Sidenote: and not suddenly as the consequence of a revolt against
parental authority]
In these considerations we have throughout laid the principal emphasis
upon the desirability and necessity of the acquirement of self help
and self guidance on the part of the individual. This has been chiefly
because the results of psycho-analytic work have indicated that the
danger lies most frequently in the direction of too great, rather than
of too little, dependence on the efforts and guidance of the parents or
their substitutes. This fact must not however be allowed to blind us to
the existence of a danger of an opposite character--that of a too rapid
or too complete emancipation from parental authority. Such emancipation
would, it is true, seem to occur seldom enough as a direct consequence
of the unfolding of the child's individual capabilities and desires: the
attitude of dependence necessarily adopted in childhood and early youth,
together with the respect almost inevitably inspired in the very young by
the greater power, knowledge and experience of the parents, effectually
prevents this in the majority of cases. But it may easily come about as
the result of a reaction against a too insistent or despotic use of the
parental power. Parents who are too severe, too repressive, or even too
careful, as regards the upbringing of their children, will--especially if
the latter happen to possess strong tendencies to self-assertion--often
bring about a state of revolt against their own authority, in which all
that may be good and wise in that authority is deliberately neglected
or condemned, since the children have grown to look upon their parents
as tyrants and taskmasters rather than as helpers and protectors. A
stern or bullying father, a nagging or over anxious mother, will thus
frequently produce a rebellious son or daughter, who will respect neither
the advice or commands of the parents themselves nor those of their
(mental) substitutes in later life. Such children, as they grow up, may
be prevented from profiting to the desirable extent by the wisdom and
experience of past ages, as represented in the traditions and dictates
of authority, and (what is worse) may even become unfit for taking their
place in any scheme of harmonious social life, through inability to
submit to the degree of individual subordination, which such social life
inevitably demands[31].
[Sidenote: The wider social bearings of this subject]
These considerations with reference to the growth of the individual
personality in relation to the family environment are indeed, as we have
already pointed out, for the most part of a sufficiently obvious character
and, in their more general bearings at any rate, have for some time been
commonplaces in certain schools of social, ethical, and educational
thought. Where modern psychology (and particularly the work of the Zürich
school) has been of service, is in drawing attention to the importance
of the family as the environment in which the first steps in the path of
self help and self guidance must take place--steps upon the direction and
extent of which subsequent progress in the wider spheres of scholastic,
social and political life very greatly depends. The rapidity with which,
and the extent to which, a child attains to independence in relation to
his family, are to a large extent prophetic of the subsequent attainment
of independence towards the world at large. A too close reliance upon
the ideals, standards, conventions and protective power of the family
circle may hinder all initiative and originality in individual thought
and action. On the other hand, a too sudden or too complete revolt from
the parental guidance and tradition may be productive of a bias against,
and disrespect for, every kind of authority and convention, that will
tend to prevent all use and enjoyment of the experience of the past and
all orderly co-operation in the social life of the present. With these
possibilities as the result of failure, the task of the proper upbringing
of the child in relation to his family environment becomes indeed one the
importance of which can scarcely be exaggerated.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 29: The somewhat sharp distinction here drawn between the sexual
aspects of the family relationships and those here under consideration
(which for the sake of convenience we may call the dependence aspects),
although employed throughout this essay, is made primarily for purposes of
exposition and is not intended to imply that the distinction is in fact
so sharply cut as the present method of treatment might possibly suggest.
In real life the sexual and the dependence aspects are inextricably
interwoven, and it is probable that the majority of psycho-analysts would
be inclined to lay somewhat less stress on the distinction than does the
present writer.]
[Footnote 30: This, of course, is especially liable to be the case in
those children--for example in most of those technically described as
"mentally deficient" and in many of those technically described as
"backward"--who do not readily acquire interest in the details of a
process leading to a desired end, apart from the end itself (_i. e._ in
whom work does not become pleasurable for its own sake), or in those
in whom there is no strong self feeling associated with the idea of
successful achievement. The granting of an undue amount of assistance
will, however, in its turn tend to retard or prevent the formation of
these desirable mental characteristics.]
[Footnote 31: There is good reason to believe that revolt against parental
authority constitutes an important factor in the production of a certain
class of delinquents. See _e. g._ several of the cases recorded in Healy's
"Mental Conflicts and Misconduct," 1919.]
CHAPTER VI
ABNORMALITIES AND VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT--LOVE AND HATE
[Sidenote: The study of the abnormal in Psychology]
Up to this point, in studying the process of individual development in
relation to the family environment, we have as far as possible confined
our attention to the more normal aspects of this process, neglecting for
the most part the many variations and aberrations to which it is liable.
It is now time to explore more carefully some of the more important of
these byways into which the human mind may wander in the course of its
development--byways which we have hitherto passed unnoticed, or at most
examined with a hasty glance, as we traced the direct path of emotional
development from childhood to maturity. Some of these byways lie near to
the direct path which we have already followed; others depart more widely
from it, approaching near to, or sometimes definitely entering, the region
of the abnormal or pathological.
As regards these latter, however, it must be borne in mind that here (as
in most other cases of the treatment of the abnormal in Psychology) the
distinction between normal and abnormal is one which is drawn for the sake
of practical convenience only, and which indicates merely a difference
of degree not a difference in quality, between the phenomena which it
distinguishes. Even those manifestations which mark the most extreme
departures from the normal are present as possibilities in all of us:
it is only a question of the extent of our tendency towards them and of
the intensity of the predisposing causes in our environment. A slight
alteration in the balance of our mental forces or in the circumstances of
our life and upbringing, and we too might fall victims to the aberrations
which now seem to us so repulsive, foolish or ridiculous, when displayed
by others. The abnormal in Psychology is most frequently only an aspect
of the normal magnified beyond its usual dimensions and thus brought
out of proportion to the other aspects of the mind. For this reason the
study of the abnormal is often the best means of investigating the minute
structure of the normal: and in the present case we shall find that when
we have reviewed the principal abnormalities and variations in the psychic
development of the individual in relation to his family, we shall be in
a much more favourable position for arriving at a decision as to our own
attitude--theoretical and practical--towards this development than if we
had simply considered the process of growth in its strictly normal aspects.
[Sidenote: Abnormalities of development at different levels]
Byways in human development, both emotional and intellectual, may diverge
from the main track at various points in its course--some near its origin
in the infantile strata of the mind, some at a later stage of progress.
Those which leave the main track at a relatively early point preserve, as
a rule, throughout their course some more or less definite indication of
their early origin, some trace of infantile or childish character; while
those which take their departure at a subsequent stage bear the marks of
a later, but still immature, condition of development. As each variation
or aberration thus, to some extent, corresponds in nature to the point
of development at which it took its rise, it is possible to classify
such variations and aberrations according to their point of origin; and
to regard each one as a fixation or arrest of development at a certain
point in the main track of progress. What is true of human development in
general is true more particularly of the development of the individual's
relation to his family. The more primitive variations will be found to
bear the characteristics of the early stages of the individual's mental
growth while the later variations will indicate a more advanced condition
of this growth.
In the previous chapters we have seen that in the earliest stages of
development the most important psychic reactions of the child (so far as
they concern us here) are those connected with the parents. At a later
stage, the tendencies and emotions originally centering in the parents
undergo (under the influence of Repression) a process of Displacement
on to other persons and objects. This important fact in the process of
development may serve us as a preliminary basis of classification in
dealing with the numerous variations which we shall encounter. We shall
first undertake a review of the more primitive types of variation in which
the abnormal elements are directly connected with the child's relations to
its parents, passing on subsequently to the more complex types in which a
well marked displacement of the child's original feelings has taken place,
as the result of which the abnormality is no longer directly connected
with the parents themselves but with a substitute for these.
[Sidenote: Abnormalities and variations in the parent--regarding
tendencies]
As regards the first class, the general nature of the psychic defects
which may be met with is, in the main, familiar to us from our
consideration of the early stages of normal development. If any of the
features of the individual's relations to his parents which we there
passed in review--the love and hate aspects of the Œdipus complex, the
dependence on the efforts of the parents as regards self maintenance and
preservation, the general obedience to, and reliance on, the authority of
the parents--should persist at a relatively advanced age in anything like
their original quality and intensity, then there exists one of the defects
in question. Not that any of these features will be found to manifest
themselves (except perhaps on rare occasions) in exactly their original
form and manner. The general mental and moral growth of the intervening
years usually ensures that many of these features shall have undergone a
process of repression in virtue of which they are no longer permitted to
express themselves fully and openly in consciousness. More especially is
this the case with regard to the love and hate elements in the psychic
relationship of the individual to his parents. These will seldom manifest
themselves quite openly and directly though they may attain to indirect
expression in dreams, neurotic symptoms, fancies and (as Rank has so
abundantly shown) in works of art. The psycho-analytic treatment of these
productions has shown, however, that the original tendencies may persist
in their crude form in the unconscious; and thence may exercise a profound
influence on character and mental life.
[Sidenote: Fixation at the stage of parent love]
In so far as, under the force of the repression, these tendencies do
not suffer some clearly marked modification or displacement as regards
their object (and thus fall within our second class of abnormalities),
the conflict to which their continued existence gives rise is apt to
manifest itself most prominently in one or more of the negative forms
characteristic of repression, rather than in any positive form indicative
of the original nature of the repressed desire[32]. Thus a fixation (as
it is now usually called) of the love impulses on the parent of the
opposite sex may betray itself, on the positive side, in a relatively
sublimated and asexual manner only--as in a more than usual degree of
friendly affection, esteem or veneration for, or in an abnormal degree of
dependence on, the parent in question; combined perhaps with an unusually
strong desire for the presence of the loved parent, and a feeling of
contentment with life in the parent's home that leads to a relative
want of interest in persons and things outside it, and a liability to
home-sickness if compelled to be away from home or parent[33]. The sexual
nature of the (unconscious) source of this attitude reveals itself
however unmistakably in the negative aspects of the conflict to which
it gives rise. Thus a parent fixation of this kind may make itself felt
negatively in an inability to direct love freely and fully upon any
other person of the same sex as the loved parent. The normal process
of falling in love in adolescence or early maturity may fail to take
place; the persons concerned are content to live quietly at home with
their parents; if sexual relations are attempted, psychic impotence or
frigidity--relative or absolute--may result[34]; marriage will frequently
be avoided, or will be entered into from motives other than those of real
affection[35]--sometimes from the very need to escape from an unconscious
incestuous desire.
[Sidenote: Conflict and Compromise]
These negative manifestations, like so many others of a similar kind,
are the result of two distinct and conflicting tendencies in the mind,
and (as is usual in such cases) are of such a nature as to give at any
rate some degree of satisfaction to both these tendencies at the same
time. In the first place they give expression to the psychic forces
engaged in the repression of the primitive incestuous trends; with the
exaggeration and want of discrimination characteristic of repression,
the taboo originally applicable to one particular object (the parent)
is extended to all objects towards which similar feelings could be
experienced; thus producing an inhibition of a general kind upon a whole
class of feelings as such, where an inhibition of a specific kind upon a
particular manifestation of such feelings (_i. e._ their manifestation in
an incestuous direction) was all that was originally intended or required.
In the second place, these predominantly negative aspects of fixation
contain also some elements of positive gratification of the repressed
tendencies. In the failure to extend any considerable degree of affection
upon a new object (parent substitute), the mind expresses its abiding
fidelity to its first love-object (the actual parent) and its refusal to
abandon the satisfaction which it continues to find in this object, in
spite of the difficulties and prohibitions connected with this infantile
direction of the love impulses and the prospect of greater freedom in
other directions. This double nature of the negative aspects of fixation
on the love-object of early childhood affords a striking instance of the
compromise formations which so frequently arise in the course of mental
development as the result of struggle between conflicting tendencies.
[Sidenote: Homosexuality as a result of incestuous fixation]
In a number of cases the repression of an incestuous affection for a
parent may manifest itself not merely in relative indifference to the
attractions of others of the same sex as that of the loved parent but,
more violently, in active dislike of persons of that sex. This condition
is usually associated with a direction of affection upon persons of the
individual's own sex in such quality and such degree as is normally found
only where persons of the opposite sex are concerned. Indeed it has been
found that this process constitutes an important factor in the history of
a large number of cases of homosexuality. In these cases the repression
of the original love of the parent of the opposite sex has led, first, to
an extension of the love taboo to all persons of that sex, and then, as a
further step,--the way to all heterosexual affection being now barred--to
the displacement of sexual desire into the homosexual direction. Some
indication of the secondary and derivative character of these cases of
homosexuality is, however, often to be found in the nature of the object
selected, this object usually presenting some resemblance to the opposite
sex for which it serves as substitute, _e. g._ some delicacy, tenderness
or effeminacy in the case of men or boys and some quality of unusual
strength or "mannishness" in the case of women[36].
On _a priori_ grounds we might expect to find that in other cases of
homosexuality the direction of affection is determined in a more direct
manner, _viz._ by the fixation of an original infantile attachment to the
parent of the _same_ sex as that of the child. This might seem especially
liable to occur in the case of women, who for one reason or another have
never completed the step from a predominance of mother love (usually, as
we have seen, the first form of object love with children of both sexes)
to a predominance of father love[37].
With men, too, it is possible that an overstrong affection and admiration
for the father may lead to a corresponding result. In these cases we
should expect the homosexuality to be of a deeper and more fundamental
character than that referred to above, the members of the lover's own sex
exercising attraction, as it were, on their own merits, and not merely as
substitutes for the forbidden members of the opposite sex; the objects
selected being correspondingly typical of their own sex, _i. e._ womanly
women and manly men[38]. The existence of such a type of homosexuality
has indeed been demonstrated by Ferenczi[39] (though here, as in most
cases of "types" in psychology, it is probable that the types themselves
are only extreme forms between which there exist an indefinite number of
intermediate characters, the majority of individuals partaking to some
extent of the nature of both types). So far as the evidence goes, however,
it would seem that the fixation of love on the parent of the same sex
plays a lesser part in the development of this kind of homosexuality
than might have been expected; the homosexuality in question being more
frequently and to a greater extent due to a displacement of a primitive
love of self (Narcissism, in psycho-analytic terminology) projected on to
others, so that in loving those of his own sex the individual is directing
his affection to those who, by his unconscious mind, are selected as the
most suitable representatives of his own beloved Ego.
[Sidenote: Idealisation of the loved parent]
It is an important characteristic of the phenomenon of fixation on the
parent, that this parent who is loved in the unconscious is not so much
the parent as he or she actually exists when the child has attained to
adolescence or maturity, but rather the parent as he or she appeared
to the child when young, _i. e._ in the case of the father, a being of
immeasurable strength, wisdom, knowledge, authority and (perhaps) love; in
the case of the mother, one of unsurpassable beauty, tenderness and mercy
and an ever available source of comfort, help and protection in face of
the difficulties and dangers of an unknown and often hostile world. This
idealisation of the loved parent is especially liable to exercise a potent
influence in all cases where the parent in question dies young and is
therefore never subject to the criticism at the hands of his children to
which he would, later on, have inevitably to some extent become exposed.
In any case, however, it is not surprising that in comparison with these
beautiful products of the child's imagination (for we can scarcely doubt
that, here as elsewhere, the passage of time has served to embellish still
further the originally exaggerated estimate of the admirable qualities
of the loved parent) the actual imperfect specimens of humanity who are
available as love objects in the real world have but little power of
attraction[40].
It is principally from this source that there is apt to rise the fruitless
search for the "ideal" man or woman--a search which is bound to end in
disappointment, because the object of the search is to be found nowhere
but in the distorted and idealised memories cherished in the mind of the
searcher himself.
[Sidenote: Don Juanism and the search for the ideal]
It is this search for the ideal that has been found to underlie the
inability to find permanent satisfaction in any individual of the opposite
sex; an inability of a most distressing nature which characterises the
love life of a certain class of persons[41]. These unhappy Don Juans
are perpetually attracted to a fresh object by the promise of some new
and indefinable charm, only to suffer disappointment as each new object
in turn is found in some inexplicable way to fall short of the lover's
hopes and expectations. The misery which these individuals, through their
instability and faithlessness, are apt to bring not only on themselves
but on the unfortunate objects of their love, is too well known to need
further emphasis or description. It is, however, paradoxically enough, the
extreme steadfastness of their love towards its original object that is
the cause of their fickleness towards all subsequent objects of affection.
[Sidenote: "Myth of the birth of the hero"]
As a result of this same process of idealisation, it may also happen that
the realisation of the true nature of the real parents when compared with
the beings corresponding to them in imagination, may give rise to feelings
of very bitter disappointment. This disappointment is an experience so
widespread and of such deep emotional significance as to have found
expression in a frequently recurring type of myth and legend, which has
received illuminating treatment at the hands of Freud and Rank[42]. In
these myths (of which the stories connected with Moses, Perseus, Œdipus,
Romulus, Cyrus, Christ, Siegfried, Lohengrin afford typical examples) a
child is born of noble or divine parentage, but for some reason (usually
connected with hostility on the part of the father) is lost or otherwise
severed from his rightful home, and is reared by foster parents of lowly
station (or sometimes by animals), only to be eventually restored to the
position which is by birth his due. Here the foster parents of the myth
correspond to the real parents as they are revealed to the disappointed
insight of the child who, with widening experience of his human
environment, begins to realise the discrepancy between the actual position
of his parents in the world of men and the ideal qualities with which his
infant's fancy had endowed them. Unwilling however to give up the lofty
conception of his parents' dignity which he had formed for himself (the
abandonment of which involves of course not only a loss of cherished
ideals as regards his parents, but a serious readjustment of his views as
to his own prospects and importance[43]), the individual finds in the
noble parents of the myth the re-embodiment of those conceptions which
had become untenable as regards the real world. The series of legends (in
so far as they immediately concern us here) thus serve to express the
persistence in the Unconscious of the original infantile idealisation
of the parents as a consolation for the loss of the parent ideal which
an appreciation of the actual human imperfections of the parents has
inevitably brought in its train.
[Sidenote: Exaggerated love concealing hate]
The manifestations of the hate, as distinct from the love, elements of the
Œdipus complex, may also, when subjected to repression in the course of
moral development, assume a negative form--in this case usually appearing
as a morbid and exaggerated, but of course relatively superficial, love
for the hated parent; a love which constantly tends to find expression in
somewhat forced and unnatural exhibitions of affection. This superficial
love is often accompanied by an unreasoning anxiety as to the welfare of
the parent in question and a persistent dread lest he or she should come
to some harm. This symptom merely constitutes a form of repression of
the unconscious wish that the parent _should_ come to some harm. Persons
afflicted with a neurotic anxiety of this kind will frequently suffer very
greatly at the death of the parent concerning whom the anxiety is felt;
for this event constitutes the supreme gratification of the unconscious
and repressed desires, thus calling for an exceptionally vigorous effort
on the part of the repressing force in its endeavour to substitute in
consciousness an emotion of the opposite quality to that which would be
felt if the repressed tendencies held undisputed sway.
[Sidenote: Open parent-hatred]
Quite frequently however--in this respect unlike the love tendencies--the
hate impulse may manifest itself with a very considerable degree of
frankness and directness, leading to openly hostile relations to the
parent, which may persist throughout life. In such cases it will usually
be found that the original hatred as a consequence of jealousy or envy
has been supplemented by vindictive feelings arising from a (real or
imaginary) attitude of cruelty or tyranny on the part of the hated parent
towards the child or towards some third member of the family, to whom the
child's love and sympathy has gone out.
This notion of cruelty and tyranny is indeed apt to play a very important
part in the attitude of children towards their parents. The almost
boundless power and authority which the parent possesses over the very
young child, combined with the fact that this authority must often be
exercised (even by the most indulgent and considerate parents) in what
appears to the child a most arbitrary manner and one which displays a
ruthless disregard of his own desires and longings--all this may bring
about a sense of oppression and of being the victim of a system of brutal
force. Such feelings can only be removed by a strong counter-impulse of
affection and a gradual understanding and assimilation of the parent's
point of view, as mental growth proceeds. If the original feeling of
hostility arising from the conflict between the parent's will and that of
the child should not be overcome--as may easily happen, if (through some
deficiency of tender feeling in the child himself or as the result of some
genuine want of consideration on the part of the parent) the child should
experience no compensatory emotion of love towards the parent--then the
hatred thus aroused may persist with unabated vigour into adult life,
or even grow in strength as the years pass. The extraordinarily intense
bitterness which may be felt, for instance by a son towards his father,
may easily be realised by a study of a number of well known literary
works, _e. g._ many of the poems of Shelley.
[Sidenote: Conflicting interests of parents and children]
Another, but a later and usually less deep seated, cause of hostile
feelings in children towards their parents, is to be found in the natural
and to some extent inevitable competition of the successive generations
for the available sources of wealth and power. This motive is apt to
be experienced more strongly among the relatively wealthy classes than
among the relatively poor, with whom under existing social conditions the
children may at a comparatively early age attain to an economic position
little if at all inferior to that of their parents. In many well-to-do
families, however, the prospect of succeeding at the death of the parent
to a considerable sum of money, a title, or a recognised business, social,
or professional position, will frequently supply a motive for secretly
desiring the death of that parent--a motive which of course usually
suffers a very considerable degree of repression, but which nevertheless
may constitute a factor of importance in the determination of the total
psychic attitude of the child towards the parent. This is especially
liable to be the case where for any reason--_e. g._ an extravagant mode
of life on the part of the child or a want of generosity on the part of
the parent--the resources at the disposal of the former are markedly
insufficient for the satisfaction of his needs (real or supposed), or
again where the lack of adequate funds is felt as a hindrance to some
important step in life, such as entering upon a marriage or upon some
business enterprise. Here the contrast between the economic impotence of
the child as compared with the greater resources of his parents--coming,
as it is apt to do, just at the period of his most urgent desires and most
ardent aspirations--is only too likely to resuscitate the dead relics
of infantile envy and hostility. Such a revival, by the circumstances
of later life, of hate engendered during early years, can only be with
certainty avoided where the remains of such hatreds are no longer
persistent as distinct and powerful trends in the unconscious, but have
worked themselves off naturally and have lost their power by absorption in
the main tendencies and interests of a healthy personality.
[Sidenote: Hatred of the parent of the child's own sex]
In a number of cases hatred may be felt, not--as usually happens--towards
the parent of the same sex as that of the child, but towards the parent
of the _opposite_ sex. This abnormality may arise in some cases from a
general tendency to homosexuality on the part of the child, in which
case he is apt to suffer from an "inverted Œdipus complex", as Ferenczi
has termed it; love being felt towards the parent of the same sex and
jealousy towards the parent of the opposite sex; the emotions being of
the same quality as those met with in the usual form of the complex but
opposite in direction. Quite apart, however, from any tendency to sexual
inversion, the hatred of the parent of the opposite sex may, in other
cases, arise secondarily as a consequence of the natural tendency of this
parent to display affection towards the other parent (_i. e._ from the
child's point of view, to give undue attention to a sexual rival). The
hatred thus secondarily aroused towards the original object of love may
manifest itself openly in consciousness or may suffer various degrees of
repression, in the same manner as the more usual hatred towards the parent
of the same sex. The importance and interest of this secondary hatred lies
principally in its influence on certain forms of displacement to which we
shall have to refer in a later chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 32: An excellent condensed treatment of many of the effects
of incestuous fixation will be found in K. Abraham's "Die Stellung
der Verwandtenche in der Psychologie der Neurosen." _Jahrbuch für
psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen_, 1909, I., 110.]
[Footnote 33: In a rather extreme case known to the writer a woman of
about 35 had never been able to leave home without the most intense
feelings of sorrow and loneliness, which usually impelled her to return
precipitately after the absence of a day or two. In childhood she could
seldom be induced to go more than a mile or so from her home unless
accompanied by her parents and in later life neurotic symptoms were
developed which effectually prevented her from living apart from her
nearest relatives. As was to be expected, analysis revealed a very strong
parent fixation, and after treatment she was able to fill a responsible
post in a town far removed from the residence of her family.]
[Footnote 34: _Cp._ M. Steiner, "Die funktionelle Impotenz des Mannes und
ihre Behandlung," 1913.
Freud, "Beiträge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens." _Jahrbuch für
psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen_, 1912, IV, 40.
Ferenczi, "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," 9.]
[Footnote 35: Even if marriage is at first apparently successful, it may
be unable to stand the strain of circumstances which would present little
or no difficulty in the absence of parent fixation. Thus in a case known
to me, after a happy honeymoon spent near home, a wife proved unable
to accompany her husband to a distant locality, where business affairs
necessitated his residence but (in spite of his protests and entreaties)
turned back while on the journey and returned to live with her parents. It
appeared that she had very seldom left home before her marriage, having
been brought up by kindly but indulgent parents, as regards whom there
was a strong emotional fixation. In her youth she had only travelled once
without her parents, being then so miserably unhappy that she begged to be
sent home again as soon as possible.]
[Footnote 36: _Cp._ especially Ferenczi, "Contributions to
Psycho-Analysis," 250.]
[Footnote 37: In the case of a woman, the record of whose analysis was
kindly shown to me by Dr. E. M. Cole, there appears to have been a
complete father fixation (with corresponding hatred of the mother) at one
level and at a lower and more unconscious level an equally complete mother
fixation (with all the indications of an "inverted" Œdipus complex), the
two levels being characterised by a predominance of heterosexual and
homosexual tendencies respectively.]
[Footnote 38: In three cases of homosexual tendencies in men which I have
recently had the opportunity of studying, the desire to be used by the
father as a sexual objective was quite clearly apparent. _Cp._ Freud's
"Aus der Geschichte einer infantilen Neurose." Sammlung kleiner Schriften
zur Neurosenlehre. IV. 578 ff.]
[Footnote 39: "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," 250 ff.]
[Footnote 40: _Cp._ Rank, "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero," 1913.]
[Footnote 41: Freud, "Beiträge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens,"
_Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen_,
1910, II, 389.]
[Footnote 42: See Rank, _op. cit._, also the more recent treatment by the
Questionnaire method by Edmund S. Conklin, "The Foster-Child Fantasy,"
_American Journal of Psychology_, 1920, XXXI, 59.]
[Footnote 43: There can be no doubt that this is a factor of very
considerable significance. The child projects on to its parents its own
desires, ambitions and aspirations, thus finding compensation for the
gradual realisation of its own deficiencies, limitations and want of
power (in much the same way as parents in their turn find consolation
for their own disappointments in contemplating the successes--real or
anticipated--of their children. _Cp._ below Ch. XIV.). In this way certain
of the Narcissistic impulses find displaced expression in the idealisation
of the parents and the exaggeration of their powers--a factor which
probably plays a part of great importance in the Psychology of Religion
(_Cp._ below Ch. XIII.).
The following incident in connection with a young boy personally known to
me amusingly illustrates the tendency to substitute an ideal parent for
a (disappointing) real one, together with the religious and Narcissistic
implications of this tendency. S. F., aged 7, insisted on being called
Jesus Christ, in spite of the remonstrations of his father who pointed
out to him among other things that Jesus Christ was the Son of God; to
which S. F. replied "So am I." On receiving the reply: "You cannot be, for
_I_ am your father," he retorted, "God is my real father, you are only
my _professional_ father" (referring to the fact that his father was a
"professional" musician).]
CHAPTER VII
ABNORMALITIES AND VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT--THE DEPENDENCE ASPECTS
[Sidenote: Failure to become adequately independent of the parents]
In the fixations and regressions we have so far considered we were
concerned more or less exclusively with the love and hate aspects of the
relations of the individual to his family. We must now turn to consider
the influence of these fixations and regressions upon the rather wider
problems of the individual's development and attitude towards life as
indicated in Chapters IV and V.
[Sidenote: is subject to less repression than love or hate fixations]
The operation of any failures or abnormalities of development in this
direction is for the most part subject to less intensive and far reaching
repressions than are met with in the case of the love and hate aspects
which we have just been considering. That this is so will be readily
understood if we keep in mind the moral attitude generally adopted
towards the failures of development of the kind dealt with in Chapter V.
Laziness, inability to face the labours, troubles and difficulties of
adult life, unduly prolonged dependence upon the efforts of the parents,
these may indeed become objects of censure, especially when present to
an unusually marked extent; but they arouse a degree of condemnation
distinctly inferior to that which is occasioned by the display of feelings
of hatred or of incestuous love towards the nearest relatives. The
further characteristics of want of personal initiative or of exaggerated
obedience to, and reliance on, the authority of the parents or their
substitutes, may easily come to be regarded as virtues rather than as
faults, since they are readily associated with the qualities (desirable
enough in a reasonable degree and in so far as they do not interfere with
the development of individual character) of conscientious execution of
instructions and general amenability to discipline in nursery and school
or, later on, in social, industrial or military life.
In consequence of this lesser liability to repression, any failure in
development as regards the aspects in question will usually manifest
itself in a positive rather than in a negative form. In so far as the
failure is of the nature of a simple arrest or regression as distinct
from a displacement (cases of which will, in pursuance of our programme,
be considered later), its manifestations consist therefore, for the
most part, of certain characteristics proper to an earlier stage of
development, but which should have been outgrown in the process of normal
adaptation to adult life, and which, when persisting in an individual of
mature years, constitute, as has been sufficiently shown in the earlier
chapters, a serious obstacle to the full enjoyment of a useful and
successful life.
The attitude of the individual towards his life and work may nevertheless
be affected in a certain number of ways which are less obvious in
nature and which may therefore well be mentioned here, especially as
a considerable degree of light has been thrown upon them by recent
psycho-analytic research.
[Sidenote: The influence of heredity]
In the first place it must be recognised that the degree of independence
developed by an individual and the amount of energy and self-reliance
with which he faces the difficulties of life, is apt to depend to a very
considerable extent upon the degree of development of these very same
qualities in one or both of the parents. No doubt, so far as concerns
direct inheritance of mental characteristics, there is a tendency, here
as elsewhere, for the child to develop qualities similar to those of
his parents. This inherited tendency may moreover be reinforced as the
result of precept and imitation, the child tending naturally to follow his
parents' instruction and example; especially in so far as he admires and
envies them or (as almost inevitably happens to a greater or less extent)
so far as he--consciously or unconsciously--comes to regard them as ideals
to which he may himself hope one day to approximate.
[Sidenote: Psychological influences may cause strong]
[Sidenote: parents to have weak children or vice versa]
On the other hand there are often certain influences at work, which tend
to make the child unlike his parents in just these qualities of energy
and self-reliance. Thus a high degree of initiative, self-confidence
or masterfulness in the predominating parent may easily cause the
child--unless himself endowed with these characteristics to the same or
to an even greater degree--to abandon himself habitually to the supremacy
and initiative of the parent and thus in time to develop a lack of those
qualities which distinguished the personality of the latter. Conversely,
a lack of energy or authority in the parents may compel a child to
fall back constantly upon his own power of decision and resource, thus
developing in him, to some degree at least, those character qualities in
which his parents were defective. For these reasons it may often happen
that strong and masterful parents have children who are relatively weak as
regards initiative and power of self-assertion, while these in turn may be
followed by a generation more resembling their grandparents with respect
to these qualities than their immediate predecessors. This "alternation
of generations" as regards certain important mental powers and
characteristics has attracted some attention among students of heredity
and some attempts have been made to give a biological explanation of the
problem, but as there would seem to be no known laws of heredity which
easily fit the case, it is probable that we must regard the psychological
influences here indicated as the sole, or at least the chief, causes of
the phenomenon.
[Sidenote: Children may identify themselves with their parents]
Another way in which parents may influence the general attitude to
life adopted by their children is through the direct--but for the most
part unconscious--identification by the latter of themselves with
their parents. We have already referred to the conception frequently
entertained by children of their parents as ideals of humanity,--ideals
the attainment of which may become a constant source and driving power of
effort. We have seen too in the last chapter some of the evidence for the
potency of this ideal and the constancy with which it may be cherished.
This ideal, however, frequently serves not only as a means of leading
the child to embrace some general standard or mode of life, but, more
specifically also, as an incentive to the adoption of the particular
kind of business, profession, hobby or amusement followed by the parent.
Influence of this sort is of course of especial importance in so far as
it affects the choice of a calling in life, and there can be little doubt
that in a large number of cases a son adopts his particular means of
earning his livelihood as the result of an unconscious or semi-conscious
identification of himself with his father. Sons may also identify
themselves with their mothers as regards their principal pursuits in
life; and (especially under present conditions when work of almost every
description is open to women) daughters with either their fathers or their
mothers. In other cases again the choice is made in order to carry out
some wish--expressed or implied--on the part of the parent[44], or from a
pious desire to carry on some work begun but not completed by the parent.
[Sidenote: Desire to be different from the parent]
In still other cases, however, a desire to be different from the parent
rather than a desire to resemble him may be decisive. When this is so,
the calling chosen will probably be very far removed in character from
the parental one, except in so far as it may resemble it through being
the exact contrary, where such a thing is possible; as for instance in
politics or in opposing schools of social, philosophic or religious
thought. The adoption of such a course depends naturally upon hatred
and aversion instead of love and admiration, and is due as much to a
desire to oppose the parent as to the wish to avoid resembling him. It
is especially liable to occur in cases where the occupation or general
behaviour of the parent has intruded itself in an irksome and insistent
manner into the life of the child; and may lead not only to a dislike of
the parent's occupation itself, but to an opposition to the whole point of
view engendered by such an occupation, as the proverbial tendency to loose
living on the part of the sons of clergymen well illustrates[45].
Thus, either positively or negatively, the lives, fates and convictions of
the parents have a great but often subtle power in moulding the careers
and opinions of their children--an influence which, in so far as it is
manifest, is generally recognised as a force as great as, if not greater
than, that of inherited disposition or environmental suggestion; but
which, in so far as it is not manifest except upon close psychological
investigation, constitutes a very considerable, but hitherto largely
unsuspected, force in shaping the destiny of the individual. It will be
not the least of the tasks of the psychological, educational and economic
sciences of the future to see that these forces, where beneficial, shall
be exploited to their full extent for the benefit of the individual and of
society, and, where harmful or dangerous, shall be counteracted or guarded
against by the best means of which these sciences, in the course of their
further development, may stand possessed.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 44: There is reason to believe that an influence of this
kind was a factor of importance in determining the nature of Darwin's
scientific work. _Cp._ E. J. Kempf, "Charles Darwin. The affective Sources
of his Inspiration and Anxiety Neurosis." _Psychoanalytic Review_, V. 151.]
[Footnote 45: For a study of unconscious family influences affecting the
careers of children _cp._ Stekel, "Berufswahl und Kriminalität," _Archiv
für Kriminalanthropologie und Kriminalistik_, XLI.]
CHAPTER VIII
IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL LIFE
[Sidenote: Birth and womb phantasies]
[Sidenote: Manifestations of the desire to return to the womb]
We have now reached a point in our discussion at which we may perhaps
profitably pause awhile to consider a group of phantasies, which, on
account of their widespread occurrence and curious character, would
seem to deserve some very special attention at the hands of the
psychologist and anthropologist. The phantasies in question are those
which psycho-analysts have found to cluster round the idea of returning
to the mother's womb and of resuming there the intra-uterine life enjoyed
by the child in the pre-natal stages of its existence,--an idea which
is discoverable (usually of course in a symbolic form) in many myths,
legends, dreams, reveries and symptomatic actions. It is very frequently
associated with the further idea of birth or re-birth, and it is in this
form that the phantasy was first described by Freud[46]. In consciousness
this phantasy of returning to the womb may clothe itself as an idea of
being in an enclosed, dark, solitary or inaccessible place, safe from
outside dangers or disturbances. Its influence can probably be traced in
the pleasure that many persons find in the retirement to small islands,
mountain tops or other places isolated from the rest of the world, in
the "cosiness" of small rooms or closets or in the comfort which may be
experienced in snuggling under the bed-clothes in the presence of real
or imaginary danger[47]. Sleep itself, in its power of withdrawing the
individual from the outer world and in its unmistakable approximation to
the pre-natal condition of body and mind, may, from certain points of
view, be regarded as an exemplification of the same tendency[48] as may
also possibly hypnosis. In certain forms of insanity the tendency may
show itself quite clearly even in waking life, the patient withdrawing
himself as far as possible from all environmental influences and sometimes
adopting a characteristically foetal posture,--a posture which, it
should be noted, is often adopted even by normal persons during sleep.
More moderately and within the bounds of sanity, it may show itself in
a relative degree of retirement from the world, as in the life followed
in Christian monasteries or nunneries, or--more clearly--in the still
more isolated existence of many Buddhist monks and devotees, some of whom
will live for years in caves or other dark and secluded spots, almost
entirely cut off from human intercourse and from the light and bustle of
the outside world. In a more distinctly neurotic form again, its influence
may be traced in agoraphobia--the fear of open spaces--or negatively
(the reaction against the tendency predominating) in its opposite,
claustrophobia--the fear of narrow, confined rooms or places--or in the
morbid dread of being buried alive.
[Sidenote: Meaning of this desire]
In all these manifestations the dominant motive would seem to consist in a
desire to escape from the troubles, labours, anxieties and excitements of
the world, to a place where there is rest and peace with no necessity for
effort. Now there can be no doubt that the intra-uterine life of the child
represents by far the nearest approach to such a blissful state of repose
that is ever enjoyed by us during any period of our earthly existence. In
this pre-natal life the child lives effortlessly, free from danger and
with all its needs provided; in striking contrast to post-natal (and more
especially adult) life, where in general the stern rule holds that "if any
will not work, neither shall he eat", and where the individual constantly
finds his strength all too small to do battle with the formidable
obstacles that so often stand in the way of the fulfilment of his desires.
[Sidenote: Difficulty of the process of adaptation to reality]
It is, as Ferenczi[49] has been at pains to show, only in so far as we
free ourselves from the habits, associations and implications of this
pre-natal life that we can learn to achieve the fulfilment of our wishes
by taking the necessary steps to bring about their accomplishment in the
outer world, instead of endeavouring to make the outer world conform
to our desires by the shorter and easier method of imagination and
delusion. In the earliest stages of our existence we are in a sense indeed
omnipotent, inasmuch as provision is made for all our requirements and
desires as it were automatically and without the necessity for effort on
our own part. In early childhood this state persists in some degree, the
child's wants being, to a large extent, fulfilled by others as soon as he
indicates their nature. This power of automatically bringing about the
satisfaction of our needs is destined to undergo a continually increasing
degree of restriction, as childhood changes through adolescence to
maturity; a greater individual adaptation to reality being achieved at
the cost of greater individual effort and of the loss of the childish
confidence in our ability to achieve our ends by the simple process of
desiring their achievement. Under the stresses and difficulties of life on
this developed plane, it is only too easy to sink back to the earlier and
simpler state where less effort is demanded, and if we retrace our steps
in this direction as far as they will lead us, we return eventually to the
primitive condition of our pre-natal life. It is thus, apparently, that a
return to this earliest stage of our existence has come to stand as the
supreme goal and object of all desire to escape from the turmoil, labour
and conflict which developed life inevitably brings in its train.
[Sidenote: Life before birth and life after death]
If the idea of life within the mother's womb is in this way closely
associated with the desire for cessation of toil and striving, it is not
surprising that we frequently find it brought into connection with the
most striking example of such cessation with which we are acquainted, _i.
e._ the complete stoppage of all vital activities at death. As a matter
of fact, the unconscious identification of the state after death with
the state before birth would seem to be one of frequent and widespread
occurrence, the idea of the mysterious intra-uterine life before birth
furnishing, through this identification, one of the causes of belief in a
continuance of life after death--life of a kind, however, in which, as in
the life before birth, all our desires and needs are fulfilled without the
necessity for toilsome and unpleasant effort.
It is not only in our general attitude towards death that the influence
of this identification may be traced, but also in many of the details
as regards the beliefs and ceremonies connected with the dead. The
parallelism here referred to may be seen for instance in the fact that
we place our dead in coffins and bury them in _graves_ or _vaults_ in
_churches_ (all of which are womb symbols) or under the _earth_ (itself
among the most frequent of mother symbols); or that in many places the
dead have been placed on small islands[50] caves, mountain tops, or other
secluded spots, or deposited (like King Arthur) in boats and pushed
out to sea. In this last practice we may probably trace the influence
of an identification of the _process_ of death with that of birth--the
conception that at death we pass away by the same road that we traversed
when we entered into life at birth[51]. For not only is the sea a frequent
mother symbol, but the idea of water is closely connected with that of
birth, occurring as it does in a great number of symbolic representations
of the latter[52]. A similar identification is chiefly responsible for the
belief that the dead pass across a lake or river on the way to their new
home. (_Cp._ Lethe, Styx and Acheron in classical mythology or the river
across which Christian passes to the Celestial City in Pilgrim's progress).
[Sidenote: Birth phantasies]
The idea of birth or re-birth which we here meet with, plays of itself,
as we have already indicated, a part of very great importance in the
unconscious mental life of many individuals[53], a part indeed sometimes
of even greater significance than that of the idea of returning to the
mother's womb, with which it is so frequently associated. In its indirect
(displaced) representation in consciousness, this idea of birth or
re-birth will find expression as an emergence from any of the places which
serve as symbols for the womb--an island, grave, room, church or other
building, or again--and very typically--in the process of forcing one's
way through a tunnel, narrow passage, staircase or other enclosed space,
out into some relatively open locality. More especially, however, is the
idea connected in one way or another with a passage through or out of
water--a pond, river, canal, lake or the sea. It is thus for instance that
it appears in a typical form of myth relating to the birth of some heroic
personage (_e. g._ Moses, Kama, Perseus, Romulus, Siegfried, Lohengrin) in
which the birth is symbolically represented by the child's floating on the
water in a cradle, boat or basket[54].
[Sidenote: Birth and fear]
Birth phantasies of this kind are frequently accompanied by the idea of
difficulty or danger and by a corresponding emotion of fear. According
to Freud[55], the connection between fear and the act of birth is a very
intimate one; birth with its attendant profound changes of physiological
and environmental conditions and its manifold dangers and discomforts,
having become, as it were, the prototype of all situations of a
threatening or disquieting character or in which life itself appears to
be menaced. Our word Anxiety--like the French Angoisse, the German Angst,
the Latin anxius, angere, angustus, the Greek [Greek: anchô], all of
which appear to be connected with the Sanskrit anhus or anhas, signifying
narrowness or constriction--bears witness to the fundamental association
of fear with pressure and shortness of breath, which--the former owing
to the passage through the narrow vagina, the latter to the interruption
of the foetal circulation--constitute the most menacing and terrifying
aspects of the birth process.
[Sidenote: The meaning of the birth phantasy]
If, and in so far as, the phantasy of re-entering the mother's womb
represents a desire to escape from the difficulties and trials of life
into the condition of peace and protection which the pre-natal period
of life afforded, the idea of re-birth would naturally seem to give
expression to the tendency to emerge once more into the conflict of life
and to emancipate oneself from the protecting influence of the mother.
Such a meaning is indeed, as Jung[56] and others[57] have shown, actually
associated with the phantasy in very many cases. In this sense, then, the
desire to attain to individual independence and freedom from the parents
finds symbolical representation as a repetition of that process whereby we
first acquired the status of an independent organism distinct from that of
the mother who bore us.
[Sidenote: Spiritual regeneration]
In other cases however the symbolism is of a rather more remote kind,
the idea symbolised being that of moral or spiritual regeneration[58].
The reality of this significance of the re-birth phantasy cannot well
be doubted, being vouched for as it is not only by the results of
psycho-analytic enquiry but also by the stereotyped phraseology of many
religious formulae and by the nature of many of the ceremonies connected
with moral or religious conversion. Thus the rite of baptism, as is pretty
generally recognised, consists, in one of its principal aspects, in a
symbolic representation of the act of birth, and the same is true of many
of the initiation ceremonies performed at puberty in all parts of the
world[59].
[Sidenote: Physical regeneration]
The association--so often found in this connection--of re-birth with
a previous return to, and brief sojourn in, the mother's womb, may be
due perhaps to some extent to the needs of logical consistency for, as
Nicodemus said, a man cannot literally "be born again" unless he has
previously "entered the second time into his mother's womb"; but probably
it has itself a further and deeper significance. As the result of his
researches upon this point, Jung[60] considers that the association in
question expresses the necessity of gathering fresh sources of psychic
energy from the deepest strata of our mental life in the Unconscious, if
the moral or spiritual conversion is to be successful. Starting from the
consideration of the products of the collective mind as exemplified in
cult and legend rather than from the phantasies of the individual, other
investigators, such as Sir J. G. Frazer[61], have come to the conclusion
that it is primarily a physical rather than a moral regeneration that
is symbolised by the ideas of re-birth. Thus the histories of such
divine personages as Attis, Adonis or Osiris, whose death and subsequent
return to life are plainly analogous to the phantasy of the return to
the mother's womb (burial in the earth) and re-birth from it, have been
interpreted as expressions of the desire for rejuvenation on the part of
the individual or the race, or again as representations (probably magical
in intention) of the periodical decay and revival of vegetation or of the
periodical changes of the seasons upon which these depend. This view would
seem to be supported by the fact that such a significance (often however
associated with that of moral regeneration in Jung's sense) is inherent
in many of the mysteries and superstitions of all ages, as in the ideas
of the philosopher's stone or the elixir of life, and in the symbolic
practices, legends and traditions characteristic of secret societies and
of mysticism generally[62].
[Sidenote: The literal interpretation of the womb and birth phantasies]
[Sidenote: Sexual significance of the phantasies]
All these interpretations are probably correct, so far as they go and
as regards certain cases. Certainly the desire for the preservation
or recovery of youth, the attainment of immortality, the ensuring of
a good harvest or even the felt need of spiritual regeneration are
sufficiently strong and recurrent motives of the human mind to justify
their frequent appearance in symbolic form. Nevertheless, from what we
know of the conditions governing the most deeply rooted and widespread
human phantasies and from the general laws which underlie the use of
symbolism[63], it would seem likely that in a considerable number of
cases the meaning of the ideas of re-entering the womb and of re-birth
is not exhausted by these interpretations. The frequency and relative
uniformity of these womb and birth phantasies make it probable that, in
one of their aspects at least, they are no mere symbols but represent
things actually desired on their own account. The actual return to the
womb does, as we have seen, represent the extreme expression of the
tendency to escape from the troubles of the outer world to a condition in
which there is complete immunity from effort, responsibility, difficulty
and danger. Further, psychoanalytic investigation of the womb and birth
phantasies as they occur in individuals seems to show that they often have
a _sexual_ or quasi-sexual significance, being the expression of sexual
tendencies and arousing sexual feeling[64]. Through the extreme intimacy
which a child establishes with its mother by the processes of gestation
and birth, it may find in imagination by means of these processes a not
unsuitable method of gratifying the sexual inclinations which it feels
towards its mother; and the phantasies of entering or emerging from the
womb or of being carried in it may thus come to take on a directly sexual
character, in the same way as any other of the numerous activities or
processes associated with erotic feeling. It is probable too that in men
and boys, the process of passing to or from the womb through the vagina is
treated, on the principle of _totum pro parte_, as a substitute for the
more directly sexual act appropriate to later life--the individual having
enjoyed, on the occasion of his birth, the privilege of being in that
place, whence his incestuous desires impel him to return. In this sense
then, the womb and birth phantasies express the incestuous tendencies in a
milder and less objectionable form[65].
In girls (or in boys, in so far as they possess homosexual inclinations)
the return to the mother may be used as a means of attaining sexual
intimacy with the father, indirectly through fusion, or identification,
with the mother[66].
[Sidenote: Sexual curiosity]
The directly Sexual feeling thus attaching to these phantasies is in
many cases powerfully reinforced by the curiosity which is experienced
by children in relation to the processes of conception, gestation and
birth. Most children would seem to possess at an early age a very lively
interest in all matters directly or indirectly connected with the
reproductive function. The question "Where do babies come from?" is one
of the most absorbing of all the problems of our early years; one which,
in its more sublimated forms, may lay the foundation of that restless
desire to know the causes and origins of things, which is the driving
force of much that is best in science and philosophy; and one for which,
in infancy and childhood, a solution is sought in many of the childish
theories of reproduction which have recently attracted the attention of
psycho-analysts[67].
[Sidenote: Children's questions]
[Sidenote: The forbidden question in myth and legend]
Curiosity of this kind is also found to underlie much of that desire for
knowledge which manifests itself in the incessant asking of questions
so characteristic of children at a certain age. Where this is the case,
the actual questions asked are often only substitutes for the real
problem which so insistently demands solution--the problem of the origin
of men--and are shown to be of little importance in themselves by the
listless and uninterested way in which the child frequently receives the
answers that are given him, making them, as he does only too often, the
starting point for fresh questions, the answers to which prove in their
turn to be equally unsatisfying. In all such questioning the true nature
of the real problem is for the most part kept below the threshold of
consciousness, through the operation of repressive influences, originating
perhaps to some extent in the natural course of development of the child's
own mind, but probably to a greater degree due to the attitude of his
adult environment, which, directly or by implication, has taught the child
to regard such questions as taboo. This notion of the question which is
forbidden but which nevertheless imperiously demands an answer is one that
is of frequent occurrence in myth and legend, the forbidden question often
disclosing itself as one which has reference to the birthplace, parentage
or birth of the hero (as for instance in the Lohengrin legend) or the
origin and nature of man in general (as in the case of Œdipus)[68].
Under these circumstances, it may well seem to the child that his
curiosity concerning the process by which he and other children came into
the world could be most satisfactorily gratified by the experience in his
own person of those events concerning which information is required. The
motive thus aroused will then in many cases add very considerably to the
fascination which the ideas of gestation and birth may already possess in
virtue of their purely sexual significance. The desire thus satisfied may
again in some cases be still further reinforced by the notion that the
position of the child within the womb is a favourable one for finding out
many things about the life of the mother and her relations to the father
which may be otherwise difficult to discover; as in the not infrequent
phantasy of observing the sexual act between the parents from this point
of vantage.
[Sidenote: Summary]
Summarising our discussion as to the significance of the womb and birth
phantasies, we have seen that they may have any or all of the following
meanings:--
_As to the return to the womb_:--
(1) An expression of the tendency to withdraw from the labours and
difficulties of life to the place where the greatest possible freedom from
such troubles may be found; in which the emphasis may be laid upon:--
(a) the desire for the effortless gratification of all needs and
wishes,
(b) the desire for protection from the dangers of the outer world,
(c) the equation of life after death with life before birth, the
former being invested with all the supposed advantages of the latter.
(2) A sexual significance, as representing:--
(a) the closest possible intimacy with the mother,
(b) a means of attaining sexual intimacy with the father through
fusion with the mother,
(c) a means of satisfying sexual curiosity.
_As to re-birth_:--
(1) A more or less symbolic significance; in which the emphasis may be
laid upon:--
(a) the desire for a more vigorous and independent mode of life,
involving greater freedom from the protecting and guarding influence
of the parents and especially of the mother,
(b) the desire for physical rejuvenation (of the individual, of the
race, or of the means of subsistence),
(c) the desire for moral or religious improvement or conversion.
(2) A more literal significance, in which the emphasis may be laid upon:--
(a) a directly sexual pleasure in the contemplation of the act,
the process of birth being treated as a substitute for sexual
intercourse,
(b) the possibility of satisfying sexual curiosity[69].
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 46: "The Interpretation of Dreams," 243 ff.]
[Footnote 47: To the same cause is probably due the use of four-poster
beds in which the sleeper is completely enclosed by curtains and of those
oldfashioned beds (still to be seen in some parts of the world) which
could be entirely shut off from the rest of the room by a wooden partition
or sliding door containing only one very small circular aperture for the
admission of air.]
[Footnote 48: Ferenczi, "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," 189. Freud,
"Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse," 486.]
[Footnote 49: _Op. cit._, 181 ff.]
[Footnote 50: _Cp._ the striking emotional effect of Böcklin's well known
picture "The Island of the Dead." In Sir J. M. Barrie's remarkable play
"Mary Rose" (which is full of interest in connection with our present
subject) this piece of symbolism is duplicated--the "island that likes to
be visited" being situated in a lake on a larger island.]
[Footnote 51: Rank, "Die Lohengrinsage," 46 ff.]
[Footnote 52: Freud, "Interpretations of Dreams," 243. Rank, _op. cit._,
27 ff.]
[Footnote 53: Freud, _op. cit._ 243 ff. C. G. Jung, "Psychology of the
Unconscious," 233 ff.]
[Footnote 54: O. Rank, "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero."]
[Footnote 55: "Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse," 461.]
[Footnote 56: "Psychology of the Unconscious," 297.]
[Footnote 57: Especially Silberer, "Problems of Mysticism and its
Symbolism," 307 ff.]
[Footnote 58: _Cp_. Jung and Silberer as above.]
[Footnote 59: For an important discussion of certain further aspects of
baptism from the psycho-analytical point of view, see Ernest Jones, "Die
Bedeutung des Salzes in Sitte und Brauch der Völker", _Imago_. 1912, I.
463 ff.]
[Footnote 60: "Psychology of the Unconscious," 233 ff.]
[Footnote 61: "Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild."]
[Footnote 62: Silberer, _op. cit._]
[Footnote 63: _Cp._ Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 129 ff.]
[Footnote 64: Thus in a case known to the present writer a boy frequently
indulged in phantasies of entering into the bodies of women and girls whom
he admired, the ideas of effecting an entrance into the body, of being
carried therein and of re-emerging therefrom, being all accompanied by
voluptuous feelings of a sexual character.]
[Footnote 65: A striking example of this is to be found in Sir J. M.
Barrie's "Mary Rose", in which a grown up son, on returning after many
years to the home of his childhood, is earnestly warned and entreated by
the housekeeper in charge of the (now empty) house not to enter his former
nursery (womb symbol), a small room which is approached by a short passage
(vagina symbol). He eventually overcomes his fears and boldly enters the
forbidden apartment with a lighted candle (phallic symbol) in his hand. At
that moment the ghost of his mother appears!
The identification of the processes of birth and coitus is well shown in
the following dream of a patient. "I was with difficulty crawling through
a very narrow tunnel under a mountain which, I thought, was called the
Aalberg. I was a good deal frightened but saw the end of the tunnel a
long way off. In trying to get out, I seemed to force my way forward by
continually butting with my head against some kind of soft wall". The
movement here described is a clear coitus symbol (head = penis), while
the mountain would appear to have derived its name from the phallic
significance of the eel.
In a certain number of cases the idea of returning to the mother's womb
or of being born is coloured by the infantile "cloacal theory" of birth,
according to which the child imagines birth to take place through the
rectum. This is shown with exceptional clearness in the following dream.
"I was walking down a long and narrow flight of stairs. They seemed to
be the _back_ stairs of a large house or hotel and were very dirty and
ill-lit, and every now and then I would tread in a pool of dirty water.
The stairs suddenly (note the words in italics) opened out towards the
_bottom_ and I emerged into a _back_ yard. I found I was covered with soot
and dust and my boots were filthy." (_Cp._ the well known passage from St.
Augustine, "Inter urinas et faeces nascimur").]
[Footnote 66: Freud, "Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre." IV,
693, 694. Further evidence has recently been brought together by Mrs. S.
C. Porter in a (not yet published) paper on Brontephobia.]
[Footnote 67: Freud, "Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre," II,
169. Jung, "Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology," 132.]
[Footnote 68: Rank, "Die Lohengrinsage," 107 ff. "Das Inzestmotiv in
Dichtung und Sage," 261 ff. This however does not exhaust the significance
of the forbidden question motive, another important aspect of which is
referred to later.]
[Footnote 69: It is a question of considerable psychological interest,
as to how the ideas of birth and intra-uterine life come to acquire
the significance which we have found them to possess. In what way for
instance do we come to associate life within the womb with freedom from
effort, difficulty or danger? In the majority of cases, not from conscious
thinking on the subject; on the contrary, the connotation of safety and
effortlessness would seem in some way to belong inherently to the idea
of pre-natal existence from the very beginning, or at any rate to have
become attached to it through a purely unconscious process of association.
Again, how do we come into possession of the ideas of birth and pre-natal
life themselves? Is the knowledge which has gone to the formation of these
ideas entirely acquired after birth, or is there retained in the mind
anything in the nature of impression or memory of that early period of
existence in which gestation and birth were actually experienced? From
the fact of the very general obliviscence which attends the first years
of infancy, as well perhaps as from the relatively undeveloped state
of the cerebrum in the newly born child, we might, with considerable
show of reason, be inclined to disbelieve that any memory traces can be
operative. On the other hand, the surprising fact of the sudden recovery
in hypnosis, during psycho-analysis or otherwise, of early memories which
had been entirely lost for many years, or again the fact that phantasies
of birth or intra-uterine life seem sometimes to refer to details (_e.
g._ the amniotic fluid or the different stages of labour) of which there
is little opportunity to learn in ordinary life and which play but a
small part, if any, in the average adult's conscious notions on these
subjects, have made some writers hesitate to affirm too strongly the
absolute impossibility of such operation. Again some may suggest that the
knowledge which is mysteriously revealed in these phantasies may compel us
to assume the existence of some such innate ideas as are perhaps involved
in Jung's conception of the impersonal or racial Unconscious, according
to which there are present in the unconscious mind certain materials
(capable, apparently, of crystallisation into ideas of a certain degree
of definiteness) which in their origin are assumed to be independent
of personal experience, being, like our more fundamental instincts and
tendencies, derived and inherited from a long line of ancestors.
It is perhaps possible that more exact information on this important
subject might be forthcoming as the result of careful investigations into
such questions as the following:
(1) To what extent (if at all) do children display--in dreams, phantasies
or otherwise--knowledge as to the circumstances of their birth and
pre-natal life which they could not possibly have obtained except from
memory of their own past experience?
(2) Do the phantasies of prematurely born children differ in any way from
those of children born at the end of the normal term? If, for instance,
there really exist any memory traces of the later period of gestation or
of the process of birth, it might be expected that they would be less
vivid than usual in prematurely born children, owing to the less developed
condition of their brain at the time of birth.
(3) Are the phantasies concerning birth in any way more vivid or frequent
or of greater emotional intensity in those whose birth has been a process
of difficulty and long duration than in those who have enjoyed an easy
delivery?
(4) Do the womb phantasies of twins indicate any knowledge of the unusual
conditions of their pre-natal life?
(5) Do the phantasies of children who have been removed from the womb by
Caesarian section reveal any peculiarities corresponding to the absence of
the usual birth process?]
CHAPTER IX
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INITIATION AND INITIATION RITES
[Sidenote: The psychological significance of initiation]
The phantasies of return to the womb and of re-birth, with which we have
just been concerned, are intimately connected with another phantasy
which is met with surprisingly often in the investigation of dreams and
other manifestations of the Unconscious--that of initiation. The idea of
initiation corresponds to a wish that is very deeply rooted in the human
mind. In the psycho-analytic study of individuals it is found perhaps most
frequently in the shape of a desire for sexual initiation at the hands
of the parents (or of obvious substitutes for these); such initiation
constituting (in the mind of the phantasy maker) at once a removal of the
prohibition which the parents had formerly laid upon all manifestations
of sexuality and an invitation to penetrate those mysteries of sexual,
reproductive and adult life generally, which they have hitherto jealously
guarded for themselves.
[Sidenote: Initiation and Incest]
It thus appears that in certain minds initiation is regarded as a
necessary preliminary to the exercise of the powers and privileges of
maturity in the sexual or in any other sphere of life. At the same
time, however, the phantasy of initiation is often made the means of
surreptitiously bringing about a satisfaction of the old, prohibited,
and largely superseded desires of infancy. Thus there are frequently
clear indications that it is not only initiation into sex life in general
that is required, but initiation into the incestuous form of this life
which was characteristic of the first object-love of the child. Indeed
the very persistence of these infantile desires constitutes one of the
principal motives of the initiation phantasy; it is just the fact that
all the sexual trends are to an appreciable extent still tinged with
the atmosphere of the repressed incestuous tendencies, which makes the
removal of the inhibitions and prohibitions attaching to these tendencies
to be felt as necessary, before sex life of any kind can be enjoyed with
freedom. Thus a boy may dream of "initiation" at the hands of his father,
because this signifies to him a removal of the prohibition imposed by
his father on all sexual activity on the part of the boy--a prohibition
imposed (as is readily recognised by the Unconscious) in virtue of the
boy's original direction of his love towards the mother: without such sign
of approval and change of attitude on the father's part[70], the boy may
feel that the original prohibition is still too powerful to be overcome
and that his sexual life will remain for ever under the ban of the strong
inhibitions aroused by a sense of parental disapproval[71].
Similar considerations apply to the non-sexual aspects of life, in which
at maturity the youth takes his place as an equal of the father, to whom
he has hitherto looked up as a superior.
[Sidenote: Initiation ceremonies]
The important and far-reaching changes in general conduct and, more
particularly, in the attitude to be adopted toward the elder members of
an individual's own family, on the attainment of full growth--involving
as they do the overcoming of many habits and inhibitions formed during
the long period of human infancy and childhood--are not of a kind to be
accomplished without difficulty and conflict. With a view to diminishing
this difficulty and to overcoming the conflict of motives which the
accomplishment of these changes necessarily involves, there exists a well
nigh universal tendency to endow the transition from childhood to maturity
with something of a solemn or religious character, calculated at one and
the same time to reinforce the motives proper to maturity and to impress
the now full grown members of the community with the privileges and
responsibilities of their new condition. This tendency has found definite
and elaborate expression in the rites and ceremonies of initiation which
are to be found in societies of every stage of culture and in every part
of the world. These ceremonies are of very considerable interest and
importance for our present purpose, for here, as so often elsewhere, the
results obtained from the study of racial and social customs on the one
hand and from the investigation of the unconscious mental tendencies of
the individual on the other, serve very largely to amplify and corroborate
one another, leading ultimately to a degree of certainty and precision
which it would be difficult or impossible to attain by the pursuit of
either discipline alone.
[Sidenote: Initiation and re-birth]
Since the change from childhood to maturity involves readjustments of
such a fundamental kind as to constitute to some extent an entrance into
a new phase of life, it is not surprising that the initiation ceremony
has often in one or more of its aspects taken the form of a symbolic
process of re-birth; the re-birth phantasy, as we have seen, being closely
associated with the idea of moral or spiritual conversion or regeneration.
The process of re-birth in these ceremonies may indeed on occasion be
represented by something actually approaching an imitation of the act of
birth, as in the case of the Kikuyu of British East Africa, who "have a
curious custom which requires that every boy just before circumcision
must be born again. The mother stands up with the boy crouching at her
feet, she pretends to go through all the labour pains and the boy on
being reborn cries like a babe and is washed. He lives on milk for some
days afterwards[72]." Elsewhere the novice is swallowed by a monster and
again disgorged, thus simulating the return to the womb and the re-birth
therefrom[73]. In still other cases a drama of death and resurrection is
enacted by the novices or played before them[74]. Frequently an essential
part of the process of initiation consists of a more or less prolonged
period of seclusion about the time of puberty[75]; girls especially being
often confined in small huts for weeks, months or in some cases years, at
or before the time of their first menstruation[76].
[Sidenote: General and sexual objects in initiation]
These initiatory rites would seem, like the womb and birth phantasies
which we have already studied, to have in the main two principal objects
in view; first, an introduction of the initiated into the rights and
responsibilities belonging to an adult member of the community; secondly,
an introduction into sexual life.
As a means to the former end, the novice usually receives instruction
in the laws, customs, religious beliefs and ceremonial practices of his
tribe, or undergoes certain (often very severe) trials of capacity and
endurance with a view to ascertaining his fitness to enter into the
privileges of maturity.
On the sexual side the novice receives permission to marry and generally
to indulge his sexual tendencies (the process of initiation being often
succeeded by a period of unusual licence), but at the same time is
instructed in the numerous prohibitions and taboos as regards persons,
circumstances and occasions which are usually placed upon such indulgence.
[Sidenote: The abandonment of infantile tendencies on the part of the
initiated]
Many of the details of these initiation ceremonies have, directly or
indirectly, reference to the emotional attitude of the children towards
their parents with which we have been concerned in the earlier chapters
of this book[77]. A general effort to repress the mental attitude which
the novice has at an earlier period adopted towards his parents is to be
observed in the--real or feigned--amnesia[78] which so often occurs after
the initiation, the newly initiated sometimes failing to recognise even
their nearest relatives and being thus compelled to start life with them
on a new footing. The same tendency to break loose from the old attitude
is manifested in the actual separation from the parents which seems always
to take place at the period of seclusion or at or before the ceremony of
re-birth, the affectionate farewell which is taken before such separation
(especially of the son from the mother) and in many of the symbolic
prohibitions of the period of seclusion, such as that in virtue of which
girls must, during their seclusion, neither touch the earth (a universal
mother symbol), nor be exposed to the sun (an almost equally universal
father symbol)[79].
[Sidenote: The attitude of the initiators towards the initiated]
In the cruel rites which are so often inflicted on the novices by the
elder members of the community it is possible to see a manifestation of
that fear and hatred which fathers often feel towards their sons and
which mothers often feel towards their daughters--feelings which often
correspond in nature and intensity to the equivalent emotions in the
children themselves (_Cp._ below Ch. XIV); the pretended killing or death
of the novice being frequently of the nature of a punishment on the talion
principle for the thoughts of parricide or matricide which the children
may themselves have entertained towards their parents. Before initiation
youths are often not allowed to carry arms, probably because of the fear
that they may be tempted to hurt or kill the father; sometimes, however,
before they can be admitted to the full privileges of maturity, they must
have killed a man--in order, probably, to work off their hostile feelings
on some third person who may serve as a substitute for the father who was
the original object of these feelings.
The hostile attitude of the older members of the community towards the
novices, which finds an outlet in the cruelties practised at initiation,
does not however spring exclusively from sexual jealousy on the part of
the elders, but also to some extent from the disinclination which they
feel to admitting the youths--at any rate without some payment--into the
numerous secrets and privileges from which they have hitherto excluded
them, and from the general tendency to grudge the abandonment of that
superiority over the youths which they themselves have hitherto enjoyed.
The manifestation of these feelings in some form of cruelty is most often
rationalised as a desire to prove that the novices are worthy of admission
to the privileges and responsibilities of the initiated and to ensure, by
adding to the impressiveness of the occasion, that they will remember what
they have seen and heard during the initiation ceremonies[80]. Similar
motives, leading to similar manifestations, may often be observed even in
highly civilised communities, where the initiation is usually one destined
to introduce the individual not into adult life in general but into
some special class, institution or society, or into some corporate body
consisting of persons who have enjoyed some special kind of experience
or mode of life. Under this head, for instance, come many of the time
honoured customs and ceremonies, to which boys on entering school or
joining a "gang", students on going to college, or persons joining some
professional society or guild, are made to submit[81].
[Sidenote: Prohibition and licence]
In other aspects of the ceremonies, however, the motive of sexual jealousy
stands unmistakably displayed. Thus the rites of circumcision and
subincision, the pulling out of hairs from the head, face or pubic region
and the knocking out of teeth, which so frequently precede or accompany
the process of initiation, are all symbols of castration; a penalty
which it is desired to inflict--really or symbolically--from a number of
distinct though closely connected motives, the most important being:--(1)
as a means of rendering impossible the realisation of forbidden sexual
cravings, (2) as a threat to show that the power of the elders still
exists and that it will be exercised should the prescribed limits be
overstepped, (3) as a punishment for past incestuous desires or acts (as
is shown, for instance, in the superstition that if the wound caused by
circumcision does not readily heal it is because the youth has already
been guilty of incestuous connection[82]). The same object of preventing
incest is sought in the stern "avoidances" which are often practised at
the same time; as, for instance, that by which a youth must keep very
carefully from all contact with his mother, even to the extent of avoiding
her footprints.
But if all love in the old direction is forbidden, sexual activity
in other directions is often encouraged as a substitute, as in such
instructions as the following: "Thou, my pupil, art now circumcised.
Thy father and thy mother, honour them. Go not unannounced into their
house, lest thou find them together in tender embrace. But have no fear
of maidens; sleep and bathe together with them"[83]. Even so, however,
there usually remain, as we might expect from the general nature of
displacement, some remnants of the old incestuous fixation; such as those,
for instance, which manifest themselves in the belief that after the
first sexual connection of a youth, either he himself or his partner in
the act must shortly die (as a punishment, we must suppose, for the sin
committed)--a belief which leads young men to fall upon and have forcible
intercourse with _old_ women (mother substitutes)[84]. Here the youth
is definitely permitted some degree of (symbolic) incestuous indulgence
before he finally abandons his infantile desires. A still wider permission
of the same kind is, however, granted in the fairly widespread practice of
removing the usual sexual taboos on all or most of the prohibited persons
during "the period of revelry which follows initiation, where the nearest
relationships--even those of own brother and sister--seem to be no bar to
the general licence," even though shortly afterwards these same "brothers
and sisters may not so much as speak to one another".[85]
[Sidenote: Re-birth and Reconciliation]
The monster from whose belly the novices are reborn would appear in
many cases to represent the young men's grandfather, through him their
dead ancestors and ultimately the ancestral founder of the tribe. This
rather astonishing fact as regards the supposed sex of the monster is
probably due in the first place to a psychic identification of the child
with his grandfather--an identification of very frequent occurrence and
considerable significance, the psychological foundations of which can
however be more appropriately discussed in a later chapter. (Ch. XIV). The
novice in being born from the body of the grandfather becomes in a sense a
re-incarnation of the grandfather and is endowed with all his powers and
attributes.
In a secondary and "rationalised" sense, this process of re-birth from
the grandfather has been interpreted as the expression of a desire to
re-create the youth as the son of his tribe rather than as the son of
his mother, _i. e._ to symbolise and emphasise the fact that he has now
exchanged the narrow sphere of family rule and affection for the wider one
of obedience and loyalty to the community; at the same time representing a
means of obtaining freedom from the old fixation of love upon the mother
(since he is now born not from her but from the tribal ancestor), and
through this of becoming reconciled to the father. This same motive of
reconciliation based on the renunciation of incestuous desire and on the
establishment of common love and interest between those of the same sex,
is exemplified also in the Age Classes, Men's Clubs and Secret Societies
found in so many primitive peoples, to membership of which women are in
the majority of cases rigorously excluded.
Thus it would appear that the ideas underlying the almost universal social
custom of the initiation ceremony are those which we have already met
with in the study of the development of the individual mind in relation
to the family: showing thereby that these ideas are to be found not only
in minds of a certain constitution or of a particular age, race, or
type of culture, but represent a general human characteristic, having
its foundations deeply rooted in the history of mankind; a part of our
mental inheritance which has to be reckoned with in all efforts at social
or individual improvement, a factor for good or evil which education,
instruction or upbringing may perhaps modify but can scarcely hope to
eradicate.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 70: The following three dream extracts from the writer's own
psycho-analytic experience afford very clear examples of the kind of dream
to which reference is here made.
(1) "I was trying to catch a train, but a gate leading to the platform
was closed and I could not succeed in opening it. Then my father suddenly
appeared, shook the gate violently, opened it and hurried me across the
platform. He opened the door of a compartment and pushed me in. I found a
lady sitting there." The lady here was associated with the mother and the
opening of the gate and door symbolised the sexual act.
(2) "An elderly man" (father symbol) "led me upstairs" (coitus symbol.
_Cp._ Freud, "Interpretation of Dreams," p. 252) "to the interior of
a church or chapel" (mother symbol). "Here hymns were being sung"
(initiation ceremony) "I thought I ought to sing too, but had some bother
to find the right place in the hymn book. Then one of the people said to
me 'You are one of us.'"
(3) "I wanted to get into a house, but could not find the way in. Suddenly
our doctor" (in this case, as so often, a father substitute) "came along
and said: 'A doctor always goes in by the window'. From a bag he brought
out a long elastic instrument" (phallic symbol). "with which he opened a
window on the first floor" (symbol of sex intercourse). "We entered and I
found it was my mother's bedroom. The doctor said 'You should now go to
sleep' and I prepared to go to bed."
As will be seen from these examples, the initiation idea may be easily
combined with the idea of returning to the mother's womb discussed in the
last chapter. This combination is perhaps still more clearly shown in the
following dream of the patient, who provided Example 2. "I was on a boat
sailing on a river or canal which gradually became narrower and shallower.
Finally the boat grounded on a sandy bottom. I got out and walked up a
staircase into a cathedral where some ceremony was going on, in which I
took part."]
[Footnote 71: Thus in a case known to me the inhibition in question
constituted one of the principal factors in the production of a very
prolonged condition of sexual impotence in married life.]
[Footnote 72: Sir J.G. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy." IV. 228.]
[Footnote 73: Sir J.G. Frazer, "Balder the Beautiful." II. 239.]
[Footnote 74: _Op. cit._ II. 243, 246.]
[Footnote 75: _Op. cit._ II. 253, 259.]
[Footnote 76: _Op. cit._ I. 22.]
[Footnote 77: A careful study of these all important aspects of
the initiation ceremonies has recently been made by Th. Reik (Die
Pubertätsriten der Wilden, _Imago_, 1915, IV. 125, 189) from whose work
many of the statements and conclusions here given have been taken.]
[Footnote 78: An amnesia the production of which is often facilitated by
the use of intoxicants.]
[Footnote 79: Sir J.G. Frazer, _op. cit._, I. 22.]
[Footnote 80: Sometimes apparently this procedure is very successful. Thus
a well known psychologist has told me: "On passing every illumination
during the night of the Jubilee, my father, who was carrying me, smacked
me 'to make me remember the day'. I was four, and I have remembered!"]
[Footnote 81: In many of these, as for instance the nautical practice of
ducking or "keel hauling" those who are crossing the equator for the first
time, it is possible also to trace certain typical symbols of the re-birth
phantasy.
The sexual aspects of initiation are apt to be particularly prominent
in the case of boys entering a criminal or anti-social "gang". Thus an
acute student of this subject writes to me: "I have often found that a
delinquent boy was initiated into sexual knowledge and practices on the
first evening that he joined his "gang"; _e.g._ in one such gang every
new member had to exhibit himself. He was asked if he knew "what it (the
penis) was for"; this was explained; and after certain criticisms were
passed, the leader, after a thorough inspection, declared "you will do".
There was also a catechism: "Do you know what your mother and father
do..." etc; the result being to discredit them in the eyes of the boy and
to lead him to emulate them or at least to defy and despise them."]
[Footnote 82: A. Schweiger, "Der Ritus der Beschneidung." _Anthropos._
1914.]
[Footnote 83: K. Weule, "Negerleben in Ostafrika," 304. Quoted by Reik.,
_op. cit._]
[Footnote 84: Chazac, "La religion des Kikuyu." _Anthropos_ II. 317, 1910.]
[Footnote 85: Sir J. G. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy." II. 144.]
CHAPTER X
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES
Our last two chapters have again been something in the nature of a
digression--a digression however which, we will hope, has not been
altogether unprofitable, inasmuch as it has opened to our view some of
the wider aspects of our problem, and afforded us a glimpse of the extent
to which the aspects of family life which are forcing themselves on the
attention of psychologists at the present day, are the same as those which
have exercised the greatest influence upon mankind in all places and of
all degrees of culture, and have manifested themselves everywhere in human
beliefs and institutions. It is now time, however, to resume our previous
problem--the study of the influence of the family upon the development of
the individual in its more remote, indirect and abnormal aspects.
[Sidenote: Varieties and abnormalities as regards the displacement of
parent-regarding tendencies]
In the failures and abnormalities of development with which we were
concerned in Chapters VI and VII, the principal characteristic was the
persistence of, or return to, an infantile or childlike relationship
towards the _parents_. In normal development, as we have seen, this
relationship is outgrown largely by the help of the mechanism of
Displacement, in virtue of which the emotional attitude towards the
parents is transferred to other persons, who (at any rate in the early
stages of the process) are connected with the parents by some associative
link. Supposing development to have proceeded normally along these lines
for a certain period, it is still possible for an arrest or regression to
occur, as a result of which any of these later stages may become permanent
instead of transitory, in precisely the same manner as in the case of the
earlier stages in which the emotions and feelings are still directly
related to the parents themselves.
From one point of view abnormalities occurring in these later stages
are perhaps less serious than those which we considered in the earlier
chapters, inasmuch as the regression is less complete; some degree
of psychical emancipation from the parents being still preserved.
Nevertheless these abnormalities may constitute a very grave hindrance
to the general development and mental health of the individual and, in
the case of the displacement of very intense affects, may give rise to
consequences of a distinctly pathological order; while, on their more
sublimated side, they have contributed much to some of the most important
aspects of social life and culture.
[Sidenote: Insufficient Displacement]
[Sidenote: Displacement depending on family relationship]
[Sidenote: Brother and sister]
We have already in Chapter III studied some of the ways in which the
displacement of the original love from parents to other persons takes
place. If the displacement remains at a stage in which the associative
link between the original and the later object of love is a very firm or
close one, we may say that the development is incomplete, inasmuch as the
individual's love is still to an undue extent on an infantile fixation.
Of the various associative links which we have enumerated as being those
of most frequent occurrence--mental or physical characteristics, age,
circumstances of life, past history, family relationship etc., the last
named is apt to play an especially important part in cases of arrested
or regressive development. The displacement of love from parent to
brother or sister may probably, as we have seen, be regarded as a normal
transitory phase. The intensity of the attachment frequently aroused and
the sexual nature which it often retains in the Unconscious right on into
adolescent and adult life are vouched for, on the negative side, by the
strength of the repressions raised against incestuous tendencies of this
kind--repressions which are scarcely less severe than those directed
against parent incest. Similarly, on the positive side, the true nature
of the brother-sister relationship is often startlingly revealed by the
process of psycho-analysis and is also shown by the study of legend, of
literature and of the habits and customs of primitive peoples.
[Sidenote: Cases where brother-sister incest has been permitted]
We have already seen (p. 86) that on occasions of special licence
connection between brother and sister, though otherwise strictly tabooed,
may be temporarily permitted. It seems to be pretty generally agreed among
anthropologists that these occasions are of the nature of reversions
to a condition of affairs that was once comparatively frequent, if not
indeed quite general[86]. There are in fact numerous indications that such
brother-sister connections were, among certain peoples at any rate, the
rule rather than the exception. H. L. Morgan, to whose credit lies the
discovery of the so-called classificatory system of relationship, thinks
indeed that a group marriage between own brothers and sisters was the
earliest kind of restriction upon absolute promiscuity and constituted the
basis of the oldest form of the human family[87]. The evidence for the
really primitive character of any such family has been seriously disputed
in more recent writings[88]; but the frequent occurrence of temporary or
permanent brother-sister unions among both primitive and more advanced
peoples would seem to be beyond dispute. Thus the incest of brother and
sister is said to be, or to have been, common among the Antambahoaka of
South East Madagascar[89], among many tribes of Brazil[90], in Cali[91]
(Colombia), Tenasserim[92] (Burma), Mexico[93] and many other places.
The ancient Persians seem to have permitted incest of this kind, though
Herodotus remarks with reference to the marriage of Cambyses to his
sister that this was not a usual procedure[94]. In Egypt, however,
such connections were not only admitted but approved, marriage between
brother and sister being there regarded as the "best of marriages" and
acquiring "an ineffable degree of sanctity when the brother and sister
who contracted it were themselves born of a brother and sister, who had
in their turn also sprung from a union of the same sort"[95]. Even in
Greece a similar practice does not seem to have been unusual, for, if we
may believe Cornelius Nepos[96], no disgrace attached to Cimon's marriage
with his sister Elpinice, since his fellow-citizens had the same custom.
Among the Jews too, the prophet Ezekiel[97] complains of the occurrence of
this form of incest. Primitive customs, it is now generally agreed, are
apt to persist in the case of royal families long after they have ceased
to be observed by the common people; and the persistent brother and sister
marriages among the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Incas of Peru, as well as
the existence of similar practices among reigning families in primitive
peoples of recent times[98], afford further evidence of the former
widespread occurrence of brother-sister unions.
[Sidenote: Repression of, and desire for such incest]
On the negative side too, there is evidence to be gained from the nature
of the taboos and institutions erected against incest. According to
Frazer[99] the exogamous systems of the Australian aborigines seem to have
originated in the first place as a means of preventing connections between
brother and sister, the prohibition of marriage between other relatives
having been brought about by subsequent developments and elaborations of
the primitive two class system, instituted for the purpose of avoiding
brother-sister marriages. The abhorrence of brother-sister incest is
indeed very marked in many primitive communities, and that this abhorrence
represents the repression of a genuine desire for incest of this kind is
shown by the remarks of travellers that the "avoidances" and other methods
of enforcing the prohibitions are often "very necessary"[100] and by the
fact, already referred to, that as soon as the customary restrictions are
relaxed, the otherwise forbidden connections are freely indulged in. To
this evidence from anthropology there might be added the scarcely less
convincing data from mythology and literature, which has been studied in
such detail by Rank[101] and which perhaps, for this reason, we need not
stop to dwell on here; it being sufficient to remind the reader in passing
of such well known mythological cases as the unions of Zeus and Hera
and of Osiris and Isis, or, as regards literature, to refer him to such
recent examples as Artzibasheff's "Sanine" or d'Annunzio's "City of the
Dead" where the existence of erotic feeling between brother and sister is
treated in an open manner.
[Sidenote: Displacement of parent--regarding tendencies on to more distant
relatives]
As a further stage of development the original parent love may be
displaced, not on to a brother or sister, but on to some more distant
relative, such as a cousin (a brother or sister substitute) or an uncle
or aunt (more directly parent substitutes)[102]. Cousin marriage is,
among ourselves, passing through the stage of being legally permissible
though still regarded with some degree of moral disapproval or suspicion.
In other times and places it has, like brother-sister marriage, been
the object both of sternest prohibition[103] and of warm approval[104].
Any kind of sexual relationship between nephews and aunts or between
nieces and uncles seems to have been, too, reminiscent of the repressed
tendencies to parent-incest to have received sanction either legally
or morally, but unions of this kind have nevertheless sometimes been
found among primitive peoples[105], and are not infrequently present as
objects of desire in the unconscious mind of those who live in civilised
communities to-day.
[Sidenote: Relatives by marriage]
Of particular interest in this connection is the displacement of feelings
originally directed to the parents towards _relatives in law._ Since by
marriage one partner in the marriage is supposed to have entered into
the family of the other, and, in virtue of the partial identification
of the two partners through common ties of interest and affection, may
really be said to have in some measure effected such an entrance, it is
not altogether surprising to find much the same conflict of tendencies
centering about the new relatives acquired by marriage as that which
formerly centred round the relatives by blood. Thus on the one hand we
find among primitive peoples the same taboos and avoidances practised in
the one case as in the other. In some places, for instance, a man may have
no dealings with some or all of the members of his wife's family, nor
a wife with those of her husband's[106]. On the other hand a number of
practices indicate that connections of an intimate kind between relatives
by marriage are, under certain circumstances at any rate, regarded as
permissible and appropriate. Such, for instance, is the widespread custom
of the Levirate[107], whereby a man is expected to take unto himself
his deceased brother's wife or the scarcely less frequent usage of the
Sororate[108] whereby a man marries his deceased wife's sister--practices
which seem to have made their influence felt (negatively) in our own table
of relatives with whom wedlock is forbidden, including, as this does, not
only blood relatives but relatives by marriage[109].
[Sidenote: Parent-in-law and child-in-law]
[Sidenote: Difficulties caused by parent fixation on the part of husband
or wife]
In recent times the relationship by marriage which has attracted most
attention is that of parent-in-law and child-in-law. In view of the
complex nature of the relations between parent and child and of the
elaborate process of re-adjustment in these relations which takes place
in the course of normal development, it is only to be expected that,
when a person suddenly acquires, as it were, new parents by the act
of marriage, he should experience some difficulty in establishing a
satisfactory relationship with these new parents, with whom, unlike his
own original parents, he may have had but little time or opportunity to
grow acquainted. To this general cause tending to make the relationship
between children-in-law and parents-in-law one of difficulty, there are
often added at least three further special sources of embarrassment, to
the consideration of which we may perhaps profitably devote a few words
here. In the first place, husbands and wives are not free to adjust their
relations to their parents-in-law according to the inclinations of the
two parties directly concerned, but must (if they are to be successful)
also bring these relations into some degree of harmony with those of their
partners in marriage towards these same parents (in this case parents by
blood): this is often far from easy, especially if, as so often happens,
either husband or wife or both have not entirely freed themselves from
their original infantile attitude towards their parents. Thus let us
suppose that a young woman at the time of her marriage still retains a
large amount of veneration and (unconscious) love towards her father.
This may cause her even after marriage to look to her father rather than
her husband as the source of her ideals and aspirations, to mould her
life according to his, rather than her husband's, precept and example,
and generally to adopt an attitude towards her father, which her husband
(who does not altogether share her--probably exaggerated--views as to
her father's admirable qualities) can scarcely be expected to imitate or
to approve. A very similar difficulty may be brought about in the case
of daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, where a son has retained an unduly
infantile attitude towards his mother; while in still other cases the
trouble may be due to an exaggerated dependence of husband or wife upon
the parent of his or her own sex, _i. e._, the husband upon his father,
or the wife upon her mother respectively. It is obvious that a fixation
of this kind on the side of either partner in a marriage may (quite apart
from its influence on the harmony of the marriage itself) be sufficient to
bring about a very considerable degree of difficulty in the relationship
between one partner and the parents of the other.
[Sidenote: The displacement of affect from parents to parents-in-law]
[Sidenote: Hate]
This tendency is moreover liable to be largely reinforced--or at least
complicated--by the other factors to which we referred above. The
second of these sources of difficulty (the one which is indeed most
intimately connected with our present line of thought) lies in the
fact that the child-in-law himself is frequently unable to regard his
parents-in-law with impartial eyes, but transfers to them some of the
feelings of love or of hatred which he originally directed towards his
own parents. This is perhaps most often and most openly manifest in the
case of hostile emotions; men or women expressing relatively freely
towards a father-in-law or mother-in-law respectively those feelings of
hatred which they had felt (but had perhaps repressed) with reference
to the corresponding parents by blood. The natural identification of
their parents-in-law with their own parents, in virtue of which this
displacement of affect is enabled to take place, is often facilitated
by the operation of the factor we have already considered--a parent
fixation in the case of the other partner to the marriage. Where such a
fixation exists, a father-in-law or mother-in-law may be felt to be in
some sort a sexual rival, in very much the same way as was at one time
the original parent (p. 17). Thus (to return to the example that we just
now used) a husband may feel that his father-in-law unduly influences
his wife and absorbs much of her affection and interest to the detriment
of that devoted to himself: this recalls the earlier situation in which
a similar rival--his own father--exercised a similar influence over the
then object of his affection, his own mother; and as a result of an
unconscious identification of the new situation with the old, the hostile
feeling originally directed towards his own father may be re-awakened
and transferred to the father-in-law. In this way the feeling of enmity
directed towards the latter may be more intense than that which would be
really appropriate to the situation. Any recently aroused (and perhaps to
some extent legitimate) feeling of annoyance is reinforced by the emotions
set free by the stirring up of the still powerful parent complexes of
infancy and childhood.
[Sidenote: Love]
Less liable to open manifestation is the corresponding transfer of
affect from parent to parent-in-law where the emotion concerned is
love rather than hatred. Such a transfer may nevertheless occur in
certain circumstances. In a positive form it may result in a high degree
of veneration or affection for the parents-in-law (or one of them),
which--especially if it should coincide with a high degree of parent
love in the other partner to the marriage--may lead to the existence
of very friendly and intimate relations of the younger couple with the
elder; relations which may, however, in many cases, tend to undermine the
initiative and independence of the younger pair. In a negative form (which
is very liable to occur, since the vigorous repression of the original
incestuous thoughts very easily extends to any fresh tendencies calculated
to arouse them) a transfer of this kind may lead to frequent troubles,
misunderstandings and frictions between the child-in-law and parent-in-law
whom it concerns.
[Sidenote: Corresponding displacement on the part of the parents-in-law
themselves]
The third and last of our three factors which complicate the relations
of children-in-law and parents-in-law consists in a similar displacement
of affect on the part of the parents-in-law, in virtue of which they may
direct towards their children by marriage the affection or hostility which
they originally experienced in relation to their own children; a factor
the significance of which may perhaps be more fully and easily appreciated
after we have discussed the intimate nature of these original feelings
of parents to their own children (_cp._ Ch. XIV below), and with regard
to which perhaps it is therefore best to content ourselves with a mere
passing reference here.
[Sidenote: Son-in-law and Mother-in-law]
The relation between child-in-law and parent-in-law which has become
notoriously the most difficult in recent times is that of son-in-law and
mother-in-law. This relation too has been made the object of some special
study by psycho-analysts[110], who have found in it all the factors which
we have referred to above. Among the most important grounds for the
hostility which so often marks this relationship have been observed the
following:--
1. The conflict between the mother and the husband for the possession
of the daughter and her belongings. The mother having in the majority
of cases in the past enjoyed a greater or less degree of authority over
the daughter, is loth to abandon this source of power, and seeks to
retain it by exercising (through the frequent giving of advice, appeal
to her own greater experience or otherwise) some sort of control over
the daughter's household or mode of life. This interference on the part
of the mother-in-law in the domestic arrangements of the younger couple
is very apt to be resented by the son-in-law, either directly, because
it appears to threaten his own supreme control over his own family, or
indirectly, because he identifies himself with the daughter (his wife)
who in her turn may not unnaturally object to the continuance of maternal
supervision after her marriage. On the other hand, should the daughter
display a marked tendency to be influenced by her mother or a high degree
of veneration or affection for her, the son-in-law will again resent the
interference of the latter, as threatening an encroachment on his wife's
love and respect towards himself.
2. The husband's fear of losing (through too intimate contact with his
mother-in-law) the sense of sexual attractiveness which his wife possesses
for him. The mother-in-law reminds him of his wife, but is without
her youthful beauty and this is apt to produce in him a dim sense of
apprehension lest, as a result of seeing, as it were, the mother in the
daughter, and of vaguely realising that the daughter may one day come to
resemble the mother, the former may lose for him her charm and his whole
marriage become thereby distasteful.
Of these two motives tending to produce disagreement between mother-in-law
and son-in-law, the first is for the most part situated at or near the
surface of consciousness, while the second can in many cases be brought
to consciousness by the exercise of a little courageous introspection.
Both motives, however (especially the second), are liable to be reinforced
by two further motives, which remain for the most part buried in the
Unconscious.
3. The mother-in-law may re-awaken in the son-in-law, in the manner we
have already indicated, feelings which are incestuous in origin, being
a displacement of those originally directed towards his own mother; the
repression of these feelings of affection then giving place to their
opposite--a feeling of repulsion or hostility--as a means of preventing
the irruption into consciousness of the tabooed incestuous desires. As
some indication of the reality of this factor, apart from the results of
psycho-analysis, may be mentioned the fairly well recognised facts that it
is possible for a man to be attracted to his future mother-in-law before
he falls in love with his future wife, that he may hesitate as to whether
he shall marry mother or daughter, or that he may fall back upon the
mother should the daughter die or fail him in some other way. As further
evidence too--on the negative side--we may refer to the extraordinarily
numerous and widespread taboos and "avoidances" which affect the relations
between son-in-law and mother-in-law among primitive peoples.
4. A corresponding displacement of incestuous desires, leading to a
similar repression and reversal of emotion, may occur in the case of the
mother-in-law herself, who, in virtue of this displacement, identifies
her son-in-law with a son of her own (either real or imaginary); the
one re-awakening in her incestuous tendencies originally aroused in
connection with the other. Or again, the primary motive on the part of
the mother-in-law may be unconscious sexual jealousy of her daughter, to
whom she grudges the superior attractiveness of youth and the pleasures
of dawning sexual life--a life which for the mother may be largely or
entirely at an end. In this case she may unconsciously identify herself
with her daughter, imagining, as it were, that it is she herself, and not
her daughter, that is married to her son-in-law. In either case it is
often the less tender and more sadistic elements of the mother-in-law's
love which are directed to the son-in-law, since these are more easily
reconciled with the maintenance of the requisite degree of repression than
would be the case with the more gentle and affectionate components.
[Sidenote: Step-child and Step-parent]
Only less important than the relations of child-in-law and parent-in-law
are those of step-child and step-parent[111]; and such lesser degree of
importance as these have is due rather to the lesser frequency of their
occurrence than to any lesser significance which they possess for the
individuals actually concerned. The generally outstanding feature of
these relations is the manifestation of a more intense, or at any rate
a more open, form of those feelings and tendencies which would normally
exist between the child and the corresponding blood parent. A boy, for
instance, who may successfully have displaced or repressed his original
feelings of jealousy or hostility towards his own father, may often
prove incapable of carrying out a similar re-adjustment in the case of a
subsequently acquired step-father. The latter may have none of the glamour
which belonged to the former in virtue of his position as head of the
family (and therefore centre of the child's world) during the infancy of
the child (_cp._ p. 55) and which may have helped to inhibit the original
hostility experienced towards him through arousal of the opposite emotions
of love, gratitude or admiration. The step-father, therefore, may easily
re-awaken in his step-son any remnants of the hatred which the latter
may have experienced towards his real father, without re-awakening in
corresponding degree the compensating forces which kept the hate in check.
[Sidenote: "Hamlet" as a study of this relationship]
Furthermore, the boy's mother only marries the step-father after a period
of widowhood during which the boy may have appeared to possess the sole,
or at any rate the chief, claim upon her interest and affection. By her
re-marriage she will probably seem to the boy's unconscious mind to have
been, in a very real and poignant sense, unfaithful to himself, and
to have rejected his own love for that of an outsider; an idea which
may appear in consciousness in the rationalised form of an imputation
of unfaithfulness towards the mother's previous husband--the boy's
own father. It is a complex of feelings of this kind which, as Ernest
Jones[112] has so convincingly shown, underlies and forms the principal
psychological motive in Shakespeare's tragedy of "Hamlet". It is this
which is the cause of Hamlet's vacillation in regard to the contemplated
murder of his step-father; the latter had only done what Hamlet himself
would fain have done before him, but was inhibited from doing. The
contemplation of Claudius's ill deeds serves dimly to call up the buried
tendencies which at one time prompted Hamlet himself to commit a similar
atrocity--the murder of the king (his father)--for a similar end--the
possession of the queen (his mother)--and the paralysing effect of the
arousal of such feelings makes itself felt as an inability to carry out
the punishment of one with whom he thus has much in common, and whom he
feels to be in a sense no worse than himself, the would-be punisher.
Moreover, in virtue of his marriage with the queen, Claudius now really
stands in the old king's place; in killing him, therefore, Hamlet is to
his own unconscious mind becoming guilty of the very crime of Œdipus which
had tempted him before his father's death; hence the resistance to the
consummation of the act which hatred of the interloper prompts him to
perform.
[Sidenote: The wicked step-mother in fairy tales]
In the case of a girl, corresponding feelings may be called up towards
her step-mother on the re-marriage of her father--feelings which have
found expression in the very numerous and familiar myths and fairy tales
(such as those of Cinderella, Snow White, Mother Holle), of the wicked
step-mother who kills, beats, neglects, falsely accuses, drives out or
otherwise ill-treats her step-daughter[113]. Here the feelings of the
girl, like those of the boy under similar circumstances, are given free
vent towards the step-mother, where they were formerly inhibited by
emotions of an opposite character (or at least repressed by considerations
of general or traditional morality) in the case of the girl's true mother;
the step-mother thus serving as an object capable at once of arousing,
and of becoming the recipient of, hostile and jealous feelings, which had
hitherto successfully been held in check.
[Sidenote: The attitude of step-parents towards their step-children]
These feelings of hostility on the part of children to their step-parents
are of course bound to call up some degree of reciprocal feeling on the
part of the step-parents themselves. The feelings thus aroused, however,
are often reinforced by more direct causes of hostility, such as are
liable to affect in any case the attitude of parent towards child (_Cp._
Ch. XVI). Here, however, the absence of the real bond of parenthood,
with its accompanying incentives to tender feeling, may easily cause
the hostile tendencies to meet with less resistance than usual so that
genuinely cruel or neglectful behaviour is more likely to occur.
[Sidenote: The displacement of love on to step-parents]
Although it is the displacement of hate which manifests itself most openly
and strongly in the relations of step-children to step-parents, the
displacement of love from the original dead parent to the new parent may
also play an important (though nearly always more or less unconscious)
part in these relations[114]. The taboo on incest works less powerfully
in regard to the feelings towards the new parent than it did in regard to
those towards the old. The new parent is, as a rule, no relative by blood,
nor is the surviving real parent felt to have the same exclusive rights
over his or her new partner as over the old; therefore the step-parent,
when of the opposite sex to that of the child, is often made the object
of a displacement of those feelings of tenderness and love which were
formerly directed to the real parent of this sex; this state of affairs
leading of course in the majority of cases to a corresponding re-awakening
of jealousy or bitterness towards the surviving original parent. This
love of step-child to step-parent (and particularly that of step-son to
step-mother) and the contest between both of these and the remaining
parent, is one which has indeed been used for ages as a mild form of
displacement of the tendencies and affects originally aroused when both
the child's parents were alive, and one which has found very frequent
expression in myth, legend and literature[115].
[Sidenote: Re-marriage after divorce]
All that we have here said as regards the feelings of children to their
step-parents holds good to an even greater extent than usual in the case
of the re-marriage of parents after a divorce or on their acquiring a
fresh sexual partner after separation from their lawful husband or wife.
Here indeed the feelings and emotions aroused are apt to be still further
intensified by the fact that the children have been, in the nature of the
case, more or less compelled to take sides in the previous struggle or
disagreement that has taken place between the parents. A child's feelings
of love and hate towards his parents are usually intensely stirred by all
manifestations on their part of conjugal unhappiness or infidelity and
when the barriers which prevent the full expression of these feelings
towards the child's real parents are removed by the substitution of a
step-parent, this new parent will often receive the full force of the love
or hate which had hitherto been pent up.
In this chapter we have been concerned with the displacement of the
parent-regarding emotions and tendencies on to persons who resemble the
parents in that they are connected with the child by some close tie of
family relationship. In the next chapter we shall proceed to discuss some
of the other associative mechanisms through the operation of which this
displacement may be effected.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 86: See _e. g._ Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy" II, 145.]
[Footnote 87: Ancient Society, 385 ff.]
[Footnote 88: See especially W. H. R. Rivers, "On the Origin of the
Classificatory System of Relationship." Anthropological Essays, presented
to E. B. Tylor, p. 310 ff.]
[Footnote 89: Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," II, 638.]
[Footnote 90: Frazer, _op. cit._ III, 576.]
[Footnote 91: L. Fernandez de Piedrahita, "Historia de las Conquistas del
Nuevo Reyno de Granada," 1688, 113.]
[Footnote 92: _Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, VII, 856.]
[Footnote 93: F. S. Clavigero, "The History of Mexico." Trans. 1787, I,
319.]
[Footnote 94: Book. III, 31.]
[Footnote 95: Sir Gaston Maspero, quoted by Miss R. E. White, "Women in
Ptolemaic Egypt", _Journal of Hellenic Studies_, 1898, XVIII, 244. _Cp._
Frazer, "Adonis, Attis and Osiris." II, 214, who also quotes the above.]
[Footnote 96: Cimon.]
[Footnote 97: Ch. XXII, ii.]
[Footnote 98: _Cp. e. g._ W. Ellis. "Tour through Hawaii," 414.]
[Footnote 99: "Totemism and Exogamy," I, 273 ff.]
[Footnote 100: See _e. g._ Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," II, 189.]
[Footnote 101: "Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage," 443 ff.]
[Footnote 102: See especially K. Abraham, "Die Stelle der Verwandtenehe
in der Psychologie der Neurosen," _Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische und
Psychopathologische Forschungen_, I, 1909, 110.]
[Footnote 103: See _e. g._ Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," I, 346, 439,
449 ff., 475, 483, II, 75 ff., 233 ff., III 552.]
[Footnote 104: See _e. g._ Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," I, 180 ff. II
65.]
[Footnote 105: See _e. g._ Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," II, 525, III
575, IV 316.]
[Footnote 106: For numerous examples see Frazer. "Totemism and Exogamy."]
[Footnote 107: For numerous examples see Frazer. "Totemism and Exogamy."]
[Footnote 108: For numerous examples see Frazer. "Totemism and Exogamy."]
[Footnote 109: The reader will remember that in England permission to
marry a deceased wife's sister has only recently been granted.]
[Footnote 110: See especially Freud, "Totem and Taboo," 24 ff.]
[Footnote 111: _Cp._ Rank, "Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage," 44 ff.]
[Footnote 112: "The Problem of Hamlet," _American Journal of Psychology_,
1910. XXI, 72.]
[Footnote 113: _Cp._ Riklin, "Wishfulfillment and Symbolism in Fairy
Tales".]
[Footnote 114: _Cp._ Otto Rank, "Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage," 44
ff.]
[Footnote 115: For numerous examples see Rank, _op. cit._ 119 ff.]
CHAPTER XI
FAMILY INFLUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE
[Sidenote: The more advanced stages of love displacement]
When the original object-love, at first directed to the parent, has been
successfully transferred to some more remote relative in the manner
studied in the last chapter, the course of normal development now requires
that a further transference should take place by means of a similarity
or association of some kind between this latter relative and some other
person totally unconnected by family relationship. In consequence it
is often possible to trace in the selection of the object of love the
influence of similarity, or of some other connecting link, between this
object and the lover's sister, brother, cousin or other relative. Here,
however, the emancipation from the original object is carried too far
for the underlying motive determining the direction of affection to be
regarded as in any sense pathological or abnormal or as indicating an
undue degree of fixation at an infantile stage of development; except in
cases where this motive is so strong as to bring about the direction of
love upon an object which is totally unsuitable, through the overlooking
of defects which would otherwise be patent. Rather is this act of
transference, when free from any such exaggeration, to be looked upon
as the final stage of the whole process of development we have been
following and as an indication of the attainment of maturity as regards
the direction of the love impulse.
[Sidenote: "Falling in love"]
The importance of the displacement here at work will be more readily
grasped, if we bear in mind that it constitutes one of the principal
factors in the normal and all-important process of "falling in love," and
particularly of that most striking but at the same time most mystifying
aspect of that process which we call "love at first sight." Love and its
causes have ever raised the wonder and curiosity both of the plain man and
of the philosopher, but, apart from more or less unsatisfactory theory and
vague speculation, neither has been able to bring forward any explanation
of the sudden over-powering attraction which a young man or woman, boy or
girl, may feel for some one member of the opposite sex; one whose charms
may appear to more unbiassed eyes to be but little if at all superior to
those of others of the loved one's age and situation. Thanks however to
the work of the psycho-analytic school, psychology is at last beginning to
cast a few rays of light upon the darkness which has hitherto surrounded
this central problem of human life and feeling. Freud, in a recent
article[116] summarizing the results of psycho-analysis in this direction,
has divided loves into two main types:--
[Sidenote: Two types of love:--]
(1) the narcissistic type,
(2) the dependence type.
[Sidenote: The narcissistic type]
In the first type the love is the result of a projection of the lover's
self on to some other person--the narcissistic love originally directed to
the Self being thus displaced on to the person of the loved one--through
some process of identification or some strong associative link. Love of
this type is frequently manifested in ties of a homosexual nature, where
the lover finds in one of his own sex a nearer copy of himself than would
otherwise be possible. It is also manifested in some of the fervent
affections of parents for their children, where the parents regard those
whom they have produced as in a manner an extension of themselves (_cp._
below Ch. XIV). And finally it is manifested in some connections of a
normal heterosexual kind; a man for example finds and admires in his wife
those feminine qualities which are present in himself but to which, so
long as they are in himself, he is unable (owing to repression of the
feminine side of his nature) to afford full recognition or appreciation;
or a woman finds attractive in a man those qualities of boyishness and
masculinity which she herself possessed in some degree before the time
of puberty but which she has since sacrificed to make way for a more
pronounced development of her "womanly" characteristics.
[Sidenote: The dependence type]
In love of the second type the affection is more genuinely and primarily
"object-love." The lover is here attracted towards his object because
he finds in it something that is essential to the fulfilment of his own
bodily or mental needs. It is this love which, as we have seen, is under
normal circumstances first aroused in connection with the parents (and
especially the mother), by whom the first primitive requirements of the
infant are fulfilled. It is this love too which, in its displaced form,
we have seen to be so frequently directed on to brothers, sisters or
other near relatives, and which, by a further process of displacement,
in the course of normal development eventually flows on to persons
unconnected with the lover by any bond of relationship. The repression,
as a result of which this latter displacement has occurred, as a rule,
brings it about that the associative links that connect the newer with
the older love are not perceptible to the lover himself; the bond is an
unconscious one. Nevertheless, this bond is often sufficiently clear to
any keen observer, whose eyes have once been opened to the fact of its
existence. In other cases however it may be of a more obscure nature, so
as to require a deeper study of the personality of the lover and of his
psychological history (such as can often only be obtained by employment of
the psycho-analytic method) before the nature of the association becomes
apparent.
[Sidenote: The repression of the incestuous basis of affection, as shown
in myth and legend]
The fact that in the personality of the loved object there often lies
hidden, as it were, the buried image of a brother, sister, parent or
other object of incestuous affection in the past, would seem to play
an important part in the formation of a type of story of world-wide
occurrence, of which the Cupid-Psyche myth and the Lohengrin legend
are perhaps the best known examples[117]. In these stories a marriage
or love affair takes place between partners, one of whom is usually of
mysterious (sometimes divine) origin and consents to enter upon the
alliance only upon the condition that no question shall be asked as
to his (or her) name, parentage or home; or upon the erection of some
other prohibition, such as one which forbids the use of vision or of
speech (either generally or under specified circumstances); upon the
infringement of which conditions the mysterious partner vanishes, leaving
the remaining member of the pair to lament the loss that has been thus
foolishly incurred through curiosity. Here the prohibition would seem to
be imposed with a view to concealing the fact that the union is based
ultimately upon the foundation of an incestuous affection, or is itself
incestuous in nature: a recognition of this fact would spoil the pleasure
of the union by arousing the repressions connected with incestuous love
and must therefore (as in the case of the marriage between Œdipus and
Jocasta in the Œdipus myth, where Jocasta--in Sophocles' play--strenuously
opposes all efforts at investigation) be prevented by the most rigorous
prohibitions, the breaking of which involves the permanent dissolution of
the union.
[Sidenote: Similarity as a basis of displacement]
[Sidenote: Its biological significance]
Among associations other than those of family relationship by means of
which the process of displacement is brought about, those depending on
mental or physical similarity are probably the most important; of all
the available methods of transference, they are too, in many respects,
the easiest, most natural and the least liable to cause pathological
aberrations of development. There can be little doubt, too, that the
frequent occurrence of the displacement of the love impulse along
these lines constitutes a factor of very considerable sociological and
historical importance. The tendency to choose a mate resembling in some
essential aspects--mental or physical--one's own nearest relatives,
must, for good or evil, act as a potent means of preserving the purity
of individual types and of family, national or racial qualities;
especially when, as may often happen, there is added to the influence of
this factor that of the narcissistic element of love to which we have
already referred. So long as the associative link which conditions the
displacement is one that has some correspondence to reality, the closer
the unconscious identification of the sexual partner of adult life with
the object loved in infancy, the more likely will it be for this partner
to possess hereditary qualities similar to those of the lover himself, and
the greater therefore, in all probability, the resemblance of the ensuing
offspring to their parents.
[Sidenote: Name]
Among the similarities of a less essential kind which may assist in the
process of displacement, those of _name_ are apt to play an important
but subtle part and one that is very liable to be overlooked or where
observed, ascribed to coincidence rather than (as it more often should
be) to the operation of unconscious mental factors[118]. They are in
some respects a source of danger, inasmuch as they are concerned with
relatively superficial characteristics[119] which have little to do with
the real nature of the person selected, thus making easy the choice of
otherwise unsuitable objects of affection.
[Sidenote: Age]
Similarities with the parents as regards _age_ often exercise some
influence in early years and in the early stages of displacement, but in
later life are less operative than, in view of the intensity of the parent
fixation in some individuals, might perhaps be expected. This is probably
due, to a large extent at any rate, to the fact already referred to, that
the unconscious parent love of adult life has as its object the image of
the parents as they appeared to the child in infancy; these image-parents
being therefore of a considerably younger age than that which the real
parents have actually attained by the time the child has reached maturity.
The similarities as regards _general or special circumstances_ may also
on occasion be important in determining the direction of transference and
in cases where the process of displacement has suffered an arrest at a
comparatively early stage, may cause serious difficulties or restrictions
in the choice of object.
[Sidenote: Falling in love with those who are already married or betrothed]
Thus it may happen that, just as the child's love activities in relation
to its earliest love object were impeded by the fact that this object
was already bound by affection, law or both, to a third person (_i.
e._ the parent of the same sex as that of the child), so in adult life
the individual's choice may fall only on objects who are similarly not
at liberty in the disposal of their affections[120]. There are indeed
some men and women who can only fall in love with married or betrothed
persons, and who are doomed therefore either to become dangerous enemies
to the harmonious married life of others or else themselves to suffer
successive repetitions of the unsuccessful love of their childhood[121].
Marriage in such cases may bring no relief, because the object of their
affection may cease to exercise attraction as soon as its possession is
undisputed and unhindered. The widespread occurrence and intensity of
the unconscious ideas underlying this kind of aberration is shown by the
frequent treatment of the subject in legend and literature (_Cp._ Tristan
and Iseult, Paolo and Francesca, Pelleas and Melisande, Don Carlos and his
step-mother, Casandra and a host of other examples in which the expression
and fulfilment of a great love are prevented by the fact that one of
the lovers is already married or affianced to a third person, usually a
relative, and one who on analysis can easily be shown to represent the
parent who stood in the way of the first love of the child.)[122].
[Sidenote: The desire for obstacles in the way of love]
In a number of other cases stress is laid not so much on the unfree
condition of the loved object, but, more generally, on the barrier raised
by the incestuous nature of the desired relationship. This factor will of
course in the majority of cases merely add its force to those demanding
previous marriage or betrothal to another as a necessary qualification of
the loved object, but will sometimes manifest itself alone as a felt _need
for_ the occurrence of some sort of _hindrance_ to the consummation of
love, the lover being unable to derive full satisfaction from the union
or to remain permanently attracted to his chosen object in the absence
of such hindrance[123]. Here it will usually be found that the loved
object is unconsciously identified with the parent or with some other near
relation.
In other cases the desire for some kind of obstacle may manifest itself in
a tendency to keep secret the existence and the circumstances of the love.
With persons subject to this tendency (which would seem to be found more
especially among women) a love affair may lose a great part--or perhaps
the whole--of its attractiveness as soon as it is made public and is
openly admitted, as by the act of marriage.
[Sidenote: The rescue phantasy]
Since the thought of the sexual relations of the parents is, both on
account of jealousy and on account of the repression of incestuous
cravings, one that is usually extremely distasteful to the child, the
latter often likes to imagine that the loved parent enters into such
relations unwillingly and under compulsion. Such a belief can arise most
easily in a boy's mind as regards his mother: it then in its turn gives
rise to the idea of rescuing the mother from the unwelcome and tyrannical
attentions of the father[124]; a phantasy which has found expression in
the many stories and legends (of which that of Andromeda and that of St.
George are perhaps the most widely known examples) in which a distressed
and beautiful maiden is delivered by a young knight or hero from the
clutches of a tyrant, giant or monster[125]. This phantasy is sometimes
found too in a sublimated form in which, for instance, great enthusiasm
may be aroused by the effort to deliver a small or helpless race or nation
from the dominion of a larger and more powerful people[126], or again by
the struggle for the liberation of an oppressed section of a community
from the tyranny of a ruling class[127].
[Sidenote: The symbolic meaning of the rescue]
The idea of rescue has too, as has recently been discovered, a further
symbolic meaning, which may be present to the Unconscious[128]. To rescue
means to save from death, _i. e._ to present with life, and thus comes to
be equated with the notion of begetting or bringing to life. In this way
the rescue of the mother may signify to the Unconscious a begetting, _i.
e._ a process of cohabitation with her, the boy thus putting himself in
the place of his father and fulfilling in a symbolic manner his incestuous
desires. As a further determinant of the rescue phantasy in this sense
there is sometimes to be found an obscure notion of self-begetting--the
creation of oneself without the co-operation of the parent of one's
own sex, all obligation to and connection with this parent being thus
repudiated. Such a repudiation of the undesired parent may also find
expression in the phantasy of rescuing this parent from death--an idea
which is not infrequent in legend and folklore: the obligation that the
child had incurred through the gift of life by the parent being now
cancelled by the incurring of a similar obligation on the part of the
parent towards the child.
[Sidenote: Hatred and contempt of the mother for permitting the advances
of the father]
[Sidenote: The mother regarded as a prostitute]
Freud has drawn attention to the occurrence of a curious case of
displacement--not infrequent among men and of very considerable importance
for subsequent sexual life--which seems to depend to some extent at any
rate, upon an arrest in the Unconscious at the stage of secondary mother
hatred or contempt to which we referred on p. 59[129]. In such cases
the mother is not pitied for having to suffer unwelcome advances from
the father, but hated and despised for permitting or encouraging these
advances. The father, being, according to the estimation of the child's
Unconscious, a partner altogether undesirable, one who would under no
circumstances be preferred to the child himself by any woman of good
taste, the mother is regarded as a person quite lacking in such taste, a
woman who indeed might give herself to _anybody_ (a view which of course
also encourages the hope that she may some day give herself to the child).
If this view should persist in the Unconscious, the mother may come
subsequently to be regarded as a sort of _prostitute_.
[Sidenote: The dissociation of sexual attractiveness and esteem]
Now although such a sequence of ideas in the Unconscious may lead to
contempt of the mother, it has not deprived her of her original power of
attracting love and admiration; it leads rather to a mental splitting up
of these original attractive attributes, the more purely and directly
sexual ones being separated from the other characteristics in virtue
of which she stands as an example of all that is morally desirable in
womanhood. These two different aspects of the mother attributes are then
in later life sought and found in different individuals--the sexual
attributes in prostitutes or in women of inferior morality, education,
intelligence or social station; the other attributes--objects of tender
love and admiration--in women of a higher standing, towards whom however
no physically sexual attraction can be felt.
[Sidenote: The importance of this dissociation]
This dissociation of purely sexual attraction from tenderness, esteem
and the other components of fully developed love, is, if we take account
of its presence in minor as well as in major degrees, of such frequent
occurrence, that it has been regarded by some as a normal feature of the
sex impulse in the human male. It is at the same time a feature which
cannot but be productive of harm in a monogamous society, so that if
Freud's explanation of its origin should prove to be one that is at all
generally valid, this aberrant process of development must be regarded as
one that entails very serious consequences of an ethical and sociological
as well as of a psychological nature, and one therefore to whose
incidence, genesis, growth and history a little further consideration may
perhaps not unprofitably be devoted here.
[Sidenote: Influences in later life which are liable to reinforce it]
The dissociation between the more purely sexual constituents of love and
the elements of esteem, reverence and tenderness which is originally
brought about in the manner indicated by Freud, probably owes much of
its prevalence and importance in later life to the fact that, once
established, it is very apt to be strengthened and maintained by certain
of the conditions under which the development of a youth's sexual
knowledge is liable to occur. Among the most important of these conditions
are the two following:
[Sidenote: Masturbation]
(1) The first actual experience of acute sensory pleasure of a sexual kind
about the time of puberty is very frequently associated with the act of
masturbation, which in its turn is often accompanied by visual phantasies
in which the rôle of sexual partner is played by women or girls known
to the boy. As masturbation itself is usually carried on in the face of
considerable psychic opposition, being looked upon as sordid, disgusting
or injurious to health, there is not unnaturally a reluctance to bring
into connection with this manifestation of the sexual impulse any woman
or girl who is sincerely and profoundly loved, esteemed or honoured;
those introduced into the masturbation phantasies being therefore such
who, while not devoid of superficial sexual attractiveness, nevertheless
display some real or supposed inferiority (as regards beauty, virtue,
social standing or what not), as a result of which they make no appeal to
the boy's sense of higher moral values. Through frequent repetition of
this process, women of an inferior type come to be firmly associated with
the more directly sexual aspects of love, from which women who are looked
upon with tenderness or veneration are correspondingly dissociated, lest
these dear objects of affection should be sullied by being brought into
contact with what the boy regards as dishonourable, lewd or filthy[130].
[Sidenote: Prostitution]
(2) At a later stage of development the original dissociation thus
reinforced is frequently still further strengthened by the association (in
thought or deed or both) of sexual practices with prostitutes--a class
of women whom the youth is himself prepared to condemn because of the
already existing connection in his mind between inferiority and sex, and
as regards whose condemnation from the moral point of view he, as a rule,
finds ample corroboration in the opinions expressed or implied by those
around him.
[Sidenote: Effect of the dissociation on marriage]
The moral degradation of the sexual object thus receives its final
confirmation, and when later in marriage the young man endeavours to
unite esteem and tenderness with sexual passion, he may find that the
dissociation between these elements of love has grown too wide and
fundamental to be overcome, so that one or other of these requisites of
a complete and happy married life has necessarily to be sacrificed. As
a result of this, a man may marry a woman whom he is prepared indeed to
cherish, honour and esteem, but towards whom (for this very reason) he
feels himself but little attracted in a purely sexual sense; in which case
he will often be tempted after a while to seek a more complete degree
of sexual satisfaction elsewhere. Or else, should the directly sexual
trends prevail, he may select a partner who is inferior to him in some
important intellectual, moral or social respect, thus paving the way for a
married life in which many of his more sublimated tendencies, desires and
aspirations are doomed to suffer permanent lack of gratification[131].
[Sidenote: The liability of women to a corresponding dissociation]
There can be little doubt that women are, on the whole, less liable
to suffer from this kind of dissociation than are men. With women the
directly sexual elements of love are more frequently aroused together
with the elements of tenderness and esteem, than is the case with men.
Thus many women experience sexual desire or gratification _only_ in
relation to men to whom they are bound also by feelings of deep affection,
admiration or respect. This difference between the sexes is perhaps to
some extent a constitutional one, the elements in question being by nature
more intimately fused and integrated in one sex than in the other[132].
Some part of the difference is however due, beyond all reasonable doubt,
to environmental and educational factors.
Of the three principal factors we have enumerated as liable to bring about
a high degree of dissociation between sexual attraction and esteem in men,
it seems probable that the first--that due to the child's contempt for
the (otherwise) loved parent for yielding to the sexual advances of the
hated parent--is almost if not quite as potent with women as with men.
The subsequent reinforcement of the dissociation by the two remaining
factors is however to a considerable extent inoperative with women. The
influence of masturbation is in nearly all respects less marked in women
than in men, partly perhaps because at the important age, at or about
the time of puberty, the practice is less frequent with girls than with
boys, but principally because for a variety of reasons it meets with less
violent psychic opposition, arouses less violent moral conflicts and is
to a much lesser extent liable to become the cause of self-contempt or
self-reproach[133]. Nor again is the association of sexual activity with
prostitution (although the act of prostitution itself may be regarded with
considerable repulsion) so deeply ingrained in women as in men.
In spite, however, of the lesser operation of these factors in the case
of women and in spite of any possible closer connection (through innate
organization) of the elements of the love impulse which are liable to
dissociation, it is nevertheless true that a very considerable number of
women do suffer from some degree of this dissociation[134].
[Sidenote: Manifestations of the dissociation in women]
Such women will often be attracted to two kinds of men--one of which
(frequently physically inferior) may arouse sympathy, respect, devotion
or tenderness, while the other (frequently of a morally, socially or
intellectually inferior type, but often physically superior[135]) will
alone be capable of arousing sexual desire. Quite often the attraction
to an inferior person is combined with the desire for clandestinity to
which we referred above; the whole complex finding its most satisfying
and appropriate expression in a furtive love affair of such a kind as to
be contrary to the moral or social standards of the woman's upbringing
and environment. It is obvious that the difficulties which bar the way
to a completely successful marriage for such women are but little if
at all inferior to those existing in the case of men who suffer from a
corresponding condition of dissociation[136].
[Sidenote: Combination of the prostitute and rescue phantasies]
In a certain number of cases there is to be observed a combination of
the original prostitute phantasy (the remoter consequences of which we
have been here considering) with the rescue phantasy to which we referred
above. Such a combination of motives may give rise to the enthusiasm
for "rescue work" as displayed by such persons as John Storm in Sir
Hall Caine's novel "The Christian" or, more generally, may bring about
the desire to lead the prostitute, fallen or abandoned woman (mother
substitute) to a better way of life (_Cp._ Hamlet and his mother)[137]. In
women too this combination of motives may not infrequently be observed,
manifesting itself most often as a desire to effect the regeneration of
some drunkard, ne'er-do-well or criminal or of some class of men of this
description; sometimes leading even to marriage with a person of this
kind, with a view to the better attainment of this end (though in these
cases the superior sexual attractiveness of such men is of course usually
an additional--though not always a recognised--motive).
[Sidenote: The desire for chastity]
In still other cases again the intensely disagreeable feeling that is
associated with the idea of the mother giving herself to the father may
lead to an overwhelming desire for the strictest previous chastity in
any woman that may be selected as bride or sexual partner; the virginity
of the later love serving as a recompense for the supposed impurity and
faithlessness of the earlier object of affection, and to some extent no
doubt (through the process of identification) bringing about--so far as
the unconscious mind of the lover is concerned--a purification of this
former object. Such feelings as these, working in the Unconscious, are
probably among the most powerful factors which determine the behaviour
of that not inconsiderable number of men whose affection and general
attitude towards a woman are completely changed by the merest suspicion
that she has experienced sexual relationships with any but themselves,
however great the extenuating circumstances connected with such
relationships; who are utterly unable to entertain the idea of marriage
with any such woman (_Cp._ Angel Clare in Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the
d'Urbervilles") or who in temporary or venal intercourse will go to much
trouble or expense to secure a virgin for their partner[138].
[Sidenote: The importance of displacement in the love life]
The brief review which we have undertaken in this chapter of the
displacement of the love impulse from persons of the immediate family
environment to objects selected from a wider circle, is sufficient to
show that the whole nature and course of the love life of an individual
is to a very large extent dependent on the way in which this displacement
is achieved[139]. There is little doubt but that the further advance of
psychological science will reveal more intimately the working of those
mechanisms with which we have here been dealing, and of whose nature
and importance we are now beginning to gain some rough preliminary
understanding. In view of the desirability of a satisfactory direction of
the love impulse, as well from the point of view of national and racial
well-being as from that of individual happiness and family prosperity, it
is to be expected that the further enlightenment which we may hope for on
this subject, will be, both practically and theoretically, as important as
any which the science of Psychology will bring us.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 116: "Zur Einführung des Narzißmus." _Jahrbuch für
Psychoanalyse_, VI, 1. I.]
[Footnote 117: See especially Otto Rank, "Die Lohengrinsage," Schriften
zur angewandten Seelenkunde.]
[Footnote 118: An influence of this kind may also manifest itself by
causing the successive falling in love with several persons of the same
name, as for instance, in the case of Schiller (Charlotte von Wolzogen,
Charlotte von Kalb, Charlotte von Lengefeld) or in that of Shelley
(Harriet Grove, Harriet Westbrook and the later affection for Harriet de
Boinville). The incestuous origin of such a name influence may be shown
even more clearly in cases where the names of persons successively loved
are those of different members of the lover's own family; as in the case
of Mörike; (Clara and Louisa, after the name of his two sisters). _Cp._
Rank, "Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage," pp. 91, 543. In a case known
to me, a young woman fell in love successively with three men possessing
the same Christian name, one of whom had the same surname as herself. In
a fourth love affair the surname of the man was the same as the Christian
name of her brother, to whom she was much attached, and contrary to her
usual custom she always called this fourth lover by his surname instead of
by his Christian name.]
[Footnote 119: Though not perhaps quite so superficial as is often
supposed. Psycho-analytic work has drawn attention to the influence that a
name may often exercise upon the behaviour and mental characteristics of
its possessor. (_Cp._ Stekel, "Die Verpflichtung des Namens," _Zeitschrift
für Psychotherapie und medizinische Psychologie_, III, Part 2, 1911.
Abraham, "Über die determinierende Kraft des Namens," _Zentralblatt für
Psychoanalyse_, II, 1912, 133). Goethe (Wahlverwandtschaften, Part I, Ch.
2) too had already noticed the possibility of this influence.]
[Footnote 120: _Cp._ Freud, "Beiträge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens,"
_Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische und Psychopathologische Forschungen_,
1910, II, 390.]
[Footnote 121: It is such a character for instance that Ibsen appears
to have met in the person of Emilie Bardach of Vienna, who served as
principal model for Hilda Wangel in The Master Builder and who is referred
to in the following description given to his friend Elias (_Neue Deutsche
Rundschau_ 1906, p. 1462, quoted by William Archer in his Introductions to
Ibsen's plays, Vol. X, p. XXIV) "He related how he had met in the Tyrol
a Viennese girl of very remarkable character. She at once made him her
confidant. The gist of her confessions was that she did not care a bit
about one day marrying a well brought-up young man--most likely she would
never marry. What tempted and charmed and delighted her was to lure other
women's husbands away from them. She was a little daemonic worker: she
often appeared to him like a little bird of prey, that would fain have
made him too, her booty."]
[Footnote 122: Otto Rank, "Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage,"
especially p. 121.]
[Footnote 123: An interesting example of this curious desire is quoted
by Rank (Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage, p. 94.) from the life
of Schiller: on the occasion of the publication of the banns for the
marriage between the poet and Charlotte von Lengefeld, the former is said
to have remarked jokingly to his bride that it would be a pity if no one
came to raise some objection to the marriage or to dispute his right to
Charlotte's hand!]
[Footnote 124: This belief is often strengthened by, and in its turn tends
to confirm, the frequently held infantile theory which regards sexual
relations as consisting essentially of an attack on the mother by the
father--a theory which itself exerts in many cases an important and often
harmful influence on subsequent sexual life.]
[Footnote 125: _Cp._ E. S. Hartland, "The Legend of Perseus." Vol. I, p.
94.]
[Footnote 126: Byron's espousal (note, by the way, the implications
underlying the use of such an expression in this connection) of the cause
of Greek independence may be cited as a classical example of this form of
sublimation.]
[Footnote 127: _Cp._ below, Ch. XII.]
[Footnote 128: _Cp._ Otto Rank, "Die Lohengrinsage." 87. ff., Ernest Jones
"Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 233.]
[Footnote 129: "Beiträge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens." _Jahrbuch für
psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen_, 1910, II, 389.]
[Footnote 130: Indeed it frequently happens that a boy will call up the
image of some girl whom he sincerely loves in order that he may the better
resist the temptation to practise masturbation.]
[Footnote 131: For an interesting and suggestive study of the influence of
a high degree of this dissociation upon married life and upon the general
attitude towards questions of sex and of morality, the reader is referred
to J. D. Beresford's novel "God's Counterpoint".]
[Footnote 132: If this is so (and indeed perhaps in any case), it is
evident that the difference in question must be taken into consideration
in dealing with such questions as those affecting the pre-marital chastity
or unchastity of men, the "double moral standard" in sexual matters _etc._]
[Footnote 133: Among the causes of the greater condemnation of
masturbation in men one of great importance consists in the fear of
castration which--as result of threats by parents and nurses and
otherwise--frequently becomes intimately associated with the onanistic
act. Closely connected with this is the fact that the significance and
consequences of masturbation are more obvious in the male than in the
female--the emission of semen and the lassitude that follows this being
very liable to produce a sense of loss and injury, thus easily arousing or
reinforcing the fears connected with the ideas of castration. Perhaps a
further factor of a more general nature is played by the greater freedom
of narcissistic impulses in women (_Cp._ Freud, "Zur Einführung des
Narzißmus," _Jahrbuch für Psychoanalyse_, VI. I.). The relatively greater
persistence of infantile self-love shows itself clearly in the greater
freedom of the milder manifestations of homosexuality in women (the
homosexual partner being a projection of the lover's self; _Cp._ above p.
103) and may very well also be the cause of women's more natural attitude
to masturbation as a form of auto-erotic gratification.]
[Footnote 134: _Cp._ Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis" 558, the
whole chapter being important in this connection.]
[Footnote 135: Since there is a very general tendency for physical
superiority in men to arouse sexual feelings in the woman, whereas
inferiority in men as regards size, strength, health, _etc._, is apt to
arouse a sympathetic, motherly affection in the woman.]
[Footnote 136: I am indebted to my friend Major O. Berkeley-Hill for
the suggestion that the attraction which women often feel for men of a
racially more primitive type, and the corresponding jealousy that the
(often subconscious) perception of this attraction arouses in men of the
women's own race, are among the most important factors which prevent
the reconciliation or co-operation of different races and which are the
cause of much of the brutality and violence which a superior race is apt
to exercise towards an inferior one. (_Cp._ the frequent lynchings of
negroes for real or supposed sexual offences in America, or the anti-negro
or anti-Chinese riots that are of not infrequent occurrence in English
seaport towns.) If this should be true (and there can be little doubt that
it applies to certain cases) it would appear that we are dealing with a
psychological fact possessing historical and sociological bearings of even
wider significance than would at first appear--bearings which must be kept
in mind in all attempts to produce rapprochement or better understanding
between the different races of mankind. (For a study of the tendency in
question in individual cases _Cp._ the novels of Robert Hichens, _e. g._
"Bella Donna" and "Barbary Sheep")]
[Footnote 137: A very interesting case illustrative of the rescue and
prostitute phantasies will be found in Ernest Jones. "Einige Fälle von
Zwangsneurose," _Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische und Psychopathologische
Forschungen_, 1913, V, 55.]
[Footnote 138: This psychic tendency must of course be distinguished from
the sexual jealousy so characteristic of paranoia, which has been shown
to be due to repressed homosexuality, the paranoiac projecting on to his
wife or paramour the tender feelings towards some person or persons of his
own sex, which he himself harbours in his Unconscious. (_Cp._ Ferenczi,
"Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," trans. by Ernest Jones, Ch. XI, p. 238
ff.)
Both the importance and the incestuous origin of this desire for chastity
are clearly demonstrated by the infrequently recurring theme of the Virgin
Mother in religion and mythology. _Cp._ below Ch. XIV.]
[Footnote 139: An interesting historical case of one whose career was
probably influenced to a large extent by quite a number of the unconscious
motives discussed in this chapter is that of King Henry VIII of England.
See J.C. Flügel, "On the Character and Married Life of Henry VIII." _The
International Journal of Psycho-Analysis_, 1920, I, 24.]
CHAPTER XII
FAMILY INFLUENCES IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
[Sidenote: Displacements of hate less complex than those of love]
In studying the hate aspects of the original Œdipus complex we saw that
these aspects, on their first appearance and in so far as they depend on
mere jealousy or envy, are secondary products, arising as a consequence
of the love aspects. When the cause of the jealousy is removed by a
successful displacement of the love impulse, there is no longer any reason
for the continuance of the hate. It is probably for this reason that
the displacements of the hate aspects appear to be, on the whole, less
numerous and less complicated than those of the love aspects.
Certain forms of love displacement, it is true, necessarily imply, to
some extent, correlative forms of hate displacement; as in the case
(studied in the last chapter) of the transfer of love exclusively to
married or betrothed persons or in the case of the rescue phantasy. In
these cases the rival with whom the lover competes for the possession of
the loved object or the tyrant from whose clutches the captive lady is
snatched by the skill or daring of the youthful hero, are (in the light of
psycho-analytic knowledge) manifest substitutes for the original rival or
tyrant who existed in the person of the father. The intensity of hostile
feeling of which these representatives become the objects may however
vary very considerably from one instance to another, according as the
emphasis of the whole phantasy is laid upon the elements of hatred or
of love. Sometimes the hostile rival may be present only in a vague and
shadowy form, constituting little more than a necessary background; as,
for instance, in cases where the existence of some kind of opposition is
essential to the arousal or enjoyment of love. In other cases, however,
the hate element may be equal in importance to the love element, or may
even constitute the predominant motive of the whole displacement.
[Sidenote: The development of hate]
In these latter cases it will usually be found that the hostility
brought about secondarily as the result of jealousy has been powerfully
reinforced by hatred of a more direct and independent kind, arising as a
reaction against a more general interference with the child's aspirations
or desires on the part of a tyrannous parental authority (or one that
is considered to be such). The presence, in some degree, of this form
of reaction is very prevalent, and this is not surprising when we bear
in mind the fact that the child has, during its early years, to be
continually moderated, guided, stimulated or restrained in its actions, or
tendencies to action, by the exercise of parental or of delegated parental
authority[140].
The exercise of such restraint or guidance, even within necessary and
desirable limits and with all the care, refinement and regard to the
child's own natural course of development which modern methods of training
may dictate, is bound to give rise to _some_ feeling of resentment,
especially in children of self-willed, obstinate or independent character
or in those with whom the tendencies in need of guidance or restraint are
unusually vigorous or persistent. Much more so even is this liable to be
the case where (as may often happen) the child's upbringing is carried
out with but little regard for, or understanding of, its own feelings,
susceptibilities or tendencies. In all such cases the hostile sentiments
aroused by the conflict of parental authority with the impetuous desires
of childhood may be such as to outlast the period of early life to
which they properly belong and to furnish a basis for a pathological
fixation at the stage of parent-hatred, as a result of which this hatred
may constitute an important--and usually maleficent--component of the
individual's character throughout his life.
[Sidenote: Displacement of hate on to parent substitutes]
We have already, in the earlier chapters, discussed the manner in which
parent hatred of early origin (together with most other aspects of the
young child's attitude towards its parents) should, in the course of
normal development, be overcome. We have already seen, however, that
certain of the secondary hatreds consequent upon incestuous love are in
many individuals incapable of being completely and satisfactorily resolved
in any of the normal ways, but become, instead, displaced on to parent
substitutes in the same way as the love impulses which they accompany.
The same fate of displacement awaits, in most cases, those more direct
and primary hatreds which are consequent upon the parent's interference
with the child's more general wishes and desires. In the course of the
individual's life, the authority over his expressions, activities and
general mode of living originally exercised by the parents, passes in
succession, wholly or partly, to a number of other persons; to whom
the feelings directed to the parents in virtue of the exercise of this
authority is then transferred. Among those to whom such transference most
frequently and regularly takes place are to be found--nurses, teachers,
school prefects, police officers, employers, professional or military
superiors, or persons occupying general positions of command, such as
magistrates, statesmen or kings.
[Sidenote: This displacement may lead to rebellion against authority and
the persons who exercise it]
There can be little doubt that much of the general resistance to, and
intolerance of, authority, that may be exhibited by certain individuals,
or at times by whole sections of a community (or even by whole peoples)
derives its motive power from a persistence in the Unconscious of parent
hatreds of this kind. A very considerable proportion of criminal actions
in the individual are also due to the same unconscious source, the still
existing desire to resist the authority of the parents finding outlet in a
displaced form in infringements of the laws, conventions, or regulations
imposed by the authority of society or of the State. Particularly
is this true of crimes against persons who embody or exercise this
authority--emperors, kings and other persons in high places, and it would
seem probable indeed that many cases of regicide or of attempts on the
lives of official personages have been committed by those suffering from
insufficiently controlled parent hatreds of unusual strength. Bearing in
mind the dangers that beset a community in which tendencies to anarchy,
lawlessness or unreasonable opposition to governmental authority are
widespread, it is obvious that the frequent occurrence of violent and
persistent parent hatreds in children, leading, as they so often do, to
displacements of this kind, is a matter of very serious sociological and
political importance[141].
[Sidenote: Displacements of respect and esteem]
These same persons in authority, who thus become the recipients displaced
enmity towards the parents, may however also serve in later life as
substitutes for those aspects of the parents in virtue of which these
latter were in childhood reverenced as the possessors of unlimited
power, wisdom, virtue or knowledge (_Cp._ above p. 54). Especially is
this the case perhaps with regard to ecclesiastical authorities; the
priest, as the interpreter of wisdom that transcends earthly knowledge
and the transmitter of commands that transcend earthly authority,
being peculiarly suitable as an object of this emotional attitude. The
head of the Roman Catholic Church has indeed, through the doctrine of
infallibility, been explicitly endowed (with reference to a certain sphere
of thought) with the character of perfect knowledge and perfect wisdom,
which the young child with the sense of its own immense inferiority in
these respects, is liable to attribute to its parents. The teacher too,
in his position of moral and intellectual authority, frequently becomes
the recipient of similar feelings; the additional influence which he
possesses over his pupils through the latter's childish over-estimation
of his knowledge and capacity often receiving frank acknowledgment in
the fact of his unwillingness ever to appear to have been mistaken or to
have been ignorant with regard to any matter, lest the realisation of his
fallibility should detract from the suggestive power that he has hitherto
enjoyed.
[Sidenote: Medical practitioners as parent-substitutes]
The displacement on to medical advisers and attendants originally directed
to the parents, has frequently been recognised. Here again, it is more
particularly the attribute of benevolent omniscience that is liable to be
transferred. Three factors contribute especially to this result:--(1) The
physician's knowledge on matters of the highest interest and importance,
about which others are relatively ignorant (particularly perhaps "medical"
matters, in the sexual sense of that euphemism); (2) the fact that the
situations in which his assistance is called in, for the most part
urgently demand some kind of action which he alone can adequately perform;
the sense of helplessness which others feel in these situations being
similar in many respects to that frequently experienced in early years
when, as children, we were dependent upon the efforts of our parents in
many of the important affairs of life; (3) the fact that this sense of
helplessness and the general attitude of suggestibility are still further
increased in the case of the patient by the general regression to a
relatively childish state of mind which illness so frequently brings in
its train. The physician's capacity to stimulate and maintain the power
of suggestion, which he possesses in virtue of this attitude on the part
of those who consult him, is undoubtedly the secret of much real success
in medical practice, inasmuch as the mental factors in disease--the
importance of which is now becoming fully recognised, although their
nature is not yet always clear--are to a large extent directly affected by
the patient's belief in his doctor's ability to understand and cure the
complaint from which he suffers.
[Sidenote: The rôle of parent-regarding tendencies in suggestion and
hypnosis]
This suggestive power plays of course a specially prominent part in
dealing with disorders of a directly psychopathic nature[142] and
peculiarly so where a condition of enhanced suggestibility is deliberately
induced and utilised with a view to the cure of such disorders, as in
the practice of hypnotism. The work which has been directed to the study
of hypnotism from the psycho-analytic point of view has brought out very
clearly the similarities between the condition in hypnosis and some of the
mental characteristics of early childhood; and has led to the conception
of the hypnotic trance as a regression to a relatively infantile state
of mind, the _rapport_ between operator and subject being regarded as,
in certain important respects, a repetition or revival of the relations
which had previously existed between parent and child. Ferenczi[143] has
gone so far as to regard the different methods of inducing hypnosis
as depending upon a revival in a displaced form of the child's typical
attitude towards its father or its mother respectively; the stern,
commanding, confident tone, adopted by some operators, tending to bring
about a relationship between them and their subjects that constitutes a
revival of the former relationship between father and child, the calming,
soothing, soporific methods of others serving to recall the attitude of
the child towards its mother, as when in early infancy it was lulled to
sleep by its mother with the aid of a very similar procedure.
[Sidenote: "Transference" in psychoanalysis]
In the practice of psycho-analysis, too, the displacement of emotional
attitudes originally adopted with reference to the parents has been shown
to play an important part, though the therapeutic effect of the method is
not, as has sometimes erroneously been supposed, due to the simple action
of suggestion[144]. Psycho-analysis aims at producing a state of greater
co-ordination in the patient's mind by giving him an understanding of
the nature and direction of his unconscious mental trends, thus putting
him in a position to bring about a state of relative harmony between the
different impulses which formerly, by their mutual antagonisms, were
responsible for the production of the neurosis. A mere understanding
of the nature of the unconscious processes involved is however, as has
frequently been shown, powerless to effect the desired result, unless the
conative and affective sides of these processes are also loosened from
their fixations in the Unconscious and made available for use in other
directions. It is here that the transference of tendencies originally
directed to the parents becomes important. Just as, in the first unfolding
and development of the child's emotional capacities, the direction of
the love impulses on to the parents was the means of bringing the child
beyond the primitive stages of auto-erotism and narcissism, so now in the
emotional re-education that psycho-analysis involves, the further process
of displacement of the parent love on to new objects is one of fundamental
importance and is often an essential condition of the necessary
readjustment and integration of the emotional life. Not of course that
the parent-love is the only impulse requiring displacement in this way,
but, inasmuch as the Œdipus Complex is (as Freud has put it) the nuclear
complex of the neuroses, it is just the emotions that centre round the
parents that usually constitute the most fundamental and far-reaching, as
well as in themselves the most massive and weighty, of those that need
readjustment as regards their object. In this process of readjustment,
the analyst himself--as is now well recognised--usually plays a highly
important, though a transitory, rôle; the emotions loosened from their
fixations by the process of analysis being temporarily displaced on to his
person, (on their way to more suitable and permanent objects) both because
he is the first available object, and because his position of authority as
the conductor of the analysis naturally suits him for the part[145].
[Sidenote: Transference and the cure of neuroses]
It is principally because a displacement of this sort can be much more
easily produced in certain kinds of neurosis than in others, that
neuroses differ from one another markedly in their amenability to
treatment; what Freud has called the Transference Neuroses[146] (such as
Hysteria or Obsessional Neurosis), in which the patient, though unable
to adjust his emotions to the level required for satisfactory adult
life, has nevertheless for the most part attained--and retained--the
stage of object-love, comparing very favourably in this respect with
the Narcissistic Neuroses (such as Paranoia), in which the patient has
regressed beyond the stage of object-love to the relatively infantile
level at which his emotional outlets are sought only in, or in connection
with, his own person.
[Sidenote: The displacement of parent-regarding feelings, on to objects
other than individuals]
All the displacements with which we have been hitherto concerned have
at least this one important feature in common, that the feelings and
tendencies originally directed to the parents are transferred to definite
individuals. There are, however, certain forms of displacement, of very
considerable sociological importance, in which this is no longer the case,
the parent substitutes being found, not in any individual persons, but in
groups, places, societies and institutions.
[Sidenote: Home]
Thus in many cases the home, as the place in which the parents lived
and in which the feelings of love, tenderness and admiration towards
the parents were first developed, acquires and retains throughout life
a peculiar attractiveness, in which piety, tenderness and pride are
intermingled and which is, it would seem, to a very large extent derived
from the emotional attitude of the child towards the parents themselves.
The attachment to the home in this sense frequently manifests itself in
home-sickness whenever the individual is compelled to leave his native
place or native land; those who suffer from home-sickness to an unusual
degree or for an unusual length of time being in most cases burdened with
an overstrong attachment to and dependence on their family, or certain
members of it, having failed to free themselves adequately from their
infantile fixations in this direction.
[Sidenote: Family or Clan]
In certain persons again--especially in members of an aristocratic caste
or in others who are able to trace their descent through a long line of
ancestors--some important aspects of the parent-love come to be attached
to the idea of the whole family of which they form a part; the tendencies
to esteem, obedience, admiration or idealisation originally aroused by
the child's immediate parents being transferred to the family or clan
regarded as a social group, which has existed in the past, exists now in
those of its members who happen to be living and will continue to exist in
their descendants. This kind of transference may constitute a sublimation
of considerable value, inasmuch as it may afford a powerful motive to
the individual for not falling below the level of attainment or civic
worth that is expected of the family, and generally for doing all that
may enhance, and avoiding all that may degrade, the family reputation;
on the other hand, it may sometimes be productive of an undue tendency
towards conservatism and may lead to the stifling of individual effort,
independence and initiative, through the imposition of a too uniform
standard of conduct and achievement or a too close adherence to tradition.
[Sidenote: School]
In many persons, again, the school, as the centre of influence that
succeeds in time (and often in importance) to that constituted by the
family circle, naturally draws to itself many of the emotions which
had hitherto found their exclusive outlet in the family; loyalty and
obedience to school traditions, together with respect, tenderness, pride
and admiration for the school as a collective body replacing to some
extent the corresponding feelings which had previously been experienced
principally or solely in relation to the parents.
[Sidenote: University]
At a later age, these same feelings may be again displaced on to a College
or University; the term _Alma Mater_, so frequently applied to the latter,
bearing witness to the extent to which a University is habitually endowed
with maternal attributes--being regarded as a kindly mother (often of
venerable age and experience) who imparts to her sons the learning and
wisdom that she possesses, and generally equips them for the tasks and
trials of life in the outer world.
[Sidenote: Town]
Towns[147] may also become the recipients of parentally, and especially
maternally, directed feeling; those who love and admire a town often
referring to it in terms which would be more directly appropriate to a
woman; a woman behind whom the mother image can usually be discovered.
The emotions aroused by the besieging, attacking or capturing of towns in
warfare are also in part derived from the same source.
[Sidenote: Other objects]
The same feeling too is often directed to houses, ships, churches (and
especially to the institution of the Church; _cp._ the phrase "Mother
Church"); also to trees, woods, mountains, lakes, rivers, the sea and
other natural objects.
[Sidenote: The attitude of the individual to the state:]
Probably the most important displacement of this kind from the
sociological point of view is that in which parental attributes are
transferred to the community, state, or country. The mental ties that
bind the individual to the community are of course complex in nature,
comprising emotional and intellectual factors belonging to a variety
of psychic levels. Among the most fundamental and deep seated of these
factors are, as Ernest Jones[148] has pointed out, those that take their
origin in feelings that regard the self, the mother and the father
respectively.
[Sidenote: Self-regarding tendencies]
The self-regarding tendencies are enlisted in the service of
patriotism;--on the conscious, intellectual level, through a recognition
of the community of interest between the individual and the state; on the
more primitive, emotional and unconscious level, through a process of
identification of the individual with the state, as a result of which
the former participates in the successes and failures of the latter in
much the same way as if they affected him directly and principally in
his own person. In these latter respects the feelings of the individual
towards the state are similar in many ways to those that are involved in
a corresponding identification of the self with the family, the school
or any other group with whose prosperity and honour the well-being and
self-respect of the individual is bound up.
[Sidenote: Mother regarding tendencies]
The displacement of the mother-regarding feelings on to state is, it would
seem, chiefly connected with the ideas of being nourished, trained and
protected, on the one hand, and of actively protecting, on the other. Thus
we tend to regard our native land as a great mother who brings into being,
nourishes, protects and cherishes her sons and daughters and inspires them
with respect and love for herself and her traditions, customs, beliefs and
institutions; in return for which her children are prepared to work and
fight for her--and above all, to protect her from her enemies; a good deal
of the horror and disgust which is inspired by the idea of an invasion of
one's native land by a hostile army being due to the unconscious tendency
to regard such an invasion as a desecration and violation of the mother.
[Sidenote: Father-regarding tendencies]
In the displacement of the father-regarding feelings on to the state, the
tendencies connected with the attitude of respect, obedience and loyalty
to the paternal authority are usually the most prominent. Great importance
is moreover almost invariably attached to the head of the state as its
embodiment and its supreme authority, the country over which he rules
being looked upon as his possession or estate, which it is the duty of his
children to uphold, to protect or to enlarge. Kings, as we have already
seen, are habitually identified in the Unconscious with the father, as are
other persons in positions of authority, and it is interesting to note
that the evidence of language and of certain common appellations applied
to these persons fully endorses the conclusions of Psycho-Analysis in this
respect. Thus, as Rank[149] and Jones[150], following Max Müller, have
pointed out, the word king is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit root
_gan_, meaning to beget, _ganaka_ being Sanskrit for father. The Czar of
Russia was until recently called the "Little Father," the same title as
the Hunnish Attila (diminutive of Atta = father). The title "Landesvater"
is commonly used in Germany just as the Americans still call Washington
the Father of his Country. The ruler of the Roman Catholic Church is
called the "Holy Father," or by his Latin name of "Papa[151]" (from the
root _pa_ to protect, nourish). Similarly, the word "queen" comes from
the Sanskrit _ganí_, which means mother (Greek [Greek: gynê], Gothic
_quinô_)[152] and a queen who has had children, is the mother of the
reigning monarch or has merely attained to a certain age, is frequently
spoken of as the "Queen Mother."
[Sidenote: Political importance of these tendencies]
There are considerable differences, both individual and national, as
regards the relative importance of the father and the mother elements
respectively in the general attitude adopted towards the state, and
it would seem probable that these differences are apt to lead to, or
at least to be correlated with, political characteristics of very
great importance. Thus England is looked upon almost entirely as a
mother, the father-regarding aspects of an Englishman's feeling for his
country playing but a very minor part in the formation of his total
attitude; the same is in the main true of modern--as distinct from
prerevolutionary--France (though, as Ernest Jones[153] points out, the
term 'la patrie'--combining as it does a feminine form with a masculine
connotation--implies to some extent the co-operation of both elements),
while the colossal female statue of Liberty at the entrance to New
York would certainly seem to indicate that the land of freedom which
the traveller is approaching is to be regarded as an embodiment of the
matriarchal, rather than of the patriarchal, aspects of human society.
Germany, on the other hand, is habitually spoken of as the Fatherland;
while in Russia the Czar was regarded, to a unique extent perhaps among
modern nations, as the Father of his country. The tendency to blind
loyalty and obedience manifested in these latter countries compared,
until recently, most markedly with the relatively free and unconstrained
affection exhibited by the citizens of the former states towards their
native land, and suggests the existence of a fairly close correspondence,
on the one hand between the maternal view of the state and the development
of democratic institutions and individual independence, and on the other
hand between the paternal view and the development and retention of
autocracy and a relatively strict subordination of the individual to the
authority of the government and of its representatives.
It would be possible also perhaps to point to a general tendency towards a
similar association of the mother-regarding attitude with a trend towards
change, progress or instability, and of the father-regarding attitude
with a corresponding trend towards stability and conservatism; though the
extreme progressiveness, in certain respects, of modern Germany has shown
that any such tendency does not hold for all cases or for all aspects of
culture.
Where the attitude towards the state, its institutions and authority
is not one of love, friendliness or reverence, but one of hate and
rebellion, it is of course the corresponding feelings of hostility towards
the parents which play a leading part in the unconscious motivation of
malcontents or revolutionaries. It is principally for this reason that
revolutions in autocratic paternal states (_cp._ the recent upheavals in
Russia and Germany and the French Revolution) are usually more violent and
extreme than in the case of the freer and more liberal maternal countries,
since the desire for rebellion in early family life is generally directed
against the authority of the father to a much greater extent than against
that of the mother.
[Sidenote: Family organisation and State organisation]
There probably exists, moreover, as Rank[154] and Jones[155] have already
suggested, a considerable degree of correspondence between the nature
of the family system as found in any country and some of the political
features to which we have referred. Thus the authority of the head of the
household--the _patria potestas_--was perhaps more developed among the
Romans than among any other western people, and the Romans elaborated a
military and civil administration of such strength and durability that
the whole of western civilisation has to a large extent been raised and
developed on the foundation and the model it afforded. With the Jews
also the patriarchal system was developed to its fullest extent and
this people has shown its inherent conservatism and stability by the
preservation of many of its characteristic physical, psychological, moral
and social qualities, though homeless for upwards of two thousand years.
Among Oriental nations, the Chinese are distinguished for their rigid
system of family rule and individual subordination to the parents and they
evolved a civilisation which lasted almost without change for a period
that is without parallel in recorded human history. On the other hand it
is notorious that in times of rapid social change or political upheaval,
family ties and family authority tend to be relaxed, the individual
asserting his freedom in domestic as well as in political matters; and it
is probable that there exists a tendency for all periods of national or
racial instability, whether leading to development or to degeneration, to
be characterised by a relaxation or throwing off of parental authority and
tradition; though it is obvious that, owing to the great complexity of the
factors involved in the rise or fall, expansion or decay of nations, the
correspondence cannot be an absolute one.
[Sidenote: Ambivalent attitude towards the king]
As regards the attitude adopted by the individual member of a state
towards the king or ruler, Freud has shown[156] that it tends to be, in
Bleuler's useful phrase, ambivalent, _i. e._, to be determined by two
motives of opposite character, in one of which hate is the principal
element, in the other love. This ambivalency manifests itself most clearly
in the many restrictions and taboos that are attached to, or connected
with, the office of king in different parts of the world, and that are to
some extent still operative even in civilised societies at the present
day. These taboos are in the main of two kinds:--
[Sidenote: Taboos affecting the king as manifestations of this attitude]
(1) Those that restrict the activities of the king himself, such as the
rules in virtue of which he may only live in certain places, go out at
certain times or eat certain foods, must avoid all situations involving
danger of any kind and must submit to a cumbrous, wearisome and often
exhausting system of court routine and ceremony. Taboos of this kind would
seem on analysis to have two main objects:--(a) to guard the king from
any harm, (b) to limit his power in a variety of ways, and generally to
make his life burdensome and unpleasant (under the guise of assuring
his dignity or safety). The exaggerated fear of some harm coming to the
king, which is manifested in (a), arises by way of a reaction against the
unconscious _desire_ that some harm _may_ befall him, in the same way as
an exaggerated and unreasonable anxiety as regards the health and welfare
of some relative usually indicates a repressed feeling of hostility
towards that relative (_cp._ above p. 57); while (b) even more obviously
involves elements of fear and of hostility.
(2) Taboos that affect the subjects in their relations to the king,
such as those which forbid looking at, or touching, the king, or the
touching or eating of his food, or the touching or removal of his personal
effects. These may likewise be traced to two predominant motives:--(a) the
desire, as before, to preserve the king from any harm--in this case more
especially from harm that may result from the actions of those about him;
(b) the desire to avoid any harm befalling the subjects as a result of
influences emanating from the king, the latter being regarded as a potent
but mysterious source of danger to all who rashly approach or come in
contact with him. The latter tendency, with its correlative belief, arises
as the result of a projection of the hostility felt towards the king;
this hostility (in accordance with the mechanism of Projection--now well
recognised both in normal and in abnormal psychology)[157], being falsely
attributed to its object, instead of to the person in whose mind it really
originates.
In both sets of taboos the presence of hostility towards the king is thus
made manifest, the taboos themselves arising chiefly as a result of this
hostility and aiming only secondarily, and by way of reaction, at an
increase of the king's safety, dignity or happiness.
[Sidenote: Hostility towards and murder of the king]
The reality of this hostile feeling is placed beyond all reasonable doubt
when we bear in mind the frequent occurrence of openly cruel practices,
such as imprisonment, enforced immobility[158], starvation[159], or
even beating[160], especially when we take into consideration the very
widespread custom of killing the king at the end of his period of office
or as soon as his strength or ability show signs of failing--a sinister
theme which Frazer has treated with such charm of manner and such wealth
of erudition in the twelve immortal volumes of the Golden Bough. Both
on account of the actual nature of many of its manifestations[161] and
because of the close unconscious identification of king and father, to
which we have already referred, it is evident that this hostility is
in many of its aspects a displaced form of the hate elements of the
Œdipus complex; the historical, sociological and political bearings
of which acquire in this light, and in the light of the other facts
and considerations brought forward in this chapter, a new, and in many
respects an altogether overwhelming, significance.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 140: _Cp._ Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 2nd. ed.
540 ff. for a study of the manner in which restraint of the child in one
particular respect--with regard to the excretory functions--may lead to a
hostile attitude of this kind on the part of the child.]
[Footnote 141: Thus, as Mr. Burt has suggested to me, the influence of
displaced father-hatred is probably in large measure responsible for the
fact that strikes and other crude forms of rebellion against authority in
industry occur principally among the working classes, where the tyranny
of the father is often of a primitive and repressive type. For the same
reason the number of delinquents from these classes is almost certainly
relatively larger than that from the upper and middle classes, quite apart
from the influence of economic and educational factors. _Cp._ too in this
connection p. 128 below.]
[Footnote 142: _Cp._ Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 2nd. ed.,
318 ff.]
[Footnote 143: "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," trans. by Ernest Jones,
Ch. II, especially 57 ff.]
[Footnote 144: Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 2nd. ed. 301.]
[Footnote 145: In technical psycho-analytic literature, the term
"Transference" is, as a rule, used to denote this particular kind of
displacement only.]
[Footnote 146: "Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse," 526 ff.]
[Footnote 147: O. Rank, "Um Städte werben," _Zeitschrift für Ärztliche
Psychoanalyse_, 1914, II, 50. B. Dattner, "Die Stadt als Mutter,"
_Zeitschrift für Ärztliche Psychoanalyse_, 1914, II, 59.]
[Footnote 148: "War and Individual Psychology," _Sociological Review_,
1915, p. 1.]
[Footnote 149: "Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage," 83.]
[Footnote 150: "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 143.]
[Footnote 151: Ernest Jones, _loc. cit._]
[Footnote 152: Ernest Jones, _loc. cit._]
[Footnote 153: "War and Individual Psychology," _Sociological Review_,
1915, p. 10.]
[Footnote 154: "Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage," 414 ff.]
[Footnote 155: Ernest Jones, _loc. cit._]
[Footnote 156: "Totem and Taboo," 70 ff.]
[Footnote 157: For a brief general account of projection _cp._ Bernard
Hart, "The Psychology of Insanity," 117 ff.]
[Footnote 158: A certain priestly king in West Africa may not even quit
his chair, in which he has to sleep sitting. Frazer, "Taboo and the Perils
of the Soul," 123.]
[Footnote 159: Frazer, _op. cit._, 124.]
[Footnote 160: Frazer, _op. cit._, 18.]
[Footnote 161: We may briefly mention here a few of the main lines along
which the evidence for the identification of regicide and parricide
proceeds:--
(1) The very person who performs the deed of murder is frequently the one
who succeeds to the throne; taking this in combination with the fact that
it is usually the son or some other near relative who is the recognised
successor, it is evident that there exists a natural tendency for the
murderer to belong to the murdered king's own family.
(2) The birth of a son is very frequently associated with the idea of
danger to the father. This danger would appear to be the principal motive
for the widespread custom of killing the king's son, which seems to be
regarded as, in many respects, an alternative to the killing of the king
himself (see Frazer, "The Dying God," Ch. VI, 160 ff.) _Cp._ the very
frequent legends (of which the story of Œdipus is one) in which a kingly
father, to avoid threatened danger to himself, exposes or otherwise
attempts to murder his young son. See Rank, "The Myth of the Birth of the
Hero."
(3) There exist many cases in legend, and some in actual fact, in which
the son fights with his father for the privileges of chieftainship; while
in at least one case (Frazer, "The Dying God," 190) the king is made to
abdicate as soon as his son is born.
(4) In the many quaint practices of the Carnival type, which, as Frazer
has shown ("The Dying God," 205 ff.), usually represent, in one at least
of their aspects, the murder of the king in the shape of the spirit of
vegetation, the death of the old monarch is usually followed, immediately
or after an interval, by general rejoicing at the coming to power of his
successor (_cp._ the well known phrase, "Le roi est mort, vive le roi")
showing that the idea of the superseding of an outworn potentate is a
prominent underlying feature of the whole type of ceremony.
(5) Festivals of this kind, and indeed those connected with the succession
of kings generally, are usually associated with some kind of sexual orgy,
in which the relaxation of the usual prohibitions, especially those which
relate to incest, is often a prominent feature; this fact seems to point
to the existence of some connection between incest and succession to the
kingship, such as that which is manifested in the myth of Œdipus.
(6) This connection is indicated even more clearly by the widespread
custom of the new king taking over the wife of the king whom he has
succeeded, even if she should be his own step-mother, or in some cases
perhaps his real mother (See Frazer, "The Magic Art and the Evolution of
Kings," II, 283 ff., "The Dying God," 193 ff.). Where (as seems to have
happened not infrequently) this is combined with the murder, deposition
or defeat of the old king, we get both elements of the Œdipus complex in
intimate association, and openly expressed.
(7) Among the prohibitions and conditions to which a king is subject
during his tenure of office, not the least burdensome are those connected
with his sexual life. On the one hand his sexual activities are often
restricted, permitted only under certain circumstances and conditions or
even forbidden altogether; while on the other hand any failure or weakness
of sexual power may be made the reason for his deposition or execution. If
the sexual jealousy, which is such an important constituent of the Œdipus
complex, plays an active part in the attitude habitually adopted towards
kings (especially by those who are likely to become their successors),
such restrictions on the king's sexual activity or such a utilisation
of any sexual failing on his part as an excuse for his deposition or
execution are only what we might expect to find.
In bringing forward these arguments in favour of the operation of the
Œdipus complex in the treatment accorded to kings, we must not of course
shut our eyes to the co-operation of other important motives belonging to
the later and more conscious levels of the mind, such as that emphasised
by Frazer, according to whom the king is regarded as the embodiment of
natural fertility, so that, if he were to become old or enfeebled, Nature
(in virtue of the principles of homoeopathic magic) would suffer from a
corresponding weakness and produce less abundantly; this belief naturally
leading to the desire to kill the king while he is still in his prime,
lest in age or disease he should endanger the sustenance of the community.
Such a motive as this (and perhaps still others) may very well co-exist
with the motives connected with the Œdipus complex, in virtue of the
psychological mechanism of over-determination, just as--as Silberer, Rank,
and others have shown--many myths, legends and neurotic symptoms may give
direct or symbolic expression at the same time to two or more distinct
sets of tendencies.]
CHAPTER XIII
FAMILY INFLUENCES IN RELIGION
[Sidenote: The role of parent-regarding feelings in primitive notions
concerning the Divine]
We saw in the last chapter that the feelings with which men tend to look
upon the holders of the highest earthly dignity and power--the heads of
churches, states and empires--are to a large extent derived from those
which had originally shaped and coloured the child's attitude towards
its parents. From the position of supreme human authority to that of
superhuman power is, in imagination, but one further step; and accordingly
we find that the tendencies and emotions connected with the parents can
frequently and easily, by a further process of displacement, bridge over
the gulf between kings and gods; and, by their association with the ideas
of the Superhuman and the Divine, become important factors in moulding the
religious feelings of mankind.
Apart from this however, reasons for the transfer of many of the
parent-regarding emotions to the sphere of religion are not far to seek.
There exists a close and obvious correspondence between the attitude
of the young child towards his parents and that of man towards the
superhuman powers which he personifies as God, the Divine Father. In
both cases the individual's life and destiny are controlled by powers
that seem, in comparison with his own puny capacity and understanding,
to be immeasurable in their might and mystery. In both cases the health,
happiness and even the very existence of the individual seem to be
dependent upon the beneficence and approval of these powers; powers which
can be terrible, and against which no effort will avail, if once aroused
to wrath; but which nevertheless can be to some extent controlled and
made to work in harmony with the individual's needs and desires, if the
latter will but conduct himself towards them obediently and with due
persuasiveness and understanding.
Small wonder then that the adult human being, confronted with the mighty
forces of nature, the laws of which he is compelled to follow, if he
would avoid destruction, but which--especially if he be ignorant or
uncivilised--he cannot comprehend, tends to revert to the attitude of mind
in which, in childhood, he looked upon his parents as the forces--equally
powerful, as they then seemed, and equally inscrutable--that controlled
his fate. In proportion as the child, with increasing age and experience,
loses the delusions he had entertained as regards the all-powerfulness,
all-knowingness and all-goodness of his parents, he begins to realise,
both from his own experience and from instruction and tradition, that
there are powers in the Universe which exceed the greatest human might,
powers before whom the child's own parents--together with all other
mortals--must acknowledge their own humility and impotence, powers so vast
that it may seem only reasonable and befitting to regard the wielder of
them as the possessor of those qualities of omnipotence and omniscience
that were once, in the crude ignorance of infancy, vaguely attributed
to the parents and to other adult persons of importance. The divine and
superhuman forces, about which the child thus begins to have some notions,
constitute in this way a very natural substitute for the exaggerated and
idealised estimation of the parents which the child's increasing knowledge
of human life compels him to abandon, but which he nevertheless, as we
have seen (_cp._ above p. 55), gives up reluctantly.
[Sidenote: The divine and the human parent]
The displacement of the parent-regarding emotions and tendencies in this
direction is, in the case of the individual, often further facilitated in
the three following ways:--(1) owing to the generally pronounced animistic
tendency of the primitive mind, the child naturally and indeed inevitably
conceives of natural forces in a personal and usually in a human form;
(2) the child early learns to conceive of the supreme forces of the
Universe as creative--creative on a large scale, just as his own parents
and other human beings are creative on a small scale; further he learns
that he owes his own creation to God as much as to his own parents--to God
ultimately, to his parents proximately; (3) in both these respects the
individual tendency to endow the Divinity with attributes derived from the
parents is greatly stimulated and reinforced by the suggestive power of
religious tradition, working through the channels of direct teaching or of
representation in language, literature and art.
[Sidenote: Remoter ancestors as divine parent substitutes]
The correspondence between the divine and the human parent is one that,
for these reasons among others, is very deeply rooted in the human mind.
In an advanced stage of culture it may find its most natural expression in
the related concepts of an ultimate and an immediate creator respectively,
but at a more primitive mental level it is usually brought into connection
with the distinction between remoter ancestors and immediate parents.
There can be no doubt that the most important aspects of the theory
and practice of religion are very largely derived from, and influenced
by, ancestor worship, even though they may not, as Herbert Spencer has
contended[162], have entirely originated from this source. Granted the
fundamental assumption of animism--the existence of an individual soul or
spirit which is to some extent independent of the body and may survive
bodily death--it becomes easy to attribute to one's dead parents or to
one's remoter ancestors powers that exceed those of persons who are
still alive. There is not, as in the case of the living, any obvious and
well defined limit to their capacity, and it becomes possible therefore
to displace freely on to them the exaggerated notions which it is no
longer possible to hold with regard to parents who are still subject
to the conditions of earthly existence. The tendency which thus arises
is reinforced by the very general fear of the dead[163], which easily
attributes to its objects an exaggerated power--especially for evil. The
more remote the ancestors in time, the more easy does it become to assign
to them a power which is manifestly superior to that of the living, though
the ideas of the ancestors and of their power necessarily become at the
same time more shadowy and vague.
[Sidenote: Unsatisfying features of simple ancestor worship]
The conditions are thus given for a religion of simple ancestor worship,
such as has existed in very many parts of the world[164] and has often
continued to exist alongside of a wider state religion, as for instance
in Rome. As a rule however a further step is involved, probably because
a simple ancestor worship of this kind is both too indefinite and too
individualistic to prove permanently satisfactory, either from the
point of view of the individual himself or of the community of which
he forms a part. It is too indefinite because it does not provide any
sufficiently clear and characteristic object or objects upon which the
displaced parent-regarding feelings can be directed; and it is too
individualistic because, so long as each family is thrown back solely
upon its own ancestors as objects of worship, the religious feelings and
tendencies aroused lack the stimulating force which they derive from the
co-operation of the herd instinct (in virtue of which the individual is
particularly liable to be affected by the emotions to which his fellows
give expression)[165] and through which alone, in many cases, religion is
able to become a permanent and stable form of expression for the displaced
parent-regarding tendencies of childhood and a social force which has
proved to be of the greatest importance in the history and development of
mankind.
[Sidenote: The All-Father]
For these and other reasons, ancestor worship is not often found in its
pure and simple form, but is usually complicated and modified in at least
two important ways:--(1) a single ancestor is selected as the originator
and founder of the family, the high patriarchal attributes being for the
most part reserved for him alone; (2) this same ancestor is regarded as
the founder, not merely of a single family, but of the whole clan, tribe,
nation or other social unit, or, by a further extension, of the whole
human race, of all living beings or, ultimately, of the whole Universe.
There is thus created the notion of a single All-Father, who serves at
once as the supreme and most satisfying embodiment of the father-ideal
for the individual and as a potent means of strengthening and uniting the
community through the sense of brotherhood and loyalty that attaches to a
common worship and a common origin from a divine ancestor. The satisfying
character of the religious concept that is here reached is apt to be
still further increased by a complete or partial fusion of the notion of
the divine father with that of the kingly father which we have already
discussed. The mythical divine ancestor, the founder of the race, is
frequently supposed to have been originally a king also, and it is usual
for the reigning line of sovereigns to trace their descent more especially
from him. Very often too the kings, or at any rate the greater ones among
them, receive divine honours at their death, being then worshipped along
with the other illustrious ancestors of the tribe, having but exchanged
their earthly power for a more exalted throne in heaven.
[Sidenote: Totemism]
[Sidenote: Exogamy]
[Sidenote: The totem as a father]
It is in the early stages of tribal ancestor worship of the kind we
have been here considering that we come across a widespread social and
religious system so curious in nature that it may undoubtedly rank as one
of the most remarkable discoveries brought about by the study of primitive
man. I refer, of course, to Totemism. In Totemism the mythical ancestor
takes on a non-human form, being as a rule some animal, but sometimes
also a plant or even an inanimate object. All examples of the totem class
are, as a rule, held sacred by those who belong to the respective totem,
and must be treated with care and reverence, but (in the case of animal
totems at any rate) are sometimes killed and eaten at a solemn sacrificial
feast. Combined with these religious or quasi-religious manifestations
of Totemism there are usually to be found certain well marked features
of social organization. A single totem is not, as a rule, common to a
whole tribe, but each tribe consists of two or more (most often four, but
sometimes as many as eight) totem clans, which are all strictly exogamous,
no man being allowed to take a wife from his own clan; the field of choice
being indeed sometimes still further restricted, in such a way that the
women of only one small section of the total tribe are available for
this purpose. The sociological and psychological influences that led to
the creation of the totemic system in a number of widely separated parts
of the world are still to a large extent a matter of dispute. A number
of theories have been propounded on the subject, and although many of
them are suggestive, there is perhaps no single one as that fully and
satisfactorily accounts for all the facts[166]. Among the few points that
emerge clearly from the investigations and discussions to which the matter
has given rise is the connection of the totem with the father. It has
been shown that the totem spirit regularly, either to a complete or to a
partial extent, plays the father's part in the creation of the child; the
substitution of totem for father being rendered easier by the existence of
a confused and ignorant state of mind on the subject of paternity; which
makes it conceivable that the spirit of an animal or other object should
enter into the mother's womb and thus produce conception[167].
[Sidenote: Relics of Totemism in religion]
[Sidenote: and in the individual mind]
That this vagueness on the subject of paternity in the mind of primitive
man finds its counterpart even in civilised societies[168] is shown by
the many legends of a supernormal birth in which the father is dispensed
with or is replaced by some non-human being[169]. The deep rooted and
persistent nature of the tendency to totemism is shown also by the very
frequent occurrence at all stages of culture of theriomorphic gods,
whose cult often leads to certain animals or classes of animals being
regarded as sacred, just as in the case of totemic communities. Even
when the gods are no longer habitually regarded as animals, they still
occasionally take on animal form (_cp._ the frequent animal disguises of
Zeus) or are connected with, or represented by, animal symbols (_cp._
the dove, the pelican, the lamb, the fish and the ass in Christianity).
In the individual mind of the civilised person animals are frequently
utilised as symbols of the parents in dreams and other productions of
the Unconscious[170]. There are indeed persons who experience a peculiar
fascination for some kind of animal, which they regard with mixed feelings
among which love, admiration, awe, disgust and hate are often to be
found; those emotions usually predominating which are most prominent in
the individual's relations to his father. Thus in one case well known to
the present writer, in which the ideas connected with the father were
chiefly those of goodness and wisdom, the hostile aspects being much
repressed, the owl was looked upon very much in the light of an individual
totem, the solemn stare and pouting figure of the bird appearing to
symbolise the kindly beneficence and immense wisdom of the (earthly and
heavenly) father--with just so much of mystery and possibility of evil as
to add a tinge of awe and horror to the total attitude. Freud[171] and
Ferenczi[172] have each reported interesting cases in this connection,
in both of which the father-regarding tendencies and emotions had become
displaced on to a particular kind of animal (in one case the horse, in the
other the fowl) with the result that this animal exercised an intense and
persistent fascination, in which opposing elements of love and hate could
clearly be distinguished[173].
[Sidenote: The psychological connection between Totemism and Exogamy]
If, as thus seems probable, we have in Totemism a peculiar form of
displacement of the feelings originally directed to the parents (and
especially the father), it is not surprising that Totemism should be
frequently accompanied by manifestations of the other, and sexual, aspect
of the Œdipus complex. Such manifestations are, in effect, not far to
seek and are in all probability to be found in the system of Exogamy
which almost invariably accompanies the institution of Totemism. Whether
or not Exogamy is co-eval with Totemism (some authorities think that
it is of later origin), there is now a very fair measure of agreement
that Exogamy has (consciously[174] or unconsciously) been created as a
means of avoiding incest. If this view is correct it would appear that
the connection between Totemism and Exogamy (a connection the nature of
which had for long been anything but clear) is due to the fact that the
two institutions have respectively come into being as the result of the
operation of two closely-joined psychic factors, namely the two principal
elements of the Œdipus complex. Just as in the individual mind, the
presence in any high degree of one of these elements tends to bring about
the presence of the other, so too in societies, the manifestations of the
one element tend to be closely correlated with the manifestations of the
other[175].
In touching on the subject of Exogamy, we have come very near to the
most fundamental sociological problems connected with the main theme of
this book. To these problems and to the whole question of the meaning of
Exogamy we shall return in a later chapter. For the moment we must leave
them, in order to pass on to the consideration of certain other aspects
of the influence upon religion of psychic tendencies connected with the
family.
[Sidenote: The ambivalent attitude towards the father as reflected in
religion]
We have seen that the child's attitude towards his father is usually
an ambivalent one, _i. e._ it is determined partly by tenderness and
affection and partly by hostility or fear. Naturally the relative
predominance of one or other motive varies from one case to another,
both as regards the religious life of individuals and as regards the
beliefs and forms of worship adopted by various races, nations, sects
or denominations. Thus the paternal qualities ascribed to the deity are
sometimes derived chiefly from that attitude of the child towards its
father in virtue of which it sees in him a being full of helpful wisdom
and tender pity, to whom it can turn for encouragement, guidance and
assistance in the difficult affairs of life, and especially in times of
trouble; sometimes on the other hand more emphasis is laid upon those
aspects of the father in which he appears as a severe and perhaps cruel
master or tyrant who enforces strict obedience to his harsh commands and
who inflicts dire penalties upon all who dare to oppose his wishes or
defy his laws. In the higher forms of religion the more directly hostile
relations between child and parent are seldom openly manifested, the
conception of the father as wicked or immoral tending to disappear with
increasing culture, though the notion of obedience to a stern, relentless
authority may be maintained. This in its turn however frequently gives
place to the idea of the kindly, helpful and forgiving father, according
to a process of development which in many respects appears to resemble
the evolution of thought as regards the relations of the individual to
the state or the king, to which we have already drawn attention. It
is a change of this nature for instance that, more perhaps than all
else, marks the step from Judaism to Christianity; the latter giving
promise of a reign of kindliness and forgiveness in place of the harsh
and uncompromising exercise of paternal authority so characteristic of
the former. It is for this reason that Christianity (at any rate in
its primitive form) especially appealed to and encouraged the poor,
the weak and the helpless, those who were most in need of kindness and
assistance; and by so doing has encountered the opposition or contempt
of those who see the paternal authority (and therefore its projection as
the authority of the Universe) in a sterner shape[176], or of those who
(like Nietzsche's Supermen), in their own sense of power and independence,
despise all who, as though they were still children, require the
assistance of a beneficent father to help them through their lives.
[Sidenote: The splitting up of parental attributes among two or more
divinities]
[Sidenote: The Devil]
[Sidenote: The dissociation of good and evil in theology and in the
individual mind]
In polytheistic religions, or those with polytheistic tendencies, the
different paternal qualities may be divided among a number of divinities;
though as a rule there is a single heavenly father who combines in his
person the most exalted aspects of creative and paternal power. Especially
frequent is the splitting up of what appear to be the desirable and
undesirable aspects of the father and the attribution of them to distinct
deities, so that a kind, benevolent, forgiving and protecting divinity,
upon the one hand, is contrasted with a stern, wicked and cruel one
upon the other. The mediaeval conception of the Devil corresponds for
instance, as has been shown by Ernest Jones[177] in his suggestive work
upon this subject, to a deity thus obtained by the splitting off of the
evil attributes of the father; a deity upon whom hatred, fear and even
contempt may be freely poured and who can conveniently be made responsible
for men's ill deeds and evil thoughts[178]; the attitude towards the
heavenly father being correspondingly purged of these undesirable
features. The process of duplication, which is frequently operative in
other fields than that of religion, particularly in those of myth and
legend[179] arises of course as a consequence of the psychical antagonism
and resulting dissociation between the love and the hate attitudes towards
the father, and can easily be made use of in religion owing to the general
correspondence that may appear to exist between the benevolent and
malevolent aspects of the all-powerful parent and the equally inexplicable
and uncontrollable aspects of the natural forces to which the adult human
being is exposed. In this way both the love and the hate elements in the
primitive levels of the mind have relatively free play without becoming
involved in moral or emotional conflicts or in intellectual contradiction;
the double (ambivalent) mental attitude being projected so as to form a
dualistic principle of the Universe.
[Sidenote: The mother regarding feelings in religion]
Although of all the members of the family, the father, as its head, most
frequently and regularly undergoes apotheosis, the other members of the
family are not without considerable influence on the conceptions that
are formed as to the nature and qualities of divine beings. Foremost as
regards such influence, after the father, is of course the mother. In a
strict monotheism the mother elements would seem to be almost always, if
not invariably, subordinate to those of the father; the former, so far
as they are represented at all, being submerged or incorporated into the
latter[180]. But very few religions remain strictly and consistently
monotheistic; and in most of those that show tendencies towards polytheism
the mother elements are represented in a separate person or a separate
principle. Thus, both in primitive and in more advanced forms of religion
it is usual to find mother goddesses who bear the same relation to the
earthly mother as does the father-god to the earthly father.
[Sidenote: The mother-son relationship and its repression]
[Sidenote: The struggle round the mother element in Christianity]
Nevertheless, it would appear that the mother-goddess is, at a certain
stage of culture at any rate, liable to meet with opposition from which
the corresponding father-god is usually exempt. This opposition would seem
to be due to the admixture of incestuous passion which is brought over
into religion from the original attachment of the child (and especially
of course the son) to his earthly mother. The relations between mother
and son fairly often find expression in religious stories, as in the
cases of Cybele and Attis, Ishtar and Tammuz, Mary and Christ and (in the
displaced form of brother and sister love) Isis and Osiris. As a rule
however the mother-son relationship is not permanent but is disturbed and
broken by evil plottings and brutal actions on the part of some third
person (usually a father or a brother substitute), as a result of which
the young son-god often meets with his death. The relations of Attis and
of Christ to their mothers are of special interest in this connection,
inasmuch as they plainly indicate the existence of an inner inhibition on
the son's part as well as a separation brought about by interference from
without. Attis according at least to some versions of his story, unmans
himself on discovering the incestuous nature of his affection (as Œdipus
himself had done, in a symbolic form, by putting out his eyes). In Christ
the repression of the mother-regarding tendencies seems to have led to
an attitude of aloofness towards his mother, and through her towards all
women (_cp._ his words "Woman, what have I to do with thee?," John 2,
4)--an attitude that has profoundly affected his followers throughout the
ages: for in the history of the Christian religion there is evidence--even
apart from its notorious aversion from and distrust of women in
general--of the existence of a constant struggle centering round the idea
of the divine mother. In the early days of the Church there are accounts
and rumours of sects which endeavoured to establish the worship of Mary
alongside that of the Father and the Son, and there is evidence to show
that the notion of the Holy Ghost corresponds in one of its aspects to
that of a female deity who completes the natural trinity of Father, Mother
and Son[181]. In the Roman Church Mary, as the mother of Christ, has
received a widespread and often profound (though to some extent of course
unofficial) adoration, being regarded perhaps especially as the helper in
time of trouble, to whom men and women may go for comfort, protection,
guidance or forgiveness in just the same way as they did to their earthly
mother in their childhood: an adoration which has tended to call forth a
feeling of disgust and horror in the Protestant Church, in which the more
primite Christian tradition of the repression of the mother-regarding
feelings has in this respect been kept alive[182].
[Sidenote: The Immaculate Conception]
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which has played such a
prominent part in Christian theology and theological discussion, is
of course only one of the many similar instances of the notion of the
supernatural birth[183]. Like many of these other instances, it is due,
not merely to the fact of its being a relic from a time when there was
little certainty or knowledge as to the nature of paternity, but to the
fact that it constitutes an active expression of a strong (though usually
unconscious) wish--a wish that is compounded from a number of separate,
though of course related, elements, of which the chief are perhaps the
following:--(1) the desire for "purity" on the part of the mother, in
order that she may belong to the revered rather than to the sexually
attractive but despised group of women (_cp._ above p. 110)--a desire
which at the same time purifies the mother-regarding love of its grosser
elements and renders it less liable to repression; (2) the desire to be
independent of the father and to owe nothing to him (_cp._ above p. 109);
(3) a desire to avoid sexual jealousy of the father together with the
envy, hostility or contempt that would inevitably--especially in view of
the general Christian attitude towards sex--accompany the notion of the
father as a sexually active being. These factors combine to make the idea
of sexual relations between the parents one that is peculiarly distasteful
to their children, particularly when it is a question not of ordinary
human parents with their admitted imperfections but of their heavenly and
perfected counterparts, and the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception
satisfactorily removes the necessity for this idea[184].
[Sidenote: Open depiction of the parents and of the Œdipus complex in
primitive religions]
In more primitive forms of religion the correspondence of the heavenly
family to the earthly family and the projection on to the former of
the feelings and tendencies aroused in connection with the latter (and
particularly those which enter into the Œdipus complex) can as a rule
be even more clearly and unmistakably observed. Thus in primitive
cosmogonies[185] there are usually two world parents whose relations to
each other are disturbed by their children, the son as a rule becoming
hostile to the father, deposing him from his position of authority,
killing or unmanning him or separating him from the mother. Of these world
parents the father is very frequently regarded as a personification of
the heavens, while the mother is identified with the Earth[186]; Heaven
and Earth being sometimes considered as having been separated by their
children from the close embrace in which they had previously been lying
(as in the case of Atlas, who in this way keeps Heaven apart from Earth--a
story which has many parallels, especially in Polynesian Mythology). In
the Greek version Ouranos and Gaia (of whom the latter seems to have been
the mother of the former, their union being thus incestuous) are separated
by their son Cronos, who, at the instigation of his mother, deposes and
castrates his father and marries his sisters Cybele, the mother of the
gods. In the next generation these barbarous relations between parents and
children are repeated. Cronos, fearing that he in his turn will become a
victim to the same treatment as that which he himself had accorded to his
father, endeavours to escape the threatened danger by eating his children
as soon as they are born. Zeus however, being saved by a stratagem of his
mother, performs the very act which his father had sought to prevent, and
himself becomes firmly seated on the throne of Heaven and is married to
his sister Hera.
[Sidenote: Indications of mental conflict and repression]
[Sidenote: Rebellion and punishment]
In primitive myths of this kind we see the hostile relations between
successive generations displayed crudely and nakedly, without any attempt
at disguise or concealment. In others, probably dating from a more
cultured epoch, there are signs of a mental conflict, the hostile actions
being no longer performed with the same singleness of purpose and freedom
from inhibition, but being accompanied by indications of a sense of
guilt, or of an ability to understand or sympathise with the opponent's
point of view. In the battle of the Titans against Zeus, some of the
former fought on the side of the gods (_i. e._ defended their parents) and
those who rebelled against the paternal power were in the end defeated
and punished (though the punishment itself may sometimes--by a piece of
over-determination--constitute a continuation of the rebellious deed, as
in the above-mentioned case of Atlas); Adam and Eve, on transgressing the
divine prohibition to eat of the tree of knowledge (_cp._ the forbidden
question motive, p. 104) are turned out of Eden; the builders of the Tower
of Babel (_cp._ the attempt to storm Heaven by Otos and Ephialtes in
Greek mythology) likewise meet with disaster; and in the noble story of
Prometheus, who stole the fire[187] from Heaven to benefit mankind, the
offender is brought into conflict with the father from the highest motives
and bears his punishment with a resignation and fortitude that places him
among the most splendid figures in Greek tragedy.
Christ himself is only one of the last of the long line of filial
insurgents, substituting as he does, to a considerable extent, the milder
rule of the Son for the harsher regime of the Judaic Father-God. In so
doing he surrenders his life, thus suffering the penalty which, in one
form or another, overtook his predecessors. In his case however, as in
theirs, the penalty itself is over-determined. Christ dies:--in the first
place, as a scapegoat, taking upon himself the guilt of his brothers and
hence becoming the saviour of mankind, who are by his sacrifice freed
from the consequences of their equal guilt[188]; secondly, as one who
suffers the talion punishment for the original sin of the son towards the
father, the guilt attaching to the death of the father being wiped out
by the death of the son; thirdly, by this very sacrifice manifesting his
divine nature and raising himself to a place alongside the father, thus
ultimately pointing the way to a reconciliation between father and son (a
reconciliation that is already hinted at in the story of Prometheus).
[Sidenote: Family influences in religious rites and practices]
[Sidenote: Baptism and Confirmation]
Not only religious beliefs, but many religious rites, ceremonies and
practices may be shown to be connected with the ideas, feelings and
tendencies which centre round the family. We have already seen how the
rite of baptism (besides of course its significance as a purification
or washing away of sin)[189] is linked on to the ideas of re-birth
and initiation, with all that these imply (_cp._ above Chs. VIII and
IX). Still more intimately connected with the idea of initiation, and
corresponding to the initiation ceremonies that are performed at the time
of adolescence in so many parts of the world, is the Christian sacrament
of Confirmation; which can, appropriately enough, only be conducted by a
senior member of the Church (father representative).
[Sidenote: The Communion]
Of particular interest in this connection is the central rite of the
Christian Church--the sacrament of the Communion[190], which has
connections with the practices and beliefs of Totemism, with the
widespread religious rite of sacrifice and with the relations between
father and son to which we have just had occasion to refer.
[Sidenote: Totemic and sacrificial elements in the Communion]
[Sidenote: Their psychological significance]
Although Totemism is by many authorities supposed to have been foreign to
the culture and religions of those peoples from whom western civilisation
has chiefly sprung, Robertson Smith has brought much evidence to show
that many of the religious and social practices of the Semitic races bear
traces of totemic origin[191]. Among these not the least important are
those connected with sacrifice--animal and human. In animal sacrifice the
slaughtered animal was originally regarded as a kinsman[192]; it was also
at the same time related to or identified with the god who protected the
animal and in whose honour the animal was slain[193]; it was also in many
cases regarded with mingled feelings of reverence and horror very similar
to those with which the totem animal is often looked upon[194], the
Semitic concept of Uncleanness corresponding closely to the Polynesian
notion of Taboo. In these respects we have a striking resemblance to
Totemism as practised in more primitive communities.
Now we have seen that the totem animal is, in one of its most important
aspects, a father surrogate. The slaying of the totem animal, therefore,
ultimately represents the murder of the father; at the same time the
slaughtered animal represents a sacrifice in honour of the father and a
gift to him. We have here an example of the ambivalent attitude towards
the totem-father; the father, as the God to whom the sacrifice is offered,
is honoured and regarded with affection; the father, as the animal, is
cruelly killed. At the same time the victim would appear in another
aspect to stand as a substitute for the son who, as we have seen, may be
slain instead of the father, atoning by his own death for the intended or
wished-for murder of the father.
As regards the eating of the sacrifice, it may perhaps in one respect be
regarded as the consummation of the hostile act. Cronos eats his children
in order to be sure of getting rid of them; and the swallowing of children
or even of grown men by an ogre, giant, monster or witch is a not uncommon
theme in folklore. The eating of the parents by the children in their turn
is a natural and obvious form of revenge; and has actually been practised
by some primitive people[195].
At the same time eating may be regarded as an honour or as a sign of
affection; as is necessarily to some extent the case, since the totem
animal represents the god and is itself as a rule sacred and inviolable
except in certain circumstances. This aspect indeed obviously plays a part
of great importance in the Christian sacrament in its present form[196].
The most important aspect of all however is that in virtue of which the
eater is supposed to acquire or to participate in the nature, qualities
or properties of that which is eaten, the worshipper thus becoming one
with the God whose flesh and blood he consumes; in this way at one and
the same time:--(a) himself acquiring directly some of the qualities of
the divinity, (b) becoming assured of his kinship with God, the common
meal being regarded as the especial symbol of this kinship (as indeed of
kinship in general)[197], (c) becoming likewise assured of his kinship
with his fellow worshippers, all becoming brothers by participation in the
divine meal and in the underlying ideas--including of course the original
father hatred and the atonement for this--which this meal implies.
Thus it appears that the food which is consumed in the Communion
represents:--
(1) the Father
(a) as hated and killed,
(b) as honoured.
(2) the Son, as slain to atone for the father-murder and offered up in
honour to the Father.
The actual consumption of the food represents:--
(1) the eating of the Father
(a) as a sign of hostility,
(b) as a sign of honour or affection,
(c) as a means of partaking of the divine nature (_i. e._ acquiring
the father attributes).
(2) the eating of the Son, as a means of establishing identity with him
and thus sharing in the atonement which he has made by his sacrifice.
(3) the establishment of a sense of communion and of kinship between the
fellow worshippers themselves and between them and the deity, through
participation in the divine meal with all that this implies.
[Sidenote: The influence of family tendencies in religion]
We thus see that, as regards both religious beliefs and religious
practices, the emotions, feelings and tendencies originally aroused in
connection with the family play a part of great importance. The gods in
whose form man has personified the natural forces of the Universe, or whom
he has himself called into being, are to a very large extent projections
of the infantile conceptions of the parents--beings whom he has created
in his phantasy to serve as objects on to whom might be transferred that
part of what remains of his primitive attitude towards the parents which
has found no adequate sublimation on to living human beings. Sometimes
the phantasy is worked out entirely in the dramatic form, the desires and
tendencies connected with the family finding their projected expression
in the behaviour of the divine beings. It is for this reason that the
conduct of the gods is, from the moral standpoint, often below rather
than above the human standard; the crude and primitive wishes belonging
to the infancy of the individual and the race, wishes that so far as
adult and civilised life is concerned have been outgrown or at least
repressed and held in check, finding a relatively unobstructed outlet in
the (usually archaic) forms and ritual of religion. At other times it is
only the figures of the gods themselves that are projected, the worshipper
remaining himself in intimate contact with them through a relationship
which represents a sublimated form of that which existed between child and
parent.
[Sidenote: Value of religion as a form of displacement]
In spite of its basis in primitive infantile fixations, there can of
course be no doubt that religion has performed a work of very great value
in the history of human culture. Both in the case of the individual and
in that of the race the displacement of the primitive tendencies directed
towards members of the family has been, as we have seen, a matter of the
greatest importance, but at the same time of the greatest difficulty, in
the history of mental and moral development. The provision of a suitable
outlet for those parts and aspects of the tendencies in question which
could find no adequate object among living human beings was of itself
no mean service. The establishment of a moral authority which should
stand in the same relation to adult men as parents do to children,
thus affording a higher sanction for morality than could otherwise be
obtained under primitive conditions; the solidification of the social bond
between neighbours and fellow tribesmen, through the consciousness of a
common worship and a common parentage from the same divine ancestor; the
utilisation of the exaggerated and idealised notions that had been formed
concerning the parents in early childhood, to create the concept of a
being of more than human virtue, a being who enjoined the nearest possible
approach to his own divine perfection on the part of his human followers,
thus contributing in no small measure to the raising of the level of
morality; the confirmation (through the idealised and sublimated love of
the divine parents) of the stage of object-love as contrasted with the
lower stage of Narcissism[198]; the stimulation of interest in natural
forces, objects and events by endowing them with the strong emotional tone
originally connected with the parents; these are some (and only some)
of the benefits which humanity has derived from the displacement of the
primitive parent-regarding feelings that is involved in religion.
It is easy of course to point to the numerous evils that religion has
directly or indirectly brought about; conservatism, intolerance,
persistent opposition to the progress of scientific or unprejudiced
thought, the fostering of manifold delusions and absurdities, the
retention of vast masses of mankind in superstitious fear and ignorance
when they should have been acquiring confidence and knowledge. In spite
however of these and of the many other very serious charges that may be
brought against it, religion can claim to have played a very necessary and
beneficial rôle in the past history of culture. Sublimation is, as we have
seen, a process that works slowly and by finely graduated steps, so that
neither in the individual nor the race can we expect to see far-reaching
moral transformations rapidly and easily achieved. The feelings and
tendencies of the child in relation to the family environment are in
many of their aspects so primitive and crude and yet so powerful and
persistent, that we must welcome gladly any means of displacement that has
proved itself of value to the individual and to Society. It is for this
service, above all others, that we are indebted to religion in the past.
[Sidenote: The future of religion]
As regards the future, it is evident that the needs of humanity to which
religion has ministered will, in some sense at any rate, long continue
to exist. The backward pull of the tendencies of infancy and childhood,
forming, as they do, the foundation upon which all subsequent desires and
aspirations are built up; the closeness of the similarity between the
situation of the adult confronted with the vast and overwhelming power of
Nature and that of the child who helplessly depends upon his parents both
for happiness and life--these are influences which may well continue to
make religion in some form a permanent necessity.
Nevertheless it would appear that the future progress of human culture
will demand a very considerable modification and purification of most
existing religious forms. The study of the psychology of religion
is showing that these forms are, for the most part, based on crude
unconscious motives which have to be outgrown and superseded if
civilisation is to prosper and advance. In retaining and fostering these
forms we are in many cases playing into the hands, not of the higher, but
of the baser and more primitive aspects of our nature, aspects which, at
our present level of development, it is necessary indeed to understand,
but not to venerate or even to approve. Even in so far as the forms of
religion give expression not so much to the direct promptings of these
baser aspects as to the reactions we have formed against them, it must
be remembered that true moral advance lies in sublimation rather than
in repression and that so long as the human mind confines itself to the
purely negative task of opposing its own primitive tendencies, it will
never achieve either true emancipation or true progress[199].
Further, the study of religion shows that the conceptions which religion
has formed as to the nature and working of the Universe have arisen as
products of the human emotions, having no necessary counterparts in the
real world; much the same indeed in this respect as the inventions of
the fairy stories and imaginative games of childhood or the day-dreams,
romances and novels of a later age. In adult life such phantasies
must either be abandoned or, if indulged in, recognised for what they
are--productions of the mind which, apart from objective evidence, have
no valid claim upon reality. They may indeed guide us in our ideals and
aspirations and so lead ultimately to the reconstruction of the outer
world through our own efforts, but in themselves they must be held
distinct from the order of reality belonging to this outer world. Only
so will Man achieve his full stature and be able to play that part in
Nature's scheme of things to which, in virtue of his intellectual powers
and his moral aspirations, he appears to be entitled.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 162: "Principles of Sociology." Vol. I.]
[Footnote 163: A fear which, as modern psychological knowledge seems to
show, is largely the result of the guilty conscience of the living; the
feelings of hostility (including of course death wishes) which the living
had experienced towards the dead during their lifetime being projected on
to the dead (in accordance with the now familiar mechanism, which can be
studied most clearly in psychopathological disorders such as Paranoia;
_cp._ above pp. 116, 130); as a result of which the dead are conceived as
being on the whole evilly disposed towards the living and consequently to
be feared. Hence the very general fear of ghosts. _Cp._ Freud, "Totem and
Taboo," 88 ff.]
[Footnote 164: For numerous examples, see Herbert Spencer, "Principles of
Sociology." Vol. I, Part I, Ch. 20. p. 280 ff.]
[Footnote 165: _Cp._ W. McDougall, "Social Psychology," 1908, pp. 84 ff.,
296 ff. W. Trotter, "Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War," 1916.]
[Footnote 166: A clear and instructive examination of the whole question
is given by Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," Vol. IV.]
[Footnote 167: It is still to some extent a matter of dispute as to how
far existing races of savages are ignorant of the rôle of the father
in reproduction. There is much evidence in favour of such ignorance
being often very considerable and sometimes perhaps complete (See E. S.
Hartland, "Primitive Paternity," 1910). Some authors however (_e. g._
Walter Heape, "Sex Antagonism," and Carveth Read, "No Paternity," _Jour.
Royal Anthrop. Inst._ 1918, XLVIII, 146) have maintained that the facts
do not admit of the assumption of complete ignorance. Read especially
has shown that such ignorance as exists may often be due to social or
individual inhibitions, which prevent the knowledge of the true facts (a
knowledge which exists in certain persons even in primitive communities)
from penetrating to the consciousness of the majority of the inhabitants.
If this view is correct, it reveals an interesting parallel to the fate
of sexual knowledge in the individual; psycho-analytic investigation
often showing that knowledge of the facts of sex and reproduction can be
repressed from consciousness, though persisting in the unconscious levels
of the mind. (_Cp._ Freud, "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex," 37
ff., 51.)]
[Footnote 168: Where of course the vagueness in question is beyond all
doubt due to repression.]
[Footnote 169: E. S. Hartland, "Primitive Paternity." Vol. I, Ch. 1.]
[Footnote 170: A frequent dream in childhood consists in being chased by
some wild and dangerous animal, which on analysis is almost invariably
found to represent the father--the dream being comparable as regards
conative tendency to the games of being pursued, in which children so
often delight and which arouse in them a pleasant combination of fear and
excitement, highly tinged with masochistic feeling. As regards mythology,
the cases in which--as in that of Romulus and Remus--the rôle of foster
parent is taken over by animals are of course quite numerous (_cp._ too in
this connection the recent literary examples of Mowgli and Tarzan; also
the dog Nana in Peter Pan), while in fairy stories there are also many
examples of animals being endowed with parent attributes.]
[Footnote 171: "Analyse der Phobie eines fünfjährigen Knaben." _Jahrbuch
für Psychopathologische und Psychoanalytische Forschungen_, 1909. Vol. I,
p. 1.]
[Footnote 172: "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," Ch. IX, 204.]
[Footnote 173: Sometimes however, one of these opposing elements is
directed to the animal, the other to the human parent. Thus, as Mr. Burt
has suggested to me, it would seem that in delinquents the tender elements
are often withdrawn from the parents and manifest themselves in the
excessive fondness for animal pets, to which Lombroso has drawn attention.
("Criminal Man," 1911, 62-3.)]
[Footnote 174: Frazer considers that the Australian system of exogamy
bears the stamp of "deliberate design." "Totemism and Exogamy," IV, 112
ff.]
[Footnote 175: Freud, "Totem and Taboo," 198 ff.]
[Footnote 176: The Puritanical movement represented, in one of its most
important aspects, an attempt to re-introduce the notion of the stern,
relentless father. It is interesting to note that there seems to exist
an association between the puritanical attitude in religion and a harsh,
authoritative relationship between parents and children.]
[Footnote 177: "Der Alptraum in seiner Beziehung zu gewissen Formen des
mittelalterlichen Aberglaubens." Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde.]
[Footnote 178: Particularly for undesirable thoughts of a sexual nature,
the Devil being the recognised source of temptations and obsessions of
this kind. The sexual aspects of the Father God are of course throughout
chiefly noticeable in his relations to women and in the attitude adopted
towards him by women. Thus the long series of amorous adventures on the
part of Zeus are typical instances of father-daughter incest. In many
places the cohabitation of a god with a mortal woman, who is regarded as
his bride, has been an essential part of religious ceremonial; though the
god himself is often, conveniently enough, impersonated for this purpose
by his priest. The very widespread practice of religious prostitution
seems to be derived from the same source (_Cp._ Frazer, "Adonis, Attis,
Osiris," I., 57 ff.). That girls should, before they marry, give
themselves to the god, to his representative, or to some other man under
his auspices, may be regarded as a custom having some relation to the
initiation phantasies and ceremonies which we have already considered; the
girl's introduction to sex life being, through this custom, accomplished
by the father, or at least under his guidance and with his approval. A
social parallel to this religious custom is to be found in the _droit
de seigneur_, in virtue of which the lord of the manor had the right to
sexual intercourse with a bride before she could be claimed by her husband.
In the Christian Church, owing, we may suppose, to the increasing
repression of the more directly sexual aspects of the father-regarding
feelings, the sexual elements in the religious attitude of women is more
frequently directed to Christ than to God the Father (corresponding
to a brother-sister rather than to the older father-daughter type of
affection). Nevertheless, the persistence of incestuous tendencies towards
the father, can often be observed in individual cases.]
[Footnote 179: _Cp._ Rank, "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero," 83 ff.]
[Footnote 180: Though there are indications that the Christian God is
sometimes regarded as bisexual (_cp._ von Winterstein, "Psychoanalytische
Anmerkungen zur Geschichte der Philosophie," _Imago_, 1913, II, 195),
comparing in this respect with the original bisexual world parents found
in some more primitive religions, _e.g._ Ymir, the giant out of whose body
the world was made according to Scandinavian mythology.]
[Footnote 181: _Cp._ Frazer. "The Dying God," 5. Gibbon, "Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire," 1858, Vol. VI. Ch. L, 223. The notion of the Holy
Ghost as a mother is also found to occur spontaneously in children. _Cp._
Sully, "Studies of Childhood," 132.]
[Footnote 182: The repression of the mother-regarding feelings has had its
influence not only on the attitude towards the mother element in religion
and on the attitude towards women in general, but also on everything that
is (consciously or unconsciously) associated with women and especially
with the mother. There is one curious instance of this influence which
has been of very considerable importance in the history of philosophy,
science and of man's attitude towards some of the most important problems
of life and mind. There exists a very general association, on the one hand
between the notion of mind, spirit or soul and the idea of the father or
of masculinity; and on the other hand between the notion of the body or
of matter (_materia_ = that which belongs to the mother) and the idea of
the mother or of the feminine principle. The repression of the emotions
and feelings relating to the mother has, in virtue of this association,
produced a tendency to adopt an attitude of distrust, contempt, disgust
or hostility towards the human body, the Earth, and the whole material
Universe, with a corresponding tendency to exalt and over-emphasise the
spiritual elements, whether in man or in the general scheme of things. It
seems very probable that a good many of the more pronouncedly idealistic
tendencies in philosophy may owe much of their attractiveness in many
minds to a sublimation of this reaction against the mother, while the
more dogmatic and narrow forms of materialism may perhaps in their turn
represent a return of the repressed feelings originally connected with the
mother. (_Cp._ Von Winterstein, _op. cit._)]
[Footnote 183: See E. S. Hartland, "Primitive Paternity," Vol. I. Ch. I.]
[Footnote 184: It is suggestive to note that, in order to make sure that
Mary had no connection with men whatsoever, it was decided (Papal Bull
1853) that she did not even have a father.]
[Footnote 185: _Cp._ Lorenz, "Das Titanenmotiv in der allgemeinen
Mythologie," _Imago_, II.]
[Footnote 186: The very general identification of the Earth with the
mother has probably played an important part in the history of human
culture inasmuch as it has afforded a ready means of rendering psychic
energy available for the practice of agriculture; the cultivation of the
Earth's surface being from the psychological point of view a displacement
of the original incestuous desires directed to the mother. On the other
hand the very closeness of the association between mother and Earth has in
some places led to a reluctance to till the soil, such an act being looked
upon as impious (See Frazer, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," I. 80 ff.).]
[Footnote 187: Ultimately of course a sexual symbol. _Cp._ Abraham, "Traum
und Mythus," 26 ff.]
[Footnote 188: For a full treatment of the Scapegoat motive. See Frazer,
"The Scapegoat."]
[Footnote 189: The "original sin" which it is intended to remove being
again not unconnected with the family complexes.]
[Footnote 190: _Cp._ throughout, with regard to this subject, Freud,
"Totem and Taboo," 220 ff.]
[Footnote 191: "Religion of the Semites."]
[Footnote 192: _Op. cit._ 289.]
[Footnote 193: _Op. cit._ 294.]
[Footnote 194: _Op. cit._ 294.]
[Footnote 195: Frazer, "The Dying God," 14.]
[Footnote 196: For a most important and illuminating discussion of the
psychology of eating and of the other activities of the mouth, see
Abraham, "Über die frühesten prägenitalen Entwicklungsstufen der Libido,"
_Imago_, 1916, IV.]
[Footnote 197: Robertson Smith, _op. cit._, 270.]
[Footnote 198: As Freud has pointed out ("Totem and Taboo," 147), there
exists a parallelism, on the one hand between the stage of Magic and
Animism and the Narcissistic level of individual development, and on the
other hand between the stage of Religion and that of the first object-love
as directed to the parents. In Magic man attributes omnipotence to
himself, while in Religion omnipotence is transferred to the gods, or in
so far as it is retained by the individual, can be exercised only through
the gods; man no longer finds the satisfaction of his own needs in and
through himself, but obtains his desires only through his relations with
others whom he loves and venerates.
In religion too however there exist, beside the object-regarding elements,
certain elements which are derived from, and give expression to, the
Narcissistic impulses. God is to some extent a projection of the primitive
mental egocentricity and self-sufficingness which the infant enjoys
before it becomes clearly conscious of the distinction between its own
organism and the external world--a distinction which necessarily brings
with it a gradually increasing realisation of the individual's limitations
and dependence. Unwilling to give up the primitive sense of power and
importance which a growing insight into reality shows to be unfounded,
Man displaces on to his God the desired qualities which he can no longer
attribute to himself and deludes himself into believing that he can still
attain his wishes, through prayer and similar rites, by merely wishing
them aloud to God. This mechanism is clearly seen at work in those persons
who (like the late Kaiser Wilhelm II) treat their God as a being whose
principal function it is to approve and carry to fulfilment their own
ambitions, schemes and undertakings.
The conception of the Devil also is to a very considerable extent derived
from the Narcissistic impulses--the individual _projecting_ on to "the
author of evil" those aspects of himself of which he disapproves (more
particularly perhaps the sexual aspects). In this way he, in a sense,
frees his own personality from tabooed wishes of whose operation in
himself he would otherwise become unpleasantly aware, and in this way
absolves himself from the responsibility for actions committed at the
instigation of these wishes.
These self-regarding aspects constitute without doubt a most important
factor in the psychology of Religion and serve to remind us once again
of the limitation of our psychological treatment. They fall outside our
present theme, inasmuch as they take their origin from a mental level
phylogenetically and ontogenetically prior to that at which are developed
the psychic relations of the individual to his family which constitute our
subject in this volume.]
[Footnote 199: _Cp._ J. C. Flügel, "Freudian Mechanisms as Factors in
Moral Development," _British Journal of Psychology_, 1917, VIII, 477.]
CHAPTER XIV
THE ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN
[Sidenote: The affective reactions of the parent towards the child]
In dealing thus far with the psychic aspects of the filio-parental
relations in their origin, nature and development, we have for the most
part based our considerations on the standpoint of the child rather than
on that of the parent. Such a course would seem to be justified from the
genetic point of view by the fact that every individual has first to be
a child before he can become a parent, and that consequently, though his
attitude as a parent is very liable to be influenced by his experience as
a child, there can be no corresponding influence of a converse nature. As
a matter of fact, however, we have, in the course of our consideration
of the psychic development of the child in relation to the influences
emanating from the family, fairly often had occasion to concern ourselves
at least indirectly with the mental attitude of the parents as a factor in
this development.
Thus we have seen that the direction of the child's affection to the
parent of the opposite sex rather than to the one of his own sex is
probably determined largely by the extent of the affection which the child
in his turn receives from the two parents respectively; the heterosexual
inclinations of the parents causing them on the whole, and in the absence
of any powerful factors tending to produce an opposite result, to give
their love most freely towards those of their children who are of the
opposite sex to their own. We have seen too that the nature and duration
of the feelings of envy, jealousy and hate which a child is liable to
experience towards one or other of its parents are to a very considerable
extent dependent on the behaviour of this parent towards the child. It is
evident also from our previous considerations that there is likely to be
a quantitative as well as a qualitative correspondence between the love
and hate which a child may feel towards its parents and the manifestation
of corresponding emotions in the parents themselves. All that is left for
us to do in this direction is to look a little more closely into some
of the factors which determine the nature and extent of the affective
reactions of the parent towards the child.
[Sidenote: The instinctive love of parents to children]
[Sidenote: The love of parents to children stands in reciprocal
relationship to the parents' other interests and affections]
It is now pretty generally agreed among psychologists that the love of
parents to their children takes place in virtue of the formation of a
sentiment[200] or organisation of instinctive dispositions about an
idea (in this case the idea of the child), and it is further usually
supposed that in this sentiment a leading part is played by a particular
instinctive disposition--a disposition which manifests itself in
consciousness in an emotion of more or less specific quality, to which
McDougall, following Ribot, has given the now familiar term "tender
emotion." Now there are clear indications that the energy involved in this
disposition (like that of all other instinctive dispositions) can play a
part--and normally does play a part--in many other sentiments besides that
which is concerned in the love of a parent towards his (or her) child.
For this reason the emotional outflow along the lines of this latter
sentiment varies to some extent in inverse proportion to the outflow along
the lines of other sentiments. Thus the amount of love which a parent
can bestow upon a child is limited by the amount of the affection and
interest which he bestows upon other persons and other things. The parent
who has no other occupation in life than the care of his or her children
is usually bound to these children by emotional ties of a much closer,
more intimate and more intensive nature than is one whose energies are
partially absorbed by outside interests and occupations. The parent of
a single child will, as a rule, be more strongly attached to that child
than the parent of many children will be to any one of his. Again, the
parent whose sexual emotions and tendencies have but little opportunity
for discharge will be apt to lavish a greater amount of affection on his
children than one who is leading a more active sexual life. Thus it is
that widowers, widows and those who are unhappily married[201] frequently
display a more than normal degree of attachment to their children, the
latter receiving, in addition to the love that would ordinarily fall
to their share, the displaced affection which would otherwise find its
outlet in the love of wife or husband. For this reason the tie between
such parents and their children is apt to be more than usually close;
and all psychological characteristics which are produced by such a tie
will occur more readily in these cases than in others. In order to avoid
this emotional overloading of the filio-parental tie, it will usually
be necessary for such parents to find compensation elsewhere for the
energy which cannot be directed to its normal goal, and for the measures
undertaken with a view to the prevention of undue fixation of the
children's love upon their parents to be prosecuted with more than usual
care and energy.
[Sidenote: The consequent jealousy between parent and child]
The fact that the love available for offspring and for spouse respectively
stand thus to some extent in reciprocal relation to one other, renders
inevitable a certain amount of competition for this love, whenever the
demands from both sides are strong and persistent. We have already seen
how from this source jealousy may arise in the child towards the parent
of his or her own sex. A similarly conditioned jealousy will often
arise also in the parent, though in this case the hostile feelings will
frequently be confined to the Unconscious and will be discoverable only
indirectly through their manifestations or through a process of analysis.
This jealousy may nevertheless be productive of much harm in family life;
and, when present in high intensity, may lead to permanent estrangement
and bitterness between parents and children just as surely as may
corresponding feelings on the part of the child.
[Sidenote: Conflicting interests of parents and children]
[Sidenote: The sacrifices involved in parenthood]
Just as in the case of children the hostile emotions towards the parents
that arise from jealousy are liable to be powerfully reinforced by
those due to more general interference with the child's desires, so too
in the case of the parents, any ill-feelings that they may bear towards
their children as a result of jealousy are likely to be complicated
by other causes of hostility. If it be to some extent inevitable that
children should come to regard their parents as obstacles to the full
attainment of their own desires and as unwelcome causes of interference
with their most cherished activities, parents have at least equal reason
to complain similarly of their children. The responsibility, the effort,
the anxiety, involved in rearing children, diminish very considerably
the time and energy available for more directly personal occupations and
enjoyments. To some extent the individual inevitably sacrifices himself
in becoming a parent, in accordance with the general biological law which
Spencer has designated the antagonism between individuation and genesis;
and this sacrifice of personal comforts, pleasures, satisfactions and
ambitions does not as a rule take place without some degree of resentment
being felt against those whose existence necessitates the sacrifice.
Even where--owing to robust health, abundant energy, ample means, state
relief or other circumstances--children demand but little sacrifice of
the major aims and occupations of life, the very considerable difference
between the points of view of children and those of adults and the largely
incompatible nature of the conditions and activities that appeal to
their respective minds tend to make the constant presence of children,
especially within the confines of a small home, inevitably to some extent
a cause of annoyance to the parents. As Bernard Shaw[202] so well points
out, children are indeed to some extent necessarily and unavoidably a
nuisance to grown-up persons; with their illregulated and impulsive energy
and their disregard of the habits and conventions to which their seniors
have become accustomed, they constitute an ever present menace to the
comfort and tranquillity of adult life--a menace from which even the most
devoted parent must sometimes wish that he could free himself.
[Sidenote: Their influence on the mother]
The mother, owing to the greater demands which children make upon her time
and health and energy is perhaps that one of the parents to experience
most keenly such hostile feelings, though the existence of a strong
counter-impulse towards maternal love will often insure repression of
these feelings into the unconscious; so that it usually requires a process
of analysis to reveal the often strong resentment that a mother may
entertain towards the child who so seriously interferes with her more
directly individual needs and aspirations[203].
[Sidenote: On the father]
The interference of children with the activities and desires of the father
is usually less direct and the ill-will which fathers bear towards their
children is therefore more apt to be aroused in consequence of jealousy
than is the corresponding feeling of the mother. Nevertheless, in the case
of the father too, there almost always sooner or later arises some degree
of interference with his pleasure, his comfort, his work or his ambitions;
so that he feels that his children constitute a burden which seriously
hampers his individual progress or enjoyment.
[Sidenote: Identification of the child with its grandparent]
The hostile feelings of parents towards their children which take their
origin from one or more of these sources are often powerfully stimulated
and reinforced by an unconscious process in virtue of which the child
is identified with the parent's own parent (the child's grandparent).
This tendency to identify child with grandparent is one which would seem
to be deeply implanted in the human mind[204]. Thus in several parts of
the world grandparents are supposed to become re-incarnated in their
grandchildren--a belief which is probably responsible for the widespread
practice (observed among others by the ancient Greeks) of naming a
child after its grandparent, especially in the case of eldest sons who
frequently receive the name of their paternal grandfather[205].
[Sidenote: Causes of this similarity of parent-child to previous
child-parent relationship]
For the grounds of this belief and the tendencies which have given rise
to it, it is probable that we must look to the similarities between the
relations of parent to child and those which had existed a generation
earlier between child and parent. As we have just seen, the feelings that
are liable to be evoked by these relationships are in certain respects
not dissimilar, and it would appear as though the situation in which
an individual is placed when he becomes a parent serves to call up in
him some of the partially forgotten and partially outgrown emotions and
tendencies which he had experienced in his own childhood and to direct
them now upon his child in the same way as he had formerly directed them
upon his parent. Thus the new position in which a father finds himself
in competition with his son for the affection of his wife revives in
the Unconscious a memory of the former situation in which as a child he
competed with his father for the love of his mother.
[Sidenote: The "phantasy of the reversal of generations"]
The identification of child with grandparent would seem to be helped also
by the intimate connection with a curious but not infrequent product
of imagination which has been called by Ernest Jones "the phantasy of
the reversal of generations[206]." According to this phantasy--to which
attention had also been called by psychologists other than those of the
psycho-analytic school, notably by Sully[207]--it is supposed that, as
children grow bigger and finally attain to adult stature, their parents,
as they increase in age, undergo a corresponding diminution; so that
eventually a complete reversal of size as regards the two generations is
attained, those who were once parents being now reduced to a position
very similar to that of children, while the original children, through
their increase in size and power, are themselves able to behave in
a quasi-parental manner to their parents. The ultimate psychological
foundations of this quaint belief are as yet not clearly understood,
though it is fairly certain that the notions of personal immortality and
of metempsychosis, together with the great emotional significance in the
child's mind of the ideas connected with bodily size, play an important
part in this connection. Whatever be the origin of this phantasy, the
persistence of some remnants of it in the Unconscious is admirably adapted
to serve as a means whereby an individual may identify his children
with his parents and then direct upon the former the hostile emotions
aroused in connection with the latter. The fact that such an individual
is now possessed of superior strength and power, whereas formerly he
had been relatively weak and helpless, makes it tempting for him to use
this opportunity for taking revenge for the real or supposed injuries
he had suffered in his childhood[208]. In this way children are liable
to become sometimes the innocent victims of bullying or nagging which,
according to the principles of justice, are due to their grandparents
rather than to themselves. When combined with a violent parent hatred,
such identification of children with their grandparents may take on tragic
proportions and lead to the direst consequences; and it is probable that
in the majority if not in all of those sad cases, where a parent conceives
a permanent and unreasoning antipathy to one or more of his children,
the foundations of the dislike are to be found in such a combination of
unconscious or semi-conscious factors.
This process of identification is not however operative only with regard
to hatred. It may exert also a powerful influence upon the direction
of love and is often of special importance where parents definitely
select a favourite from among their children, this favourite child being
then invested with the love that was formerly directed to the favourite
parent[209]. For this reason too parents may often be desirous that their
children should adopt the profession, mode of life, beliefs or habits of
their (the childrens') grandparents[210].
[Sidenote: The effect of parent-child love on the attitude of parents to
each other]
In all cases where a parent resents the coming into being or the presence
of children, and especially in those where the resentment is based largely
upon jealousy, some degree of displeasure is apt to be directed upon
the other parent, who is regarded as responsible for the existence of
the unwelcome intruder or as transferring to him an undue proportion of
attention and affection. In this respect the situation recalls in the
parents mind the earlier one in which, in his own childhood, he resented
the love of his parents for each other, and in consequence of which
the love which he himself bore to one of his parents became converted
into, or was mixed with, hatred and contempt (_cp._ p. 110). Thus a
father may experience towards his wife something of those feelings of
outraged jealousy which he had formerly harboured towards his mother--a
resuscitation and transference of feelings of this kind being rendered
all the easier by the fact that his wife is very probably already to
some extent unconsciously identified with his mother, so that the whole
original situation is lived through again with the substitution of wife
for mother and of child (especially of course in the case of a boy) for
father.
[Sidenote: The Couvade]
It has recently been shown by Reik[211] that this last mentioned
factor of the resentment against the wife together with the previously
discussed jealousy and hatred of the child are capable of throwing a
very considerable amount of light upon certain customs practised amongst
primitive peoples upon the occasion of the birth of a child--customs the
origin and nature of which it appears at first sight very difficult to
understand. To these customs we may well devote a brief consideration
here, since they seem peculiarly adapted to bring out some of the most
important aspects of the unconscious feelings of parents toward their
offspring and--incidentally--toward one another. The customs in question
are generally comprehended under the single term Couvade and may be
divided, following Frazer, into two main groups:--
(1) the pre-natal or pseudo-maternal Couvade, which aims primarily and
ostensibly at a magical transference of the mother's labour pains on to
the person of the father, the father pretending to undergo what the mother
experiences in reality;
(2) the post-natal or dietetic Couvade, in which the father pretends to
be weak or ailing for a certain time after the birth of his child, during
which time he keeps to his bed and refrains from eating certain foods.
[Sidenote: The pre-natal Couvade as an expression of ambivalent feelings
towards the wife]
As regards the pre-natal Couvade, it is obvious that the occasion of
his wife's labour is one which is liable to arouse strong, and to some
extent conflicting, emotions in the father. The danger and distress
to which the mother is exposed naturally tend to arouse in the father
feelings of sympathy and anxiety together with a desire to help and to
alleviate the suffering to the best of his ability--an attitude which
finds expression in an attempt to transfer the pain according to the
principles of homoeopathic magic. At the same time the position of the
mother is such as to stimulate in the father any hostile and cruel wishes
he may entertain towards her, and, though such wishes will generally be
confined entirely or principally to the Unconscious, they will usually be
present in a greater or a less degree; since, besides any general cause of
hostility and any tendency to Sadism (both of which are probably at work
to some extent), there is liable to occur the more specific resentment
connected with the bringing into existence of a rival, who may usurp
much of the mother's care and affection which the father had hitherto
enjoyed alone. There is reason to suppose therefore that at certain levels
of the father's mind there is often present an actual enjoyment in the
contemplation of the mother's sufferings and even a wish that she may die.
In taking upon himself the mother's pains, the father is therefore, at one
and the same time, doing his best to help the mother, subjecting himself
to a talion punishment for desiring the mother to feel pain, and placing
himself in a position more thoroughly to express and realise her suffering.
[Sidenote: The belief in demons]
A similar attitude is indicated by the beliefs and practices with regard
to demons which are frequently found associated with the Couvade. Demons
are, from the psychological point of view, merely projections of thoughts
and tendencies of the unconscious mind, and the demons who are supposed
to be inflicting pain upon the mother are therefore an expression of the
unconscious desire to inflict such pain. This desire manifests itself also
in not a few of the measures which are taken to drive away the demons,
measures which, though ostensibly undertaken for the benefit of the mother
are in reality calculated to cause her fright, pain or discomfort, such as
shooting, shouting, lighting fires in her proximity, playing with swords
or even beating her.
[Sidenote: The post-natal Couvade results principally from hostile
feelings towards the child]
While the pre-natal Couvade is thus principally the manifestation of
repressed hostility towards the mother, the post-natal Couvade would seem
to arise chiefly as the result of a similar attitude towards the child.
This is shown by the fact that the practices associated with this aspect
of the Couvade are held to be necessary for, or at least conducive to, the
life and health of the newly born infant, who is regarded as peculiarly
liable to be affected by injudicious behaviour on the part of the father;
it is also shown by the fact that the father is often held responsible for
any evil that may befall the child during the first days of its existence;
thus indicating an appreciation of the real unconscious tendency of the
father to do the child some harm. As regards the prohibition of certain
foods, it would seem that this is ultimately traceable to a repression of
the tendency to kill and eat the child (and through him the grandfather
whom he represents) a tendency which we considered in the last chapter,
and one to which most, if not all, taboos on foods would appear in
the last resort very largely to depend. The father's imaginary illness
is also to some extent influenced by his hostile feelings against the
mother:--negatively, in that by keeping to his bed he is prevented from
doing her harm; positively, in that by compelling her to attend on him in
his pretended helplessness, he forces her to work at a time when rest and
freedom from trouble would have been more welcome.
[Sidenote: The Couvade as an assertion of the father's rights]
Certain other students of the Couvade, such as Bachofen, are probably
to some extent right too in maintaining that the practice represents an
assertion by the father of his rights and privileges, being connected
thus with the transition from mother-descent to father-descent. Certain
it is that through the practice the father emphasises his share of the
parenthood and thus effectually prevents any tendency to regard the mother
as the sole, or even as the chief, producer and guardian of the child. In
so doing, he also, we may suspect, endeavours to produce a compensation
for the lack of attention from which he might otherwise suffer at this
time, owing to the fact that the mother's share of parenthood is at the
moment of birth by nature so much more prominent than that of the father.
[Sidenote: The corresponding attitude in modern life]
This feeling of inferiority is frequently shared by fathers in modern
civilised societies, who at the birth of their children are often
unpleasantly impressed by their own uselessness and unimportance, and
are easily led to complain of neglect or inattention, sometimes even
going so far as unconsciously to produce in themselves some more or less
psycho-genetic malady, in order to claim care and sympathy from those
about them and to prevent a too exclusive preoccupation with the mother.
In other ways too it is evident that many of the mental tendencies which
underlie the practices connected with the Couvade are still rife in
modern life. By his exaggerated excitement and anxiety, a father will
often betray the conflicting nature of the emotions that beset him at the
time of the birth of his child; while the manifold crude superstitions
and practices and the numerous unreasonable beliefs and attitudes that
are connected with pregnancy and birth serve further to demonstrate the
archaic, and therefore fundamental, nature of the ideas and feelings that
centre round these events[212].
[Sidenote: Parent-child hostility in later life]
The hostility which a parent may harbour towards his child or children
from the causes we have been considering will, under happy conditions of
individual and family development, tend naturally to diminish as time
passes and permits of adjustment to the new circumstances occasioned by
the existence of the children. More especially of course, the feelings of
hatred and jealousy, which may originally have been aroused, will usually
be overcome, or at least adequately held in check, by the feelings of
parental love which are brought into play by contact with the child and by
the process of providing for its needs. Even in the most devoted parents
there usually remains however some remnant of jealousy or resentment
that lurks in the Unconscious and can be detected by the process of
Psycho-Analysis. This is especially the case as regards the relations of
parents to the children of their own sex, where the motive of jealousy
is liable to be added to the other motives that arise as a result of the
sacrifices that have to be incurred by the parent. In general however it
may be safely asserted that in no case does the very real antagonism that
exists between the activities and enjoyments of the father and mother as
individuals and as parents respectively fail to manifest itself in some
degree of mental conflict, and that in no case are the hostile feelings
against the children that result from this antagonism entirely abolished
from the mind.
[Sidenote: New factors influencing the attitude of parents to children in
later life]
As time proceeds and children grow up, two new factors of great importance
are liable to be added to those that determine the attitude of parents
towards their children, although in many cases one or both of these
factors may have been present in germinal form from the beginning. Both
factors are connected with the biological truth that in the history of
the race the child is the natural successor and substitute of the parent;
but while having this much in common, they differ markedly in their
psychological and social nature and effects, one factor tending to produce
envy and hatred towards the children, the other love, pride and joy in
their success.
[Sidenote: Envy of childrens' superiority]
The first of these two factors consists in the unwelcome realisation that
the child will shortly be, or perhaps already is, the equal or even the
superior of the parent in certain of the more important of life's aspects.
Thus the father may become painfully aware of the fact that he is being
gradually but certainly outmatched by his son in strength or skill or
learning; while the mother may similarly find herself becoming outrivalled
by her daughter in beauty, charm, accomplishments or intellectual power.
This awareness on the parent's part of the increasing failure of their
own powers relatively to those of their children is naturally liable to
increase the bitterness that they may already feel towards their children
for other reasons. Just as the self-interests of the parents formerly
caused them to grudge the care, attention and effort which the existence
of the children demanded, so now their pride and self-love may cause them
to grudge their children that superiority which nature in the course of
time bestows upon them.
[Sidenote: Parents' identification of themselves with their children]
It might well seem indeed as though some degree of ill-feeling on these
grounds would be inevitable in all parents in whom the self-regarding
sentiments were strongly or even normally developed. Fortunately
however it would appear that there exists a way by which the hatred
and unhappiness arising from this source can to a very large extent be
converted into feelings of an opposite and socially more satisfactory
character. It is here that there comes into play the second of the two
factors mentioned above. This factor consists of the process whereby
the parent identifies himself with his child, as it were incorporates
the child into his larger self and is thus able to take pleasure in the
increasing powers of the child as if they were his own. We have already
had occasion to study the corresponding process of identification in the
mind of the child; the child tends naturally to identify himself with his
parents or their substitutes, seeking thereby an increase of his own power
and satisfaction. For precisely similar reasons the parent, as old age
approaches (and even before then), will tend to identify himself with his
child, endeavouring thus to find compensation for the diminution of his
own personal capacity. Thus a father may regard the successes and failures
of his son in his scholastic and professional career with the same
personal interest, the same intimate emotional response as if they were
his own, while the mother often follows her daughters' erotic ambitions
and adventures, her matrimonial and parental life with a similar intensity
of feeling.
[Sidenote: This identification as a means of obtaining immortality]
This identification plays moreover a further and perhaps still more
important part inasmuch as it affords a means of overcoming the finality
of individual death, and insures the parent, through his children and
ultimately through their descendants, the nearest approach to material
immortality that can be hoped for here on earth. The love of children
and interest in their welfare which springs from the altruistic and
object-loving tendencies involved in the parental instincts may thus
become fused with the strongly egoistic tendencies grouped together under
the self-preserving and self-regarding instincts and sentiments; that
dearest and most powerful wish of the individual, _qua_ individual--the
desire for immortality--thus obtaining satisfaction in the same way and
at the same time as the strongest and most distinctive of all altruistic
impulses--those which minister to the needs of the race through the
love and care which is bestowed upon children by their parents. A
reconciliation of the egoistic and the altruistic, of the personal and the
racial trends, is thus brought about--a reconciliation which may be of the
greatest value to the individual, to the family and to the larger social
organism of which they both form a part.
[Sidenote: Vicarious enjoyments of children's pleasures and successes]
Not only is a parent capable of obtaining through his children the
satisfaction attendant upon a prolongation of his own existence; he may
also through them enjoy vicariously benefits, privileges, successes and
pleasures of which he himself has been deprived or has failed to reap
advantage. What the pessimist von Hartmann has styled the third stage of
humanity's illusion with regard to the possibility of happiness--the idea
that the pleasures which we have ourselves failed to find may nevertheless
be enjoyed by those that come after us--is nowhere more strongly rooted
than in the minds of parents when they think of the future of their
offspring. Whether the underlying hope be illusory or not, there can be
no doubt that many parents (and these on the whole of the nobler minded
sort) are willing to labour that their children may enjoy the result of
their efforts, to amass riches that their children may have the power that
wealth confers, or even to acquiesce in personal failure, if only their
children may thereby be brought nearer to success.
[Sidenote: Its sociological significance]
This aspect of the process of identification is one which, we may very
reasonably expect, will tend to play an increasing rôle as mental
development proceeds and men come to work more and more with distant
ends in view. If this expectation is correct, the aspect in question is
probably one of very great biological and sociological importance, for
even under present conditions it is clearly of much value in stimulating
effort and in fostering thoroughness, far-sightedness and care. If a man
realises that on his labours are dependent not only his own happiness
and well being but those of his children and his children's children,
he possesses one of the highest but at the same time one of the most
efficient incentives to truly moral conduct to which the developed human
mind is open[213].
[Sidenote: The development of the child requires a corresponding
readjustment of the parents' attitude]
[Sidenote: This is as necessary for the parent as for the child]
In order that the benefits and compensations attendant upon an
identification of this sort may be achieved, it is necessary that there
should take place a gradual change of attitude towards the child on the
part of the parent--a change which is very necessary also upon other
grounds. In the fourth and fifth chapters of this book we studied the
manner in which the successful development of the child requires an
ever increasing degree of emancipation from the ties of affection and
dependence which bind him to the parent. The proper carrying out of this
emancipation requires a corresponding loosening of the ties that bind
the parent to the child, involving a readjustment in the direction of
the parent's interests and affections. If the parent continues to lavish
on the child, as he grows up, the same amount of attention and affection
that he required in infancy, the normal development of the child's love
impulses is liable to be very seriously impeded; and should the child, in
spite of this difficulty, attain the stage of directing his love outside
the family, the parent is bound to suffer disappointment at what appears
to him (or at least to his unconscious mind) to be the thanklessness and
faithlessness of his child, and to feel jealousy and hatred towards the
person who has supplanted him in the child's affection. Similarly, should
the parent too long or too extensively afford protection to the child,
exercise authority over him or take over responsibility from him, the
child will inevitably find it difficult to acquire the necessary degree of
emancipation from the parent's care and jurisdiction; and should he after
all succeed in acquiring such emancipation, the parent will certainly
suffer as the result of being deprived all too suddenly and unwillingly
of the directive power over the child which he had hitherto enjoyed, and
of the outlet for his interests and emotional tendencies, which the care
of a child had hitherto afforded. The extreme demands on the energies and
affections of the parents (particularly on those of the mother) caused
by the utter helplessness of the human infant grow progressively less as
the child develops. The natural course of events demands therefore on the
part of the parents a gradual modification, redistribution and redirection
of the emotions and interests that centred round the child in its early
life; an undue prolongation of the tendencies natural to the early days
of parenthood must necessarily in the long run be detrimental to the true
interest both of child and parent.
[Sidenote: Difficulty and importance of this readjustment]
Obvious as these considerations may well seem to be, the logical carrying
out of the conclusions to which they point is often far from easy. In
practice it is often as hard for parents to wean themselves from their
primitive attitude towards their children, as it is for the children
themselves to acquire the necessary mental and moral independence of
their parents. The intense and profound emotions stirred up in the parent
by his relation to the child are not readily displaced into any other
channel, and fixation at a level only suited to the early stages of the
filio-parental relation may easily result. The consequent struggle of
the parent to keep possession of the child gives rise to some of the
most serious and tragic problems of family life. It is one of the chief
causes of the friction that so often exists between the older and younger
generations of the same family; it tends, as we have seen, to hamper the
mental and moral development of children and to foster in them psychical
conflicts which may produce permanently evil effects upon their character:
in the parents themselves it often favours selfishness and real disregard
for the children's welfare, under the guise of altruistic tenderness and
care; and finally it causes much unhappiness to the parents when, as
inevitably happens to some extent, they observe that, in spite of all
their efforts, their children are in one manner or another drifting from
them, as by coming under the influence of friends who are outside the
circle of the parents' acquaintance, by the adoption of habits, interests
or careers that are opposed to family tradition, or by marriage to persons
who to the parents' eyes appear to be unsuitable[214].
[Sidenote: The attitude of parents to the marriage of their children]
The question of marriage is, under existing conditions one of special
importance in this connection, since nothing else (with the exception
perhaps of permanent separation in space) tends to cut off individuals to
an equal extent from the direct influence and contact of their parents.
Parents who ardently desire to retain a strong influence over their
children are therefore as a rule opposed to the marriage of the latter,
and usually display marked antagonism to their sons or daughters-in-law:
an antagonism which is the source of very frequent domestic unhappiness.
Since the marriage of their children is however in many cases difficult
or impossible to avert, such parents will often seek to minimise the
disturbing effect of marriage by arranging that their children shall live
near them after marriage or that they shall marry a partner whom they
regard as suitable. In estimating suitability for this purpose, they are
usually guided by the extent to which the partner in question is likely
to constitute a serious obstacle to the operation of their own (the
parents') influence. Hence it often comes about that the persons selected
are sexually unattractive, of weak character or deficient in intellectual
power[215].
[Sidenote: Means of avoiding insufficient parental re-adjustment]
The avoidance of the evils consequent upon the insufficient readjustment
of the parents attitude towards their children is one of the most pressing
tasks of an enlightened hygiene of family life. In the accomplishment of
this task it would seem that there are two factors which are of great
importance: in the first place, the happiness of the relationship between
the two parents themselves (for, as we have seen, it is especially
in cases when marriage is unsuccessful that there is likely to be an
excessive outflow of emotion in the direction of the children); in the
second place, the maintenance of outside interests, hobbies or occupations
throughout the period of parenthood and the gradual reinforcement of
such interests as the growth of the children renders the demand upon the
parent's energy less extensive and continuous. Where the circumstances in
these two respects are satisfactory, they usually permit of the necessary
readjustment of parental energies with the minimum of friction and
suffering.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 200: Mr. Shand's term, adopted by McDougall, is perhaps (in
England at any rate) the most generally used and understood in this
connection. The term Constellation is, however, used in the same sense by
psycho-analytic writers. A Sentiment (or Constellation) differs from a
complex only in that it manifests itself openly in consciousness, whereas
the complex is unconscious.]
[Footnote 201: Often, too, unmarried mothers; though in this case, owing
to the fact that under existing social conditions children born out of
wedlock cause more than the usual amount of anxiety and trouble, love is
very liable to be complicated or even replaced by hate.]
[Footnote 202: "Parents and Children."]
[Footnote 203: Thus the analysis of dreams occurring during pregnancy
would seem to show that a surprisingly large number of these have as
their principal motive the death of the child which the mother carries
in her womb. Nor do such death wishes on the part of the mother fail
to manifest themselves on occasion in the mother's waking thoughts and
actions. Abortion and attempts at abortion are of course extremely
common (especially where, through ignorance, carelessness or legislative
interference, the more humane method of preventive sexual intercourse is
not practised), but, even after birth, attempts of one kind or another on
the lives of children are by no means rare, even in civilised societies
to-day. (The practice of infanticide in more primitive communities is of
course notorious). I am assured by one who has good opportunities for
observation on this matter that "practical child murder (by slow and safe
methods) is far commoner than the newspaper reading public imagines: and
it is usually the mother who attempts the process".
As a milder method of disposing of an unwanted child, a mother will often
attempt to leave it in some institution for the care of children. So much
is this the case that almost the first question the authorities of such
institutions have to ask themselves, when the mother brings a child, is
whether she is trying to get rid of it.]
[Footnote 204: See _e.g._ Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," III, 298.]
[Footnote 205: See _e. g._ Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," II, 302. "Taboo
and the Perils of the Soul," 370.]
[Footnote 206: "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 658.]
[Footnote 207: "Studies of Childhood," 105.]
[Footnote 208: This is sometimes shown quite openly in poor families,
where the parents "don't believe in their children having a better time
than they did" and where the children will not infrequently console
themselves for the sufferings they endure at the hands of their parents
by the thought of what they in their turn when grown up, will do to their
children.
Often however, the cruelty inflicted from this motive is rationalised as a
desire to avoid spoiling the child and to prepare him for the rough time
that he will have in later life. (_Cp._ this with the motives underlying
the infliction of punishment at initiation ceremonies among primitive
peoples, p. 83.).]
[Footnote 209: _Cp._ Brill, "Psychanalysis: Its Theory and Practical
Application," 279ff.]
[Footnote 210: The identification of the child with its grandparent is of
course not without effect upon the mind of the child himself, where it is
reinforced by a variety of other motives, such as:--the wish to become
the parent of his own parent (_i. e._ the corresponding notion to that
in the mind of the child's parent which we have just been considering),
the wish to dispense with his parent (_cp._ p. 109), the projection on
to the grandparent of the grandiose ideas formerly entertained with
regard to the parent (_cp._ p. 55), and finally the results of the happy
relationship that often exists between child and grandparent (owing to the
fact that the grandparents are as a rule less responsible for the child's
upbringing and education and less stern and vigorous in the assertion of
their authority). As a consequence there may arise in the child a strong
tendency to imitate the grandparents--a tendency that may constitute an
important factor in moulding the child's beliefs, attitudes, desires, and
occupations. _Cp._ Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 652, ff.]
[Footnote 211: "Die Couvade und die Psychogenese der Vergeltungsfurcht."
_Imago_, 1914, III.]
[Footnote 212: As an example of an attitude obviously akin to one of the
main tendencies underlying the Couvade--a desire to inflict pain upon the
mother--we may mention the strong objection that was originally taken to
the use of anaesthetics in midwifery, on the ground that the suffering of
pain in childbirth was a just punishment for sin and that it was therefore
ethically undesirable to seek to do away with or abate this pain.]
[Footnote 213: For these reasons it would seem very undesirable to
tamper to any appreciable extent with the motives that may impel a man
to work for the advantage of his immediate posterity; as would be done
for instance, by any prohibition to transmit property to heirs, or by any
measure that too greatly diminished the value of such property, such as an
excessive death duty.
What seems to be to some extent the American ideal of each generation
"making good" in their own persons, is of course based mainly on perfectly
sound ethical and psychological considerations. There is nothing in
these considerations however which is incompatible with the hereditary
transmission of wealth or rank. On the contrary, it would seem to be an
ennobling and inspiring ideal for each generation to start life at a
somewhat higher all-round level--material and moral--than the one before
it, each one adding a little to the well-being of the family in body and
mind and handing on the improvement to its successor.
In spite of the great advantages that may thus follow from the
identification of the parent with his children, it behoves us not to
overlook one possible danger that may ensue from it, if carried to excess.
An individual's actions affect posterity, not only in the persons of his
own offspring, but also by their influence on the history of humanity
at large; and it would be highly undesirable if, while contemplating
the benefit of his own family, an individual ceased to bear in mind his
duties to the wider circles of his social environment. The deeds of great
men obviously determine to a considerable extent the future of the race.
It is however the privilege of all of us to contribute to this history
to some degree; hence an enlightened morality must needs emphasise the
responsibility that is incurred in this respect even by the humblest,
since, by his actions during life, he has to some extent made himself
immortal, and influenced the world through all time for good or ill.]
[Footnote 214: It may be well to bear in mind in this connection Mr.
Bernard Shaw's striking words from his brilliant essay on Parents and
Children (the whole of which deserves most careful reading). On the
subject of marriage from the point of view of the parents, he writes
with his usual penetration and with a generous understanding of the real
difficulties of the situation:--"Take a very common instance of this
agonizing incompatibility" (between the point of view of parents and
that of the children). "A widow brings up her son to manhood. He meets a
strange woman, goes off with and marries her, leaving his mother desolate.
It does not occur to him that this is at all hard on her; he does it as
a matter of course, and actually expects his mother to receive on terms
of special affection, the woman for whom she has been abandoned. If he
shewed any sense of what he was doing, any remorse; if he mingled his
tears with hers, and asked her not to think too hardly of him because he
had obeyed the inevitable destiny of a man to leave his father and mother
and cleave to his wife, she could give him her blessing and accept her
bereavement with dignity and without reproach. But the man never dreams
of such considerations. To him his mother's feeling in the matter, when
she betrays it, is unreasonable, ridiculous and even odious, as shewing a
prejudice against his adorable bride.
"I have taken the widow as an extreme and obvious case; but there are many
husbands and wives who are tired of their consorts, or disappointed in
them, or estranged from them by infidelities; and these parents, in losing
a son or a daughter through marriage, may be losing everything they care
for. No parent's love is as innocent as the love of a child; the exclusion
of all conscious sexual feeling from it does not exclude the bitterness,
jealousy, and despair at loss which characterize sexual passion; in fact,
what is called a pure love may easily be more selfish and jealous than a
carnal one. Anyhow, it is plain matter of fact that naively selfish people
sometimes try with fierce jealousy to prevent their children marrying." p.
XXXVIII.]
[Footnote 215: _Cp._ Jung, "Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology,"
156 ff. On the other hand in cases where, as in those we considered above,
the parent identifies himself with his children, he is very likely to
experience a strong attachment to the marital partners of his children.]
CHAPTER XV
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES--HATE ASPECTS
[Sidenote: Recapitulation]
The descriptive portion of our task is now completed. We have traced,
with such degree of detail as the scope of this book has permitted, the
growth within the individual mind of some of the more important of those
feelings and tendencies which owe their origin and development to the
relations of the individual to the other members of his family. We have
seen how these feelings and tendencies are of fundamental importance in
the formation of individual character and how they have also exercised a
vast influence on social life and social institutions. We have seen also
that, throughout their multitudinous transformations and ramifications,
the tendencies originally connected with the family preserve some likeness
to their primitive character, being ultimately reducible upon analysis
to a series of displacements of a very few original trends and impulses.
These original impulses fall naturally into two main groups:--those which
bind the individual to the family (or to one or more of its members)
through a relationship of love, esteem or dependence; and those which are
based on a relationship of hate or fear; the trends falling within each
of these groups being manifested either in a direct and positive, or in a
reactionary and negative form; the latter being assumed as the result of
a conflict between one of the trends in question and some other trend of
an opposite, or at any rate a different, character (very often one of the
family trends belonging to the opposite group).
[Sidenote: The theoretical treatment of our subject and its difficulties]
Since these groups of impulses have shown themselves to play a part of
such importance in human mind and human conduct, it is not unnatural
that, having completed our review of their manifestations, we should feel
some curiosity as to the manner in which they have come to play this part
in the course of the past history of the human race and as to the nature
of the influence which they have exerted on this history. Unfortunately
in the present state of our knowledge it would not seem possible to
gratify this curiosity except in a very partial, unsatisfactory and
uncertain manner. The psychological mechanisms with which we have been
dealing have themselves, for the most part, been too recently discovered
to have as yet been adequately correlated, or brought into connection,
with the relevant facts of anthropological, ethnographical or biological
science. The data from these latter sources are moreover, in spite of
much diligent research in recent years, still in many important respects
too incomplete to afford a satisfactory basis for such correlation. As
a consequence of these conditions, it is to be feared that any attempt
that we may make to exhibit the psychical tendencies with which we have
been concerned, in their bearings upon early human history, or to explain
their origin in the light of this history or of the general conditions
of human life and mind, will result in little more than a restatement of
our psychological principles from a slightly different point of view.
Nevertheless the attempt may be worth making. A summary of some of the
main implications of our psychological knowledge in this field may perhaps
not seem amiss--especially in view of the astonishing and unlooked-for
character of much of this knowledge--and if we succeed in establishing a
few connections between our psychological data and the related facts of
anthropology or biology, these may perhaps serve as starting points--to
be either proved or else corrected--for subsequent enquiries based on a
more sound foundation. The reader will understand therefore that, in so
far as in the present and the two succeeding chapters there is anything
that is not--explicitly or implicitly--contained in what we have already
said, we shall have left the region of comparative certainty afforded
by the results of observation and induction, and shall be travelling
for the most part on the unsure ground of speculation--speculation that
can be justified only on the plea of natural curiosity, and by the hope
of opening up a few vistas which may be more fully surveyed by better
equipped workers in the future.
[Sidenote: The hate tendencies to some extent inevitable]
Of the two main groups of tendencies to which we have above
referred--which we may briefly call the love and hate groups--the former
opens up a number of problems in this connection which would seem to be
in some significant respects deeper, more important and more complex than
those raised by the latter. The hate tendencies are, indeed, as regards
the cause and nature of their origin and development, in the main not so
very difficult to understand. Psychologists are pretty well agreed as to
the circumstances which give rise to anger and fear--the emotions which
chiefly underlie the attitude of hate. Anger arises when the activities,
tendencies or wishes of the individual are interfered with or when
the individual is unwillingly forced to undergo some disagreeable or
undesirable experience, and it is directed to the object from which such
interference or such infliction of undesired experience is forthcoming.
Fear arises when harm is threatened to the individual or to that which he
possesses or holds dear, and is directed to the threatening object[216].
Now, as we have seen, the normal conditions of family life necessarily
give rise to some extent to the situations which arouse these emotions.
Through the mere exercise of ordinary parental authority and care,
and more especially through the process of elementary moral training
and education, the parent invariably interferes in some ways with
the primitive desires and tendencies of the child, and threatens the
child with punishment in the event of his transgressing the parental
prohibitions; the conditions are therefore present for the arousal in the
child's mind of anger and fear towards the parent, should the child be at
all susceptible to these emotions.
[Sidenote: Jealousy as a necessary consequence of marriage]
We have seen that the hate attitude is sometimes and to some extent
brought about indirectly as a consequence of jealousy aroused in
connection with the love attitude (jealousy being caused by interference
with the successful function of the love impulses), sometimes more
directly by a more general hostility between parent and child. In so far
as the first case is concerned, the hate attitude is obviously dependent
upon the existence of sexual rivalry between the child and one of the
parents. Granted the existence of the love impulse of the child towards
the parent of the opposite sex, the conditions of this rivalry are to be
found whenever the two parents live together--in fact wherever there is
marriage, and more especially wherever there is monogamy. Now marriage of
some sort would seem to exist in practically every human community--both
primitive and cultured--that has as yet been subjected to any degree of
careful study or investigation; in fact there is every reason to regard it
as an institution fundamentally characteristic of the human race and of
immemorial antiquity. It is therefore not surprising that we find evidence
of sexual jealousy between parents and children in many early myths and
customs and in the legends and beliefs of many peoples, both cultivated
and uncivilised. There is good ground for supposing that parent hatred
based on jealousy has been called into existence in innumerable successive
generations and has thus had ample opportunity to impress itself on the
forms, traditions and institutions of human society.
[Sidenote: and especially of monogamy]
[Sidenote: Parent-child jealousy perhaps less pronounced in the Totemic
Age]
In those societies which have developed or maintained a relatively strict
monogamy we should expect that this kind of parent hatred would be more
easily and extensively developed than in those in which the marriage tie
is looser, wider or more elastic, since in the former case the hatred
bred of jealousy would necessarily be directed on to a single individual,
whereas in the latter it might lose in intensity through diffusion over a
number of different persons. Now it is a feature of that relatively early
stage of culture which with Wundt[217] we may perhaps call the Totemic
age that the family ties are as a rule relaxed in favour of those wider
bonds that unite together the different members of the tribe or clan. In
this age we often find that some form of group marriage exists or shows
evident traces of having existed; in distinction to the more or less
strictly monogamous unions that are characteristic both of those races of
mankind which are at a more primitive level of development and of those
that have reached a more advanced stage of culture. We might imagine
therefore that this Totemic age was distinguished by a lessening of the
parent jealousy which must probably have existed both in the earlier
and in the later societies of a more strictly monogamic kind. We have
seen indeed that a reconciliation between fathers and sons is one of the
motives which finds expression in the initiation ceremonies--ceremonies
that arise and flourish principally at the Totemic stage of culture. The
men's clubs--one of the institutions most typical of this age--would
again seem to point to the existence of a tendency to do away with the
hostility between man and man by establishing a community of interest and
affection between the members of the clubs, who are brought into more
intimate contact with one another than would be the case if they remained
each more strictly within the confines of their own families. A similar
result is no doubt to some extent achieved by the corresponding throwing
together of the women, who are freed from the more intimate dependence
on the male that is fostered in a more closely knit family system. At
the same time the relative sexual freedom that is frequently permitted,
especially before marriage, affords an unfavourable environment for the
development of jealousy; as is shown by the absence of this passion so
frequently exhibited both within and without the marriage bond. Indeed
there would seem to be almost necessarily some degree of correspondence
between the strictness of the marriage relationship and the development of
jealousy. So long as men and women regard themselves as possessing certain
exclusive rights and privileges over one or more members of the opposite
sex, they are bound to resent any conduct which might appear to constitute
an infringement or challenge of these rights; freedom from jealousy can
only be obtained under these circumstances by perfect confidence that no
such attempt will be made, or, if made, will be unsuccessful--a condition
of mind which requires a more complete adaptation to the married state on
the part of all concerned than can usually be secured. On the other hand,
if no such exclusive privileges as are implied in the strict observance
of the marriage bond are demanded or expected, there is no ground or
occasion for the development of any high degree of jealousy. Monogamy, the
strictest and most exclusive form of marriage, is thus most especially
liable to bring jealousy in its train, since here all sexual tendencies
and privileges are centred round one person, who has to be guarded at
whatever cost against the advances of all other suitors[218].
[Sidenote: which differs in this respect both from preceding and
succeeding ages]
The Totemic age, characterised as it is by a recession in importance of
the family ties as compared with those of a wider social unit, would
appear then in one of its aspects to have been marked by a strong tendency
to get rid of jealousy, together with certain other of the passions which
are aroused in connection with, or centre round, the family. It differs
thus from the more strictly monogamic condition, which, according to our
most recent knowledge, would seem to exist among the really primitive
races of mankind[219]. It differs also, perhaps even more markedly, from
the conditions of the patriarchal family--that form of family which
seems on the whole to be characteristic of the post-Totemic stage of
culture[220]. At this latter stage the family--now however often in
an enlarged form comprising several smaller family groups and several
generations--once more becomes the predominant social unit; societies
based on the tribal or clan system having apparently proved themselves
more unstable or less capable of expansion and development than those
based upon the more fundamental unit of the family. The decline of
jealousy and of the hatreds based thereon was therefore, we may suppose,
at the close of the Totemic age replaced by a recrudescence of that more
vigorous hostility between father and son, mother and daughter, between
brothers and between sisters, which is to some extent inevitable in a
closely united monogamic family--a hostility which has continued to exist
uninterruptedly until the present day.
[Sidenote: Similar differences as regards other aspects of intra-family
hatred]
Much the same is also true, no doubt, as regards those aspects of
intra-family hostilities which are not based on jealousy. In the monogamic
families of primitive man these latter aspects of hostility had no doubt
free scope within certain limits. In the looser family conditions of the
Totemic age it seems probable that passions based on mutual interference
of different members of the family with each other's interests and desires
would be a good deal less developed. In the patriarchal family of the
later epoch conditions would seem however to become favourable once again
to the development of hostility of this kind, particularly to that between
father and son. The close and permanent organisation of the family under
the patriarchal system brings it about that the interests of father and
son continue to be to some extent antagonistic long after the son has
reached maturity, whereas in the state more nearly resembling that of
nature the son would usually be free from paternal tutelage as soon as he
had attained to full growth.
[Sidenote: The hate-producing causes are still potent in modern
civilisation]
The family life of most modern civilised nations is less closely organised
than that of the patriarchal family at its full development; children as
a rule becoming relatively or completely free from parental jurisdiction,
if not before, at least as soon as, they have married and founded a home
of their own. Nevertheless the lessening of antagonism that is brought
about by this relaxation of the family organisation is often to some
extent counterbalanced by the increasing social and economic dependence
of children on their parents that is apt to arise in advanced and complex
societies, specially among the higher and wealthier classes (_cp._ above
p. 58). The irksomeness of parental restrictions is apt to be increased
too, as civilisation advances, by the fact that the rules of conduct
and of morals inculcated by the parents tend to become in many respects
increasingly remote from the behaviour to which the young child's
primitive tendencies naturally impel him; so that a more violent friction
is likely to arise between the authority of the parents and the will of
the children in their early years[221].
For these reasons the antagonism between parents and children remains, as
we know, strong even in present day civilisation, though there are grounds
for thinking that it may perhaps have been stronger in those earlier
stages of society in which a more complex patriarchal system flourished.
[Sidenote: Negative aspects of the hate attitude]
As regards the negative or reactionary aspects of the hate attitude, it
is pretty clear that the influences which tend to produce repression
or inhibition of the hate are in the main of two kinds:--(1) "moral"
influences, such as the acceptance of a code of ethics, or of a tradition,
with which parent hatred is incompatible; (2) the co-existence with the
hate of a genuine love, admiration or respect towards the parent who is
hated.
[Sidenote: "Moral" influences]
As regards the ultimate psychological nature of the first of these
factors, we are face to face with a problem concerning which there is
at present no very great degree of certainty or unanimity, _i. e._ the
problem of the general nature of the forces of repression which inhibit
the immoral or anti-social tendencies of the mind. Freud[222] is inclined
to lay stress upon the impulses centering round the self (though more
especially in connection with the repression of the sexual trends);
others, like McCurdy[223] Trotter[224] and Hart[225], emphasize the
importance of the gregarious tendencies in this connection. Whatever may
be their ultimate basis in the mind, there can be little doubt however
that these moral forces on the whole increase with advancing culture,
thus tending always to substitute an indirect or negative for the more
primitive direct or positive expression of the hate attitude towards the
parents.
[Sidenote: Love that conflicts with and represses hate]
As regards the second factor, the arousal of love in opposition to hate
is evidently dependent partly (a) upon the child's own innate capacities
for affection, tenderness and gratitude; partly (b) upon the extent to
which these capacities are awakened and called into play by a kind and
loving attitude on the part of the parent towards the child. As regards
these factors it seems very difficult to say in the present state of our
knowledge whether there has been any considerable or lasting change during
the later period of human development. The extent to which tender feelings
have been aroused between parents and children of the same sex (for it is
of course with the relations between these that we are chiefly concerned
here) has naturally varied from age to age and from one family system to
another; the intensity and frequency of these feelings being as a rule in
inverse proportion to the intensity of the hate attitude. Thus it is that
those times and places which have produced the minimum of hatred between
parents and children have also probably on the whole tended to bring about
the greatest degree of repression of such hatred as did still exist--the
repression being due to the influence of love tendencies which were
opposed to those of hate. Nevertheless it is not easy to bring forward
any evidence to show a general tendency towards increase of the tender
feelings with which we are here concerned. Savage parents in many cases
appear to exhibit a very considerable degree of affection towards their
children, while the children are in their turn often not backward in their
manifestations of love and respect. Parents in civilised communities, on
the other hand, have often shown themselves (under a veneer of kindness
or consideration) singularly brutal and selfish in the treatment of their
children; the latter not infrequently manifesting a corresponding lack of
genuine affection for their parents. Under these circumstances it would
seem that we are perhaps justified in attributing the undoubted increase
in the repression of the hate attitude to the more efficient operation
of the "moral" factors, rather than to any growth of tenderness between
parent and child which might have served more effectually to counter-act
the hostile tendencies.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 216: Though we ought possibly to make an exception here in the
case of that fear which seems to arise as the result of a transformation
of sexual impulses. On the other hand, it is possible that this too may
be brought under the more general formula, if we recognise that the fear
is in this case directed not to some outer object but to some threatening
element within the mind. For a discussion of this matter see Freud,
"Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse," 466 ff. For a most
important discussion of the fundamental nature and conditions of love and
hate and of the different causes from which they originate, see Freud,
"Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre," IV, 270 ff.]
[Footnote 217: W. Wundt, "Elements of Folk Psychology," trans. by E. L.
Schaub, 1916, 116 ff.]
[Footnote 218: It is of course true that with a system of group marriage
the opportunities for sexual relations among young people may sometimes
be no greater than under monogamy, since all the available women may be
regarded as belonging exclusively to a certain class of men--usually those
who have attained a certain age. The hatred and jealousy aroused in the
young men towards their elders may in such cases be equal in intensity
to those felt under monogamic conditions, but the fact remains that this
hatred is no longer intimately connected with the _family_ (at any rate as
we understand that institution at the present day).]
[Footnote 219: Wundt. _Op. cit._ 34 ff.]
[Footnote 220: Wundt. _Op. cit._ 311 ff.]
[Footnote 221: This is of course specially the case where the moral code
upheld by the parents is one of unnecessary or extreme severity, in
which almost every natural manifestation of youthful joy, or vitality
is condemned; as is sometimes the case, for instance, with parents of
an ultra-puritanical way of thinking, whose own mental life, however
admirable in other respects, has been warped by excessive inhibitions.
Although marked perhaps by less bitterness than is usual in such cases,
Edmund Gosse's remarkable work "Father and Son" affords much interesting
ground for thought in this connection.]
[Footnote 222: _e. g._ "Zur Einführung des Narzißmus." _Jahrbuch der
Psychoanalyse_, 1914, VI, 5 ff.]
[Footnote 223: _Psychiatric Bulletin_, I, No. 1; "The Psychology of War,"
49.]
[Footnote 224: "Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War," 79 ff.]
[Footnote 225: "The Psychology of Insanity," 167 ff.]
CHAPTER XVI
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES--LOVE ASPECTS
[Sidenote: The love attitude]
The problems connected with the origin, development and influence upon
human history of the love attitude in relation to the family are, as
we have said, in some respects both more important and more difficult
than those connected with the hate attitude--more important because, as
we have seen throughout, the hate attitude is to a considerable extent
merely a consequence of, or at any rate dependent on, the love attitude;
more difficult, because the psychic tendencies which enter into the love
attitude are in general more unconscious in character, further removed
from our everyday standard of conscious thought and feeling and, on the
whole, subject also to more violent and more permanent conflicts and
repressions.
[Sidenote: The positive and negative aspects that have to be considered]
We have seen that, in its positive form, this love attitude manifests
itself in an incestuous affection--in the first place, perhaps always of
the child for its mother; in what is perhaps a slightly more developed,
but certainly a more easily recognisable form, of the child for its parent
of the opposite sex; in a still more developed form, of brothers for
sisters, or of more remote relatives for one another. In its negative form
this attitude is manifested as a violent antipathy to any such incestuous
attachment, at any rate in so far as this attachment assumes the sexual
form or anything resembling such a form. We have here to consider, first,
what can be the influences which bring about this incestuous attachment
in the human mind--an attachment of such durability that, as we have
seen, it determines to a large extent the nature and course of the whole
of the subsequent love life of the individual, as well as of many of
the activities which lie apparently far removed from the sphere of love
or sex; secondly, given the existence of this attachment, what are the
further influences which have brought about its repression--a repression
that corresponds in strength and influence to the importance of the
positive impulse to which it is opposed.
[Sidenote: Influences determining the positive aspects]
Let us consider first the positive side of the love attitude. The
influences which, we may suggest, play an important part in bringing about
a strong tendency to the formation of incestuous affections in the human
mind may be most conveniently grouped under a number of separate heads.
[Sidenote: The long duration of human childhood]
(1) First in time and perhaps also in importance would seem to be a group
of factors connected with the long period of infancy, childhood and youth,
which characterises, to a greater or a less extent, all branches of the
human race. During this long period, the child is, as we have more than
once emphasised, wholly or partially dependent on its parents for the
satisfaction of its needs. Now it is a fundamental tendency of the mind to
experience pleasure in connection with, and generally to appreciate, those
objects which administer to, or are associated with, the basic needs and
requirements of the organism; _i. e._ the mind tends naturally to react
towards these objects in a manner which, at a higher level of development,
we should designate as love[226]. It is not altogether surprising then
that, the parents being for many years associated with the fulfilment
of the great majority of conscious needs, the nascent love of the child
should be directed to them in a greater measure than to any other object.
[Sidenote: Primitive sympathy reacting on the expressions of instinctive
parental feeling]
(2) It is a pretty generally recognised fact that--in virtue of a process
which McDougall[227] has conveniently designated primitive sympathy--among
the stimuli which are most effective in producing any given feeling or
emotion are the manifestations of that feeling or emotion in some other
person or persons. Now it is generally admitted by psychologists that
the presence of children tends to evoke an instinctive affection and
tenderness on the part of the parents; the biological justification, and
indeed necessity, for such an instinct, as well as for the fact of its
existence being indeed sufficiently manifest--especially no doubt in women
but to a considerable extent in men also. In virtue of this instinctive
tenderness parents naturally give expression to their affection in the
presence of the children, whereupon the latter, reacting through primitive
sympathy, tend to experience affection in their turn and to direct it
upon the nearest and most appropriate object--_i. e._ the parent whose
manifestations of tenderness have aroused the emotion. This sequence of
events being frequently repeated, the child's affections come in time to
be firmly attached to the parent, reciprocating the affection he receives
from this direction.
[Sidenote: Love and respect as elements of imitation and suggestibility]
(3) Again, it is evident that, especially in primitive communities, the
child is dependent on its parent, not only for the fulfilment of its
elementary needs and desires, but also for the opportunity of learning
how to fulfil these needs and desires in its own person. This process of
learning implies--especially perhaps in immature minds--a tendency to
imitate the teacher and to be suggestible towards him. Now suggestibility,
as we have already seen, probably depends to a considerable extent
upon love; it certainly depends largely upon an attitude of respect or
admiration on the part of the one who is suggestible. Much the same is
true of imitation; we notoriously tend to imitate those whom we love, whom
we admire, and to whom we look up with confidence and veneration. This
being the case, the adoption of an attitude of love and respect towards
his parents, would be of considerable advantage to the child, as enabling
him to acquire more readily those capacities, habits and ideas which he
most naturally learns from his parents (and later on from those on to
whom the parent-regarding feelings are displaced) through imitation and
suggestion. In view of the comparatively unformed and plastic condition of
many of the instinctive tendencies in human infants, the ability to learn
easily and quickly from their elders is of great importance to children
in their early years. We have here then very possibly a factor which
contributes to the survival-value of a strong parent attachment, though it
may not actually call any such attachment into being.
[Sidenote: Early arousal of sex tendencies in the family is necessary for
cultural displacements]
(4) Modern psychology is showing more and more that the growth of man's
principal instinctive tendencies is continuous from early youth upward
to maturity, there being few or no sudden changes, transitions or fresh
departures as development proceeds. The work of Freud and his followers
has, above all, clearly shown that the sexual tendencies are not narrowly
confined to processes intimately connected with the reproduction of
the species, but pervade the whole life of the individual, manifesting
themselves in a great variety of ways, many of which are very far removed
from the reproductive sphere but are of the greatest importance in the
increase and maintenance of culture. More especially it has been shown (in
a way which we have to some extent already studied) that these tendencies
undergo a continuous process of development from childhood upwards, and
that on their growth and history depends to a considerable extent the
character and social value of the individual.
Such being the nature and conditions of development of this important
aspect of the mind, it is evident that something akin to the later
affections characteristic of maturity should be found even in the earliest
attachments of the child. It is only on the mistaken assumption that the
sexual impulse emerges, as it were, fully grown at the time of puberty,
that the existence of sexual elements in the loves of an earlier age
appears surprising. In reality it is necessary, if the sexual tendencies
are to play their important role in the displacements involved in the
civilised adult life, that they should ripen early, even though they may
not be required for purposes of reproduction for many years to come; and
if they are to ripen early, it is only natural that they should be called
into play in the child's relations to his parents, who are as a rule by
far the most prominent persons of his environment during the first years
of his existence. It would seem probable, the human mind being constituted
as it is, that unless the large source of energy which is contained in,
and habitually manifested through, the sexual tendencies (in the wide
sense assigned to them by Freud) were made available in infancy or early
childhood, the child would have too little motive at its disposal to make
the vast efforts necessary to enable it to pass from the helplessness
and ignorance of infancy to the relatively enormous skill and knowledge
of adult life, and to acquire the manifold and complex characteristics
of an age-long culture. The early awakening of the sexual tendencies
in connection with the life of the family thus reveals itself as a
natural--and indeed perhaps to some extent an inevitable--condition of any
high degree of human civilisation or cultural achievement.
[Sidenote: Necessity for the early transition from Autoerotism to
object-love]
(5) Another factor of great importance in mental and moral development,
as regards which the early direction of love on to the parents plays
an important part, is one to which we have already often had occasion
to refer--the development of object love as distinct from the more
primitive levels of sexuality manifested in Autoerotism and Narcissism.
The full social and ethical implications of this change are not yet
completely understood--the whole subject of the Narcissistic trends
and their manifestations, normal and abnormal, having only recently
been studied by the psycho-analytic method--but it is abundantly clear
that these are of very considerable significance. Failure to carry out
the change successfully would seem to bring with it almost inevitably
certain grave defects of character, involving an exaggerated egoism and a
correspondingly deficient altruism; defects which must seriously detract
from the social value of the individual, and which when present in large
numbers of the population, must imperil the success or even the existence
of the social organism. It is essential therefore that the stage of
object-love should become firmly established in at least a majority of
individuals if society is to prosper, and, as we have seen, the transition
from Autoerotism to object-love is under normal human conditions brought
about in connection with the child's relations to its parents. How indeed
could this transition be more easily and surely achieved than through
this relationship--at once the earliest, the most necessary and, in many
ways, the most intimate which the individual ever knows? Through the
affection which the child feels towards those who supply its elementary
needs, it learns the meaning of attachment to an object outside itself--an
attachment which, in its further development, leads to the tendency to
seek the goal of effort and desire in the outer world rather than in
intimate connection with the self, the tendency upon which all altruism
is ultimately based. Just as the early awakening of the sexual impulses
ensures that these impulses shall have time and opportunity to devote the
great motive power at their disposal to the work involved in mental growth
and education, so the early arousal of object-love in connection with the
parents ensures that these impulses shall take that direction which alone
will enable the child to become a useful and a pleasant member of society.
[Sidenote: The Narcissistic love elements are also satisfied by incestuous
affection]
(6) If the incestuous direction of affection thus assists the development
of object-love, we must not forget that at the same time it is calculated
to give a considerable degree of satisfaction to the Narcissistic
elements of love. In their most characteristic and pronounced form, these
Narcissistic elements will usually manifest themselves in a homosexual
direction and therefore not in the typical form of incestuous heterosexual
affection with which we are here chiefly concerned. There can be little
doubt however that, in a less violent and overwhelming form and as a
factor in a total complex situation, the Narcissistic elements do enter
very frequently into normal love between members of the opposite sexes.
The similarities--physical, mental and circumstantial--that usually exist
between those who are of common descent bring it about that a partial
identification of the self with the loved object is often easier in the
case of a blood relative than with any other person. Hence the influence
of this factor will frequently add itself to the other forces which tend
to produce an incestuous direction of affection.
The partial identification upon which the operation of this Narcissistic
factor in object-love depends, may of course take place at many different
psychic levels, from one at which the perception of the resemblance
between the loved object and the self may to some extent enter into
consciousness, to one at which the identification seems to rest upon some
mysterious deep-seated and archaic bond of union, depending possibly upon
organic factors or upon the experiences of pre-natal life--such a bond
for instance as that which arises perhaps as a result of the close vital
connection between mother and child during the period of gestation and
lactation[228].
[Sidenote: Thus two opposing tendencies in love find simultaneous
gratification]
In this way the love of a child to those who are related to it by
ties of blood--and particularly to the parents--is such as to afford
a convenient compromise between two sets of conflicting impulses--the
impulses that tend to the development of object-love and those more
primitive ones that manifest themselves most clearly at the autoerotic
and Narcissistic levels. Such a compromise formation is, as we know,
peculiarly characteristic of the process of displacement. It is a
general law of mental progress in conation that in the new direction
of activity that results from a conflict of impulses, there are to be
found certain elements that are connected with the satisfaction of both
conflicting aims. As a ready means of providing such common elements, the
love of parents and of other relatives may therefore in very many cases
be supported by the energy derived both from the Narcissistic and the
object-seeking components of affection. Hence another potent reason for
the widespread occurrence of this form of love.
[Sidenote: The dependence aspects may also indirectly foster incestuous
tendencies]
(7) Another set of factors working towards the production and maintenance
of the tendencies to incest are those connected with the dependence of the
youthful individual on the family, with all that this implies. We have
already, in Chapters IV and V studied the manner in which the inertia
of habit, the difficulties involved in the growth of individuality, the
efforts required for self-governance, self-maintenance and independence
and the tendency to regress to an earlier stage of development in the face
of obstacles, all combine to produce the retention of, or the return to,
a relatively infantile attitude towards the family. We were there chiefly
concerned with the aspects of self-preservation and self-expression rather
than with the aspects of love or reproduction, but it is evident that the
infantile and childish stages of both aspects must be associated with one
another, so that a fixation at an early stage of development with regard
to one aspect will be likely to bring with it a corresponding fixation
as regards the other. Thus, for instance, an undue reluctance to abandon
the conception of the mother as the protector and provider of childhood
may easily entail a similar failure of growth on the erotic side. In
general it would appear that the inertia of the human mind, which so
often involves a failure to emancipate the self from the trammels of the
early family life, will tend inevitably to produce a corresponding want
of adjustment in the love life. This factor of itself would not suffice
to bring about the tendency to incest, but, given the existence of this
tendency, it might constitute an influence of very considerable power in
maintaining the tendency in question, both in the individual and in the
race, and might even be a means of producing a reversion to this tendency
in cases where it seemed to have been superseded or outgrown.
[Sidenote: The sentiment of parent-love is powerful in virtue of its early
formation]
(8) The sentiment of parent love having been called into existence by
the aid of the factors we have already enumerated--directly in the case
of 1 and 2, more indirectly in the case of 4, 5 and 6 and still more
indirectly perhaps in the case of 3 and 7--all conditions are particularly
favourable for its continuance and growth. In the first place, it is
almost certainly one of the earliest important sentiments to be formed,
the only other one which can compare with it in this respect being the
self-regarding sentiment. It thus enjoys as compared with most others
sentiments all the advantage afforded by priority. What the exact nature
of any such advantage may be, it would be hazardous to suggest in detail:
we know however that it is a general characteristic of the function and
development of mind that dispositions which are formed early in the life
of the individual enjoy a greater stability and permanence than those
subsequently acquired. Even where, as so often happens, the function of
the earlier dispositions is modified or obscured by the results of later
experience, the phenomena of "regression" to earlier levels, as manifested
in pathology, show clearly enough that the earlier dispositions remain
intact throughout life and in many cases seem to be (in themselves and
apart from the influence of extraneous factors) paths that offer less
resistance to the passage of emotional energy than do those formed at a
later period. It may well be then that its priority of formation gives to
the sentiment of parent-love a more stable and deep-rooted foundation than
that enjoyed by any sentiment subsequently formed.
Further, psycho-analytic study appears to indicate very strongly that it
is in the nature of the mind for _all_ the earliest channels of conative
energy not only to remain capable of functioning in later life, but
actually to continue to function, though often in such a degree or in such
a way as to have but little if any _direct_ influence on consciousness
or action. Thus it would appear that when a sublimation is formed and
emotional energy is directed into a fresh channel, not all the energy
passing through the original channel is deflected; some, on the contrary,
continues to pass along the original channel. At each fresh sublimation
this process is repeated, so that, to use a simile of Freud's, we may
compare the development of the Libido to the history of a wandering tribe,
which at each fresh migration leaves some of its members behind in the
home it is just leaving (the larger the proportion of the population that
is left behind--_i. e._ the greater the fixations--the greater being of
course the tendency to regress along the former line of advance when an
obstacle is encountered). In such a system of function and development, it
is clear that the oldest channels are necessarily, in a sense, the most
stable and permanent, the least easy to modify or to destroy.
In this respect then the channels comprising the sentiment of parent-love
are comparable to all other early channels of the Libido. Just as the
autoerotic trends connected with the oral, anal and urethral regions
of the body and the primitive tendencies to sadism, masochism and
exhibitionism have been shown to underlie many of the activities of adult
life, so (on a higher and more complex level of development) parent-love
has been revealed as the foundation upon which rests the greater part of
the affection of childhood, adolescence and maturity. From this point of
view it would appear that parent-love, in its persistence and influence on
later life, exhibits characteristics which are, in greater or less degree,
common to all the earliest manifestations of the Libido.
[Sidenote: Furthermore, numerous influences favour its persistence]
In one important respect however the history of parent love differs from
the history of many other of these early manifestations. Parent-love not
only comes into being at a very early age, but, as regards many of its
attributes, it normally persists with but little alteration throughout
the whole of the impressionable period from infancy to adolescence. The
sensual elements of this love are, it is true, for the most part repressed
soon after they appear, but the elements of tenderness and veneration
usually remain and build up a sentiment which operates vigorously and
continuously for many years, whereas the other sentiments formed during
this period (with the exception again of the self-regarding sentiment)
are apt to be of a far more temporary and evanescent character. It is
true, as we have seen, that as development proceeds the affection felt
towards the parents is to some extent displaced on to other persons, but
nevertheless, in the normal course of events, a large portion of this
affection remains throughout early life fixated on its original object.
Moreover as regards this fixation of affection on the parents (provided
only no sensual element be too apparent), the individual meets as a rule
with every encouragement and sign of approval from those about him, not
with the disapprobation or ridicule which he often encounters when his
affections are directed elsewhere. The sentiment of parent love has
therefore the support of moral sanction in a way enjoyed by few, if any,
other sentiments of love that may be formed in early life.
We see therefore that both as regards priority of formation and as
regards duration, vigour and continuity of function throughout the all
important period of development, parent love normally occupies an almost
unique place among the sentiments--a place which renders to some extent
intelligible the importance of the role it plays in human life.
[Sidenote: The tendency to incest thus brought about is strengthened by
practice and tradition]
(9) Finally, the tendency to incestuous direction of affection, having
once been brought into existence, has no doubt been strengthened and
consolidated by the actual practice of incest that has pretty certainly
occurred on a wide scale among certain races and at certain levels of
development[229].
[Sidenote: The occurrence of incest may also be inferred from certain
practices and institutions]
Apart from the actual observation of incestuous practices at the present
day, the previous occurrence of incest on a wide scale may (as we have
already to some extent indicated in earlier chapters) frequently be
inferred with some degree of certainty from the nature of practices,
customs, observances and institutions which seem to be remnants or
vestiges of a one-time general prevalence of incest. We have already
referred to the practice of brother-sister marriage among certain lines
of monarchs (p. 91), to the customs of the levirate and sororate (p. 93)
and of group marriage (p. 90), the _droit de seigneur_ (p. 143) and the
licence frequently permitted at certain festivals such as initiation (p.
89).
Evidence for the previous existence of incest is also forthcoming from
the measures and prohibitions erected to prevent it. The "avoidances"
practised by a large number of savage peoples are very numerous and have
reference to all the principal relationships, both those of blood and
those acquired by marriage. These "avoidances" are unhesitatingly regarded
by most authorities as customs adopted as a precaution against incest.
[Sidenote: Especially from Exogamy]
The most striking institution of this kind is however undoubtedly that of
Exogamy. There is as yet no complete consensus of opinion as to the causes
that have led to the origin and development of exogamy, but the majority
of the eminent investigators who have devoted themselves to the subject
agree that the avoidance of incest is the principal factor that has led to
the creation of the system. The various stages of exogamic development, as
seen in Australia, appear to constitute so many fresh encroachments upon
the liberty of incest[230], the later and more complex four class system
prohibiting certain unions between relatives that the earlier and simpler
two class system has permitted, while the eight class system in turn
prevents those that are not excluded under the four class system, though
the actual relationships prohibited differ somewhat according to whether
descent is traced in the male or female line.
[Sidenote: Exogamy was probably preceded by Endogamy]
There is a considerable amount of evidence to show that exogamy, where now
in force, was preceded by a period in which the unions prohibited under
its rule were freely indulged in, though the marriage tie was at the same
time broader and less binding. Thus of the Central Australians Spencer
and Gillen[231] say that tradition "seems to point back to a time when
a man always married a woman of his own totem. The reference to men and
woman of one totem always living together in groups would appear to be too
frequent to admit of any other satisfactory explanation. We never meet in
tradition with an instance of a man living with a woman who was not of his
own totem." The same conclusion as to the former universal prevalence of
endogamy emerges from a study of the actually observed condition of the
Australian natives, the rude and uncultivated tribes of the interior being
still to some extent endogamic, while there is a gradual increase in the
frequency and strictness of exogamy, as we proceed from these to the more
advanced communities of the north[232]. Among the Kacharis of Assam we
have an example of what is probably the still more primitive process of a
_compulsory_ endogamy giving place to freedom to marry outside the totem
group, endogamy being here thus not only permitted but enjoined[233].
Other indications of the co-existence of endogamy with a totemic system
are found in Madagascar[234] and in N.W. America[235].
[Sidenote: Really primitive races mostly monogamous and endogamous]
Frazer supposes that exogamy in its beginning arose originally as
a restriction upon complete promiscuity, though he admits that such
promiscuity need not have been characteristic of absolutely primitive
man[236]. As a matter of fact the most primitive races that we know
seem to be usually _monogamous_ and _endogamous_. This is for instance
to a greater or less extent the case with the Veddahs[237], the
Andamanese[238], the lowest forest tribes of Brazil[239], the inhabitants
of the interior of Borneo[240], the Semangs and Senoi of the Malay
Peninsula[241], and the Negritos of the Philippines[242] and Central
Africa[243].
[Sidenote: The family is therefore their principal social unit]
[Sidenote: Incest a natural consequence of such conditions]
In these primitive peoples and in those who, as we must suppose, formerly
resembled them, the family would appear to be a more closely knit and
socially a more important unit than in the later age of totemism and
exogamy; there being in this respect a resemblance between the primitive
condition and that of the post-totemic patriarchal period. There is
reason to believe however that in the case of really primitive man (in
distinction from the later patriarchal period) the family is often the
only permanent and stable unit; such approximation to tribal organisation
as exists being mostly of a temporary or fluctuating character. With such
peoples the low state of culture will often necessitate a relatively
scattered population, and in these circumstances endogamy and incest may
be a natural--indeed possibly sometimes an inevitable--consequence; for
where families live in relative isolation for long periods together,
opportunities for marriage outside the family may be few, and abstention
from sexual activities during these periods would imply a greater power of
continence than would seem as a rule to be possessed by primitive peoples.
Incest would naturally follow too under these conditions from the early
ripening of the sexual instinct which is generally found in primitive
man[244]. The very early cohabitation of the sexes which results therefrom
would, in relatively isolated families, almost necessarily occur in an
incestuous form.
[Sidenote: How do past incestuous practices produce present tendencies to
incest?]
[Sidenote: The influence of heredity and of tradition]
If these influences have made incest a common practice at one period of
man's history, in what ways has this practice contributed to the tendency
to incest found at a later date and at the present day? In view of the
widespread (we are probably justified in saying universal) occurrence of
this tendency, of the relative uniformity of its ultimate nature in spite
of manifold differences of culture, training, and environment, of the
great strength which it possesses even after ages of repression, there is
not unnaturally a temptation to regard it as an innate factor in man's
mental constitution, _i. e._, to assert that there is in man an hereditary
tendency to direct his love and sexual inclination to those who are of his
own blood or at any rate to those with whom he has been brought up and has
been familiar since his infancy[245]. Possibly in the long ages in which
man or his pre-human ancestors lived in relatively isolated families, this
tendency was of advantage in the struggle for existence, in so much as it
may have contributed both to more rapid multiplication and to the greater
consolidation, and therefore greater safety and stability, of the family,
as the most important social unit. The tendency to incest may thus be due
ultimately to the action of natural selection; the long period during
which incest was regularly practised may have established and ingrained
it as a normal feature of the race and its persistence to-day may be due
to the continuance of the hereditary disposition thus formed and thus
consolidated.
Apart from the direct influence of this hereditary factor however, a long
period during which incest was habitual may have affected the tendency to
incest at a later time through custom, law and tradition. These change
but slowly in a primitive society, and, through their inertia, would tend
to reinforce or maintain the hereditary factor, even when, owing to the
action of other causes, incest may have been abandoned in the main in
favour of exogamy. These influences may have kept alive the remembrance
of, and desire for, incest, which would otherwise possibly have succumbed
to the forces working to bring about its suppression.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 226: _Cp._ in this connection Abraham, "Untersuchungen über
die früheste prägenitale Entwicklungstufe der Libido", _Zeitschrift
für ärztliche Psychoanalyse_, 1916, IV. Also Freud, "Sammlung kleiner
Schriften zur Neurosenlehre", IV, 274.]
[Footnote 227: "Social Psychology", 91.]
[Footnote 228: _Cp_. T. Burrow, "The Genesis and Meaning of Homosexuality
and its relation to the problem of introverted mental states."
_Psychoanalytic Review_, IV. 272.]
[Footnote 229: We have already (p. 90) given certain examples of that
most common form of incest, the connection of brother and sister. We may
here refer briefly to a few further instances, more especially to those
in which there occurs the more intimate connection between parents and
children. Such instances would seem to have been observed with especial
frequency among the Indians of North America. Thus Samuel Hearne, writing
in 1795, tells us of the Chippewayans that "it is notoriously known that
many of them cohabit occasionally with their own mothers and frequently
espouse their sisters and daughters. I have known several of them who,
after having lived in that state with their daughters, have given them
to their sons and all parties have been perfectly reconciled to it."
("Journey to the Northern Ocean," 1795, 130). Eighty years later Bancroft
tells us much the same of the Kadiaks ("The Native Races of the Pacific
States of North America," 1875, I, 81). An observer of about the same
period writes concerning the eastern tribes of the Tinnehs that "instances
of men united to their mothers, their sisters or their daughters are far
from rare. I have heard among them of two sons keeping their mother as a
common wife, of another wedded to his daughter, while in cases of polygamy
having two sisters to wife is very usual." ("Annual Report of Regents of
the Smithsonian Institution," 1867, 310).
In South America too the practice of incest of this kind would appear
to have been fairly frequently observed. Thus in Brazil the Indians of
the Isanna river "marry one, two or three wives and prefer relations,
marrying with cousins, uncles with nieces, nephews with aunts, so that
in a village all are connected" (A. R. Wallace, "Travels in the Amazon
and Rio Negro," 1889, 352). Commenting on this report, Frazer adds that
"in this preference for marriage with blood relations the Indians of the
Isanna agree with other Indian tribes of South America, especially of
Brazil" ("Totemism and Exogamy," III, 575). Concerning this same part of
the world, another traveller says that "in general it may be asserted
that incest in all degrees is of frequent occurrence among the numerous
tribes and hordes on the Amazon and the Rio Negro" (See Martius, "Zur
Ethnographie Amerikas, zumal Brasiliens," 1867, 116). Of the Peruvian
aborigines we are told by an earlier authority that they "follow their
own desires without excepting sister, daughter or mother. Others excepted
their mother but none else" (Garcilasso de la Vega, First part of the
"Royal Commentaries of the Yncas," trans. by C. R. Markham, 1869-71, I,
58).
Similar observations have been made by travellers among primitive peoples
in many other parts of the world. Thus with the Karens of Tenasserim
"matrimonial alliances between brother and sister or father and daughter
are not uncommon" (_Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal_,
VII, 856). In Africa "the kings of Gonzalves and Gaboon are accustomed
to marry their grown-up daughters and the queens marry their eldest
sons" (A. Bastian, "Der Mensch in der Geschichte," 1860, III, 293). In
a district of Celebes "father and daughter, mother and son, brother and
sister frequently lived together in bonds of matrimony" (S. J. Hickson, "A
Naturalist in North Celebes," 1889, 277). With the Kalangs (probably the
aborigines of Java) "mother and son often live together as man and wife,
and it is a belief that prosperity and riches flow from such a union" (E.
Ketjen, De Kalangers, _Tijdschrift von Indische Taal-Land en Volkenkunde_,
1877, XXIV, 427). Very similar practices have been reported from New
Guinea (Rev. J. Chalmers, "Notes on the Natives of Kiwai," _Journal of
the Royal Anthropological Institute_, XXXI, II, 1903, 124), the Indian
Archipelago (Wilken, Over de Verwantschap en het huwelijks en enfrechts
bij de volken van het maleische ras, 1883, 277), and Melanesia (Frazer,
"Totemism and Exogamy," II, 118).
But it must not be supposed that the frequent practice of incest is
confined to primitive races. Although in civilised communities regarded
with almost universal condemnation, incest has probably always existed
to some extent among certain sections of the population and the practice
of incest among modern white races is undoubtedly much more prevalent
than is commonly supposed. A well known British psycho-analyst assures
me that in the exercise of their profession he and his colleagues hear
with astonishing frequency of cases of incest, the report of which is
otherwise suppressed. Particularly is this so as regards children. At
the present day however, incest undoubtedly occurs most frequently among
the poorer classes, where want of adequate housing accommodation renders
the temptation greater. It is startling to note in this connection
that, according to the Chicago Vice Commission, out of a group of 103
girls examined, no less than 51 reported that they had received their
first sexual experience at the hands of their father ("The Social Evil
in Chicago," 1911, quoted by W. A. White, "Mechanisms of Character
Formation," 1916, 163). Even if we allow a liberal margin for incorrect
or exaggerated statements (in this case of course, instances of
wish-fulfilment), these figures would seem to afford astonishing evidence
as to the prevalence of incest of the father-daughter type in the towns
of America. In this country there is reason to believe that similar
occurrences are far from being uncommon (_cp_. "Downward Paths", 20)]
[Footnote 230: _Cp_. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," IV, 112 ff.]
[Footnote 231: "Native Tribes of Central Australia," 419.]
[Footnote 232: Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," I, 242 ff.]
[Footnote 233: _Idem, op. cit._, IV, 297, quoting Rev. S. Endle.]
[Footnote 234: _Idem, op. cit._, II, 636.]
[Footnote 235: _Idem, op. cit._, III, 340.]
[Footnote 236: _Op. cit._, IV, 138.]
[Footnote 237: "Among whom death alone separates husband and wife". John
Bailey, "An Account of the Wild Tribes of the Veddahs of Ceylon." Trans.
of the Ethnological Society, N. S. II, 1863, 293.]
[Footnote 238: Westermarck, "History of Human Marriage", 507.]
[Footnote 239: _Idem, loc. cit._]
[Footnote 240: _Idem, loc. cit._]
[Footnote 241: Wundt, "Elements of Folk Psychology", 48, 50.]
[Footnote 242: _Idem, loc. cit._]
[Footnote 243: _Idem, loc. cit._]
[Footnote 244: _Cp_. E. S. Hartland, "Primitive Paternity", II, 254, ff.]
[Footnote 245: It is not perhaps quite easy to see what can be the
psychic mechanism in virtue of which men should be attracted to blood
relations strictly as such, though to the present writer it would seem
to be a possibility which should not be entirely lost sight of. Such a
tendency may perhaps have arisen: (1) as the result of some vague and
unconscious sense of affinity, similarity or harmony, based perhaps on
an unconscious memory impression of pre-natal life (in the case of child
and mother or of twins), or upon some other condition of a psychical,
physiological or chemical order; (2) at a higher level through the action
of perceived physical or psychical resemblance, these in turn playing on
the Narcissistic components of the love impulse.]
CHAPTER XVII
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES--THE REPRESSION OF LOVE
[Sidenote: Causes of Incest Repression]
Supposing the tendency to incest to have been called into being and
maintained by some such causes, or combination of causes, as we have
considered in the last chapter, what are the influences that have brought
about the inhibition and repression of this tendency--influences which, as
we have already remarked, must be strong in proportion to the strength of
the tendency itself? We find here, as was not the case with our discussion
of the positive aspects of the tendency, that certain explanations have
already been advanced, though these are for the most part obviously
unsatisfactory, or at best incomplete.
[Sidenote: Explanations of primitive peoples]
(1) The reasons which are given by primitive peoples for their obedience
to the rule of exogamy are various; sometimes it is considered that harm
would come to the pair who are guilty of the forbidden union, this perhaps
being usually of the nature of some disease, or else very frequently,
impotence or barrenness; sometimes it is the offspring of the guilty pair
who will incur the penalty; quite often, however, the evil results of such
a union are supposed to affect the whole community to which they belong
and consist not uncommonly in general infertility of women, animals and
plants. These reasons, though they no doubt exercise a powerful influence
among those who hold them, are for the most part too obviously of the
nature of superstitions, inventions or rationalisations to be taken at
their face value; though the study of them on psycho-analytic principles
would no doubt bring interesting and suggestive results.
Hardly much more satisfactory, if regarded as attempts at affording
complete and ultimate explanations, are some of hypotheses that have been
put forward by modern students of exogamy.
[Sidenote: Durkheim's Theory of the sanctity of blood]
(2) Thus, Durkheim[246] suggests that exogamy arose as a result of
the religious respect for blood, particularly menstruous blood; the
divine totemic being is supposed to be resident in blood, hence blood
is sacred, especially to those of the totem clan, and no man of this
clan may trespass on the very spot where the sacred blood periodically
manifests itself. Even if this theory should afford a satisfactory
proximate explanation of exogamy, it is obviously very far from revealing
the true ultimate biological and psychological factors that have led to
the practice. Even apart from this, however, it gives rise to certain
difficulties and objections (more especially connected with the lack of
the close correspondence between exogamous classes and totemic clans which
we should expect upon this theory) and has almost certainly at best but a
very limited field of application[247].
[Sidenote: Westermarck's theory of an innate aversion to incest]
(3) Westermarck[248] would explain exogamy and the avoidance of incest
generally as due to the fact that there is an innate aversion to sexual
intercourse between persons living together from early youth, and that,
as such persons are in most cases related by blood, this feeling would
naturally display itself in custom and law as a horror of intercourse
between near kin[249].
[Sidenote: resulting from the injurious effects of inbreeding]
As to the general existence of this horror there can be no doubt, and to
assign to it an important part in framing human opinions and institutions
with regard to incest is perfectly justifiable so long as we do not lose
sight of the fact that this horror is only one side of the total human
attitude towards the matter and that alongside of the horror there exists
an attraction towards incest which corresponds in intensity to that of
the horror itself[250]. An explanation in terms of this incest horror is
not, however, that which we are seeking; it is, on the contrary, the very
existence of this horror for which we are trying to account. We have to
ask, what are the conditions in human life and mind that have brought
about the widespread aversion to incest that is so generally manifested.
According to Westermarck, these conditions are to be found in the process
of natural selection; marriages between near kin are, he maintains, on
the whole injurious to the species and, therefore, through survival of
the fittest, the existing races of men show a marked aversion to such
marriages.
[Sidenote: These effects by no means certain]
In estimating the correctness of this theory, it is well to remember
that the supposed ill effects of inbreeding in men and animals are by no
means as yet universally admitted by those who have studied the subject,
and that, even so far as their existence is admitted, they are not yet
fully understood or accurately measured. It is indeed often a matter of
considerable difficulty to discover any ill effects that may be due to
this cause, especially in the case of slow breeding animals, such as Man,
and the conclusions that have been arrived at with regard to the human
race have to a great extent been derived by analogy from observations
made upon lower animals. It would seem to be fairly generally agreed
that such ill effects as may exist arise for the most part from the
reinforcement or accentuation of hereditary weaknesses and defects that
is liable to occur in inbreeding and that members of a perfectly healthy
family might continue to mate with one another for several (perhaps for
many) generations without evil consequences, though possibly a loss of
vigour, strength or fertility might ultimately occur. In the case of the
Ptolemies of Egypt and the Incas of Peru inbreeding of this kind has (as
we have already observed in another connection) actually been practised
and does not seem to have produced any conspicuously bad results. There
is some evidence, too, that seems to point to the fact that the supposed
ill effects of inbreeding are due to the results of continuously similar
environment and conditions of life rather than to the physiological
resemblance of the parents, or at any rate that any evil effects of the
latter cause may be counterbalanced by a change of abode or of the mode of
living[251].
East and Jones in their recent valuable survey of our present knowledge
on the subject[252] conclude quite definitely that inbreeding is not
in itself productive of ill effects, the results of inbreeding in
any particular case depending entirely upon the hereditary qualities
transmitted; so that, although in bad stock the intensification of
undesirable qualities through inbreeding might soon bring about
deterioration, in good stock inbreeding is the surest method of making
the desirable qualities a stable and permanent characteristic of the
race. Nevertheless there are, in the opinion of these writers, certain
advantages of a general nature to be derived from outbreeding connected
principally: (1) with the occurrence of heterosis or hybrid vigour as a
result of outbreeding, (2) with the fact that outbreeding leads to greater
variability between individuals than does inbreeding, thus giving greater
scope for the action of selective agencies and therefore endowing the race
with greater power of adaptation to a changing environment--a factor which
is probably of very considerable importance and which indeed seems to
have been overlooked in a number of previous discussions of the subject,
especially by nonbiological writers.
[Sidenote: and can scarcely account for the intensity of the incest
prohibition]
It thus appears that stress should be laid upon the advantages of
outbreeding rather than upon the supposed ill effects of inbreeding.
Nevertheless we must admit that there exist biological factors of such a
kind as to be capable of influencing the psychological attitude towards
incest in the way that Westermarck's theory requires. But although the
theory that incest prohibition is due to natural selection working on
the _relative_ disadvantages of inbreeding may be correct so far as it
goes, this does not absolve us from the duty of looking elsewhere for
other factors which may have worked in the same direction. For it appears
very doubtful whether the factors we have just been considering can be
regarded as an adequate explanation of incest prohibition as we know it.
If it is the advantages of outbreeding rather than the disadvantages of
inbreeding that are potent; if the evil effects of inbreeding are so
relatively slight as to leave room for doubt as to their nature and even
the fact of their existence; if they are of such kind as to leave healthy
stocks but little if at all affected and to become serious only after long
continuance without admixture of fresh blood from outside (a state of
affairs that can but rarely have occurred); and if they are liable to be
counteracted by a change of locality or of life's conditions (which must
sometimes have occurred, especially among nomadic peoples): then it is not
easy to understand how such a widespread and powerful human characteristic
as the aversion to incest can have arisen _solely_ as the result of
natural selection, working through the bad effects of incest or the
superior advantages of outbreeding. The largeness of the result would be
manifestly out of proportion to the cause, and it would seem that although
we may allow some considerable influence to this factor, we have to admit
that it must be supplemented by some other cause or causes of appreciable
magnitude[253].
[Sidenote: Influence of non-sexual factors]
(4) According to one type of explanation (_e. g._ that held by Wundt[254])
the horror of incest is not the cause of exogamy, but the consequence of
it--the origin of exogamy itself being due to some other influences only
indirectly connected with the sex life. Of such theories of the origin of
exogamy a number have been put forward by eminent authorities.
Thus McLennan[255], the discoverer of both Totemism and Exogamy, held the
view that exogamy was a consequence of the wide prevalence of marriage
by capture; this latter being itself a result of the preponderance of
the male sex over the female in primitive communities and of the general
condition of hostility existing between neighbouring tribes. Herbert
Spencer[256] similarly thought that exogamy arose from marriage by
capture, men belonging to successful tribes nearly always acquiring their
brides in this way, so that it eventually became a disgrace to marry
within the tribe. Lord Avebury[257], believing that group marriage or
promiscuity was the rule in primitive society, suggests that women taken
in war belonged to their individual captor, marriage in a narrow sense
being thus exogamous from the start. Kohler[258] believes on the contrary,
that exogamy arose as a means of bringing about inter-tribal friendships
or alliances. Andrew Lang[259] has suggested that exogamy is due to the
fact that the younger brothers of a family were frequently driven out by
the stronger and older ones in order to ward off any want that might arise
from the living together of a large number of brothers and sisters--the
younger brothers being then obliged to marry outside the family group.
[Sidenote: Such factors cannot fully explain exogamy]
Now all these factors--and others too perhaps--may very well have had
their influence in bringing about the practice of exogamy: in particular,
it would seem that the difficulty of supporting a large family living
together under really primitive conditions would be very likely to
have had the effect of driving the younger members of the family away
from the immediate circle of their parents. Nevertheless there appears
to be a pretty general agreement that none of these theories affords a
complete and sufficient account of the origin of exogamy. The conditions
postulated by McLennan's theory (shortage of women and frequent wars
between neighbouring groups) are by no means universally found among
primitive peoples, and even if there exists the required preponderance
of men over women, it is by no means obvious why the men should refuse
to avail themselves of such fellow-tribeswomen as they could find.
On Spencer's view, it is difficult or impossible to account for the
existence of exogamy among all the tribes of a given area, since in
constant warfare there must be some which are vanquished, and among
these endogamy rather than exogamy should be the rule. Lord Avebury's
theory rests on the assumption that communal marriage was the original
condition of mankind--an assumption that is now abandoned by many of the
best authorities. Kohler's view can scarcely explain how the objection
to sexual unions within the tribe should have come to apply not only
to marriage but (equally strongly) to less regular or purely temporary
connections. Andrew Lang's theory similarly fails to explain why the rule
of exogamy is made to apply to the elder members of the family with the
same force as to the younger[260].
[Sidenote: The psychological nature of the incest prohibition shows the
insufficiency of these influences]
Moreover, even supposing that the existence of such an institution as
exogamy could be in itself satisfactorily accounted for on some such
grounds as those advanced by theories of this kind, it is at once evident
that we have here no adequate explanation of the strictness with which the
system is enforced, the severe penalties that are exacted for infringement
of its rules (which is very often punishable by death), the intense
nature of the incest horror generally, and the fact that this horror
persists even where, as in civilised countries, there is no organised
system of exogamy in the technical sense. The psychological researches
of Freud and his followers would seem to have shown conclusively that
this intense aversion to incest (like all repugnances and taboos of a
similar kind) is the negative expression of a correspondingly intense
desire for the forbidden thing, and therefore no explanation which
neglects to take into consideration this desire can be regarded as even
approximately satisfactory. If the aversion to incest had arisen merely
as a consequence of the age-long practice of exogamy--which itself is due
to other causes--there would be no reason why this aversion should be
intimately connected with the positive tendency to incest or of sufficient
strength to overcome this tendency, with the powerfulness of which we are
now well acquainted. In view of the existence of this strong tendency to
incest (which was not appreciated before the work of Freud), it seems
no longer possible to maintain, either that exogamy can have arisen
independently of the counter-impulse to repress this tendency, or that
this counter-impulse, which finds its psychic expression in that incest
horror so generally observable both in primitive and cultured man, can be
satisfactorily explained as the result of any institution or custom itself
unconnected with the tendency to incest.
[Sidenote: The biological absurdity of parent-child incest]
(5) Turning to factors that have in general received less explicit
recognition at the hands of the authorities who have written on the
subject, we may note first that as regards the most fundamental type
of incest as revealed by psycho-analytic study--that of parent and
child--there is involved a sort of biological absurdity, which may well
have been to some extent instrumental, through the agency of natural
selection, of bringing about that inhibition of the incestuous tendencies
for which we have to account. Parents and children necessarily differ
considerably in age, though less so in most primitive communities than in
the civilised societies of to-day, where marriage is so often postponed
till relatively late in life. Even among primitive peoples however the
difference is very appreciable, especially in view of the fact (which must
be borne in mind in this connection) that with such peoples, owing to the
harder conditions of existence, life is often shorter than in civilised
communities, while the enfeeblement that accompanies advancing age comes
on proportionately sooner. If men were to follow blindly the impulses
manifested in the primitive and fundamental forms of incest tendency, sons
would cohabit with their mothers, daughters with their fathers. In such
unions one of the partners would be relatively aged, and the offspring
would in consequence very probably be lacking in that degree of vitality
or health normally possessed by the children of parents of more equal age;
they would moreover fail, in the majority of cases, to enjoy that degree
of provision and protection which could be afforded where _both_ parents
are still youthful. Even if such unions were to occur, they could not (in
the case of one sex at any rate) be continued in the following generation;
for if a son were to cohabit with his mother and if a male child resulted
from their union, this child could not in turn fruitfully unite with his
mother (who would also be his grandmother), as she would be now definitely
past the reproductive age. Further, such unions would come into opposition
with the almost universal tendency to find sexual attractiveness in
youthful rather than in aged persons--a tendency which, like the
appreciation of beauty in the opposite sex in general, we may suppose has
been shaped largely, if not wholly, by the operation of natural selection,
which has ensured that men and women should in the main be attracted to
those who are most likely to produce strong and healthy children.
Thus it can easily be understood that any races which tended to indulge to
any large extent the impulses which prompt to incestuous unions between
parents and children would be at a disadvantage as compared with those
races in which these unions did not occur or occurred less frequently;
the latter races tending therefore to supplant the former. Given then the
existence of a strong impulse towards parent-children unions, we can see
how biological factors may very well have favoured the growth of strong
counteracting factors, such as manifest themselves in the repression of
the tendencies towards this form of incest.
These considerations would of course apply not only to relations between
parents and children but to all other unions in which the age difference
between the partners is considerable. They would not however apply
to unions between brother and sister or between cousins who are of
approximately equal age. The influences which lead to the aversions to
these latter unions must be sought elsewhere[261].
[Sidenote: Fear of the consequences of parental jealousy]
(6) A potent set of influences calculated to inhibit tendencies to incest
are those connected with sexual jealousy. A boy's love towards his
mother, as we have seen, almost necessarily brings him to some extent
into conflict with his father, while a girl's affection to her father
is similarly calculated to bring about the jealousy of her mother. This
arousal of jealousy on the part of the parents may produce repression of
the incest tendency in the child in a variety of ways; of which perhaps
the most frequent and important are:--
_a._ fear of punishment at the hands of the jealous parent, and
_b._ unwillingness to cause injury or sorrow to this parent because
of genuine affection being felt towards him (or her)--affection which
of course may quite well co-exist with very considerable jealousy and
rivalry. Both these motives appear prominently in psycho-analytic
investigations of the conditions underlying the repression of the Œdipus
complex in normal and neurotic persons of the present day, and both
have been operative for long ages in the past wherever the family has
existed in a monogamous form in which the parents lived together for
a considerable period after the birth of their children. Very similar
motives may also co-operate in the repression of incest tendencies as
between brothers and sisters, the jealousies in this case being for the
most part those between brothers or between sisters respectively.
[Sidenote: Strong family ties conflict with social development]
(7) There can be little doubt that there exists a certain degree of
antagonism between the development of strong and permanent ties within
the family and the development of those sentiments and feelings which
bind the individual to the larger social groups, such as the tribe or
nation, or those which make him a prominent, useful and agreeable member
of society--in that family affections conflict in some degree with
gregariousness. This antagonism can be observed in society to-day in such
cases as those in which dependence on, and attachment to, the family
will prevent an individual from easily adapting himself to the wider
environment of school, college or club life, or from becoming "at home"
in the circle of his business, sporting or professional acquaintances.
Similarly, undue concentration of interest or affection on the family will
very frequently prevent the formation of those wider sublimations, some of
which we studied in Chapter XIII, sublimations upon which the successful
working of a large community may often depend. The individual who finds
the satisfaction of all his emotions and desires within the circle of his
family is unlikely to develop to the full those wider interests in his
fellow men and in the social conditions of his age and place, without
which all higher political progress and development become impossible.
At an earlier stage of human society the conflict was very possibly much
more acute. Man, as we have seen, was probably in origin a family, rather
than a social, animal; nevertheless it is the gregariousness of man which
is responsible for the most characteristic features of the progress in
culture which has led to civilisation. Gregariousness has therefore proved
itself a very precious biological possession and natural selection would
be likely to ensure its retention and development in the human mind, thus
affording a strong influence in favour of the repression of those family
affections which might threaten it. It is to some extent in this way
perhaps that there came about that great revulsion against the monogamic
family which is manifested in the totemic age--an age in which the ties
connecting the individual with other members of a larger social group were
developed at the expense of those which attached him to his family, and an
age which elaborated the most complex, far-reaching and intense barriers
against the incest tendencies which are shown in the various systems of
exogamy.
At a later stage of human development, when the foundations of society
were more securely settled, circumstances seem to have permitted something
in the nature of a relaxation of the restrictions on family ties and
family affections, the exogamic rules becoming less strict or less
far-reaching and the family becoming more firmly knit together; this
change being perhaps made possible by the fact that the larger and more
complex social groups of a more developed society no longer came into
such direct conflict with the family as an alternative social unit--the
larger group being now of sufficient size and strength to tolerate the
co-existence of the smaller (or, more strictly speaking, to include the
smaller within itself) without fear of competition or disruption.
Thus, though the urgency of the pressure may very well have varied in
different times and places, it would seem probable that the claims of
social life have constantly exercised some influence in restricting the
interests and affections which centre round the family and have therefore
probably constituted one of the forces which have helped to bring about
that inhibition of the incest tendencies for which we are here trying to
account.
[Sidenote: They conflict also with individual development]
(8) There exists a very similar antagonism between a high degree of family
attachment and the claims of individual development. We have seen in the
earlier chapters the way in which the full unfolding of the individual's
capacities--his ability to maintain himself by his own efforts, his
power of self reliance, of initiative and of independent thought and
action--demand a relaxation of the ties that bind him to his family. It
is true that the relations of an individual to his family which are here
in question are not primarily the erotic ones; still they are everywhere
in contact with these erotic aspects of the family relationship and would
seem to be highly correlated with them--so much so that it is often a
matter of great difficulty to decide where the erotic elements end and the
purely dependence relationships begin[262]. In virtue of this correlation
it would seem that the incest tendencies, when developed or retained in a
high degree, must be inimical to the free growth of individual capacity;
in other words, that those communities in which the incest tendencies
have flourished would, other things equal, consist of less energetic,
self-reliant, and efficient individuals than those in which these
tendencies had been kept within more moderate bounds. Natural selection
would therefore, we might expect, ensure the continuation of those
communities in which the incest tendencies were more repressed. Similarly,
as regards the individuals themselves, it would seem likely that, in
virtue of their greater efficiency, those would survive and prosper who
were able to control and to sublimate their incest tendencies rather than
those in whom these tendencies had free and unrestricted play.
[Sidenote: Both greater integration and greater differentiation of society
is thus secured]
Under the last heading (7) we saw that the repression of incest would on
the whole lead to the greater integration of human society through a more
developed gregariousness and the establishment of firmer ties of interest
and affection between the individual and the community. Under the present
heading we have seen that the repression of the incest tendencies would
also lead to greater differentiation through a more thorough development
of individual characters, abilities and differences. If, with Herbert
Spencer, we agree that the progress of society (like evolution generally)
involves both integration and differentiation, it is easy to see how the
inhibition of the tendencies to incest may have thus contributed in two
distinct but complementary ways to the advance of human civilisation.
(9) Westermarck, as we saw above (3), in endeavouring to account for
the origin of incest horror, drew attention to the aversion to sexual
intercourse between those who had lived together from early youth (a class
of persons which usually, of course, includes the closer blood relatives).
While we must disagree with Westermarck in his implicit denial of the
underlying attraction between these persons--an attraction which makes
the aversion in question to a large extent nothing more than a reaction
against the desire for intercourse between them--it is nevertheless
possible that the study of this wider aversion may throw a few rays of
fresh light upon the narrower incest aversion with which we are concerned.
[Sidenote: Among those who live together sexual reactions are inhibited by
non-sexual]
Westermarck would regard the objection to intercourse between those living
together from youth as due to the biological causes discussed above (3).
Without denying the truth of this view, we may venture to suggest that
there perhaps exist psychological causes, which tend to bring about the
same result. Those who live much together must necessarily react in and
to each other's presence in a great variety of ways, involving a very
considerable number of instinctive and habitual mechanisms, the majority
of which are not--or at most are only quite indirectly--sexual in nature,
being concerned for the most part with life preserving activities (_e.
g._ obtaining and preparing food, eating, washing, dressing, acquiring
or practising various branches of skill or knowledge, the carrying on of
professional activities, _etc._). During the greater part of their time
together, the sexual instincts of the persons concerned are therefore
held in check in order that the other mental trends involved in these
various necessary functions may enjoy full play; in fact the reaction
to each other's presence along the lines of these other trends becomes
much more habitual than does reaction along the lines of sexual feeling.
The very constant inhibition of this latter feeling occasioned by the
almost continual preoccupation with everyday affairs, in which those who
live together are equally concerned, is apt to make it difficult for the
inhibition to be entirely removed and for the sexual trends to have free
play, even when opportunity offers; and is therefore calculated to make a
union between those whose lives have long been intimately connected appear
unsuitable or unattractive, quite apart from the operation of any definite
taboo or prohibition; whereas with strangers inhibitions of the kind just
described are far less operative and the sexual impulses can therefore
work without impediment.
[Sidenote: and especially by hostile tendencies]
A further factor which may reinforce the foregoing is connected with
the actual hostility (conscious or repressed) that so frequently exists
between those whose lives and interests are connected. As we have already
had occasion to see, the competition that exists between members of
the same family is almost bound to engender some degree of hostility;
and this hostility (even if in later life it be quite indiscernible to
consciousness) will add its weight to any force which tends to inhibit
love of the person towards whom hostility is felt.
Here then we have two factors, which, though not peculiar to incestuous
relationships, nevertheless very probably contribute a certain share of
influence to the sum total of the forces productive of the aversion to
incest[263].
[Sidenote: The incest tendencies are also affected by the general sexual
inhibitions]
(10) The incestuous tendencies with which we are here concerned are, as we
have amply seen, among the earliest manifestations of sexuality (in the
wide sense of this term commonly employed by psycho-analysts) and, like
most other manifestations of this aspect of human nature, suffer from the
general repression to which sexuality in all its more direct expressions
is habitually subject. It is no doubt true that the incestuous direction
of the youthful sexual impulse itself contributes in very appreciable
measure to the conditions which bring about this general repression, and
that this repression is therefore to some extent an effect rather than
a cause of the incest inhibition. Nevertheless it would seem at least
equally certain that incest inhibition is far from being responsible for
the whole of sexual repression and that the latter does react powerfully
in certain respects upon the former, so that the existence of a general
tendency to the repression of all manifestations of the sexual instinct
may be regarded as constituting an additional factor in the inhibition of
incestuous affection for which we have been trying to account[264].
[Sidenote: Thus the circumstances of human life are responsible for the
mental conflicts that centre round the incest tendencies]
We have now studied some of the principal factors which, it seems, may
have had some influence in producing the tremendous conflicts in the
human mind which centre round the family. In so far as we have been
correct in our analysis of these factors, it would appear that there are
strong influences, both in the individual and in the race, which work
both positively and negatively in regard to those aspects of love and
hate which constitute the Œdipus complex. The existence of the mental
struggles which this complex inevitably brings in its train may therefore,
on a wider view, appear less startling than on a first approach. Both
the human individual and the human race are subject to conditions, some
of which favour one mode of response, some of which are best reacted
to by a contrary or at least an antagonistic type of behaviour. Owing
to the inherent limitations of the human mind at the unconscious and
primitive levels--its difficulty in overcoming habits that have once been
formed, its tendency to give expression simultaneously to incompatible
impulses, its relatively small power of creating distinctions and
differentiations--it is inevitable that the different tendencies which
are thus created and aroused should frequently come into conflict. It
would seem to be more especially the function of consciousness however
to produce a clear distinction between different situations and thus to
facilitate nicer adaptations of conduct than would otherwise be possible.
By understanding his own impulses and the true nature of the situations
which have called them forth and to which they are adapted, man becomes
to some extent master of his own fate and can rise above the blind level
of instinctive behaviour, inasmuch as his own motives become co-ordinated
and integrated and subject to the best that is in him; while his conduct
becomes more delicately adapted to his environment and more nearly
productive of the ends that he desires. It is as contributions, be they
ever so slight, towards this wider understanding and control of man's
nature, that, from the practical and ethical point of view, studies like
the present acquire such value as they may possess.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 246: "La Prohibition de l'inceste et ses origines," _L'Année
Sociologique_, I, 1890, 55 ff.]
[Footnote 247: _Cp_. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy", IV, 100 ff.]
[Footnote 248: "History of Human Marriage," 320 ff.]
[Footnote 249: A difficulty in connection with Westermarck's theory is
concerned with the question as to how an aversion to sexual intercourse
between those who have lived from infancy together changed to a similar
aversion between blood relatives. How is it, if the original aversion was
of the former kind, that it has left but little trace of its existence,
while the aversion to marriage between blood relatives, which is supposed
to have been derived from it, is grown so strong? It would seem as if the
theory would perhaps have to be modified so as to postulate the existence
of an original aversion to the marriage of blood relatives, as such;
though of course this only opens up the fresh difficulty of accounting
for the manner in which such an aversion could arise. We are here faced
with the same problem that we have already encountered in the case of the
positive aspects of the love impulse between relatives (p. 198 footnote).]
[Footnote 250: If this were not the case, we might well ask with other
critics why a natural instinct to avoid incestuous relations should need
the reinforcement of legal penalties and prohibitions.]
[Footnote 251: For a discussion of the question of inbreeding in the
present connection, see Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy", IV. 160 ff.]
[Footnote 252: "Inbreeding and Outbreeding", Monographs on Experimental
Biology, 1919.]
[Footnote 253: Supposing that natural selection does exercise some
influence of the kind indicated, such influence does not of course,
here any more than elsewhere, necessarily imply any appreciation of the
nature of the causes at work. On the contrary, as some authorities have
pointed out, it is scarcely possible to ascribe to primitive man any
conscious realisation of the ill effects of inbreeding (if these exist).
These ill effects manifest themselves much too slowly to be observed by
the savage with his relatively short memory and his lack of interest in
remote events, especially when, as has often been the case, there has been
uncertainty as to the nature of paternity. Even if the savage were able
to realise the nature of this hereditary influence, it is pretty clear
that his actions and feelings would be but little affected thereby, for it
is one of the most general characteristics of the primitive mind that it
takes but small account of distant consequences, whereas Eugenics involves
the appreciation of such consequences in a high degree.]
[Footnote 254: "Elements of Folk Psychology", 151.]
[Footnote 255: "Studies in Ancient History" (2nd. ed.) 160.]
[Footnote 256: "Principles of Sociology", I, 619.]
[Footnote 257: "The Origin of Civilisation", 135 ff.]
[Footnote 258: "Indisches Ehe- und Familienrecht", _Zeitschrift für
vergleichende Rechtswissenschaft_, III, 1882, 361.]
[Footnote 259: Atkinson and Andrew Lang, "The Primal Law."]
[Footnote 260: A full discussion of these theories will be found in
Westermarck's "History of Human Marriage" and Frazer's "Totemism and
Exogamy".]
[Footnote 261: Whatever real truth there may be in this argument, we
must not fail to bear in mind that it is admirably adapted for use as
a "rationalisation", _i. e._ the fear of evil consequences (dysgenic
or other) from marriages between young and old may well be a conscious
(and, in a sense, artificial) substitute for the unconscious aversion to
such marriages on the ground of their being an indirect expression of
incestuous desires. We must therefore be on our guard against the tendency
to overemphasise this argument in the absence of adequate objective
evidence.]
[Footnote 262: It is round this point of course, as we have above shown,
that the differences of opinion between Freud and Jung have largely
centred.]
[Footnote 263: That some such factors as these are probably really
operative in addition to the more specific sexual inhibitions that compose
the incest barrier proper, is shown by a consideration of cases in which
no such specific inhibition exists, _e. g._ that of husband and wife.
In spite of the fact that sexual relations between husband and wife are
not only permitted but enjoined and that mutual sexual attractiveness
has usually played some considerable part in bringing about the union,
there can be little doubt that in very many cases a husband and wife,
after a certain period of married life, tend to find--superficially at
any rate--greater sexual attractiveness in strangers than in one another.
The reasons for this (in the absence of any other adequate cause) are
often fairly clearly of the kind described--first, the fact that their
associations with one another are largely connected with the "humdrum"
activities of everyday life in which non-sexual instincts are principally
concerned (whereas with strangers the sexual feelings may constitute the
predominant, or perhaps the only, bond); secondly the fact that through
the very intimacy of their connection there are (as in the case of blood
relatives) a number of matters as regards which the husband and wife are
competitors or have conflicting interests, thus leading to a certain
degree of (usually more or less repressed) hostility on either side.]
[Footnote 264: The reasons for the existence of a general sexual
repression, over and above the incest inhibition, and the psychological
mechanisms by which this repression is brought about, form a vast and
highly important theme on which there exists at present but little
general agreement and which, being only indirectly connected with our
subject, need fortunately not be entered into here. It is perhaps worth
while to point out however in passing, that some of the factors which
are responsible for the more general sexual repression are, in all
probability, similar to those which we have considered in connection with
the production of incest inhibition. Thus there would seem to exist an
antagonism between a highly developed and intensive sexuality and those
wider social bonds in virtue of which alone the larger human communities
are possible. It is on the basis of the manifestations of this antagonism
that some writers--as already mentioned--hold that the chief motive forces
which are active in sexual repression are to be found in the instincts
of the herd. Still more marked perhaps is the antagonism between sex and
individuation. It has long been recognised, and modern psychological
researches have pretty definitely proved, that many of the more complex
desires and activities of the individual--desires and activities upon
which human culture ultimately depends--are built up upon sublimations
of the sexual tendencies. All these sublimations involve a deflection of
sexual energy from its original and primitive direction--a deflection
which occurs for the most part or entirely as the result of conflict with
the sexual tendencies when thus primitively directed.
As regards the motive forces engaged in this conflict, there is again
at present much uncertainty, but they probably to some extent differ
from one case to another. The conflict would seem to be waged, sometimes
between two aspects of the sexual impulse, _e. g._ between Narcissism and
object-love or between physical desire and tender affection (when these
elements have been dissociated in the ways we have already studied). In
other cases the gregarious instincts are probably engaged in the manner
suggested by Trotter and others; while, in still other instances, there
may be an antagonism between the sexual impulses and the tendencies
of self-assertion, self-respect or self-preservation, as emphasised
especially by Freud. For a more general discussion of the factors
concerned in sexual inhibition, see E. Bleuler, "Der Sexualwiderstand",
_Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen_,
1913, V, 442, and J. C. Flügel, "On the Biological Basis of Sexual
Repression and its Sociological Significance", _British Journal of
Psychology_ (_Medical Section_), 1921, I, 225.]
CHAPTER XVIII
ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS--LOVE AND HATE ASPECTS
[Sidenote: Practical conclusions]
Having now completed our theoretical survey, it may be well to undertake,
as a final instalment of our task, some brief consideration of the main
practical conclusions that emerge from our psychological study of the
family relationships. The general nature of these practical conclusions
has indeed already emerged with some degree of clearness at various points
in our review; but a recapitulation or reconsideration of the chief points
as regards which the psychological processes and principles with which
we have been concerned would seem to admit of, and to demand, practical
application, may perhaps prove of some value, now that we have reached the
end of the descriptive and theoretical portions of our task.
[Sidenote: They have to a large extent already emerged]
[Sidenote: as usual in psycho-analytic investigations]
It is probable that the chief practical gain that may result from
the study of the psychology of the family will ensue more or less
directly from the mere increase in understanding of the nature of, and
interactions between, the mental processes that are involved in the
family relationships. As in most matters in which the Unconscious plays a
leading part, knowledge is here perhaps more than usually akin to virtue.
A fuller grasp of the essential character of the unconscious tendencies
that are aroused within the family circle makes possible, and naturally
leads up to, an important and far-reaching readjustment of our views and
our behaviour, and a readjustment of such a kind as could scarcely be
brought about by any other means. When we have brought to consciousness
the hidden motives that lurk in the buried strata of our mind, our
practical judgment and our reason have a grasp of the psychic situation
of such a kind as was before impossible; and very often the true course
to be steered appears with unmistakable clearness before our vision as
the result of our increased self-knowledge. This is only an instance of
what so frequently--one might say generally--occurs as the result of
psycho-analysis; not only in the case of psycho-analytic research into
the processes of the individual mind, but also to some extent in the case
of the general treatment of a problem or a situation upon psycho-analytic
lines. That too is the reason why, in the present case, the practical
conclusions to be drawn from our considerations have to a very large
extent emerged of themselves in the course of these considerations and
have in the main become evident to us without any further procedure being
necessary to elicit them.
[Sidenote: The two chief processes demanding ethical consideration]
Thus it will by now have become amply clear, what, in the main, are
the pitfalls to avoid in the course of family life, and what are the
chief ends which it is desirable to seek. The weaning of the child from
the incestuous love which binds it to the family (together with the
secondary hatred which this love may entail) and the gradual loosening
of the psychological, moral and economic dependence of the individual
on the family have revealed themselves as the two chief aspects of the
task with which the ethical treatment of our subject has to deal. The
considerations brought forward in the last three chapters have shown that
human beings are subject to two opposing tendencies in these respects--one
of these tendencies uniting the individual closely to the family, the
other separating him sharply from it; both tendencies being conditioned
by psychological and biological factors of fundamental significance. It
is the duty of a sane and reasonable ethics of the family to indicate the
most satisfactory solution of the conflict which these opposing tendencies
engender, giving such scope to either tendency as may be necessary for it
to fulfil its essential function in the life of the individual and the
race.
[Sidenote: The tendencies towards the family more primitive than those
away from the family]
[Sidenote: The latter more often require artificial aid]
Our treatment of the subject during the greater part of this book,
following as it does the actual findings of those who have been brought
face to face with these tendencies in the course of their endeavours
to understand and cure the disorders of mental growth and personality,
has no doubt conveyed to some extent the impression that it is the
first mentioned tendency--that which draws the individual _towards_
the family--which is most often found in excess, and has therefore most
frequently to be restrained, while it is the tendency _away_ from the
family which is most often deficient in strength or in development, and
which therefore most frequently requires artificial stimulation and
encouragement. This impression is indeed one that is inevitably conveyed
by a careful study of the knowledge that we at present possess upon the
subject. In whichever direction we look, Man's chief handicap, as regards
those aspects of his mind which here concern us, would appear to consist
in an undue strength, or at any rate an undue persistence, of an infantile
attitude towards the family. This would seem to indicate that the tendency
towards the family is probably both ontogenetically and phylogenetically
the older and more fundamental of the two, and that the tendency away
from the family is not yet sufficiently deeply rooted or assimilated in
the human mental constitution to be able to assert itself with sufficient
force in the manner and direction that successful biological adjustment
would require.
[Sidenote: But the former are biologically deeper and more essential]
Nevertheless, if this is so, the mere fact that the tendency towards the
family is thus in some respects prior to, and more fundamental than,
its antagonist, would indicate that it is based upon biological and
psychological conditions and requirements that are correspondingly more
primitive and therefore more essential. We have seen in effect that the
causes which have led to the strong attachment of the individual to the
family are probably connected with certain necessary conditions of human
growth and development--the long period of helplessness and immaturity,
the dependence upon others (and especially the parents) for the very
necessaries of life, the need to learn from others, the need for an early
arousal and outward direction of the love impulse, _etc._ The causes which
underlie the tendency away from the family--such as the need of casting
off the dependence on the family in order to attain a full measure of
individuality, the antagonism between the family attachments and the
wider social bonds, the value of sexual sublimation for the advance of
culture, the possible dysgenic effects of inbreeding--these are in the
main connected with less pressing and immediate conditions of existence;
conditions which are no doubt of great importance for the ultimate fate
of the individual and the race, but which are not essential for the
immediate preservation and growth of the individual in his early life, and
which frequently involve a diminution rather than an increase in immediate
benefit or pleasure; representing, as they do, biological values of a
higher and more complex order, which come into operation only when those
of a more primitive kind have been attained.
[Sidenote: The family attachments must be outgrown rather than destroyed]
If this is so, it would seem fairly clear that our practical efforts must
on the whole be directed to aid the process of weaning the individual
from his family attachments rather than to any attempt at preventing or
destroying these attachments themselves. The tendencies that bind the
individual to the family are probably too deeply rooted in Man's nature to
yield to any such direct attack; and in any case, in spite of a character
in some respects archaic, it is almost certain that they still perform a
necessary and beneficial part in the process of psychical development--a
part for which no adequate substitute could easily be found; so that it
would be undesirable to eliminate the operation of these tendencies, even
if such elimination were within the bounds of possibility. Thus it would
seem that all schemes and attempts that have been made, from Plato onwards
(and probably long before him), with a view to preventing the development
of the feelings that centre in and are aroused through connection with
the family, are doomed to failure:--practical failure, because these
feelings are too strong, too intimate and essential a part of human
nature to be successfully and permanently inhibited by any alteration of
environment[265]; moral failure, because the development of certain of the
most important aspects of human character are, in their origin and first
appearance, bound up with these feelings and would probably fail to ripen
if these feelings were abolished.
[Sidenote: Family love in early years is necessary for individual
development and happiness]
It would then be a hasty and disastrous conclusion if we were to infer
from the widespread occurrence of insufficient emancipation from the
family ties that it is our duty to endeavour to prevent the formation
of these ties or to deal harshly and destructively with them as soon as
they make their appearance. It would be as useless, as it would be cruel
and unwise, were we to attempt to abolish the relationship of love and
dependence that binds together parents and children, brothers and sisters:
such a course, if it ever attained a reasonable measure of success, would
almost certainly create evils greater than those which it was intended
to avert. The love of the parents towards the child is assuredly one of
the most essential and desirable features of a child's environment, if
the child's moral and emotional development is to proceed harmoniously,
spontaneously and easily. The lack of such love during the early years
may give rise to a lasting sense of injury, a permanent feeling of a void
or loss in some essential aspect of the emotional life, leading in its
turn to an insatiable craving for the affection that was not forthcoming
during that period of growth in which it was so urgently required; or
again, it may cause a lifelong bitterness or hostility towards the parents
(and through them towards mankind in general) for having withheld the
love, appreciation and encouragement which the young child so much desires
and needs; or once again, it may lead to a turning inward of the child's
affections, when these meet with no response, so that the individual
becomes self-centred and narcissistic, bestowing solely on himself the
interest and affection which under happier circumstances would have been
available for the pleasure and profit of those with whom he comes in
contact; or finally it may lead to serious delinquency or be responsible
for a whole career of crime.
Far therefore from attempting to inhibit or destroy the love of parent
and child, it becomes necessary on the contrary to emphasise the need,
and indeed the moral right, of every child to develop its affections in
this manner, and to urge again the plea now being put forward by the more
thoughtful class of social reformers, that every child should be born in
such conditions as to make it possible and likely that he will receive
such measure of care and affection as he stands in need of. The unwanted
child--the child who for social, psychological or economic reasons, is
not welcomed by his parents,--starts life under a disadvantage in this
respect, a disadvantage that may sometimes lead to the most serious
consequences both to himself and to society[266].
The same considerations make it evident that especial care should be paid
to those children who, for one reason or another, are unable to enjoy the
advantages of normal family life--care to ensure that they should have
available suitable substitutes for the parents of whom they are deprived
and that they should receive the due quantity of love which their moral
and psychological development demands.
[Sidenote: Family hatreds however are undesirable, when intense and
prolonged]
Although it is necessary thus to urge both the inevitability and the
desirability of the love relationship between parent and child, our
attitude towards the hate relationship, which so frequently accompanies
the child's early love, need not in all respects be similar. The early
arousal of love in connection with the parents or their substitutes is, we
have maintained, essential for the proper unfolding of the emotional and
moral characteristics, and is therefore to be desired, even apart from the
immediately pleasurable and beneficial aspects of this love both to parent
and to child. The corresponding hatreds are certainly not in themselves
either pleasurable or beneficial, and their undesirable consequences are
often, as we have seen, all too clearly obvious.
[Sidenote: though to some extent inevitable and necessary]
Nevertheless, there can be little doubt that certain tendencies and
affects (useful and necessary under certain conditions--such as anger or
those feelings that are aroused by rivalry and competition) receive in
this manner a stimulation which is not without its beneficial aspects. The
tendency to revolt, in particular, is one of the most valuable aids to
progress and the earliest manifestations of this tendency must necessarily
have reference to the home. A child who never disobeyed his parents and
who never felt their authority as irksome would in all likelihood be
sadly deficient in individuality and initiative in later life. For this
reason the arousal of a desire to rebel against the parents (with the
accompanying feelings of hostility) is not in every case to be condemned.
Indeed, as we have already shown, the incompatibility between the desires
and points of view of children and of adults makes such a tendency to
rebellion and hostility to some extent inevitable. It is only when this
hostility is frequently and violently aroused that the benefits are not
commensurate with the disadvantages. In every case moreover it would seem
desirable that the tendencies to rebellion and hostility should not be
concentrated on the family circle but should, as soon as may be, seek an
outlet in some other direction, where they will be less liable to constant
stimulation (a state of affairs that is obviously undesirable) and less
likely to give rise to unprofitable and dangerous mental conflicts.
[Sidenote: How they can be minimised]
A great part of the hostility which a child feels towards the parent of
his own sex is, as we have seen, due to jealousy. This jealousy is, in all
probability, to some extent an inevitable accompaniment of the love the
child feels towards the parent of opposite sex and--like the more sensual
aspects of that love itself--is destined to disappear from consciousness
in the course of normal development. Here it would seem that the aim of
our endeavour should be to prevent the excessive arousal of this jealousy,
which if too strong would bring about a serious tendency to fixation at
the stage of primitive parent-hatred. To achieve this end much can be done
by the maintenance within due bounds of the love relationship between
the child and his parent of the opposite sex; if the love of the child
towards one of his parents is developed in excess, the hostility towards
the other parent is apt to be correspondingly developed. Again, the early
arousal of affection between the child and his parent of the same sex
will act as the strongest and most natural preventive of hatred. General
harmony within the family, and particularly between the two parents, is
also an advantage, since under these conditions the child is less likely
to look upon the parent of his own sex as a tyrant or an intruder, to
whom the other parent unwillingly submits. For this reason the divorce or
separation of parents, whose marriage is unhappy, may often be of very
considerable benefit to the child and is by no means, as is sometimes
urged, an unmitigated evil.
Apart from these general measures any conduct which needlessly stimulates
the jealousy or envy of the child should be avoided. Thus, parents should
not unnecessarily and excessively demonstrate their affection for one
another in the presence of their children, particularly in such a way as
to make the latter appear neglected or left out in the cold. The more
directly sexual relationships between the parents are almost inevitably
painful or embarrassing to the children; and should not be too openly
manifested in their presence or within their hearing[267].
[Sidenote: Sexual enlightenment]
On the other hand the maintenance of strict and unnecessary secrecy as
regards these relationships, or as regards sexual matters in general, is
also very undesirable. The child's curiosity and envy are, by any such
procedure, artificially stimulated, and a child will sometimes bear a
lasting grudge against the parent who has refused information on this
subject or who has resorted to deception. On the contrary, the advantages
of perfect frankness and openness on sex matters (especially as regards
enquiries made by the child) are often abundantly apparent, and are
increasingly recognised by all those who have devoted their attention to
the subject[268].
[Sidenote: Parental jealousy]
A matter of no less importance is that parents should beware lest any
feelings of jealousy which they themselves may harbour with regard to the
children, should be allowed to exercise an undue influence over their
own conduct. There is less excuse for the existence of such feelings
in the parent than there is in the child, inasmuch as the former
possesses, or should possess, greater integration and maturity of mind
and a more thorough understanding of the nature of his acts and of their
consequences; and in addition there is less real cause for jealousy, since
the parent is himself responsible for the child's existence, and since,
with the superior capacities of the adult, he has less need--at any rate
within a happy marriage--to fear the child as a serious rival for the
affections of his partner.
[Sidenote: By suitable measures the friction between parents and children
can be greatly reduced, though never entirely abolished]
In spite of all such precautions however, it is probable that it will
always prove an impossibility to prevent altogether the arousal of some
degree of hostility on the part of the child towards the parent of his own
sex. The nature of the antagonism between the two individuals in question
is too deeply rooted in human motives and human institutions to be without
some consequences even under the most favourable circumstances. All that
can reasonably be hoped for is that such degree of jealousy as may be
unavoidable may throughout be held in check by feelings of affection, and
that it may eventually pass away, with the gradual weaning of the child
from the exclusive direction of its love towards the other parent.
Still less perhaps can parents expect to avoid altogether the arousal of
hatred due to causes other than jealousy. The only method of doing so
would be to refrain from all appreciable interference with the child's
tendencies and impulses, while fulfilling all its wants. This, however, is
an obvious psychological, social and ethical impossibility. The desires
of the child conflict too much with the comfort of the parents and with
the established usages of society to be allowed free play, and even if
the granting of free play were possible, it would not be in all respects
desirable, since the proper education of the child undoubtedly requires
some degree of extraneous interference. Nevertheless we are beginning
to realise that such interference need often be less irksome than was
previously supposed. The old idea that education, to be profitable, must
be unpleasant, is now probably abandoned by all thoughtful students of
education, even in its application to early childhood--a period in which
the extreme immaturity of the mind and the remoteness of its aspirations
from those of the culture the rudiments of which it is starting to
acquire would seem to make the process of training almost necessarily
difficult and disagreeable. Dr. Montessori and others are showing how the
education of the young child can be brought about both more effectually
and more pleasantly by the substitution of guidance for restriction, and
by linking on the activities which have to be learnt to those in which the
child naturally and spontaneously indulges; while the possibilities of
education on similar principles in the case of older children have been
very successfully demonstrated in the case of the George Junior Republic
and the Little Commonwealth. In so far as the more general control and
instruction exercised by parents can be conducted on the same lines, the
friction between parents and children that arises as a consequence of this
necessary control will tend to diminish, though the total avoidance of
such friction will scarcely ever be attained.
[Sidenote: The ties between parents and children must be loosened as the
children grow up]
All that we have here been saying as regards the desirable relationship
between parents and children has primarily reference only to the early
years of childhood. As the child grows up, considerable modifications of
attitude and conduct will of course be necessary. Particularly is this the
case as regards the nature of the love between parents and children. It
would seem necessary indeed, as we have just pointed out, that the stage
of incestuous object-love should be passed through by the child; it is
both useless and undesirable to throw unnecessary obstacles in its way.
But, as we have also seen, when this necessary stage has been successfully
attained, there remains the far more difficult task of proceeding to
the further stages of object-love which involve a weaning of the child
from the original incestuous object and a corresponding readjustment of
emotional attitude on die part of the parent. A wise parent will thus do
all that is possible to avoid a too enduring concentration and fixation of
the child's affections on himself (the parent). He will see that suitable
opportunities occur for the due arousal of love and interest in other
directions and will not himself encourage the fixation of his child's love
at the incestuous stage by a too ardent reciprocation of tenderness or
affection.
[Sidenote: The necessity for this has been very insufficiently recognised]
It is here perhaps more than at any other point that our standards of
conduct require revision in the light of psychoanalytic experience.
Elsewhere the lessons of psycho-analysis for the most part merely
reinforce educational aims and aspirations of which we had already and
independently become aware; but as regards the necessity for the gradual
weaning of affection between child and parent, our responsibilities
had been anything but clear, and there can be little doubt that many
well meaning parents have in the past all unwittingly jeopardised their
children's future by an unwillingness to loosen the close ties of
affection and dependence which were appropriate in infancy, but which are
prejudicial to the full development of personality in later life.
It may indeed from certain points of view appear touching or even
admirable, when, for instance, a mother and a son or a father and a
daughter have remained strongly and intimately attached to one another
long after the son or daughter has reached adolescence or maturity. In
what direction, it might be asked, could the child be more appropriately
drawn by ties of deep and permanent affection than to one to whom it owes
its very existence, to whom it is indebted for the care, nourishment,
and protection that were necessary to it in its early years and who is
responsible for the first awakening and the first reciprocation of its
love? We now know, however, that the maintenance of such a tie when
the biological causes that bind child to parent have ceased to act, is
liable to be achieved at the cost of some grave failure of development.
The "good" son or daughter frequently becomes a bad husband or wife, an
inferior individual and an unsatisfactory member of society. The conduct
of the child who thus sacrifices the unfolding of his own personality to a
primitive affection which should have been outgrown, should indeed arouse
pity or contempt rather than admiration, while the corresponding conduct
of the parent, who thus hinders the development of the child he loves, can
be regarded scarcely otherwise than as ignorantly and pathetically selfish.
[Sidenote: The loosening of the filio-parental tie requires a readjustment
of the parent's life]
In order to avoid such conduct it will be necessary for parents to keep
a close watch, not only on the development of their children's emotional
life, but on the course and direction of their own affections. Only by
the gradual replacement in the parent's mind of that love and interest
which centred round the child by a corresponding absorption in some
other direction (whether in other children, in the sexual partner or
in some totally different matter) can the necessary readjustment of the
filio-parental relations be successfully and painlessly accomplished. This
is a duty which, difficult as it may sometimes appear, the requirements
of the true mental development of their children would seem inevitably
to impose on parents. For this reason it is obviously unwise for parents
ever to immerse themselves to such an extent in their children and their
children's affairs, that these absorb the whole of their emotional and
intellectual capacities. If they should do so, it will be additionally
difficult for them to pick up the threads of their previous interests and
activities when the growth of the children renders such a readjustment
necessary[269].
[Sidenote: Displacement of the parent-regarding tendencies]
[Sidenote: Complete emancipation from incest tendencies is never achieved]
Supposing that fixation of the love impulse upon the actual person of
the parent has been successfully avoided, there remains the possibility
of fixation upon the numerous parent substitutes that we considered in
Chapter X. These fixations really imply, as we have seen, an incomplete
detachment of the erotic impulses from the parental images as they exist
in the Unconscious, and should not occur in cases where real freedom from
the secret domination of these images has been achieved. Nevertheless we
must remember that such freedom is at best only relative; the associative
connections that bind the earliest to all subsequent objects of love
(either directly or through a series of intermediate links) would seem
never to be really broken; in all probability they continue throughout
life to exercise a certain measure of influence upon the direction of the
affections. All that we can reasonably demand under these circumstances
is that these unconscious forces shall not so blind the individual as
to cause him to bestow his love upon an object which is intrinsically
unsuitable. So long as this is avoided there is little to complain of,
and it would seem very probable that a deeper psychological and ethical
insight into the nature of the processes concerned will, on the whole,
produce a relaxation rather than a further restriction of the liberty
that is now permitted in these matters. This at any rate would appear to
be the direction in which moral sentiment is moving as culture increases;
the maximum of restriction is reached in those communities where, as
in parts of Australia, a highly complex system of exogamy allows only
a very limited range of choice for the selection of husband or wife;
from this point upwards in the scale of development there is a marked
tendency for the number of forbidden relationships to become smaller as
culture advances, and there is every reason to suppose that in the main
this tendency is still at work. Indeed we have only recently witnessed an
example of its action in this country in the removal of the ban upon the
marriage with a deceased wife's sister.
[Sidenote: These tendencies become less repressed and more influenced by
reason, as development proceeds]
The same result emerges if we consider the matter, not from the point of
view of sociology, but from that of an enlightened system of morality.
The evidence available shows, for instance, that little if any harm is
likely to ensue from the marriage of first cousins, so long as the stock
is a healthy one: much the same is probably true as regards the marriage
of half brother and half sister or even full brother and sister. Our
condemnation of such unions is due to influences emanating from the
repression of the incest tendencies, and not to any sound appreciation or
experience of their ill effects; and in so far as the taboos consequent
upon repression give way to more balanced moral judgments based on a real
understanding of the issues involved (and this is the general tendency of
ethical development), the disapproval of these unions between near kin
will be continued only in so far as real dangers are to be apprehended
from them. Among such real dangers there may be found the biological
one of the possibility of inferior offspring, especially in the case of
families with marked hereditary defects, and the psychological one of too
little emancipation from the family influences, with all the consequences
that this may involve. As regards this latter, however, it will have to
be recognised that complete emancipation may often be beyond the bounds
of possibility and that it is often advisable to permit some degree
of indulgence to overstrong unconscious tendencies, so long as this
indulgence is not too persistent or too definitely pathological.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 265: It would seem that children who have never known their
parents or any normal parent substitutes, such as those who are brought up
entirely in orphanages and other institutions, nevertheless do actually
find corresponding objects on to whom their parent-regarding tendencies
can be directed; if not in reality, at least in imagination--imagination
that tends to find a real equivalent as soon as a suitable object presents
itself. This is amusingly and instructively illustrated in Jean Webster's
recently successful book and play "Daddy Long Legs".]
[Footnote 266: It is scarcely necessary to point out the Neo-Malthusian
bearings of these considerations. They add one more argument to the many
that already exist in favour of the practice of birth-control, which
is now adopted by the more cultured classes of nearly all civilised
communities--a practice the ethical justifications of which are becoming
constantly more manifest.
On the other hand, the desirability of a limitation of the size of the
family must not of course blind us to the fact that a very small family,
especially one where there is an only child, will often have certain
difficulties of its own, from which larger families may be relatively
free. There can be very little doubt that, in the case of the only
child, the emancipation of the individual from the family influences may
frequently present more than the usual amount of difficulty: where this
is so, the tendencies towards emancipation will need a correspondingly
greater amount of assistance and encouragement.]
[Footnote 267: Hence the desirability, which has repeatedly been urged by
psycho-analytic writers, of the sleeping room of the child being separate
from that of the parents, even at a very early age.]
[Footnote 268: _Cp._ from the psycho-analytic point of view: Freud, "Zur
sexuellen Aufklärung der Kinder" and "Über infantile Sexualtheorien",
Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, II, 151, 159. Jung,
"Collected Papers on Psycho-Analysis", 132, ff.]
[Footnote 269: The dangers and difficulties which we have here in view
are, it is almost needless to say, in most cases more liable to beset
the mother (with her more intensive preoccupation with the children in
their early years) than the father (who is usually less intimately and
continuously in contact with them).]
CHAPTER XIX
ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS--DEPENDENCE ASPECTS
[Sidenote: Our conclusions with regard to the love and hate aspects hold
good for the dependence aspects]
All that we have said with regard to the weaning of the child from the
love relationship that binds him to the family applies with but little
alteration to the dependence relationships. During his earliest years the
child is necessarily dependent on his parents (or their substitutes) both
for the actual means of his subsistence and for guidance and protection.
As he grows up however (as we have seen specially in Chapters III and
IV) the dependence on his family should gradually diminish, so that at
maturity he should be able in most respects to face the world as an
independent individual.
[Sidenote: The duty of parents to provide for offspring now well
recognised]
The duty of the parents, or failing them of the community, in regard to
the provision of material necessities for offspring is now sufficiently
recognised, so that there is little need to insist upon it here. We may
perhaps only suggest in passing that the profound and complex nature of
the satisfactions which parents have in their children, and which we
had occasion to refer to in Chapter XIV, would very possibly make the
communistic rearing of children on a large scale as unsatisfying and
inadequate from the point of view of the parents as it would probably be
from that of the children themselves.
[Sidenote: The necessity for the gradual loosening of the dependence tie
is however not fully realised]
The duty of the parents or their substitutes in the direction of gradually
weaning the child from his initial condition of dependence has however
received less adequate recognition nor has the difficult and delicate
nature of this duty been sufficiently appreciated. On the economic and
social sides indeed it is admitted that it is incumbent upon parents to
provide their children with the means of earning their living and of
taking their place generally among their social equals; though with regard
to girls the views as to what was necessary as regards education for
these purposes has, up till comparatively recently, often been lamentably
narrow. In this country there is even now in many quarters a failure
to realise the full nature of parental responsibilities with regard to
daughters; much less financial provision being frequently made in their
case, both for higher and professional education and for the expenses
incidental to marriage, than in the case of sons; lack of adequate
provision in these respects inevitably tending of course to produce an
undue degree of dependence--economical and moral--on the parents.
[Sidenote: especially as regards the psychological aspect of this tie]
If, on the economic side, the duty of weaning children from their
primitive dependence on the family is thus not yet always fully
recognised, the recognition of the corresponding duties on the
psychological side is still less complete. Parents are often unwilling
to abandon the jurisdiction and control which they have been accustomed
to exercise over their children and which may have become very pleasant
to them, both as providing an agreeable source of interest and as
ministering to their sense of power. Often too in the beginning it may be
easier for them to help their children than to let the latter learn to
help themselves. Not infrequently also they are directly or indirectly
encouraged in this course by the children themselves, who, out of laziness
or failure in initiative, prefer that their lives should be regulated by
their parents rather than that they should make the effort and take on the
responsibility of regulating it themselves. Sometimes, moreover, parents
are unwilling to relinquish the management of their childrens' lives for
fear of the disasters that may overtake these latter through ignorance and
inexperience; or again because of an exaggerated tenderness which makes
them loth to abandon those manifestations of affection which parental
assistance may imply. It must be understood however that none of these
motives--powerful though some of them may be--provide an adequate excuse
for the omission to carry out the weaning process, which, as we have seen,
is of such vast importance for the development of the full capacities
of the individual. It can scarcely be too frequently emphasised that
parents who bring their children up without regard to the necessity of
this emancipation are guilty of a very serious neglect of their childrens'
welfare[270].
[Sidenote: The danger is greatest in the case of parents of strong
personality]
[Sidenote: though there may be difficulties also in the case of weak
parents]
The danger is perhaps greatest in the case of strong willed,
self-assertive and energetic parents, who in any case, as we have seen,
are likely to exert a powerful influence over their children, and who,
by an undue insistence on the authority which they possess, may easily
cripple all initiative on the part of these latter. In parents who
themselves are weak and averse from serious effort there is naturally
less likelihood of this occurring: in such cases the danger lies more
frequently in the direction of their devoting too little time, trouble
or guidance to their children: or else in their adoption of a changeable
and inconsistent attitude--petting, indulging, spoiling and bribing one
minute, bullying, nagging and punishing the next; being now overstrict,
now easy-going.
[Sidenote: Necessity of parental readjustment]
Here, as in the case of the love-weaning, it is difficult or impossible
for parents to carry out satisfactorily the steps necessary for the
gradual emancipation of their children, except in so far as they are able
to make a corresponding readjustment of their own emotions and tendencies.
New interests and occupations must gradually take the place of those that
formerly centred round the children; otherwise there is likely to arise a
blank in the affective life, which may lead to much unhappiness and even
to neurosis.
[Sidenote: Too prolonged parental jurisdiction is a cause of
filio-parental hatred in later life]
In considering the question of the emancipation of children from the
authority and influence of their parents, it is well to bear in mind also
that it is the exercise of this authority and influence which affords the
principal occasion for the development or continuance of the hatred of
children towards their parents in adolescent or adult life. The arousal
of some hatred in the early years of childhood may indeed be inevitable.
Its continuance into later life, with all the misery that this is apt
to entail, may probably in nearly every case be avoided, provided that
the stage of infantile jealousy has been successfully surmounted and
that the child is endowed with something approaching the usual degree of
amenability and sympathy with the point of view and susceptibilities of
others; the rest is very largely a matter of the careful relaxation of
parental authority and of the granting of reasonable and ever increasing
amounts of liberty and of opportunity for self-guidance and self-control.
[Sidenote: The dependence of children upon parent-substitutes must also be
gradually reduced]
What we have here said as regards the necessity for the gradual relaxation
of parental control applies of course not only to the parents themselves
but to their substitutes--guardians, nurses, teachers and others who
are placed in similar positions of trust and authority. There is indeed
reason to believe that in these quarters the necessity of emancipation is
often more in need of emphasis than among actual parents. Particularly
is this the case with regard to certain institutions, where children
would seem to be brought up with but little freedom or opportunity to
learn the nature and conditions of autonomy or to adapt themselves to
the varied circumstances of the outer world. In many of our schools also
there is to some extent a lack of proper understanding or application
of the principles which demand the gradual relaxation of parental and
quasi-parental authority. Though here, as a rule, the evil is in practice
less serious than it would at first appear to be; the granting of
autonomy and the cultivation of responsibility and self-control in some
directions usually compensating in large measure for the petty and foolish
restrictions to which adolescent boys and girls, or even fully grown
young men and women, are subjected in some of our larger and better known
educational establishments.
[Sidenote: The ethics of the family must however be brought into
connection with wider social questions]
These last considerations point the way to certain wider issues that are
connected with the ethics of the family--issues with which we have already
been brought face to face in Chapters XIII and XIV, and which we need
therefore only refer to here by way of recapitulation. We have seen in
these chapters that there exists a correlation between certain aspects
or stages of development of the family on the one hand and certain forms
of social or ethical institutions or organizations--particularly in the
sphere of education, politics and religion--upon the other. Inasmuch
as the attitude of the individual towards his teacher, his social or
political superior, or his God, is to a very considerable extent derived
from, and dependent on, that of the child towards his parent (the former
attitude being a displacement of the latter), it is obvious that moral
considerations and decisions with regard to the relationship of parent and
child cannot altogether be divorced from the wider questions involved in
the relations of the individual to his religious, social, and educational
environment.
[Sidenote: Our ethical conclusions in the two cases must harmonise with
one another]
Thus it would be, in the main, a foolish and useless proceeding to urge,
as we have done, the desirability of a gradual emancipation of the growing
child from the controlling and protecting influences of the parents,
unless we are at the same time willing to permit a corresponding growth
of autonomy in school and college. Again, if we were right in assuming a
connection, on the one hand between a highly developed _patria potestas_
and a relatively stable and unprogressive political condition, and on
the other between the relaxation of parental authority and a state of
rapid political development and loosening of governmental authority,
then it would (in the absence of any counteracting influence) be absurd
to demand the complete emancipation of the individual from his family,
if at the same time we desired to uphold autocracy in government or to
increase the stability of political and social forms. Nor, once more,
would the encouragement of children to become independent of their
fathers be logically compatible with the maintenance of a religion of
the Judaic type, in which the severe and all-powerful Father-God is but
a displacement of an earthly father whose stem authority is unquestioned
within the bounds of his own family. It must be realised that our attitude
in the one case must be brought into harmony with our views in the other.
Our ultimate conclusions as to what is desirable within the family
must be arrived at only after due consideration of their wider outside
bearings; and again, our opinions on these wider issues may profitably be
reviewed in the light of the knowledge that is gained by a biological and
psychological study of the family.
[Sidenote: The extent of this harmony]
In the present pages we have followed in the main the latter course.
Nevertheless it would appear that on the whole the conclusions we have
arrived at by this method are not in any way seriously incompatible with
the general tendencies of contemporary thought. While recognising the
necessity and desirability of the family influences in early life, we
have for the most part demanded emancipation of the individual from
any such growth and retention of these influences as would be liable to
hamper or delay his personal development. This is well in harmony with the
tendencies which are manifested nowadays towards freedom in education,
with the analogous tendencies aiming at the overthrow of autocracy and the
establishment of democracy in politics and with the growing toleration and
increasing abandonment of the Judaic attitude in religion.
[Sidenote: in education]
In education there would seem to be almost complete agreement between
the implications of our own conclusions and all the more modern and
progressive tendencies in discipline and teaching; it is only with the
antiquated remains of systems that are now universally condemned by all
reformers that there remain any serious elements of conflict.
[Sidenote: in religion]
In religion the agreement is also very considerable, though perhaps less
thoroughgoing; there are perhaps many who would still retain the notion of
a quasi-anthropomorphic Father-God as an extra-mental reality, even though
the purely mental origin of such a God has become apparent.
[Sidenote: in politics]
It is in politics however that such discrepancy as there exists is
perhaps most apparent. Although the primitive political father--the
autocrat--would seem to be rapidly disappearing, it is fairly clear that
there exists a tendency to resurrect some of the parental attributes and
give them a political application by bestowing them upon the State. The
world-war has taught us the necessity of implicit obedience to the State
and its representatives--military and civil; the right of independent
thought, action and criticism being to a large extent suspended and the
minute details of our lives being subject to order and inspection in much
the same way as in our childhood they were subject to the supervision of
our parents. Again, modern socialistic thought--especially in its cruder
aspects--has produced a state of mind, as a result of which the individual
becomes to a large extent absolved from the responsibility for his own
education, progress and maintenance, or for those of his children. The
adult individual is thus led to transfer on to the State that attitude
of dependence which he originally adopted in relation to his parents,
failing to this extent to attain that full degree of self-reliance
and independence which we have had in view in considering the gradual
emancipation of children from their parents. In these respects it would
seem that the conclusions arrived at in the course of our study of the
family would point to a rather larger measure of Individualism than is
contemplated by the great body of contemporary political thought. If our
conclusions are correct, there is a danger in too wide a ramification of
state provision and state control, inasmuch as it is liable to prevent
that full development of individual power, initiative and self-reliance
which can only be obtained by a high degree of emancipation from the
primitive attitude of dependence on the parents. If, on the other hand,
it is considered that the advantages of a far-reaching and complex
state organization override those attending the full development of
individuality, it is obvious that our ethical conclusions with regard to
the family may have to be correspondingly revised.
[Sidenote: The individual's relations to his family in later life]
[Sidenote: They must be capable of being broken altogether]
[Sidenote: though it is natural that some relationship should be
maintained]
There remains but one more set of ethical considerations to review before
we finally take leave of the reader. Supposing that the relations of the
individual to his family environment have successfully passed through
the stages we have outlined and that the individual has at maturity
attained the desirable degree of emancipation from, and independence
of, the influences emanating from his family, there remains the problem
of defining more precisely the nature of his relations to his family
after he has reached maturity. It is evident enough from our previous
considerations that these relations will be loose and far from binding.
It is also fairly clear that they must be such as to be capable of being
broken altogether without causing any very considerable amount of distress
or inconvenience to any of the parties concerned. Sooner or later these
relations are necessarily broken by the great divider Death, and even
before this final and inevitable separation, distance, diversity of
occupation or other considerations may place the members of a once closely
knit family entirely out of touch with one another. According to our
principles it is obviously desirable that these unavoidable separations
should involve no element of bitter regret or paralysing sorrow.
Supposing however that circumstances are such as to make possible
relations of some degree of intimacy between the members of a family,
all of whom have reached maturity, what will be the desirable extent and
nature of this relationship? Presupposing always a satisfactory previous
history on the lines we have considered, there would seem reason to think
that some kind of relationship will, and should be, usually maintained.
The common interests, affections and associations formed during a lengthy
and highly important period of life will, in the absence of reasons to
the contrary, usually constitute sufficient ground for the continuance
throughout life of the intimacies that have been formed between those who
lived so long together and have so long been subject in varying degree to
each other's influence.
[Sidenote: except where (as often happens) there are definite reasons to
the contrary]
We must remember, however, that there very often _are_ reasons to the
contrary. In many cases, for instance, the love or dependence fixations
in an individual's mind are such that continued intimacy with the parents
will seriously detract from that individual's capacity to make the best
of life. Frequent meeting with the parents may sap his energy or deprive
him of initiative and self-reliance in the manner we have studied: or
again, it may cause serious interference with his love life, as where
the constant arousal of the not wholly outgrown love impulses to father
or mother may appreciably diminish the affection available for husband
or wife respectively, thus producing an unhappy marriage. For similar
reasons frequent meetings between brothers and sisters may often be
disadvantageous. Still more clearly is it undesirable to continue family
intimacies where not love but hatred is the predominant tendency aroused
and fostered by these intimacies. In such cases it is evident hypocrisy
for the parties concerned to meet more often than is absolutely necessary:
the frequent stirring up of conscious or unconscious hatred can only cause
unhappiness, unprofitable and dangerous mental conflict or deterioration
of character; and the more that relatives who are unable to "get on" with
one another keep apart, the better it will be for all concerned.
With these wide and sweeping reservations however, it would probably
seem to accord best with psychological and sociological considerations
if at any rate some moderate degree of connection be maintained between
relatives, whom circumstances have not definitely set apart. Given
freedom from all undesirable fixations (whether of hatred or of love),
brothers and sisters have at least as good reasons for being permanently
helpful and agreeable to one another as have friends who have been
intimate with one another in the course of school, college, social or
professional life. Still closer perhaps in some ways are the bonds that
may permanently unite parents and children. The long period through
which they have been bound to one another by ties that are biologically
justifiable and necessary would seem to produce a psychological effect
that inevitably tends to persist in some degree throughout the remainder
of life. The relations of child to parent and of parent to child are so
fundamental to all human existence and human intercourse, that most, if
not all, of our mental life, in so far as it has reference to our fellow
creatures, is to some extent reminiscent of them, or affected by them. We
can never root out from our mind the tendencies connected with this most
intimate and essential of human connections; and this being so, it would
only be in accordance with the most fundamental promptings of our nature
to permit a certain proportion of the energy involved in these tendencies
to continue to flow in its original direction.
[Sidenote: But the relations between parents and children must undergo
profound modification as time passes]
This is not to say however that the manifestations of this energy will not
undergo considerable alteration as time passes. As children grow up and
parents grow older, the former increase, the latter decrease in natural
strength and ability of mind and body. In course of time therefore the
attitude which parents and children naturally and reasonably adopt towards
each other must gradually change to suit the varying conditions. At first
children are dependent on the guidance and protection of their parents,
who must make the necessary efforts to help and rear their offspring.
Later on this differentiated relationship should give place to one in
which parents and children are on equal terms. Finally, the original
relationships may become to some extent reversed and, if parents and
children are still within reach of one another, the former may come to
look to the latter for some return of that help and protection that they
themselves had previously afforded.
[Sidenote: The care of the aged by their children]
[Sidenote: is culturally very desirable]
In this last situation, we see a form of the relationship, which appears
to be peculiar to human society. Throughout the animal world and even
in many primitive human communities there is no thought or care or
tenderness devoted to old age. The increasing moralisation of human
character (in which the relationship between parent and child has probably
played a leading part) has brought it about that at least some degree
of attention is given in all civilised societies to the needs--material
and mental--of those who are no longer able fully to support themselves
or to carry on their life without assistance. In any society in which
the family is a permanent and firmly organised social unit, the duty
of caring for the aged will naturally fall to some extent upon their
children. This care of elderly, lonely or infirm parents by their children
may perhaps legitimately be considered one of the most beautiful and
touching expressions of specifically human morality--a point in which
Man has definitely risen superior to the conditions of a brutal struggle
for existence. As such it both deserves, and stands in need of, every
encouragement and support which a developed and enlightened system of
practical Ethics can afford.
[Sidenote: though it has of necessity its limitations]
It is not however free from certain ethical difficulties of its own. Thus,
it might seem at first as though the care and attention that a person
of mature age may bestow upon his parents is but a just and reasonable
return for the benefits which he himself received from these parents in
his infancy and youth. Biologically however the cases are not similar.
The care of parents for their young is necessary for the perpetuation of
the race. The care bestowed upon the aged and infirm who are no longer
able to provide adequately for themselves is of no direct value in the
struggle for existence; it may even be a disadvantage in this struggle,
a luxury that can only be afforded when the struggle is relaxed or when
all competing individuals or races have adopted the practice. Further,
from the point of view of the race, the real equivalent that is given in
return for the benefits received from parents in early life lies in the
corresponding benefits bestowed upon the next generation in its turn, and
the double burden of maintaining and caring for both the young and the old
may be definitely beyond the powers of many.
[Sidenote: Satisfactory family conditions conduce to happiness in old age]
Fortunately, it but rarely happens, even at the extreme end of a long
life, that the old are entirely dependent upon the care and efforts of
others. In a civilised society they usually remain permanently able
to provide for a considerable part of their immediate needs, and the
sounder and more stable is their own and the general economic condition,
the more is this the case. On the whole it is perhaps rather on the
psychological than on the strictly economic side that they will be in
need of assistance, and here it is that the principles that have emerged
from the study of the facts and tendencies with which we have been
concerned in this book may prove of use. In so far as family life is able
to proceed and develop on the lines which a true morality based on sound
psychological principles and an adequate psychological knowledge would
seem to indicate as most desirable, it should be possible for the older
members of the family to participate freely in the joys and satisfactions
which they may still find within the family circle and to escape the
danger of being excluded from these satisfactions, by the disappointments
and misunderstandings, or by the unhappiness and bitterness that the
faulty development of the family so frequently, and so disastrously,
brings in its train. The old tend always to live to some extent
vicariously: they find a great part of their interests and their pleasures
in the contemplation of the doings of others who are younger than
themselves: their own lives are projected into those of their children
and their grandchildren, and by means of this projection they enjoy the
most natural compensation for the decline of their own personal interests
and capacities. If they have found this compensation, it may well be said
that life's concluding chapter has shaped itself for them in a form as
satisfactory as any which it is granted to human nature to enjoy.
[Sidenote: Conclusion]
With these considerations regarding old age we may appropriately end. The
subject of the human family is a mighty theme, of which no full treatment
has been attempted here. If I have illumined certain aspects of the
subject, if I have led the reader to realise something of the depth and
complexity of the problems involved and of their vast importance for human
weal and woe, nay, even for human existence, I shall have accomplished
all, or more than all, that I set out to do. We have seen that, just as on
the biological side the family is an essential factor in the development
and preservation of the human race, so too on the psychological side, the
thoughts, feelings and impulses that centre round the family belong to
the most intimate and fundamental part of Man's spiritual nature. If we
are to understand this nature and to control and mould it wisely in order
that we may achieve those ends in life which seem to us desirable, it is
very necessary that we should have a full and accurate knowledge of the
way in which the mind is influenced by, and in its turn reacts upon, the
forms, circumstances and conditions of the human family. It is this which
makes the subject of this little volume one of such supreme importance.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 270: As regards the actual steps which should be taken to secure
this gradual emancipation of the growing individual from the influence and
control of his family and parents, it is perhaps superfluous (and in any
case inappropriate in a book of this scope) to enter fully into details
here. It will be sufficient to indicate a few very obvious directions in
which the general principles here referred to may find application. Thus,
it is clear that children should from early years have opportunity of
acquiring experience in the use of money, having at first small sums at
their disposal, with larger amounts as they advance in age. They should
also have experience--at first perhaps occasionally and then regularly--in
purchasing their own clothes, books, writing materials and other personal
requirements. The ability to travel alone, to find one's way in strange
places and to mix with unknown people is also one that should be acquired
early, leading, as it tends to do, to the development of resourcefulness
in dealing with new situations and with varieties of human character.
In view of modern educational movements, it is perhaps hardly necessary
to point out in this connection the desirability of considerable (and
eventually of complete) freedom in the choice of studies, of occupations
and of career. The need for toleration in religious and political matters
is also nowadays one that is becoming recognised.
On the other hand, it is perhaps necessary to emphasise the advantages to
be derived from the formation, by each individual member of the family, of
his own friendships and companionships as distinct from those which are,
so to speak, found for him by his family. Thus, it is far from desirable
that members of the same family should always accompany one another to
social gatherings, places of entertainment or instruction, or on visits
to friends. On the contrary, they will often benefit by being freed from
each other's society on these occasions, and no restraints should, as a
rule, be placed upon habits of independent occupation or enjoyment or upon
choice of associates. Nor should the individual members of the family
be expected on every occasion to render a detailed account of all their
activities outside the family circle, nor to confine these activities
rigorously to certain days or hours. Much family friction can often be
avoided by the simple process of bestowing a latchkey! As regards extreme
cases, moreover, it should be realised that wherever there is unusual
difficulty in the relations between an individual and the other members of
his family, a removal from the family environment is the surest, perhaps
the only, method of avoiding disaster.
Above all it is necessary, throughout the process of development and
education, to aim at the attainment of a due measure of self-respect and
self-reliance, avoiding the pitfalls of too great self-satisfaction on
the one hand and an unreasonable sense of inferiority on the other. It
is here, more than elsewhere, that considerable differentiation in the
treatment of individuals is required. Those who are inclined to be too
well pleased with themselves will usually benefit by a somewhat rougher
treatment, and will need to have their deficiencies brought home to them.
Those who lack self-confidence, or who have an unduly low estimate of
their attainments or capacities, will need encouragement and reassurance.
In the former case some very appreciable degree of parental authority may
be called for, in the latter any treatment savouring of harshness is for
the most part tragically out of place.]
INDEX
Abandonment of infantile tendencies, 83.
Abdication, 131.
Abnormalities of development, 48 ff., 61 ff., 88 ff., 102, 188,
191, 218, 219, 241.
Aborigines, 91, 140, 194 ff., 229.
Abortion, 160.
_Abraham, K._, 51, 92, 106, 148, 150, 185.
_Ach, N._, 7.
Acheron, 69.
Adam, 148.
Adaptation to reality, 68, 215, 216, 219 ff.
_Adler, A._, 14.
Admiration, 98, 110, 123, 124, 139, 186, 227.
Adolescence, 51, 149, 192, 233.
Adonis, 72.
Africa, 194, 197.
Age:
As a factor in love, 28 ff., 89, 106, 207, 208.
Classes, 87.
Old, 239 ff.
Aged, care of, 240.
Agoraphobia, 67.
Agriculture, 147.
All-Father, 136, 137.
_Alma Mater_, 125.
"Alternation of generations", 63.
Altruism, 188.
Amazon, Indians of the, 194.
Ambivalency, 129 ff., 141, 143, 149, 150.
American Indians, 193, 194, 196.
American Psychological Association, 2.
Americans, 127, 170, 195.
Amnesia, infantile, 77, 83.
Amniotic fluid, 77.
A-moral, 21.
Anæsthetics, 167.
"Anagogic" symbolism, 37, 38.
Anal Libido, 192.
Ancestor Worship, 135 ff.
Ancestors, 86, 124, 135 ff.
Andamanese, 197.
Andromeda, 109.
Angel Clare, 116.
Anger, 9, 177, 222.
_See also_ Hate.
Animals, 137 ff., 149 ff., 200, 202, 239.
Animism, 134, 135, 152, 153.
_Annunzio, G. d'_, 92.
Antombahoaka, 90.
Anxiety, 57, 70, 158, 159.
_See also_ Fear.
Applications:
Of Psychology, 2, 3, 65.
Practical, 217 ff.
_Archer, William_, 107.
Art, so, 135.
Arthur, King, 69.
_Artzibasheff_, 92.
Ass, 139.
Assam, 196.
Atlas, 147, 148.
Atonement, 151.
Attila, 127.
Attis, 72, 144.
_Augustine, St._, 74.
Aunt, 92.
Australian, aborigines, 91, 140, 195, 196, 229.
Authority, 47, 119 ff., 125, 129, 152, 163.
Parental, 43 ff., 58, 61, 63, 96, 118, 128, 152, 163, 171, 177,
181, 223, 233 ff.
Autocracy, 128, 235, 236.
Autoerotism, 14 ff., 122, 188, 192.
Autonomy and moral development, 44 ff., 234 ff.
_Avebury, Lord_, 205, 206.
Aversion to incest, 200 ff.
"Avoidances," 35, 85, 91, 93, 97, 195.
Awe, 139.
Babel, Tower of, 148.
_Bachofen, J. J._, 66.
"Backward" children, 43.
_Bailey, J._, 197.
_Bancroft, H. H._, 93.
Baptism, 71, 149.
"Barbary Sheep," 115.
Barrenness, 200.
Basket, 70.
_Bastian, A._, 194.
Beauty, 208.
Bedrooms (of child and parents), 224.
Beds, 66, 67.
"Bella Donna," 115.
_Beresford, J. D._, 112.
_Berkeley-Hill, O._, 114.
Birth, 66 ff., 82 ff., 146, 164 ff.
Control, 222.
Supernatural, 146.
Bisexual, God as, 143, 144.
_Bleuler, E._, 129, 215.
Blood, 201.
Boats, 69, 70, 80.
_Böcklin_, 69.
Body, 145.
Borneo, 197.
Brain, 77.
Brazil, 90, 194, 197.
Breath, Shortness of, 70.
Breeding, 202 ff.
_Breuer, Joseph_, 8.
_Brill, A. A._, 6, 163.
Brothers and Sisters, 19, 20, 27, 30, 86, 89 ff., 102, 104, 143,
144, 147, 180, 181, 184, 193, 205, 208, 209, 229, 238.
Half-, 229.
Brothers through Totem feast, 151.
Buddhist monks, 67.
Bullying of children, 162, 233.
Burial, 69, 72.
Buried alive, fear of being, 67.
_Burrow, T._, 189.
_Burt, Cyril_, 20, 29, 120, 140.
Business, 59, 63, 210.
Byron, 109.
Caesarian Section, 78.
Cali, 90.
Cambyses, 90.
Canal, 70, 80.
Cannibalism, 147.
Care of aged, 240.
Career, 64, 232.
Casandra, 107.
Castration, 85, 113, 144, 147.
Caves, 67, 69.
Celebes, 194.
Celestial City, 69.
Cerebrum of infant, 77.
Ceremonies, 69, 71, 81 ff., 142, 149.
_Chalmers, Rev. J._, 194.
Change of parents' attitude, 71 ff., 226 ff., 233.
Character, 50, 61 ff., 187, 188, 238.
_Charcot, J. M._, 7.
Chastity, 113, 115, 116, 146.
_Chazac_, 86.
Chicago Vice Commission, 195.
Childbirth, 77, 164.
Childhood, duration of, 185.
Chinese, 114, 129.
Chippewayans, 193.
Christ, 56, 57, 143 ff., 148.
"Christian, The", 115.
Christianity, 139, 141, 143 ff.
Church, 69, 123, 143, 145.
Cimon, 91.
Cinderella, 99.
Circumcision, 82, 85.
"City of the Dead," 92.
Clan, 136 ff., 178, 180, 201.
Class:
Poorer, 58, 195.
Ruling, 109.
Wealthy, 58.
Working, 120.
Classificatory system of relationship, 90.
Claustrophobia, 67.
_Clavigero, F. S._, 90.
Clergymen's sons, 64.
Clitoris, 17.
"Cloacal theory" of birth, 74.
Club, 210.
Clubs, Men's, 87, 179.
_Cole, E. M._, 53.
College, 125, 210, 235, 239.
Coffin, 69,
Coitus, 73, 75, 76.
Communion, Sacrament of, 149 ff.
Communistic rearing of children, 230.
Community, _see_ Society.
Complex, 95, 157.
_See also_ Œdipus Complex.
Compromise, 51, 52.
Conception, 74, 138.
Immaculate, 146.
Confirmation, Sacrament of, 149.
Conflict, intra-psychical, 21 ff., 52, 81, 92, 93, 113, 143, 147,
148, 166, 167, 172, 175, 184, 190, 215, 218, 223, 238.
Conflicting Interests, 58, 158, 159.
_Conklin, E. S._, 56.
Conscience, 135.
Consciousness, Function of, 215, 216.
Conservatism, 124, 129, 153, 154.
Constellation, 157.
Contempt, 110 ff.
Continence, among savages, 197.
Contrast (in Displacement), 27.
Control, parental, 231 ff.
Conversion, 71.
"Cosiness", 66.
Cosmogonies, 146, 147.
Country, 124 ff.
_See also_ Nation.
Court routine, 129.
Cousins, 27, 92, 102, 208, 229.
Couvade, 164 ff.
Cradle, 70.
Creator, 134, 135.
Criminals, 84, 119, 221.
_See also_ Delinquents.
Cronos, 147, 150.
Cruelty, 58, 83, 84, 100, 130, 141, 142, 150, 162, 164.
Cupid, 104.
Curiosity, 74 ff., 224.
Cybele, 144, 147.
Cyrus, 56.
Czar, 127.
"Daddy Long Legs", 220.
Danger, 130, 131, 164, 170.
_Darwin, Charles_, 64.
Daughter, 46, 64, 83, 96 ff., 180, 207, 209, 227, 231.
Daughter-in-law, 94, 173.
_Dattner, B._, 125.
Day dreams, 155.
_See also_ Phantasies.
Dead, the, 135.
Death, 10, 22, 68, 69, 76, 82, 83, 99, 109, 148, 237.
Duties, 170.
Wishes, 10 ff., 22, 59, 99, 135, 160, 165.
Deceased:
Brother's wife, 93.
Wife's sister, 93, 229.
Deëmotionalisation, 11.
Degradation of sexual object, 112.
Delinquents, 46, 120, 140, 221.
Democracy, 128, 236.
Demons, 165.
Dependence:
Of child on adults, 42, 121.
Of child on parents, 49, 51, 61 ff., 94, 95, 121, 154, 175, 181,
185, 188, 189, 211, 218, 219, 230 ff., 236 ff.
Of individual on the State, 236, 237.
Of old on young, 239 ff.
Type of love, 103, 104.
Deposition of king, 131, 132, 147.
Descent:
Through father, 166, 196.
Through mother, 166, 196.
Development:
Abnormal, 40 ff., 61 ff., 88 ff., 102, 188, 191, 241.
Mental, 4, 13 ff., 21 ff., 31 ff., 40 ff., 48 ff., 61 ff., 83,
88 ff., 102 ff., 152, 171, 175, 186, 188, 191, 219 ff., 227 ff.
Moral, 44 ff., 76, 152, 154, 155, 177, 183, 188, 210, 218 ff., 229,
240.
Of individual personality, 31 ff., 40 ff., 171, 189, 211, 219 ff.,
237 ff.
Sexual and individual, 41, 187.
Devil, the, 142, 153.
Different, desire to be from parent, 64.
Differentiation in Society, 212.
Disappointment, 56, 171.
Disease, 3, 121, 166, 200.
_See also_ Neurosis.
Disgust, 9, 10, 139, 145.
Disobedience, 223.
Displacement, 25 ff., 35, 49, 50, 62, 69, 88 ff., 98, 100 ff.,
116 ff., 122, 125, 133 ff., 147, 158, 163, 171, 172, 175, 186,
187, 190, 193, 215, 228, 235.
Dissociation, 11, 21, 26, 110 ff., 142 ff., 152 ff., 215.
Distrust of women in Christianity, 144.
Division of labour, 43.
Divorce, 101, 224.
Doctor, 80, 120 ff.
Don Carlos, 107.
Don Juans, 55.
Dove, 139.
Dreams, 10 ff., 50, 66, 79, 80, 139, 160.
"Typical", 10.
_Droit de Seigneur_, 143, 195.
Dualistic principle, 143.
Duplication, 143.
Duration of childhood, 185, 219.
_Durkheim, E._, 201.
Dysgenic influences, 202 ff., 208, 219, 229.
Earth, 69, 72, 83, 145, 147.
_East and Jones_, 203.
Eating, 147 ff., 165, 212.
Economic position, 58, 59, 231, 241.
Eden, 148.
Education, 65, 177, 186, 189, 225, 226, 230 ff., 234 ff.
Effort, 67 ff., 73, 170, 188.
Ego, _see_ Self.
Egypt, 90, 91, 203.
Electra Complex, 12.
Elixir of life, 72.
_Ellis, W._, 91.
Emancipation:
From control, 44 ff., 70, 171, 190, 222, 231 ff.
From early love objects, 29, 30, 70, 171, 190, 222, 227 ff.
Emergence from womb, 70.
Enclosed space, 67, 70.
Energy, psychic, 71, 192.
England, 127.
Environment, 15 ff., 24, 46, 64, 170, 198, 203, 204, 216, 220, 221,
232, 235, 237.
Envy, 167, 168, 224.
Ephialtes, 148.
Escape from life, 67.
Ethical applications, 217 ff.
Eugenics, 205, 208.
Eve, 148.
"Everyday psychopathology", 35.
Exaggerated love (or anxiety), 57, 130.
Excretory functions, 118.
Exhibitionism, 192.
Exogamy, 91, 137 ff., 195 ff., 200 ff., 229.
Ezekial, 90.
Fairy tales, 99, 155.
Falling in love, 51, 102 ff.
With married or betrothed persons, 107.
Family, as object of love, 124.
Father, 17 ff., 46, 53, 54, 58, 64, 74, 75, 76, 80, 83 ff., 94,
95, 98, 110, 117, 120, 122, 125 ff., 132 ff., 160, 163 ff.,
179 ff., 207, 209, 227, 235, 238.
-in-law, 94, 95.
Favourite child, 163.
Fear, 9, 67, 70, 83, 130, 135, 139, 141, 142, 154, 175, 177.
_See also_ Anxiety
Feast, 137.
_Fechner, G. T._, 7.
_Ferenczi, S._, 14, 37, 52 ff., 59, 67, 68, 116, 121, 139.
Fertility, 132.
Festivals, 131, 137, 195.
Fire, 148.
Fish, 139.
Fixation, 51 ff., 61, 86, 89, 94, 95, 102, 106, 118, 123, 124,
152, 158, 190, 193, 223, 226 ff., 238, 239.
_Flügel, J. C._, 116, 155, 215.
Foetal Posture, 67.
_Forsyth, David_, 14.
Foster parents, 56, 139.
Fowl, 139.
France, 127, 128.
Fratricide, 20.
_Frazer, Sir J. G._ 72, 82, 83, 90, 91, 92, 93, 130, 131, 132,
138, 140, 142, 145, 147, 148, 150, 160, 161, 164, 194, 196, 201.
_Freud, Sigmund_, 6 ff., 22, 24, 26, 32, 33, 40, 51, 54, 55, 56, 66,
67, 69, 70, 74, 80, 96, 103, 107, 110, 113, 123, 129, 135, 138,
139, 140, 149, 152, 177, 182, 187, 192, 206, 207, 211, 215, 224.
Friends, 172, 232.
Frigidity, 51.
Functional symbolism, 37.
Gaboon, 194.
Gaia, 147.
Game, 139, 155.
"Gang", 84, 85.
George Junior Republic, the, 226.
Germany, 127, 128.
Gestation, 74, 75, 77, 189.
Ghosts, 135.
Giant, 109, 150.
_Gibbon_, 145.
God, 133 ff., 234 ff.
_Goethe_, 106.
"Golden Bough, The", 131.
Gonzalves, 194.
_Gosse, Edmund_, 182.
Grandchildren, 241.
Grandfather, 86, 161.
Grandparents, 161 ff.
Gratitude, 24, 98, 183.
Graves, 69.
Greece, 91.
Gregariousness, _see_ Herd Instinct.
Group marriage, 90, 179, 195.
Guardians, 234.
Guilt, 148.
_Gurney, E._, 7.
Half brothers and sisters, 229.
_Hall Caine, Sir_, 115.
Hamlet, 99, 115.
Happiness, possibility of, 169.
_Hardy, Thomas_, 116.
_Hart, B._, 7, 130, 182.
_Hartland, E. S._, 109, 138, 146, 198.
_Hartmann, E. von_, 7, 169.
Harvest, 72.
Hate, 11 ff., 18 ff., 24, 27, 28, 50, 57 ff., 61, 64, 83, 94 ff.,
100, 117 ff., 128 ff., 139 ff., 151, 156 ff., 162, 171, 175,
177 ff., 184, 215, 222 ff., 233, 234, 238, 239.
_Healy, W._, 46.
Health of children, 208.
_Heape, Walter_, 138.
_Hearne Samuel_, 193.
Heaven, 147, 148.
Heirs, 170.
_Helmholtz, H. von_, 7.
Henry VIII, 116.
Hera, 92, 147.
Herd Instinct, 23, 24, 135, 182, 210, 212, 214, 215.
Hereditary wealth and rank, 170.
Heredity, 62 ff., 87, 105, 198, 199, 202 ff.
_Herodotus_, 90.
Heterosexuality, 15 ff., 54, 103, 156, 189.
Heterosis, 203.
_Hichens Robert_, 115.
_Hickson, S. J._, 194.
Hindrance, in love, 108.
Historical treatment of subject, 176 ff.
_Hodgson, R._, 7.
"Holy Father", 127.
Holy Ghost, 145.
Home, 51, 56, 123, 124, 159, 223.
Home-sickness, 51, 124.
Homosexuality, 16, 17, 53, 54, 74, 103, 113, 116, 189.
In girls, 16, 17, 53, 113.
Honouring of father, 150, 151.
Hostility between members of family, 10 ff., 18 ff., 57 ff., 94 ff.,
117 ff., 135, 141, 146 ff., 156 ff., 177 ff., 213, 214, 221 ff.
"Humdrum" activities, 214.
Husband and wife, 93 ff., 101, 158, 163 ff., 213, 227, 238.
Hybrid vigour, 203.
Hypnosis, 67, 121, 122.
_Ibsen, H._, 107.
Idealisation of parents, 54 ff., 62, 63, 94, 120, 124, 134, 137, 152,
163.
Idealism, 145.
Identification:
Of husband and wife, 92.
Of parents with children, 103, 168 ff.
With country, 125 ff.
With grandparents, 86, 160 ff., 165.
With parents, 63, 105, 115, 163, 168.
With self, 103, 189.
Illness, _see_ Disease.
Illusion of happiness, 169.
Imaginary fulfilment of desire, 42.
Imitation, 186.
Immaculate Conception, 145.
Immortality, 72, 162, 169, 170.
Impotence, 51, 81, 132, 200.
Inbreeding, 202 ff., 219.
Incas of Peru, 91, 203.
Incest, 12 ff., 22, 34 ff., 51 ff., 61, 73. 79 ff., 89 ff., 97 ff.,
104 ff., 108, 116, 131, 139, 142 ff., 147, 184 ff., 193 ff.,
200 ff., 219 ff.
As symbolic, 34 ff.
Examples of brother-sister, 90, 193 ff.
Examples of parent-child, 193 ff.
Independence increasing with growth, 42 ff., 61 ff., 71, 76, 171 ff.,
211, 230 ff.
Indian Archipelago, 194.
Indians:
N. American, 193.
S. American, 194.
Individual, the, 32 ff., 40 ff., 65, 72, 76, 81, 136, 137, 152, 154,
160, 169, 170, 175, 209 ff., 214, 215, 218, 227, 230 ff., 237 ff.
Individualism, 237.
Individuation and Genesis, 159, 214, 215.
Industrial life, 62.
Infanticide, 160.
Infantile attitude in love, 28 ff.
Inferiority, feeling of, 166, 232, 234.
Infertility, 201.
Infidelity, 99, 101.
Inheritance, _see_ Heredity.
Inhibition, 52.
_See also_ Repression.
Initiation, 71, 79 ff., 142, 149, 195.
Innate:
Ideas, 77.
Tendencies, 15, 23, 77.
Insanity, 67.
Instinct, 157, 169, 186, 187, 212 ff.
Institutions, 160, 234.
Integration:
In Society, 212.
Psychic, 3, 122, 216.
Intercourse, sexual, 73, 75, 76.
Interests of parents, 157 ff., 171 ff.
Interference:
With children's desires, 18, 28, 58, 64, 97, 118, 119, 157, 177,
178, 225.
With parent's desires, 159, 160, 171 ff.
"Interpretation of Dreams, The", 10.
Intra-uterine life, 66 ff., 189, 198.
Inversion, sexual, _see_ Homosexuality.
"Inverted" Œdipus Complex, 54, 59.
Isanna River, Indians of, 194.
Ishtar, 144.
Isis, 92, 144.
Islands, 66, 69.
_Janet, Pierre_, 7.
Java, aborigines of, 194.
Jealousy, 17 ff., 28, 57, 84, 98, 100, 108, 116 ff., 132, 146, 156,
158, 159, 163, 164, 167, 171, 173, 178 ff., 209, 223 ff., 233, 234.
Jews, 90, 128, 129.
Jocasta, 37, 105.
_Jones, Ernest_, 6, 35, 37, 39, 71, 72, 99, 109, 115, 118, 121, 125,
126, 127, 128, 142, 161, 163.
Judaism, 141, 148, 235, 236.
_Jung, C. G._, 32 ff., 40, 69, 71, 72, 173, 211, 224.
Kacharis, 196.
Kadiaks, 193.
Kaiser Wilhelm II, 153.
Kalangs, 194.
Karens, 194.
Karna, 70.
"Keel-hauling", 84.
_Kempf, E. J._, 64.
_Ketjen, E._, 194.
Kikuyu, 86.
King, 119, 125 ff., 129 ff., 137, 141.
Kinship, 151.
_Knight Dunlap_, 7.
Knowledge, 120 ff., 138, 148, 154.
Tree of, 148.
_Kohler, J._, 205, 206.
Labour, 77, 164.
Lactation, 189.
Lake, 69, 70, 125.
Lamb, 139.
_Landesvater_, 127.
_Lang, Andrew_, 205, 206.
Language, 135.
Latchkey, 232.
Latent sexual period, 26.
Laziness, 36, 61, 231.
Learning, process of, 186.
Legend, _see_ Myths.
_Leibnitz_, 7.
Lethe, 69.
Levels of development, 49.
Levirate, 93, 195.
Liberty, statue of, 127.
_Libido_, 33, 192.
Licence, period of, 82, 86, 89 ff., 131, 195.
Life after death, 68, 69, 76.
"Life task", 34.
"Literature", 13, 89, 91, 92, 101, 107, 135.
"Little Commonwealth, The", 226.
"Little Father", 127.
Livelihood, 41, 64, 231.
Lohengrin, 56, 70, 75, 104.
_Lombroso_, 140.
Loosening of parental ties, 218 ff., 226 ff., 230 ff.
_Lorenz, Emil_, 146.
Love, 8, 12 ff., 22, 27 ff., 49, 51, 57, 58, 61, 64, 89 ff.,
94, 95, 98, 100 ff., 117, 123, 129 ff., 139 ff., 156 ff., 160,
171, 173, 175, 177, 178, 182 ff., 200 ff., 209, 221 ff., 230,
238, 239.
"Love at first sight", 103.
_Low, Barbara_, 6.
Lynching, 114.
_McCurdy, J. T._, 182.
_McDougall, W._, 136, 157, 185.
_McLennan, J. F._, 205, 206.
Madagascar, 90, 196.
Magic, 132, 152, 153, 164.
"Making good", 170.
Malay Peninsula, 197.
Marriage, 18, 51, 52, 59, 81, 82, 90 ff., 99, 107, 108, 112, 114, 115,
158, 172 ff., 178 ff., 195 ff., 205 ff., 213, 214, 224, 229, 238.
By capture, 205.
Group, 90, 179 ff., 195, 205, 206.
Relatives by, 92 ff.
_Martius, C. F. P. von_, 194.
Mary (mother of Christ), 144 ff.
"Mary Rose", 69, 73.
Masochism, 139, 192.
_Maspero, Sir Gaston_, 91.
Masturbation, 111, 113.
Materialism, 145.
Matricide, 83.
Matter, 145.
Maturity, 102, 237 ff.
Medical attendant, 80, 120 ff.
Melanesia, 194.
Memories, recovery of, 77.
Memory, in savages, 204.
Men's Clubs, 87, 179.
Menstruation, 82, 201.
"Mentally deficient" children, 43.
Metempsychosis, 162.
Mexico, 90.
Midwifery, 167.
Military life, 62.
Monasteries, 67.
Money, 59, 232.
Monks, 67.
Monogamy, 111, 178, 197, 209, 210.
Monotheism, 144.
Monster, 82, 86, 109, 150.
_Montessori, Maria_, 226.
Moral code, 181 ff., 229, 240, 241.
Moral:
Development, 44 ff., 76, 152, 154, 155, 177, 183, 188, 210, 218 ff.,
229, 240.
Influences, 182, 183.
Tendencies, reinforcement of through primitive trends, 38.
Tendency and repression, 23 ff., 61.
Morality, 170.
Morals of gods, 152.
_Morgan, H. L._, 90
_Morton Prince_, 7.
Moses, 56, 70.
Mother, 15 ff., 46, 53, 55, 64, 66 ff., 80, 82 ff., 104, 110, 115,
122, 125 ff., 131 ff., 143 ff., 158 ff., 163 ff., 171 ff., 180,
184, 189, 190, 198, 207, 209, 227, 238.
Unmarried, 158.
Holle, 100.
-in-law, 94 ff.
Mowgli, 139.
Mountains, 66, 69, 73, 125.
_Müller, G. E._, 7.
_Müller, Max_, 138, 126.
Murder, 83, 84, 99, 119, 131, 148 ff., 160, 165.
Mysticism, 72.
"Myth of the birth of the hero", 56, 70.
Myths, 12, 13, 37, 56, 66, 69, 70, 75, 91, 92, 99, 101, 104, 105,
109, 116, 131, 138, 139, 143, 147, 148, 178.
Nagging, 162, 233.
Name, 105, 106, 161.
Narcissism, 54, 56, 103, 105, 113, 122, 152, 153, 188 ff., 198,
215, 221.
Narcissistic neuroses, 123.
Narcissistic type of love, 103, 105.
Nation, 109, 125 ff., 129, 136, 209.
Natural Selection, 198, 202 ff., 207, 208, 210, 211.
"Naturalistic" of interpretation myths, 37, 38.
Neglect, 100.
Negritos, 197.
Negroes, 114.
Neo-Malthusianism, 222.
Nephews, 92.
_Nepos, Cornelius_, 91.
"Neuclear complex", 13, 123.
Neurosis, 3, 17, 122, 166.
Neurotic symptoms and manifestations, 50, 57, 67.
Neurotic, the, 34, 36, 209.
New Guinea, 194.
New York, 127,
Nicodemus, 71.
Nieces, 92.
_Nietzsche_, 7, 142.
Nomadic peoples, 204.
Normal and abnormal development, 48.
Novels, 155.
Novice, in initiation ceremonies, 83.
Nunneries, 67.
Nurse, 15, 119, 234.
Nursery, 62.
Obedience, 50, 61, 62, 124, 125, 127, 134, 141, 200.
Object love, 14 ff., 102 ff., 152, 153, 169, 188 ff., 215, 226.
Obligation towards parents, 109.
Obsessional Neurosis, 123.
Obstacle, need for in love, 108.
Œdipus, 56, 75, 105, 131, 144.
Œdipus Complex, 12 ff., 37 ff., 49, 54, 57, 99, 105, 117, 123,
132, 140, 146, 209, 215.
Old age, 239 ff.
Old women, 86.
Omnipotence, 68, 134, 153.
Omniscience, 134.
Onanism, 111, 113.
Only child, 157, 222.
Oral Libido, 192.
"Original sin", 148, 149.
Osiris, 92, 144.
Otos, 148.
Ouranos, 147.
Outbreeding, 203, 204.
Overdetermination, 37, 132, 148.
Owl, 139.
"Papa", 127.
Parental:
Control, 231 ff.
Readjustment, 171 ff.
Tendencies, 157, 169, 221.
Parental ties, loosening of, 218 ff., 226 ff., 230 ff.
Parenthood:
Of father emphasised, 165.
Sacrifices involved in, 159 ff., 167.
Parents, 8, 12 ff., 26 ff., 42, 45 ff., 61 ff., 71, 79 ff., 88,
89, 93 ff., 100, 104, 108 ff., 118 ff., 133 ff., 156 ff.,
177 ff., 185 ff., 205, 207 ff., 221, 223.
-in-law, 93 ff., 173.
Strong and weak, 233.
Substitutes for, _see_ Substitutes.
World, 147.
Parricide, 12, 83, 131, 132.
Participation in divine nature, 151.
Paternity, knowledge concerning, 138, 146, 204.
_Patria potestas_, 128, 235.
Patriarchal system, 129, 136, 180 ff., 197.
"_Patrie_", 127.
Patriotism, 125 ff.
Pathological, the, in mental development, 48, 88, 89, 102, 229.
Paulo and Francesca, 107.
Pelican, 139.
Pelleas and Melisande, 107.
Penis, 73, 74, 80.
Perseus, 56, 70.
Persians, 90.
Peru, 91, 203.
Peruvian aborigines, 194
_Pfister, O._, 6.
Phallus, _see_ Penis.
Phantasies, 66 ff., 79, 108, 109, 111, 115, 117, 151, 155, 161.
Philippines, 197.
Philosopher's stone, 72.
Philosophy, 64, 74, 145.
Physician, 80, 120 ff.
_Piedrahita, L. F. de_, 90.
"Pilgrim's Progress", 69.
Plants, 137, 200.
_Plato_, 220.
Play, 43.
Politics, 64, 125 ff., 232, 234, 236, 237.
_See also_ Society.
Polytheism, 142 ff.
Pond, 70.
Poorer Classes, 58, 195.
Pope, 120, 127.
_Porter, S. C._, 74.
Posterity, 169, 170.
Practical applications, 217 ff.
Prayer, 153.
Pregnancy, 160, 166.
Prematurely born children, 77.
Pre-natal life, 66 ff., 189, 198.
Pressure, 70.
Preventive sexual intercourse, 160.
Pride, 167, 168.
Priest, 120, 142.
Primitive Sympathy, 185, 186.
Priority of parent-love sentiment, 191, 192.
Privileges of maturity, 84.
Profession, 63, 163, 210, 212, 239.
Professional position, 59.
Prohibitions, 105, 131, 132, 148, 165, 177, 195, 202, 204, 213.
Projection, 103, 130, 135, 141, 143, 146, 151 ff., 163, 165, 241.
Prometheus, 148.
Promiscuity, 90, 197, 205.
Property, 169, 170.
Prostitute, 110 ff.
Prostitution, religious, 142.
Protestant Church, 145.
Psyche, 104.
Psychology:
Applications of, 2, 3, 65.
Present status of, 1 ff.
The abnormal in, 48.
Ptolemies, 91, 202.
Puberty, 71, 82, 113.
Punishment, 85, 141, 147, 148, 165, 167, 177, 206, 209 233.
Puritanism, 142.
Purity, 146.
_See_ also Chastity.
Queen, 127.
Questions:
Children's, 74 ff., 224.
In myths, 75, 104, 105, 148.
Racial factors, 72, 76, 81, 105, 109, 114 ff., 129, 152, 169, 170,
190, 198, 202 ff., 208, 219, 220, 240.
_Rank, Otto_, 13, 33, 50, 55, 56, 69, 70, 75, 92, 98, 100, 101,
106, 108, 109, 125, 126, 128, 132, 143.
Rationalisation, 84, 86, 200, 208.
Reaction formations, 155, 175, 182 ff.
_Read, Carveth_, 138.
Readjustment of parents attitude, 171 ff., 226 ff., 233.
Real world, 155.
Rebellion, 119, 120, 128, 129, 148, 223.
Rebirth, 66 ff., 79, 81 ff., 149.
Reciprocation of love, 15, 16, 226, 227.
Reconciliation, 86, 148, 179.
Reconstruction, 1.
Rectum, 74.
Regeneration, 71, 72.
Regicide, 119, 131, 132.
Regression, 13, 41, 61, 62, 68, 76, 88, 89, 121, 123, 190 ff.
_Reik, Th._, 83, 85, 164.
Reincarnation, 86.
Rejuvenation, 72, 76.
Relatives:
By marriage, 92 ff., 195.
-in-law, 92 ff.
Religion, 56, 64, 71, 72, 76, 81, 116, 120, 133 ff., 201, 232, 234 ff.
Future of, 154.
Value of, 152.
Remarriage, 99 ff.
Remus, 139.
Repression, 9 ff., 22 ff., 35, 37 ff., 49 ff., 57. 61, 62, 74, 80,
89, 91, 95, 98, 103 ff., 130, 138, 143 ff., 155, 165, 183, 192,
198, 200 ff., 229.
Rescue, 108 ff., 115, 117.
Resemblance, as a factor in displacement, 27, 102, 105, 189, 198.
Respect, 45, 110 ff., 186.
Return to womb, 66 ff.
Revenge, 162.
Reversal:
Of filio-parental relationship, 239 ff.
Of generations, 161.
Revision of standards of conduct, 226, 227.
Revolt against parental authority, 46, 47, 223.
_Ribot, Th._, 157.
Riches, 169, 170.
Rights, 82.
_Riklin, F._, 100.
Rio Negro, Indians of, 194.
Rites, 69, 71, 81 ff., 142, 149.
River, 69, 70, 80, 125.
_Rivers, W. H. R._, 90.
_Robertson Smith_, 149 ff.
Roman Catholic Church, 120, 127, 145.
Romans, 128, 136.
Romulus, 56, 70, 139.
Rooms, 66.
Royal families, 91.
Ruler, _see_ King.
Russia, 127, 128.
Sacrifice, 148 ff.
Sacrifices involved in parenthood, 159 ff.
Sadism, 98, 109, 164 ff., 192.
Sadistic theory of coitus, 109.
St. George, 109.
"Sanine", 92.
Saviour, 148.
Scapegoat, 148.
_Schiller_, 106, 108.
School, 43, 62, 124, 210, 234, 235, 239.
_Schopenhauer_, 7, 37.
_Schumann, F._, 7.
_Schwärmerei_, 28.
_Schweiger, A._, 85.
Science, 1 ff., 74.
Sea, 69, 70, 125.
Seasons, the, 72.
Seclusion before puberty, 82, 83.
Secrecy in love, 108, 113.
Secret societies, 72, 83, 86.
Self, 14 ff., 125, 153, 182, 188 ff.
_See also_ Narcissism.
Self:
-assertion, 46, 215.
-begetting, 109.
-determination, 43, 190, 231 ff.
-feeling, 43.
-love, _see_ Narcissism,
-preservation, 41, 49, 169, 211, 212, 215, 231 ff.
-reliance, 62, 211, 231 ff., 236, 238.
Selfishness, 172, 173, 183, 188, 227.
Semangs, 197.
Semites, 149 ff.
Senoi, 197.
Sentiment, 157, 169, 191 ff., 209.
Sexual:
Enlightenment, 224.
Factors, 9 ff., 21 ff., 31 ff., 40, 53, 73, 75, 76, 79 ff., 89,
95, 110 ff., 121, 131, 132, 138, 142 ff., 153, 158, 173, 177 ff.,
185, 187 ff., 197, 198, 200 ff., 212 ff., 223 ff.
Sexuality, general inhibitions of, 212 ff.
_Shakespeare_, 99.
_Shaw, Bernard_, 159, 172.
_Shelley_, 58, 106.
Ship, 125.
Shortage of women, 56, 70.
Siegfried, 56, 70.
_Silberer, Herbert_, 37, 38, 71, 72, 132.
Similarity, as a factor in displacement, 27, 102, 105, 189, 198.
Sin, 148 ff., 167.
Sisters, _see_ Brothers and Sisters.
Size, 161, 162.
Sleep, 67.
Snow White, 100.
Social:
Life, 46, 47, 81 ff., 89, 119 ff., 152, 170, 175, 188, 209, 219,
232, 239.
Position, 59, 64.
Socialism, 236.
Society, 65, 81 ff., 119 ff., 123 ff., 136 ff., 152, 154, 169, 170,
188, 189, 200, 209 ff., 214, 219, 222, 227, 230, 234 ff., 240.
Son, 46, 64, 80, 83, 94, 109, 131, 132, 148 ff., 179 ff., 207, 209,
227.
-in-law, 94 ff., 173.
_Sophocles_, 37, 105.
Sororate, 93, 195.
Soul, 145.
_Spencer, Sir Baldwin, and Gillen, F. J._, 196.
_Spencer, Herbert_, 135, 136, 205, 206, 212.
Spirit, 145.
Spoiling of children, 162, 233.
State, 119, 125, 141, 236, 237.
_See also_ Society.
_Steiner, M._, 51.
_Stekel, W._, 64, 106.
Step:
-child, 98 ff.
-father, 98 ff.
-mother, 98 ff., 107, 131.
Storm, John, 115.
Strength, sexual attractiveness of, 114, 115.
Strong parents, 233.
Struggle for existence, 198, 240,
Styx, 69.
Subincision, 85.
Sublimation, 25 ff., 74, 89, 109, 124, 145, 151, 152, 154, 155, 192,
210, 211, 215, 219.
Substitutes:
For opposite sex, 54.
For parents, 27 ff., 61, 86, 88 ff., 119, 220, 222, 228, 230, 234.
Succession to Kingship, 131.
Suggestion, 121, 132, 186.
_Sully, J._, 145, 161.
Superiors, 45.
Supermen, 142.
Superstitions, 72, 166, 200.
Symbolism, 33 ff., 72.
"Anagogic", 37.
"Functional", 37.
Symbols, 69, 71 ff., 80, 83, 85, 139, 148, 151.
Sympathy, 164, 166.
"Primitive", 185, 186.
Taboo, 35, 52, 75, 82, 86, 91, 93, 97. 100, 129 ff., 150, 165, 206,
213, 229.
_See also_ Pro-hibitions.
Talion, 83, 148, 165.
Tammuz, 144.
Tarzan of the Apes, 139.
Teacher, 43, 45, 119, 120, 186, 234.
Tenasserim, 90, 194.
Tenderness, 99, 100, 110 ff., 123, 141, 157, 183, 186, 192, 215,
226, 231, 240.
"Tess of the d'Urbervilles", 116.
Theoretical treatment of subject, 176 ff.
Theories of reproduction, in child, 74.
Theriomorphic gods, 139.
Ties, parental, loosening of, 218 ff., 226 ff., 230 ff.
Tinnehs, 193.
Titans, 148.
Toleration, 232, 236.
Totemic Age, 178 ff., 210.
Totemism, 137 ff., 149 ff., 196. 197, 201, 205.
Tower of Babel, 148.
Town, 125.
Transference, in Psycho-Analysis, 122, 123.
Transference Neuroses, 123.
Travel, 232.
Tree, 125, 148.
Of Knowledge, 148.
Tribe, 136 ff., 152, 178, 180, 192, 197, 205, 209.
Trinity, 145.
Tristan and Iseult, 107.
_Trotter, W._, 23, 136, 182, 215.
Tunnel, 70, 73.
Twins, 78, 198.
Types:
Of homosexuality, 54.
Of love, 103.
Tyranny, 109, 110, 120.
Tyrant, 109, 117, 141, 224.
Uncle, 92.
Uncleanness, 149.
Unconscious, 6 ff., 11, 17, 31, 34 ff., 51, 54, 56, 64, 69, 71, 77,
79, 80, 81, 89, 92, 97, 100, 104, 106, 109, 110, 115, 116, 119,
122, 125, 126, 131, 138, 139, 146, 154, 157, 160 ff., 198, 209,
215, 217, 228, 229, 238.
Universe, 134, 136, 142, 143, 145, 151, 155, 184.
University, 125.
United States, 2.
_See also_ Americans.
Unmarried mother, 158.
Unwanted child, the, 221, 222.
Urethral Libido, 92.
Vagina, 17, 70, 73, 74.
Variability, racial, 203.
Vaults, 69.
Veddahs, 197.
_Vega, Garcilasso de la_, 194.
Vegetation, 72, 131, 132.
Vicarious enjoyment, 169, 170, 241.
Vienna school, 40.
Virgin mother, 116.
Virginity, 115, 116.
Vitality of children, 208.
_Wallace, A. R._, 94.
Wangel, Hilda, 107.
War, 1, 2, 125, 205, 206.
War shock, 3.
Washington, 127.
Water, 69, 70.
Weak parents, 233.
Wealth, 169, 170.
Wealthy classes, 58, 181.
Weaning from parents, 220 ff., 230 ff.
_Webster, Jean_, 220.
_Wells, H. G._, 2.
_Westermarck, E._, 197, 201, 202, 204, 206, 212.
_Weule, K._, 85.
_White, R. E._, 91.
_White, W. A._, 6, 195.
Widowhood, 99, 158, 172.
Wife, 137, 158, 163 ff.
_See also_ Husband.
Wilhelm II, 153.
_Wilken, G. A._, 194.
_Winterstein, A. von_, 143, 145.
Womb, 66 ff., 79, 80, 82, 138, 160.
Women:
Dissociation in, 113 ff.
Distrust of in Christianity, 144, 145.
Old, 86.
Shortage of, 205, 206.
Work, 67, 169.
Working classes, 120.
_See also_ Poorer classes.
World parents, 147.
Worship, 137, 141, 145, 151, 152.
_See also_ Religion.
_Wundt, W._, 178, 180, 197, 205.
Ymir, 144.
Zeus, 92, 139, 142, 147, 148.
Zürich school, 40, 46.
* * * * *
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| Transcriber Notes: |
| |
| P. 7. 'aquired' changed to 'acquired'. |
| P. 53. Footnote #36: 'expecially' changed to 'especially'. |
| P. 63. Sidenote: 'indentify' changed to 'identify'. |
| P. 94. 'marrage' changed to 'marriage'. |
| P. 102. 'successfuly' changed to 'successfully'. |
| P. 107. 'persan' changed to 'person'. |
| P. 110. 'as a a', taken out extra 'a'. |
| P. 116. Footnote #138: 'irequently' changed to 'infrequently'. |
| P. 147. 'indentified' changed to 'identified'. |
| P. 155. 'virture' changed to 'virtue'. |
| P. 158. 'addititon' changed to 'addition'. |
| P. 172. 'acqaintance' changed to 'acquaintance'. |
| P. 190. 'individiual' changed to 'individual'. |
| P. 237. 'at it' changed to 'as it'. |
| P. 240. 'certains' changed to 'certain'. |
| P. 250. 'disires' changed to 'desires'. |
| P. 255. 'Reincaration' changed to 'Reincarnation'. |
| P. 256. 'S noi' changed to 'Senoi'. |
| P. 256. 'Slberer' changed to 'Silberer'. |
| Corrected various punctuation. |
| |
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