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[vi] 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[vii] 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.
CHAPTER I  INTRODUCTORY
 There is now some very general measure of agreement The needs of social reconstruction 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.
The degree of success attained by any such attempt at Science and reconstruction 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.
Unfortunately it so happens that Psychology is among the The present status of Psychology 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[2] 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.
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 The application of Psychology to practical problems 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.
[3]
It is perhaps, however, more especially on the medical side that the question of the utilisation of psychological knowledge Medical Applications of Psychology 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 War-shock 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.
The amount of strain that can be actually borne with impunity by any individual is no doubt dependent upon a considerable Psychic integration 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[4] Importance of correct mental development 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.
It is to the consideration of one of the most potent of these Family influences 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.
Besides showing the importance for mental development of their importance, difficulty, and complexity 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[5] 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.
CHAPTER II  THE PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS IN RELATION TO THE FAMILY
 The progress that has recently been made in our understanding Psycho-analysis and the study of the Unconscious 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].
[7]
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[8] 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.
As is now well known, the psycho-analytic method originated Psycho-analysis applied to the study of the family 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.
Here and in the other early works of Freud there gradually emerge the fundamental conceptions which distinguish the The child's love to its parents 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,[9] 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.
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 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[10] 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.
As the result of further study with gradually improving Dreams 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[11] desire in the Unconscious for the death of the person concerned.
In explanation of this astonishing and repellent conclusion, The hostile element in family relationship 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[12] 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.
The love aspect of the family relationships itself however The correlations of love and hate 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.
The feelings and tendencies in question have found expression The ?dipus Complex 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 ?dipus, 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 ?dipus complex[7].
[13]
Tendencies, which, like those revealed in the ?dipus 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 ?dipus 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 r?le of the ?dipus 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.
In the light of these researches and observations the The normal course of development of the child's affections normal course of development of the child's affections, so far as they concern us here[8], would seem to be somewhat as[14] 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. Auto-erotism 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 Object love 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[15] 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.
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 Heterosexuality 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[16] 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 r?le 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.
Another interesting question relating to the direction of Homosexual and heterosexual development in girls 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[17] 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.
With the firm establishment of object love towards the Jealousy 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[18] 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.
The hate aspect of the ?dipus 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 of parent-hatred 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[19] 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.
Only second in importance to the attitude of the child Hatred between brothers and sisters 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[20] 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.
Although jealousy and hatred are thus apt to be the first Love between brothers and sisters 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.
CHAPTER III  THE ORIGIN OF CONFLICT IN RELATION TO THE FAMILY
 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 The primitive a-moral nature of the child 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[22] 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.
This open and unrestricted expression of primitive tendencies Modification of conduct as the result of Conflict 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.
These modifications are the result of a conflict which takes The forces of Repression 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[23] Sexual inhibition 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.
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 Herd Instinct 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[24] 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.
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 Love, gratitude and admiration 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.
After this brief consideration of the nature of the psychic The nature and results of Conflict 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[25] 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.
The process of Repression is, however, rarely carried to Displacement and Sublimation 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].
[26]
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 Incest Repression 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.
In all the more favourable cases of development, however, Displacement as regards the object of love 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[27] 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.
A first step of frequent occurrence and of great importance Parent Substitutes 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;[28] (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.
The fact that the first choice of loved object other than The infantile attitude in early love 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 Schw?rmerei which[29] 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.
Simultaneously with this latter change there goes on a Emancipation from infantile love objects 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[30] 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.
CHAPTER IV  THE FAMILY AND THE LIFE TASK OF THE INDIVIDUAL
 FREUD AND JUNG
In this short sketch of what—from the results of psycho-analytic Non-sexual aspects of Individual development in relation to the family 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[32] 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.
The treatment of these non-sexual aspects is of special Controversies on this subject 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.
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 The work of Jung 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[33] 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.
As regards the application of this general attitude to our The family and the development of the individual 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[34] 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.
In the neuroses the patient suffers, according to Jung, from Attachment to the parents regarded as symbolic of deficient individual development 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.
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 Difficulties presented by this view 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.
(1) It does not (as does the view expounded in the earlier chapters) cast any light upon the origin and development of, It does not accord with the general importance of sex 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[35] 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.
(2) Jung's view does not explain why the thought of It does not explain the strong repression of incest 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.
(3) Even if we are prepared to grant that this repression Nor the choice of incest as a symbol 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.
(4) Jung's view seems incompatible with all we know as It is not in harmony with the general laws of symbolism 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[36] 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.
It would thus appear that we have good reasons for Such a view cannot afford a complete explanation though it may contain certain valuable elements of truth 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.
The possibility of a further analysis of the incest tendencies[37] Overdetermination and the multiple interpretation of symbols 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 ?dipus 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 ?dipus myth the existence of certain functional symbolisms in virtue of which the character of ?dipus 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.
In so far as these attempts have been successful (and in Overdetermination in the case of the ?dipus Complex 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[38] 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 ?dipus 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.
Among these conditions the most important is probably to as a product of repression be found in the still active repression of the ?dipus 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 ?dipus complex.
Another reason for the adoption of this secondary and as serving to reinforce the moral tendencies 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 ?dipus complex. The latter lie very much nearer to the ultimate sources of human feeling and emotion than do the[39] 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 ?dipus 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.
CHAPTER V  THE FAMILY AND THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY
 The considerations raised at the end of the last chapter We must recognise both the sexual and the individual aspects of development 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 r?le 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.
[41]
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.
Apart altogether from the questions of mysticism and Difficulties of individual development 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.
It would seem possible to distinguish two main aspects of Self-preservation 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[42] 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[43] 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.
The other main aspect of the principle of development Self-determination 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[44] 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.
On the moral side also, he is debarred from the higher Autonomy and Moral Development 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[45] 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.
In these considerations we have throughout laid the Autonomy should come about gradually 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,[46] effectually prevents this in the majority of cases. But it may easily come about as the result of a reaction against a too and not suddenly as the consequence of a revolt against parental authority 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].
These considerations with reference to the growth of the The wider social bearings of this subject 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[47] 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.
CHAPTER VI  ABNORMALITIES AND VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT—LOVE AND HATE
 Up to this point, in studying the process of individual The study of the abnormal in Psychology 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[49] 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.
Byways in human development, both emotional and intellectual, Abnormalities of development at different levels 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[50] 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.
As regards the first class, the general nature of the psychic Abnormalities and variations in the parent—regarding tendencies 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 ?dipus 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.
In so far as, under the force of the repression, these Fixation at the stage of parent love tendencies do not suffer some clearly marked modification or displacement as regards their object (and thus fall within our[51] 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[52] 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.
These negative manifestations, like so many others of a Conflict and Compromise 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[53] 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.
In a number of cases the repression of an incestuous Homosexuality as a result of incestuous fixation 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].
[54]
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.
It is an important characteristic of the phenomenon of Idealisation of the loved parent 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[55] 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.
It is this search for the ideal that has been found to Don Juanism and the search for the ideal 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.
[56]
As a result of this same process of idealisation, it may "Myth of the birth of the hero" 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, ?dipus, 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[57] 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.
The manifestations of the hate, as distinct from the love, Exaggerated love concealing hate elements of the ?dipus 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.
Quite frequently however—in this respect unlike the Open parent-hatred 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[58] 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.
Another, but a later and usually less deep seated, cause Conflicting interests of parents and children 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[59] 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.
In a number of cases hatred may be felt, not—as usually Hatred of the parent of the child's own sex 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 ?dipus 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.[60] 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.
CHAPTER VII  ABNORMALITIES AND VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT—THE DEPENDENCE ASPECTS
 In the fixations and regressions we have so far considered Failure to become adequately independent of the parents 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.
The operation of any failures or abnormalities of development is subject to less repression than love or hate fixations 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[62] 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.
In the first place it must be recognised that the degree of The influence of heredity 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.
On the other hand there are often certain influences at Psychological influences may cause strong work, which tend to make the child unlike his parents in just these qualities of energy and self-reliance. Thus a high degree[63] of initiative, self-confidence or masterfulness in the predominating parents to have weak children or vice versa 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.
Another way in which parents may influence the general Children may identify themselves with their parents 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[64] 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.
In still other cases, however, a desire to be different from Desire to be different from the parent 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[65] 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.
CHAPTER VIII  IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL LIFE
 We have now reached a point in our discussion at which Birth and womb phantasies 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 Manifestations of the desire to return to the womb 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[67] 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.
In all these manifestations the dominant motive would seem Meaning of this desire 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.
[68]
It is, as Ferenczi[49] has been at pains to show, only in so Difficulty of the process of adaptation to reality 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.
If the idea of life within the mother's womb is in this Life before birth and life after death 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[69] 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).
The idea of birth or re-birth which we here meet with, plays of itself, as we have already indicated, a part of very Birth phantasies great importance in the unconscious mental life of many individuals[53], a part indeed sometimes of even greater significance[70] 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].
Birth phantasies of this kind are frequently accompanied Birth and fear 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: anch?], 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.
If, and in so far as, the phantasy of re-entering the mother's The meaning of the birth phantasy 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 [71]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.
In other cases however the symbolism is of a rather more Spiritual regeneration 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].
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[72] the products of the collective mind as exemplified in cult and Physical regeneration 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].
All these interpretations are probably correct, so far as The literal interpretation of the womb and birth phantasies 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[73] 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 Sexual significance of the phantasies 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].
[74]
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].
The directly Sexual feeling thus attaching to these phantasies Sexual curiosity 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].
Curiosity of this kind is also found to underlie much of Children's questions 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[75] 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 The forbidden question in myth and legend 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 ?dipus)[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.
[76]
Summarising our discussion as to the significance of the Summary 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].
CHAPTER IX  THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INITIATION AND INITIATION RITES
 The phantasies of return to the womb and of re-birth, The psychological significance of initiation 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.
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 Initiation and Incest 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[80] 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[81] 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.
The important and far-reaching changes in general conduct Initiation ceremonies 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.
Since the change from childhood to maturity involves readjustments Initiation and re-birth 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[82] 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].
These initiatory rites would seem, like the womb and birth General and sexual objects in initiation 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[83] and taboos as regards persons, circumstances and occasions which are usually placed upon such indulgence.
Many of the details of these initiation ceremonies have, The abandonment of infantile tendencies on the part of the initiated 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].
In the cruel rites which are so often inflicted on the novices The attitude of the initiators towards the initiated 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[84] 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].
[85]
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 Prohibition and licence 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,[86] 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]
The monster from whose belly the novices are reborn Re-birth and Reconciliation 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[87] 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.
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.
In the failures and abnormalities of development with which Varieties and abnormalities as regards the displacement of parent-regarding tendencies 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[89] 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.
We have already in Chapter III studied some of the ways in Insufficient Displacement 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 Displacement depending on family relationship
 
Brother and sister 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.
We have already seen (p. 86) that on occasions of special licence connection between brother and sister, though otherwise[90] strictly tabooed, may be temporarily permitted. It seems to be Cases where brother-sister incest has been permitted 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[91] 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.
On the negative side too, there is evidence to be gained Repression of, and desire for such incest 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[92] 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.
As a further stage of development the original parent Displacement of parent—regarding tendencies on to more distant relatives 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.
Of particular interest in this connection is the displacement Relatives by marriage 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[93] 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].
In recent times the relationship by marriage which has Parent-in-law and child-in-law 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 Difficulties caused by parent fixation on the part of husband or wife 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[94] 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.
This tendency is moreover liable to be largely reinforced—or The displacement of affect from parents to parents-in-law 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[95] respectively those feelings of hatred which they had felt (but Hate 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.
Less liable to open manifestation is the corresponding Love 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[96] 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.
The third and last of our three factors which complicate Corresponding displacement on the part of the parents-in-law themselves 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.
The relation between child-in-law and parent-in-law which Son-in-law and Mother-in-law 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[97] 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.
[98]
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.
Only less important than the relations of child-in-law and Step-child and Step-parent 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[99] 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.
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 "Hamlet" as a study of this relationship 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 ?dipus 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.
In the case of a girl, corresponding feelings may be called The wicked step-mother in fairy tales 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,[100] 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.
These feelings of hostility on the part of children to their The attitude of step-parents towards their step-children 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.
Although it is the displacement of hate which manifests The displacement of love on to step-parents 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[101] 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].
All that we have here said as regards the feelings of Re-marriage after divorce 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.
CHAPTER XI  FAMILY INFLUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE
 When the original object-love, at first directed to the The more advanced stages of love displacement 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.
The importance of the displacement here at work will be "Falling in love" 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[103] 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 Two types of love:— types:—
(1) the narcissistic type,
(2) the dependence type.
In the first type the love is the result of a projection of The narcissistic type 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[104] she has since sacrificed to make way for a more pronounced development of her "womanly" characteristics.
In love of the second type the affection is more genuinely The dependence type 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.
The fact that in the personality of the loved object there The repression of the incestuous basis of affection, as shown in myth and legend 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[105] 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 ?dipus and Jocasta in the ?dipus 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.
Among associations other than those of family relationship Similarity as a basis of displacement 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 Its biological significance 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.
Among the similarities of a less essential kind which may Name assist in the process of displacement, those of name are apt to[106] 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.
Similarities with the parents as regards age often exercise Age 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.
[107]
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.
Thus it may happen that, just as the child's love activities Falling in love with those who are already married or betrothed 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[108] 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].
In a number of other cases stress is laid not so much on The desire for obstacles in the way of love 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.
Since the thought of the sexual relations of the parents The rescue phantasy 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[109] 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].
The idea of rescue has too, as has recently been discovered, The symbolic meaning of the rescue 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[110] life by the parent being now cancelled by the incurring of a similar obligation on the part of the parent towards the child.
Freud has drawn attention to the occurrence of a curious Hatred and contempt of the mother for permitting the advances of the father 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 The mother regarded as a prostitute 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.
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 The dissociation of sexual attractiveness and esteem 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.
This dissociation of purely sexual attraction from tenderness, esteem and the other components of fully developed love, is, The importance of this dissociation if we take account of its presence in minor as well as in major degrees, of such frequent occurrence, that it has been[111] 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.
The dissociation between the more purely sexual constituents Influences in later life which are liable to reinforce it 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:
(1) The first actual experience of acute sensory pleasure of Masturbation 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 r?le 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[112] by being brought into contact with what the boy regards as dishonourable, lewd or filthy[130].
(2) At a later stage of development the original dissociation Prostitution 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.
The moral degradation of the sexual object thus receives Effect of the dissociation on marriage 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].
There can be little doubt that women are, on the whole, The liability of women to a corresponding dissociation 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[113] 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[114] 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].
Such women will often be attracted to two kinds of men—one Manifestations of the dissociation in women 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].
[115]
In a certain number of cases there is to be observed a Combination of the prostitute and rescue phantasies 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).
In still other cases again the intensely disagreeable feeling The desire for chastity 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[116] 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].
The brief review which we have undertaken in this The importance of displacement in the love life 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.
CHAPTER XII  FAMILY INFLUENCES IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
 In studying the hate aspects of the original ?dipus complex Displacements of hate less complex than those of love 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[118] 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.
In these latter cases it will usually be found that the The development of hate 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.
We have already, in the earlier chapters, discussed the Displacement of hate on to parent substitutes manner in which parent hatred of early origin (together with most other aspects of the young child's attitude towards its[119] 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.
There can be little doubt that much of the general This displacement may lead to rebellion against authority and the persons who exercise it 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[120] 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].
These same persons in authority, who thus become the Displacements of respect and esteem 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.
The displacement on to medical advisers and attendants Medical practitioners as parent-substitutes 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[121] 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.
This suggestive power plays of course a specially prominent The r?le of parent-regarding tendencies in suggestion and hypnosis 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[122] 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.
In the practice of psycho-analysis, too, the displacement of "Transference" in psychoanalysis 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,[123] but, inasmuch as the ?dipus 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, r?le; 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].
It is principally because a displacement of this sort can be Transference and the cure of neuroses 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.
All the displacements with which we have been hitherto The displacement of parent-regarding feelings, on to objects other than individuals 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.
Thus in many cases the home, as the place in which the Home parents lived and in which the feelings of love, tenderness and admiration towards the parents were first developed, acquires[124] 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.
In certain persons again—especially in members of an Family or Clan 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.
In many persons, again, the school, as the centre of School 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[125] corresponding feelings which had previously been experienced principally or solely in relation to the parents.
At a later age, these same feelings may be again displaced University 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.
Towns[147] may also become the recipients of parentally, and Town 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.
The same feeling too is often directed to houses, ships, Other objects 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.
Probably the most important displacement of this kind The attitude of the individual to the state: 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.
The self-regarding tendencies are enlisted in the service Self-regarding tendencies 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[126] 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.
The displacement of the mother-regarding feelings on to Mother regarding tendencies 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.
In the displacement of the father-regarding feelings on to Father-regarding tendencies 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[127] 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 quin?)[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."
There are considerable differences, both individual and Political importance of these tendencies 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,[128] 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.
There probably exists, moreover, as Rank[154] and Jones[155] have already suggested, a considerable degree of correspondence Family organisation and State organisation 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[129] 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.
As regards the attitude adopted by the individual member Ambivalent attitude towards the king 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:—
(1) Those that restrict the activities of the king himself, such Taboos affecting the king as manifestations of this attitude 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[130] 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.
The reality of this hostile feeling is placed beyond all Hostility towards and murder of the king 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 [131] 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[132] 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 ?dipus 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.
CHAPTER XIII  FAMILY INFLUENCES IN RELIGION
 We saw in the last chapter that the feelings with which The role of parent-regarding feelings in primitive notions concerning the Divine 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[134] 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.
The displacement of the parent-regarding emotions and The divine and the human parent 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[135] 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.
The correspondence between the divine and the human Remoter ancestors as divine parent substitutes 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[136] 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.
The conditions are thus given for a religion of simple Unsatisfying features of simple ancestor worship 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.
For these and other reasons, ancestor worship is not often The All-Father 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[137] 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.
It is in the early stages of tribal ancestor worship of the Totemism 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 Exogamy 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[138] 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 totem as a father 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].
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 Relics of Totemism in religion of the tendency to totemism is shown also by the very frequent[139] 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 and in the individual mind 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[140] this animal exercised an intense and persistent fascination, in which opposing elements of love and hate could clearly be distinguished[173].
If, as thus seems probable, we have in Totemism a peculiar The psychological connection between Totemism and Exogamy 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 ?dipus 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 ?dipus 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[141] aspects of the influence upon religion of psychic tendencies connected with the family.
We have seen that the child's attitude towards his father The ambivalent attitude towards the father as reflected in religion 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[142] 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.
In polytheistic religions, or those with polytheistic tendencies, The splitting up of parental attributes among two or more divinities 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 The Devil 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[143] 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, The dissociation of good and evil in theology and in the individual mind 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.
Although of all the members of the family, the father, as The mother regarding feelings in religion 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[144] 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.
Nevertheless, it would appear that the mother-goddess is, The mother-son relationship and its repression 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 ?dipus 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 The struggle round the mother element in Christianity evidence—even apart from its notorious aversion from and distrust of women in general—of the existence of a constant[145] 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].
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The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which has The Immaculate Conception 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].
In more primitive forms of religion the correspondence of Open depiction of the parents and of the ?dipus complex in primitive religions 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 ?dipus complex) can as a rule be even more clearly and unmistakably observed. Thus in primitive cosmogonies[185][147] 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.
In primitive myths of this kind we see the hostile relations Indications of mental conflict and repression 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[148] 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. Rebellion and punishment 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).
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Not only religious beliefs, but many religious rites, ceremonies Family influences in religious rites and practices 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 Baptism and Confirmation 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).
Of particular interest in this connection is the central rite The Communion 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.
Although Totemism is by many authorities supposed to Totemic and sacrificial elements in the Communion 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 Their psychological significance 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 [150]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[151] 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.
We thus see that, as regards both religious beliefs and The influence of family tendencies in religion 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[152] 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.
In spite of its basis in primitive infantile fixations, there Value of religion as a form of displacement 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];[153] 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,[154] 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 r?le 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.
As regards the future, it is evident that the needs of The future of religion 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[155] 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.
CHAPTER XIV  THE ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN
 In dealing thus far with the psychic aspects of the filio-parental The affective reactions of the parent towards the child 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[157] 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.
It is now pretty generally agreed among psychologists The instinctive love of parents to children 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 parents to children stands in reciprocal relationship to the parents' other interests and affections 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[158] 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.
The fact that the love available for offspring and for spouse The consequent jealousy between parent and child 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.
Just as in the case of children the hostile emotions towards Conflicting interests of parents and children the parents that arise from jealousy are liable to be powerfully[159] 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 sacrifices involved in parenthood 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.
The mother, owing to the greater demands which children Their influence on the mother make upon her time and health and energy is perhaps that one of the parents to experience most keenly such hostile[160] 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].
The interference of children with the activities and desires On the father 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.
The hostile feelings of parents towards their children which Identification of the child with its grandparent 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[161] 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].
For the grounds of this belief and the tendencies which Causes of this similarity of parent-child to previous child-parent relationship 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.
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 The "phantasy of the reversal of generations" 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[162] 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[163] 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].
In all cases where a parent resents the coming into being The effect of parent-child love on the attitude of parents to each other 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.
 
It has recently been shown by Reik[211] that this last mentioned The Couvade 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.
As regards the pre-natal Couvade, it is obvious that the The pre-natal Couvade as an expression of ambivalent feelings towards the wife 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.
A similar attitude is indicated by the beliefs and practices The belief in demons 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.
While the pre-natal Couvade is thus principally the manifestation The post-natal Couvade results principally from hostile feelings towards the child 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[166] 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.
Certain other students of the Couvade, such as Bachofen, The Couvade as an assertion of the father's rights 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.
This feeling of inferiority is frequently shared by fathers The corresponding attitude in modern life 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].
 
The hostility which a parent may harbour towards his child or children from the causes we have been considering Parent-child hostility in later life 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.
As time proceeds and children grow up, two new factors New factors influencing the attitude of parents to children in later life 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.
 
The first of these two factors consists in the unwelcome Envy of childrens' superiority 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.
It might well seem indeed as though some degree of Parents' identification of themselves with their children 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[169] 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.
This identification plays moreover a further and perhaps This identification as a means of obtaining immortality 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.
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 Vicarious enjoyments of children's pleasures and successes 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[170] acquiesce in personal failure, if only their children may thereby be brought nearer to success.
This aspect of the process of identification is one which, Its sociological significance we may very reasonably expect, will tend to play an increasing r?le 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].
 
In order that the benefits and compensations attendant The development of the child requires a corresponding readjustment of the parents' attitude 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 This is as necessary for the parent as for the child 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[172] early days of parenthood must necessarily in the long run be detrimental to the true interest both of child and parent.
Obvious as these considerations may well seem to be, the Difficulty and importance of this readjustment 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].
 
The question of marriage is, under existing conditions The attitude of parents to the marriage of their children 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].
 
The avoidance of the evils consequent upon the insufficient Means of avoiding insufficient parental re-adjustment 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.
CHAPTER XV  ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES—HATE ASPECTS
 The descriptive portion of our task is now completed. We Recapitulation 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).
Since these groups of impulses have shown themselves to play a part of such importance in human mind and human conduct,[176] it is not unnatural that, having completed our review of The theoretical treatment of our subject and its difficulties 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[177] be more fully surveyed by better equipped workers in the future.
Of the two main groups of tendencies to which we have The hate tendencies to some extent inevitable 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.
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We have seen that the hate attitude is sometimes and Jealousy as a necessary consequence of marriage 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.
In those societies which have developed or maintained a and especially of monogamy 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[179] 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 Parent-child jealousy perhaps less pronounced in the Totemic Age 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[180] 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].
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, which differs in this respect both from preceding and succeeding ages 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[181] 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.
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 Similar differences as regards other aspects of intra-family hatred 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.
The family life of most modern civilised nations is less The hate-producing causes are still potent in modern civilisation 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].
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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.
As regards the negative or reactionary aspects of the hate Negative aspects of the hate attitude 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.
As regards the ultimate psychological nature of the first "Moral" influences 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.
As regards the second factor, the arousal of love in opposition Love that conflicts with and represses hate to hate is evidently dependent partly (a) upon the child's[183] 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.
CHAPTER XVI  ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES—LOVE ASPECTS
 The problems connected with the origin, development and The love attitude 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.
We have seen that, in its positive form, this love attitude The positive and negative aspects that have to be considered 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[185] 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.
Let us consider first the positive side of the love attitude. Influences determining the positive aspects 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.
(1) First in time and perhaps also in importance would The long duration of human childhood 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.
(2) It is a pretty generally recognised fact that—in virtue Primitive sympathy reacting on the expressions of instinctive parental feeling 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[186] 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.
(3) Again, it is evident that, especially in primitive Love and respect as elements of imitation and suggestibility 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.
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(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 Early arousal of sex tendencies in the family is necessary for cultural displacements 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[188] 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.
(5) Another factor of great importance in mental and Necessity for the early transition from Autoerotism to object-love 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[189] 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.
(6) If the incestuous direction of affection thus assists the The Narcissistic love elements are also satisfied by incestuous affection 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].
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In this way the love of a child to those who are related Thus two opposing tendencies in love find simultaneous gratification 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.
(7) Another set of factors working towards the production The dependence aspects may also indirectly foster incestuous tendencies 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[191] 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.
(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 The sentiment of parent-love is powerful in virtue of its early formation 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[192] 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.
In one important respect however the history of parent Furthermore, numerous influences favour its persistence 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[193] 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.
(9) Finally, the tendency to incestuous direction of affection, The tendency to incest thus brought about is strengthened by practice and tradition 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].
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Apart from the actual observation of incestuous practices The occurrence of incest may also be inferred from certain practices and institutions 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.
The most striking institution of this kind is however undoubtedly Especially from Exogamy 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[196] 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.
There is a considerable amount of evidence to show that Exogamy was probably preceded by Endogamy 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].
Frazer supposes that exogamy in its beginning arose[197] 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 Really primitive races mostly monogamous and endogamous 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].
In these primitive peoples and in those who, as we must The family is therefore their principal social unit 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 Incest a natural consequence of such conditions 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[198] 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.
If these influences have made incest a common practice How do past incestuous practices produce present tendencies to incest? 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 The influence of heredity and of tradition 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.
CHAPTER XVII  ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES—THE REPRESSION OF LOVE
 Supposing the tendency to incest to have been called into Causes of Incest Repression 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.
(1) The reasons which are given by primitive peoples for their obedience to the rule of exogamy are various; sometimes Explanations of primitive peoples 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.
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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.
(2) Thus, Durkheim[246] suggests that exogamy arose as a Durkheim's Theory of the sanctity of blood 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].
(3) Westermarck[248] would explain exogamy and the avoidance Westermarck's theory of an innate aversion to incest 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].
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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 resulting from the injurious effects of inbreeding 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.
In estimating the correctness of this theory, it is well to These effects by no means certain 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[203] 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.
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[204] 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 and can scarcely account for the intensity of the incest prohibition 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].
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(4) According to one type of explanation (e. g. that Influence of non-sexual factors 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.
Now all these factors—and others too perhaps—may very Such factors cannot fully explain exogamy 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[206] 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].
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 psychological nature of the incest prohibition shows the insufficiency of these influences 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[207] 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.
(5) Turning to factors that have in general received less The biological absurdity of parent-child incest 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[208] 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].
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(6) A potent set of influences calculated to inhibit tendencies Fear of the consequences of parental jealousy 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 ?dipus 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.
(7) There can be little doubt that there exists a certain Strong family ties conflict with social development 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[210] 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[211] 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.
(8) There exists a very similar antagonism between a high They conflict also with individual development 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.
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Under the last heading (7) we saw that the repression Both greater integration and greater differentiation of society is thus secured 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.
Westermarck would regard the objection to intercourse Among those who live together sexual reactions are inhibited by non-sexual 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[213] 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.
A further factor which may reinforce the foregoing is and especially by hostile tendencies 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].
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(10) The incestuous tendencies with which we are here The incest tendencies are also affected by the general sexual inhibitions 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].
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We have now studied some of the principal factors which, Thus the circumstances of human life are responsible for the mental conflicts that centre round the incest tendencies 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 ?dipus 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[216] 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.
CHAPTER XVIII  ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS—LOVE AND HATE ASPECTS
 Having now completed our theoretical survey, it may be Practical conclusions 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.
It is probable that the chief practical gain that may result They have to a large extent already emerged 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[218] 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 as usual in psycho-analytic investigations 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.
Thus it will by now have become amply clear, what, in The two chief processes demanding ethical consideration 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.
Our treatment of the subject during the greater part of The tendencies towards the family more primitive than those away from the family 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[219] 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 The latter more often require artificial aid 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.
Nevertheless, if this is so, the mere fact that the tendency But the former are biologically deeper and more essential 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[220] 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.
If this is so, it would seem fairly clear that our practical The family attachments must be outgrown rather than destroyed 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.
It would then be a hasty and disastrous conclusion if we[221] were to infer from the widespread occurrence of insufficient emancipation from the family ties that it is our duty to Family love in early years is necessary for individual development and happiness 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[222] 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.
Although it is necessary thus to urge both the inevitability and the desirability of the love relationship between parent Family hatreds however are undesirable, when intense and prolonged 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.
Nevertheless, there can be little doubt that certain though to some extent inevitable and necessary tendencies and affects (useful and necessary under certain conditions—such as anger or those feelings that are aroused[223] 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.
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. How they can be minimised 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[224] 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].
On the other hand the maintenance of strict and unnecessary Sexual enlightenment 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].
A matter of no less importance is that parents should Parental jealousy 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[225] 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.
In spite of all such precautions however, it is probable By suitable measures the friction between parents and children can be greatly reduced, though never entirely abolished 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[226] 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.
All that we have here been saying as regards the desirable The ties between parents and children must be loosened as the children grow up 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.
It is here perhaps more than at any other point that our standards of conduct require revision in the light of psychoanalytic[227] experience. Elsewhere the lessons of psycho-analysis The necessity for this has been very insufficiently recognised 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.
In order to avoid such conduct it will be necessary for The loosening of the filio-parental tie requires a readjustment of the parent's life 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[228] 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].
Supposing that fixation of the love impulse upon the Displacement of the parent-regarding tendencies 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 Complete emancipation from incest tendencies is never achieved 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[229] 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 These tendencies become less repressed and more influenced by reason, as development proceeds 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.
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.
CHAPTER XIX  ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS—DEPENDENCE ASPECTS
 All that we have said with regard to the weaning of the Our conclusions with regard to the love and hate aspects hold good for the dependence aspects 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.
The duty of the parents, or failing them of the community, The duty of parents to provide for offspring now well recognised 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.
The duty of the parents or their substitutes in the direction The necessity for the gradual loosening of the dependence tie is however not fully realised 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[231] 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.
If, on the economic side, the duty of weaning children especially as regards the psychological aspect of this tie 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[232] 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].
[233]
The danger is perhaps greatest in the case of strong The danger is greatest in the case of parents of strong personality 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 though there may be difficulties also in the case of weak parents 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.
Here, as in the case of the love-weaning, it is difficult or Necessity of parental readjustment 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.
In considering the question of the emancipation of children Too prolonged parental jurisdiction is a cause of filio-parental hatred in later life 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[234] 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.
What we have here said as regards the necessity for the The dependence of children upon parent-substitutes must also be gradually reduced 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.
These last considerations point the way to certain wider The ethics of the family must however be brought into connection with wider social questions 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[235] 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.
Thus it would be, in the main, a foolish and useless proceeding to urge, as we have done, the desirability of a Our ethical conclusions in the two cases must harmonise with one another 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.
In the present pages we have followed in the main the The extent of this harmony 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[236] 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.
In education there would seem to be almost complete in education 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.
In religion the agreement is also very considerable, though in religion 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.
It is in politics however that such discrepancy as there in politics 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[237] 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.
There remains but one more set of ethical considerations The individual's relations to his family in later life 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 They must be capable of being broken altogether 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 though it is natural that some relationship should be maintained 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[238] 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.
We must remember, however, that there very often are except where (as often happens) there are definite reasons to the contrary 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[239] 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.
This is not to say however that the manifestations of this But the relations between parents and children must undergo profound modification as time passes 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.
In this last situation, we see a form of the relationship, The care of the aged by their children which appears to be peculiar to human society. Throughout the animal world and even in many primitive human communities[240] 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 is culturally very desirable 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.
It is not however free from certain ethical difficulties of its own. Thus, it might seem at first as though the care and though it has of necessity its limitations 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.
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[241] Satisfactory family conditions conduce to happiness in old age 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.
With these considerations regarding old age we may Conclusion 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[242] 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.

The End