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CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

GIFT OF

Estate o£ i-dwin K. Covigtiraj .

THE INTERNATIONAL

PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL

LIBRARY

EDITED BY ERNEST JONES
No. 3

THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO-ANALYTICALLIBRARY

No. 3

THE

PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY

OF THE FAMILY

J. c. FLUGEL b. a.

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Psychology, Uoîversity Collège, London.

Sometime John Locke Scholar in Mental Philosophy in the Uoîversity of Oxford.

Honorary Secretary of the Intemational Psycho-ABalytical Association.

THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO-ANALYTIC AL PRESS
LONDON VIENNA NEW YORK

1921

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COPYHIGHT i^ai

PRINTED BY

THE SOCIETY FOR GRAPHIC INDUSTRT

VIENNA m

I refer to those appetites which bestir themselves in sieep ;
when, during the slumbers of that other part of the soûl, which
is rational and tamed and master of the former, the wild animal
part, sated with méat and drink, becomes rampant, and pushing
sleep away, endeavours to set ont after the gratification of
ils own proper character. You know that in such moments
there is nothing that it dares not do, released and delivered
as it is from any sensé of shame and reflection. It does not
shrink from attempting in fancy unholy intercourse with a
mother, or with any man or deity or animal whatever; and
it does not hesitate to commit the foulest murder, or to indulge
itself in the most defiHng méats. In one word, there is no
Hmit either to its foUy or its audacity.

PLATO, "RepubUc," Book IX.

Man, forsooth, prides himself on his consciousness ! We
boast that we differ from the winds and waves and falling
stones and plants, which grow they know not why, and from
the wandering créatures which go up and down after their
prey, as we are pleased to say without the help of reason.
We know so well what we are doing ourselves and why we
do it, do we not? I fancy that there is some truth in the view
which is being put forward nowadays, that it is our less con-
scious thoughts and our less conscious actions, which mainly
mould our lives and the lives of those who spring from us.

SAMUEL BUTLER, "The Way of Ail Flesh/'
Chapter m.

PREFACE

The circumstances that hâve led to the production of
this little book are, I think, sufficiently explained in the intro-
ductory chapter; there is, therefore, no need to dwell upon
them hère. It is only necessary perhaps to warn the reader
that he will find in what foUows but little that is original.
With the exception of small contributions and suggestions upon
spécial 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
présent for the most part aims at being, may hâve its justification
and a certain sphère of usefulness; especially so perhaps in the
présent case, since a certain proportion of the original papers
to which référence is hère made is contained in books and
periodicals that hâve at no time been readily accessible to the
English-speaking public and were for some years practically
unobtainable.

The reader may possibly expérience some surprise and
disappointment at finding that, while the relations between
parents and children and between brothers and sisters corne
in for much attention, those between husband and wife (which
will probably be regarded as equally fundamental to any con-
sidération of the psychology of the family) are but lightly touched
upon. That this is the case is merely a conséquence 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 considération
given to the marriage relationship has been fairly gênerons
during récent years, while the relations between parents and

children and among the junior members of the same family,
hâve 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 considérable light upon the subséquent 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 knov^ledge of the nature of
the psychic bonds that unité parent and child— a knowledge
that psychology is only now beginning to afford.

On the other hand, I feel a veiy genuine regret that I
hâve been unable to include some discussion of the problems
connected with the size of families. Thèse problems are, I am
convinced, of the greatest importance. At a moment like the
présent 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 ahnost say of paramount, urgency. Nevertheless, the
treatment of this question from the psychological, as distinct
from the ethicàl, sociological or économie standpoint, bas as
yet been so slight and fragmentary, as to make a full considér-
ation of the question scarcely suitable to a volume of expository
character; and I hâve thought it better to omit the subject almost
altogether than to deal with it in a manner that would be
either inadéquate and superficial or else manifestly inappropriate^.
I am of course aware that much with which we hâve hère
to deal makes far from pleasant reading. The unpleasantness
arises mainly from the fact that, in the pursuit of our présent
purpose, we are chiefly brought into contact with the un-
conscious and more primitive aspects of the mind rather than
with the more recently acquired and more moraUy 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 considération of
unpleasant aspects of the mind, than should the student of
économies neglect to take account of poverty or the student

1 T hâve recently attempted elsewhere a preliminary treatment of
this question. See "On the Biological Basis of Sexual Repression and its
Sociological Significance", British Journal of Psychology (Médical Section),
1921, Vol. I, Part 3.

of hygiène turn away from the contemplation of disease. From
Personal observation and expérience, as well as from more
theoretical considérations, I hâve acquired a deep conviction
of the significance of those aspects of the human mind vdth
which we are hère concerned. It is principally because I am
assured that a wider réalisation and a deeper study of thèse
aspects — both by the student of the mind and by the ordinary
reading public — will contribute in very considérable measure
to the solution of many of the most important moral and social
problems with which humanity is faced, that I hâve ventured
to embark upon the following, I fear very inadéquate, présen-
tation of our knowledge on the subject.

It only remains for me to express my sincère thanks to
those who hâve 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 présent pages could not
hâve 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 raatter 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 I, 1921.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE V

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTORY i

n. THE PRIMTTÎVE EMOTIONS IN RELATION TO THE

FAMILY 6

w m. THE ORÏGIN OF CONFLICT IN RELATION TO THE

FAMILY 21

- IV. THE FAMILY AND THE LIFE TASK OF THE ÏNDIVIDUAL

— FREUD AND JUNG 31

* V. THE FAMILY AND THE GROWTH OF ÏNDIVIDUAL

PERSONALITY 40

VI. ABNORMALrriES AND VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT

— LOVE AND HATE 48

Vn. ABNORMALrriES AND VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT

— DEPENDENCE ASPECTS 61

Vm. IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL LIFE . . .66

IX. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INITIATION AND INITIATION

RITES 79

X. THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES . 88

XI. FAMILY INFLUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE

LOVE LIFE 102

Xn. FAMILY INFLUENCES IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT . 117

Xm. FAMILY INFLUENCES IN REUGION . . . .133

XIV. THE ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN . . 156

XV. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDEN-

CIES — HATE ASPECTS 175

CHAPTER PAGE

XVI. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDEN-

CIES — LOVE ASPECTS 184

XVn. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY TENDEN-

CIES — THE REPRESSION OF LOVE , . .200

XVm. ETmCAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS — LOVE

AND HATE ASPECTS 217

XIX. ETmCAL AND PRApriGAL APPUCATIONS — DEPEN-

DENCE ASPECTS 230

INDEX 243

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY

There is now some very gênerai ineasure of agreement The needs of
that if humanity is to escape the fate of having passed through ^^^gmicUon^^
the ordeal of world-wide war in vain, the récent 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 expérience of human needs and
possibilities which our existence through thèse years of conflict
has brought us.

The degree of success attained by any such attempt at Science and
readjustment on a large scale to changed standards and reconstruction
conditions, must to a very considérable extent dépend 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, hygiène, économies, politics, law and éducation must
ail contribute their share to the solution of the great problem
of reconstituting human society upon a satisfactory peace
footing. Above ail perhaps, it is to the science of the human
mind that we should most naturally tum for enlightenment
in dealing with many of the most important aspects of this
problem.

Unfortunately it so happens that Psychology is among the The présent
youngest of the sciences; its state of development, in comparison pt^ycholo^y
with that of many other disciplines, is as yet in no wise
commensurate witli the relative importance for human welfare
of the problems with which it is concerned. Conscious of this

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

disproportion between our présent knowledge and the weight
of the matters that are at stake in any application of psycho-
logical theory to practical affairs, many leading psychologists
hâve preferred to postpone any attempt at such application
until the more important results of récent research, many of
which are still matter for controversy, shall hâve been firnily
established upon a wider and more unassailable foundation.

Perhaps as a conséquence of this attitude (praiseworthy no
doubt in itself), and of its effects — direct and indirect — upon
psychological outlook and procédure, there exists at the présent
time a fairly widespread notion that Psychology is largely a
matter of empty spéculations or trivial technicalities, **a happy
refuge for the lazy industry of pédants^'* 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 immédiate
practical action — may hâve proved the means of inducing^
The application psychologists to adopt a less académie attitude in the pursuit
^^to^^racUcaF ^^ ^^^^^ science; of compelling them to carry out a stocktaking-
problems 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 détail the application
of psychological principles to thèse problems in ail 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
immédiate 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 spécial
field and each acting under the chairmanship of a psychologist
of spécial 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 cohnected
with, or arising out of, the war. Assistance on a considérable
scale in a variety of matters of direct miUtary importance has
also been rendered by several of the psychological laboratories
attached to the Universities of the United Kingdom,
1 H. G. Wells, *'The Passionate Friends", 195.

INTRODUCTORY

It is perhaps, however, more especially on the médical
side that the question of the utihsation of psychological knowledge
for practical purposes has been brought into prominence by the Médical
war. The very large number of soldiers and civilians suffering Applications of
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 thèse methods before the war had indicated that
there existed a very considérable prevalence of nervous troubles
even among those who were apparently subjected to no
abnonnally high degree of mental strain. The examination of
many cases of war neuroses has shown that there is little if
any qualitative différence between the case of those who break
down under the abnormal pressure of war conditions and the
case of those who are unable to stand even the relatively mild War-shock
stresses and difficulties incidental to a time of peace. Ail 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. Modem 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 conséquence
the limit is passed, and some form of nervous dis^bility or
breakdown occurs in a ÎUrge number of persons who wo-'ld
hâve remained unaffected during peace.

The amount of strain that can be actually borne with impunity
by any individual is no doubt dépendent upon a considérable
number of complex conditions. Récent research has shown that
among \he psychological conditions one of quite spécial importance
is constituted by the gênerai state of intégration of the motive
forces of the mind. A person whose instincts and impulses are
co-ordinated sufficiently to maintain, as regards ail the leading
aspects of life, a relatively harmonious functioning of the whole
personality, can préserve mental health in circumstances under
which a less integrated mind would fail, owing to the waste of
energy occasioned by the internai struggles of the conflicting
tendencies and émotions aroused in situations of difficulty or

Psycliic
intégration

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Importance of

correct mental

development

Famiîy
influences

their
importance,

difficulty, and
complexity

danger. The attainment of the désirable degree of mental
intégration is itself very largely dépendent 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 ail 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 considération of one of the most potent of thèse
influences that the présent pages are devoted, Even on a
superficial view it is fairly obvions that, under existing social
conditions the psychological atmosphère of the home life with the
complex émotions and sentiments aroused by, and dépendent on,
the varions f amily relationships must exercise a very considérable
effect on human character and development. Récent 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 feÛow men
in gênerai; and that an individuaFs 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 îhe problcir::? and difficulties arising
within the relatively narrow world of the family .3

Besides showing the importance for mental development of
the problems connected with family life, modem psychological
research has also revealed something of the nature of thèse
problems. It is true that of the results ôbtained 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 hâve to be rejected altogether.
Nevertheless it wo\ild appear that, as a conséquence of the
work already done, certain main principles at least hâve emerged
so clearly as to justify, if not indeed to demand, the serions
attention of ail those who, at this critical period of human

INTRODUCTORY

history, hâve 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 ail intimately concerned
with such questions ; and it is primarily with the needs of such
as thèse in view that the présent brief exposition of the subject
has been undertaken. After what has been already said, it is
perhaps unnecessary to offer any further waming against
accepting ail the results of psychological investigation which are
hère set forth as claiming equal validity or as being equally
capable of généralisation or application on a large scale. No
dogmatic enunciation of facts or principles is hère 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 présent treatment, the
statements may possibly appear somewhat dogmatic in form.
Our aim is rather to produce a more widespread réalisation 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 thèse problems ; and perhaps, by thèse 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,
religions, médical or pédagogie, in which they hâve an interest.
To those who hâve once realised the complexity, the obscurity,
and above ail the tremendous intensity of the psychic factors
entering into thèse problems, there can be little doubt that in
so far as Psychology is able to afford some reasonably sure
g^idance as to their solution, it will hâve achieved one of the
most successful and valuable of ail 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 thèse matters from the science
of Psychology is no longer hopeless.

CHAPTER U

THE PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS IN RELATION TO THE

FAMILY

Psycho-ana- The progress that lias recently been made in our under-

lysis and the standing of the importance and nature of the psychological
\jnconscious^ problems connected with family life is to a very considérable
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 hâve not confined their researches to ^
the conscious contents of the mind directly discoverable by
introspection, but hâve sought also to investigate the subcouscious
or unconscious factors which enter into human conduct and
mentation^-

1 I make no attempt hère to give a systematic account of the gênerai
nature of the methods, discoveries and hypothèses of the psycho-analytic
school, except in so far as they directly touch our présent problem. Some
at least of the gênerai principles underlying the work of the school together
with some of the results they hâve achieved are now becoming fairly well
known. Those who would pursue the subject further may be referred
to the following books: Brill, ** Psychanalysis," 2nd. éd. 1914; Ernest
Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis/' 2nd. éd. 1918; Pfister, "The Psycho-
analytic Method," 1917; White, "Mechanisms of Character Formation," 1916;
Barbara Low, **Psycho-Analysis," 1920. A more detailed study would include
référence to Prof. Freud's own works, of which the principal are: —
"Selected Papers on Hysteria," 1909; "Three Contributions to the Theory
of Sex," 1910; "The Interprétation of Dreams," 1913; "The Psychopathology
of Everyday Life," 1914; "Wit and its Relation to the Unconscious," 1916;
"Totem and Taboo," 1918; "Vorlesungen zur Einfûhrung in die Psycho-
analyse," 1918; also four volumes of the "Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur
Neurosenlehre," published at varions times, and two volumes in the séries

PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS AND THE FAMILY

To assume the existence of unconscious mental processes
has seemed to some to involve an open contradiction in terms ;
but at the présent 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 aquired the status of an independent
science, thinkers like Leibnitz, Schopenhauer, Fechner, Helmholtz,
Hartmann, Nietzsche, had realised that a complète 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 resuit of more or less a priori spéculation subsequentiy
received striking a posteriori confirmation from the work of a
large number of those engaged in différent branches of psycho-
logical investigation; including psj^cho-pathologists like Charcot,
Janet, Morton Prince, students of Psychical Research like
F. W. H. Myers, Gurney, Hodgson and expérimental psycho-
logists like MûUer and Schumann, Knight-Dunlap and Ach.
The extensive data contributed from thèse 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 consistenc}'', combined with the exceptional
ability of detecting widespread but hidden identities and
similarities which hâve distinguished the work of Freud enabled
him to show that, far from being operative only under certain
spécial 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

entitled "Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde". For the meaning of the
term Unconscious see Hart, "The Conception of the Subconscious/' Journal
of Abnortnal Psychology, 1910, Vol. IV, 351. Hart's small book "The Psycho-
logy of Insanity," 1912, affords an excellent gênerai introduction to abnormal
psychology. (Hère as elsewhere the titles and dates of English translations
of foreign works are given, wherever such translations are available.)

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

course of consciousness and conduct As the resuit of the far
reaching investigations of Freud and of his foUowers, it would
^ seem indeed that we shall probably hâve to look to the
Uhconscious for an understanding of the ultimate nature of ail
the deepest and most powerful motive forces of the mind.

Psycho-ana- As is now well known, the psycho-analytic method originated

{^l^sappliedto ^3 a method for the study and treatment of hysteria and other

the family^ functional nervous disorders, which were found to dépend upon
the influence of unconscious mental factors. The discovery of
the importance of the feelings and tendencies connected with
family life, especially as affecting thèse unconscious factors,
dates from this time of the earliest use and application of
Psycho-Analysîs. 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, pubhshed
conjointly with Breuer in 1895 — a work which indicated for the
first time something of tlie importance and nature of the
subsequently developed psycho-analytic method.

Hère and in the other early works of Freud there gradually
émerge the fundamental conceptions which distinguish the

The child's psycho-analytic schooP. Among thèse conceptions is that regarding

love^to its |.j^ç ^gj.y 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 émotions which hâve hitherto been enlisted solely in the
service of the child's own immédiate needs and gratifications.
As such it constitutes in the second place the germ eut of
which ail later affections spring, and by which tlie course and
nature of thèse later affections are to a large extent moulded
and determined. Further (and this is perhaps the most significant,

1 The most important work dealing with this matter and with other
questions of development generally is Freud's "Three Contributions to
the Theory of Sex."

PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS AND THE FAMILY

as it is certainly the most startling of Freud's discoveries in
this field) there is shown to be no clear eut différence 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 présent
also, in a rudimentary form, in the loves of childhood and of
infancy and to exert an important influence upon the earliest
of ail attachments — that of the child towards its parents. Thèse
strong emotional forces concerned in the love of children to
parents — and particularly the sexual or quasi-sexual éléments
of thèse 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 ùie
young child's love of its parents with the sexual émotions of
later life we are brought face to face with one of the most
striking and characteristic features of Freud's work. The mère
idea of such incestuous or quasi-incestuous feehngs and
tendencies as are hère indicated provokes astonishment, ré-
pugnance and incredulity, The arousal of an attitude antagonistic
to the réception of such views — even though such an attitude
be inévitable 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 gênerai conception of
mental development tendencies which — like thèse — are more or
less openly irreconcilable with prévalent moral sentiments and
traditions, become in the course of time (as wé 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 ail. This action of opposing forces with regard
to the more primitive aspects of the mind is termed Repression
and so far as it manifests itself in consciousness finds its most Repression
usual expression in the émotions of disgust, anger and fear.
As a resuit of this repression (which is of course only a
particular instance of the more gênerai process already weU

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 régions 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 thèse 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 répugnant thoughts and tendencies
was due.
Dreams As the result of further study with gradually improving

technique, Freud, in his later works, confirmed, elaborated
and extended his observations on the influence of the
family relationships in the growth and development of the
individual mind. Of particular importance, both in itself and
because of the gênerai influence of the book as in some
respects the most thoroughgoing présentation of Freud s
methods and point of view, is the treatment of the matter in
the "Interprétation of Dreams." Hère 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 fréquent occurrence are, as Freud
points out, concemed with the death of near and dear relatives
who are still living at the time at which the dream takes place ^
The considération of such dreams leâds Freud to maintain that
they are to be interpreted (in accordance with the gênerai
principle of wish-fulfihnent)^ as the manifestation of an actual

1 **The Interprétation of Dreams," 219.

2 The dreams lalling within this class (together with some others)
appear to exhibit what is, at first sight at least, a puzzîing exception to the
gênerai ruîe goveming the formation of dreams which give expression to

PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS AND THE FAMILY

désire in the Unconscious for the death of the person con-
cerned.

In explanation of this astonishing and repellent conclusion,
Freud draws attention to the fact that the relations of the
members of a family to one another are in many respects of
such a nature as to call forth hostile émotions 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 considérable degree to which they are mutually dépen-
dent, often find themselves in opposition to, or in compétition
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, especiaUy when so

repressed tendencies, inasmuch as the obuoxious wish is gratified openly
and undisguisedly instead of appearing in an indirect and symbolic form,
as is usually the case. It would seem however, that this departure from
the rule may to a large extent be explained and reconciled with the
ordinary methods of repression by the f oUowing considérations : — (i) although
the content of the wish appears directly in consciousness, it nevertheless
fails (both during the dream and after waking) to be appreciated in its full
sîgnificance for the mental life of the personality, i. e. there is no réalisation
of the fact that the dream represents in any way the fulfilment of a wish ;
there is présent a sort of functional agnosia, in virtue of which the thought
of the death is dissociated from its actual psychical concomitants, which
alone can endow it with its full meaning; (2) in addition to this cognitive
dissociation there is an emotional substitution, the émotion actually ex-
perienced being one of sorrow instead of one of joy, which the simple
gratification of a wish would by itself most naturally occasion. This sorrow
corresponds of course to the very genuine grief which would be felt at
the conscious level in case of any real mishap to the relatives concemed
and at the same time serves as an additional screeu to hide the underlying
hostile wish in the Unconscious; (3) on rarer occasions it would seem that
the process of emotional substitution may be replaced by one of
deëmotionahsation which prevents the cognitive éléments from calling
up any of the feelings which would normally accompany them; thus the
death o£ a near relative will appear not as a sorrowful (or as it would
be at certain levels of the Unconscious, a joyful) event, but as one
devoid of ail affective significance or as one that is absurd, ridîculous or
unthinkable.

The hostile
élément
in family

rclationship

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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
considérable importance also as a determining factor in the
production of neuroses. It has, in fact, been found that a re-
pressed hatred may underlie a whole séries of pathological
symptoms in precisely the same manner as a repressed love.

The correla- The love aspect of the family relationships itself however

^^*^°^d*h /^^^ oiten plays a part in dreams, both in a distorted and symbolic
représentation and, more openly expressed, in a directiy
incestuous form. In fact very frequently both love and hâte
aspects may be combined in a dream or in a séries 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 hâte aspects occurs in the attitude
of the child towards its parents. Hère the dawning hetero-
sexual inclinations of the child (which, as Freud, and other
students of the mind, hâve shown, begin to manifest themselves
at a much earlier âge than is often supposed, though full
heterosexual raaturity 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 hâte towards the parent of
the same sex as that of the child.

The Œdipus The feelings and tendencies in question hâve found ex-

Complex pression in innumerable stories, myths and legends, in various
degrees of openness or of disguise, and with sometimes the
love and sometimes the hâte éléments predominating. It is
more especially in the myth of Œdipus, who unwittingly
becomes the murderer of his father and the husband of his
mother, that the ultimate nature of thèse tendencies is most
openly and powerfully revealed; and it is for this reason that
the combination of love and hâte aspects with ail the feelings
and desires to which they give rise has come to be shortly
designated as the Œdipus complex ^.

^ Or sometimes, in the case ol women, the Electra complex; though
the Electra myth gives a rather less complète expression ol the combined

PRIMrriVE EMOTIONS AND THE FAMILY

Tendencies, which, like those revealed in the Œdipus myth
and its numberless variations, hâve continued to manifest
themselves in the productions of the popular and the artistic
mind for many générations, would seem to show by their
universality and tenacity that their origins lie deeply embedded
in the very foundations of human life and character; and this
view of their importance is corroborated by the very significant
place which they are found to occupy as etiological factors in
the production of neuroses. Freud has gone so far as to say
that the tendencies centering round the Œdipus situation
form the "nuclear complex of the neuroses," û 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 dépendent 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 "régression"
to, a relatively early stage of mental development, this funda-
mental rôle of the Œdipus complex in the neuroses would
seem to indicate that the proper development and control of
the child's psychic relations to his parents constitutes at once
one of the most important and one of the most difficult features
of individual mental growth. That this is in fact the case has
been shown both by the researches of Freud himself and by
those of aU other psycho-analytic investigators, and may without
difficulty be confirmed from the expérience of ordinary life by
those whose eyes hâve once been opened to the fuU significance
and innumerable manifestations of the psychic relationship
between parents and children.

In the light of thèse researches and observations the
normal course of development of the child s affections, so far
as they concem us here^, would seem to be somewhat as

love and hâte tendencies in the female than is found in the Œdipus story
for the corresponding tendencies of the maie.

The whole subject of the manifestations of thèse complexes in legend
and Uterature and in the mind of the poet and the artist is treated at
length in Otto Rank's comprehensive and most valuable work *'Das Inzest-
motiv in Dichtung und Sage*'-

1 This is a most important and far-reaching limitation. In order to
avoid entering upon many difficult but weighty matters which are not
strictly relevant to our présent thème, we hâve hère — and throughout the
book — necessarily had to content ourselves with a somewhat one-sided and

The normal

course of

development

of the child 's

affections

T^3

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FiUlILY

Auto-erotism

Object love

foUowsi: In the earliest period of its existence those tendencies
which are afterwards to develop into love, affection and désire for
persons or objects in the outer world are at first connected
with sensations from varions parts of the child's own body.
This constitutes the auto-erotic stage in which the child is for
the most part concemed with outer things as objects of désire
merely in so far as they serve to bring about his own bodily
comfort and satisfaction. To begin with there is indeed in ail
probability no clear distinction between the self and the
environment or between the animate or inanimate objects of
the environment. Corresponding to the graduai development of
thèse distinctions there is found the beginning of what is
called by Freud **object love", the expérience of désire for,
and affection towards, some object or person of the environment,
the highest manifestation of which is found in the passionate
and ail absorbing loves of subséquent adolescent or adult life.
This beginning of object love is a most important stage of

misleading portrayal of human psychic development as a whole. This
deficiency is most marked with regard to the treatment of the great group
of self-preserving and self-regarding tendencies, which we hâve only
touched upon occasionally and of which we hâve nowhere attempted any
adéquate présentation. As a conséquence of this, it must be borne in mind
that from the point of view of gênerai psychology, we hâve frequently
laid too much stress upon the object-regarding tendencies (see below), to
the relative neglect of much that is more primitive and fundamental in
human nature. Our excuse must be that our subject naturally brings us
into far doser touch with the social and (to use a convenient term of
Ferenczi's) allo-erotic aspects of the mind than with those other aspects
which are more intimately concemed with the individual as an independent
microcosmic organism. To correct and amplify the inadéquate conception
of the human mind and of human mental development to which our présent
treatment might lead if taken by itself, the reader should consult Freud's
*'Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex" and his important paper "Zur
Einfûhrung des Narzifimus," Jahrbuch der Psychoanalyse, Yl^ i. The works
of Alfred Adler, though often both exaggerated and, especially in their
English form, veiy nearly unreadable, contain some interesting material in
this connection.

A very illuminating considération of the problem with which we are
immediately concemed at this point — the early development of object love
in the child and the relations of this object love to the activities of the
auto-erotic stage — will be found in a paper on the "Psychology of the New
Born Infant" by David Forsyth. (To be published in the Briiish Journal of
Psychology),

1 Cp, especially Freud, "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex.'*

:>exualitv

PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS AND THE FAMILY

development, since on its success dépends 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 graduai transition from auto-
erotism to object love, the first object of the child's affection
should be chosen from ainongst those who administer to its
bodily needs and comfort Thus it is probable that in the con-
ditions of normal family life, the mother or the nurse is, in
nearly ail cases, the first person selected. It would appear,
however, that at a relatively very early âge, the sex df the
child begins to exert an influence on the choice of the loved
object, so that (as we hâve already noted) we find after a time
a prédominant tendency for sélection of the parent of the
opposite sex as the object of affection. This perhaps takes Hetero-
place to some extent in virtue of an already ripening tendency
to heterosexual sélection in the child. But there can be litde
doubt that in many cases another factor is to some extent
operative in bringing about this resuit, 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 tum
perceived and reciprocated by the children themselves.

This reciprocation on the part of the child of the hetero-
sexual préférences of the parents undoubtedly plays a vêry
large part in the development of normal heterosexuality : just
how large is this part comparéd with that played by the in-
stinctive heterosexual reactions of the child, it is difficult or
impossible to say in the présent 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
détermine the extent to which the direction of a child's sexual
desires is dépendent upon innate and upon environmental
causes respectively. Should the direction of a child's object

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTÎC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Homosexual

and

heterosexual

development

in giris

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
eff ects on parental préférences and quite apart from any hereditary
influences — to produce equally developed heterosexual inclinations
in the children, whereas homosexusdly disposed parents would
tend in ^ similar way to bring up homosexual children.

If on the other hand, the direction of a child's object love
dépends chiefly upon innate instinctive factors, the sexual dis-
positions of the parents will play a much less important rôle
in the mental history of the child and will be influential only
in so far as they are directly inherited. The progress of psycho-
logical 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
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 immédiate bodily needs. Under
thèse 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 subséquent life. Additional évidence 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

PRIMITIVE EMOTIONS AND THE FAMILY

situated in a deeper and more inaccessible layer of the Un-
conscious than the father love, which appeared to hâve been,
in the process of growth, as it v^ere, superimposed upon the
earlier affection. If father love in giris should prove to be
normally built upon the remains of an earlier period of ex-
clusive mother love v^hich is common to both girls and boys,
it is évident that in this respect the development of hetero-
sexual 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 some-
what différent but not altogether unrelated connection^ become
the cause of a number of those failures of adjustment to the
conditions of adult life — sexual and gênerai — that are found to
underlie the neuroses, The greater incidence of certain neurotic
disturbances among women as compared with nien may perhaps
ultimately be due in part 2 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 présent for the
arousal of jealousy towards the parent of the same sex, since
this latter is soon found to possess daims upon the affection
and attention of the loved parent which are apt to conflict
with the similar daims of the child. Thus the young girl
begins to resent the affection and considération which her
mother receives at the hands of her father and comes in time
to look upon her mother as in some sensé 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 ^ 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

^ **Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex,'* 80, 81.

2 Among other reasons for the greater Hability of women to neurosis,
one of great importance is the transference, in the course of sexual
development, of the chief seat of erotic sensibility from the clitoris to the
yagina.

3 **The Interprétation of Dreams/' 219.

17 2

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

said: — *'Mother can just stay away now; then father will hâve
to marry me and I shall be his wife." Boys expérience a similar
jealousy towards their father and often corne to regard his
présence 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^. Even in the cases where the father is not
frequently away from home, his continued présence is sooner
or later found to be irksome in the same v^ay as is the mother's
in the case of girls, and the désire for his removal will gradually
begin to make itself felt, if not in consciousness, at least in the
unconscious levels of the mind.

The hâte aspect of the Œdipus complex would thus seem
normally to arise in the first place as a conséquence of the
love aspect, the affection felt by the child towards the parent
of the opposite sex bring^ng about a resentment at the
présence 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 hâte aspect is thus usually a
secondary phenomenon, it may under suitable conditions grow
to eqiial 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 spécifie interférence
with the love activities of the child, the parent in question
Causes of causes more gênerai interférence with the child's desires and
parent-hatred activities, by adopting a harsh, intolérant 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 désire for rébellion against a tyrant and oppressor; and

1 Many instances of the influence of the father's absence could be
observed in connection with the war. Thus a smaîl boy of five known ta
the writer solemnîy assured his mother that now that his father was
permanentîy away, it wouîd be onîy right for her to marry him, her
son, instead.

PRIMITIVE EiMOTIONS AND THE FMIILY

the complex émotions thus aroused may engender a hostile

sentiment of such intensity as, in sonie cases, to constitute one

of the dominant traits of character, net only of childhood but

of the whole of adult life.

Only second in importance to the attitude of the child Hatred be-

towards its parents are its relations to its brothers and sisters. tween brothers

siriQ sistcrs
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

thèse persons should be among the earliest objects of the

developing love and hâte émotions of the child. Whereas,

however, in the child's relations towards its parents, love would

seem to be the émotion that is usually first evoked, in its

dealings with the other junior members of the family, the

opposite émotion of hâte is in most cases the primary reaction.

This fact can be easily explained as to a great extent a natural

conséquence 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 abnost

if not quite as irksome and exorbitant as those of the other

parent, whose compétition vv^ith the child in this respect we

hâve already noted. From this source there frequently arise

feelings of violent jealousy betvt^een brothers and sisters, and

the attitude of hostility thus evoked may be increased, or at

any rate prevented from disappearing, by the fact that chiidren

of the same family hâve 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 privilèges

of which it finds the older chiidren already in possession; it

finds itself in many respects compelled to submit to the superior

size and strength and expérience of the older chiidren, 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 chiidren,

on their part, are inclined to regard any new arrivai in the

19 2*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

family circle as an intruder upon their own préserves and a
competitor for their own cherished rights, privilèges and
possessions. Hence the announcement of such a new arrivai is
in many cases greeted, in the first instance, with anything but
joy, and the wish is often expressed that the intruder should
départ 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 thèse 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 hâve hitherto enjoyed.
In other cases, again, the resentment felt towards the new
intruder may be se 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^ should a convenient opportunity for this
présent itself.
Love between Although jealousy and hatred are thus apt to be the first

^^^^sis[ers ^^ 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 faûiily and occurs most frequently
when there is a considérable différence in âge 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 âge. 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.

1 Mr. Cyril Burt informs me that he has encountered two quite
definite cases of attempted fratricide in the course of his work as Psycho-
logist to the London Coimty Council.

CHAPTER m

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 hâve now traced them, the child's conduct is in
some respects more nearly allied to that of the fully developed The primitive
human being than is generally recognised or admitted. In the ^"?7h^"^M^^
depth and intensity of its love and hâte, in its sexual or quasi-
sexual activities and in its distinctive attitude towards persons
of différent sex, the child reveals characteristics which hâve
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 tlie adult. The emotional and affective reactions with
which we hâve 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 présence of other
conflicting tendencies within the mind. The child's mind is a
relatively dissociated one ; incompatible thoughts, émotions, 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
intégration in the child*s mind only permits of this possibility

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

to a vety limited extent Thus it cornes 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 thèse 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 désire,
which is gratified as a matter of course and without any hési-
tation produced by a sensé of the immorality of thèse mani-
festations. Similarly, when the child seeks, by death or other-
wise, to bring about the permanent removal of a rival or com-
petitor, the ideas of death and murder are, as Freud points out^
at first quite uncomplicated by the thoughts, feelings and senti-
ments which later come to be associated with them; the in-
fliction of death — real or imaginary — is simply the most natural
way of dealing, at the earliest stages of emotional development^
with unwanted persons who interfère with the child's desires
and tendencies.
Modification This open and unrestricted expression of primitive ten-

?he*^resulT of dencies is, however, confined to a phase of relatively short
Conflict duration in the history of the child's mind, being generally
found only in the first few years of life. The crude love or
hâte for mother or father, brotlier or sister, which we hâve so
far been considering, does not long persist in its original form ;
tlie normal development of the mind requires that thèse primi-
tive 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.

The forces of Thèse modifications are the resuit of a conflict which takes

Repression pj^ce in the mind between the love and hâte 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. Thèse new
tendencies are themselves, in ail probability, derived from more
than one source. Those which produce modification in the love
impulses of the child, may be regarded as constituting, no
1 *'The Interprétation of Dreams," 215.

ORIGIN OF CONFLICT AND THE FAMILY

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 gênerai.

The précise history and nature of the motives that are at
work hère are not as yet completely understood, and we shall
hâve occasion to consider the subject again at a later stage of
our présent enquiry. There can be Uttle 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^. In appreciating
and responding to thèse influences, the child is probably helped
by a spécial instinctive mechanism which tends to make it con- Herd Instinct
form to the behaviour, opinions and emotional atmosphère of
its human environment A "herd instinct" of this kind is re-
garded by some psychologists as constituting the moral force
operating as one of the opposing tendencies in ail intra-psychical
conflicts such as that with which we are hère concerned^. It is
indeed almost certainly a factor of very considérable 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 in-
stinctive 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 prévalent 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
gênerai 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

1 The earliest manifestation of the disapproval of sexual activities is
of course encountered in the autoerotic stage of the child's development
and in relation to the autoerotic activities. It is in connection with thèse
activities that the sexual inhibitions in their more gênerai and primitive
forms at first arise.

2 Cp. Trotter, "Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War/»

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

are principally determined by suggestive influences from the
environment. To this point also we shall hâve occasion to
revert later on, when we shall be in a more favourable position
for forming an opinion with regard to it.

With référence to the moral tendencies which are operative
in producing modifications of the primitive hatreds of the child
there can be little doubt that hère also herd instinct is in many
cases a factor of importance. At quite an early âge, the child
begins to learn that it is "right" to love and obey its parents
and "wrong" to resist the dictâtes of the parental authority or
to quarrel with its brothers or sisters: and thèse precepts are
constantly inculcated vâth ail the impressive suggestiveness
which social, educational and religious influences hâve at their
command. Of equal, if not greater, importance, however, is the

Love, gratitude tendency of the child to feel affection towards those with whom
admr^f ^^ ^^^^^ ^" intimate relationship, to whom it is indebted for ail
or most of its material possessions and enjoyments and whom
it in many cases admires and looks up to as the idéal of fuUy
grown humanity to which it may itself one day attain. The
natural growth and development of thèse feelings are, however,
it is true, helped and encouraged by the moral suggestions re-
ceived from outside, whereas thèse same outside influences tend
powerfully to inhibit the contrary feelings of hatred and
hostility.
The nature After this brief considération of the nature of the psychic

and results of forces which at a certain stage of development come to be
arrayed in opposition to the primitive manifestations of love
and hâte as brought out by the circumstances of family life, we
tum now to contemplate the nature and outcome of the conflict
that takes place within the mind between the tw^o sets of
antagonistic tendencies. Our knowledge concerning this and
other similar intra-psychical conflicts has during récent years
been very considerably increased by the work of Freud and
other psychologists of Û\e 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 in-

ORIGIN OF CONFLICT AND THE FAMILY

capable of vigorous action in gratification o{ either tendency.
In other cases the competing tendencies may alternately domi-
nate consciousness and conduct; so that the behaviour of the
individual becomes characterised by impulsiveness and want of
balance rather than by want of energJ^

At the opposite extrême there are conflicts which end by
the complète exclusion of one tendency from any direct in-
fluence on consciousness or on behaviour; the individual be-
coming then normally quite unaware of the existence of any
such tendency within his mind. This exclusion from conscious-
ness or from any direct manifestation in behaviour does not,
however, of itself bring about a complète annihilation of the
tendency in question. It would seem, on tlie contrary, that such
a tendency may continue to exist for a long period (even for
a whole lifetime) in the unconscious régions of the mind, where
its présence 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 hâve already stated — usually designated by the
term Repression.

The process of Repression is, however, rarely carried to Displacement
such a degree as to render one of the conflicting tendencies ^ hî^*^t*
completely and permanently incapable of direct expression.
Most frequently ail 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 bas 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 résistance
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 ail the "higher" and more
désirable cases of Displacement ^.

1 For a more thorough treatment of the mechanisms of Repression,
Displacement and Sublimation by the présent writer, see ^'Freudian
Mechanisms as Factors in Moral Development/' British Journat of Psycho-
îogy, 1915, vol. Vm, 477.

TÏIE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

In tlie conflict with which we are hère concerned, those
motives of a relatively social or ethical character which we
hâve already considered in this chapter, act as the repressing
force; while the original primitive tendencies of love and hâte,
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 considérable number of
cases the more strongly tabooed among the socially and ethi-
cally objectionable éléments become forced out of consciousness
without producing any immédiate conscious équivalents. 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^ 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 ail sexual manifestations are more or less in
abeyance. The existence of this period would seem to imply a
temporary gênerai sexual repression, in which the erotic aspects
Incest in the affection of the child to its parents suffer, together with
Repression ^ other sexual éléments. 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 ex-
perienced in relation to the parents, so that sexual émotion
and filial affection are thereafter seldom permitted to enter
consciousness together. Indeed it would appear that this gênerai
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 tlie
latent period, the erotic tendencies would seem normally to
hâve undergone a process of displacement so that they are no
longer so intimately connected with the parent-love as on their
first appearance.
Displacement In ail the more favourable cases of development, however,

objecf of love ^^ ^^ probable that even from the first the conflict between the
primitive éléments of love and hâte and the newly unfolding
ethical tendencies results to a great extent in the displacement
and graduai sublimation of the former and not merely in their
repression or return to a latent state. The process of displacement
hère takes the form of a dissociation of the more erotic
1 **Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex."

2Ô

ORIGIN OF CONFLICT AND THE FAMILY

aspects of the child's affection from the loved parent — thèse
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
gênerai lavv governing the process of displacement, viz,, that
the new end or object, to which the psychic energy is directed,
must hâve 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 varions 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 (eitlier
gênerai or as regards some spécial feature), mental character-
istics, circumstances of life (both thèse last again being either
gênerai or spécial), âge, name, past history, occupation or family
relationship. Sometimes, moreover, the resemblance may be of
an opposing or négative kind, the later object of love being
markedly différent from, or contrasting with, the original object
in some one or more of thèse 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 gênerai
characteristic of Displacement, in virtue of which the higher
sublimations {i. e,, those which imply ends very différent from,
and of higher cultural value than, the original objects of désire)
are only attained slowly and through a number of inter-
mediate steps.

A first step of fréquent occurrence and of great importance Parent
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
developnient) cousin. In the first two cases the new choice of
object has the additional advantage of tending to abolish the
hâte or jealousy which, as we saw, is apt to characterise the
original attitude towards such members of the family: and this
in two ways: — (i) 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 ;

Substitutes

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

(2) positively, by investîng the brotlier 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 hostihty,
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 hâte may be primary (due as
a rule to fréquent thwarting of the child's desires and activities
or to bull3âng, nagging or generally unsympathetic behaviour
on the part of the parent in question), it tends to undergo a
considérable degree of repression or displacement on its own
account, so that after a time the child no longer expériences
in consciousness any violent aversion to its parent; such
aversion being either confined to the Unconscious or dis-
placed on to other objects in a manner which -we shall study
later on.
The infantile The fact that the first choice of loved object other than

e^îv^Iove ^^^ 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
élément of révérence and admiration, a deep feeling of gratitude
for any faveurs that may be received, combined with a sensé
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 tlieir childhood and to whom they naturally
feel themselves to be inferior in knowledge, expérience and
moral wortli. 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 éléments constitute the most
important factors in that tendency to Schwdrmerei which

ORIGIN OF CONFUCT AND THE FAMILY

so frequendy distinguishes the early attachments of young
girls^

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 désirable qualities of the loved
person, which forms a normal feature of sexual (and probably
of ail) love, easily brings with it a sensé of the relative
inferiority of the lover's own self. In the loves of a more
mature âge, 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
expérience.

Simultaneously with this latter change there goes on a Emancipation

continuance of the process of libération of the love impulse from ^^^"^ infantile

love obiects
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

^ Mr. Cyril Burt, who possesses both abilities and opportunities of an
exceptional degree as regards the observation of children, bas suggested
to me that two types of transference corresponding roughly to différent
stages of development, should be distinguished in this connection. In the
first type (characteristic of children of between 4 and 9) there is a well
marked displacement of the erotic or quasi-erotic aspects to some older
person, usually of the opposite sex, while the child continues to feel
tendemess for the parent. In the second type (characteristic of children
of 10 up to the period of adolescence) the attitude towards the love object
(parent substitute) is more reverential, tendemess being complicated by
submissiveness and fear and the affection being in gênerai far less physical
and démonstrative than in the first type. "The attitude" adds Mr. Burt,
*'of emotional girls in Standard II and Standard V respectively toward
their teachers seems to me typical. The former maul and kiss (if allowed):
the latter révérence from afar."

If this distinction be generally true, ît would seem that there are two
main stages of displacement of the parent regardingfeelings: — (i) in which
the more erotic éléments are displaced, the more tender aspects of affection
being still directed to the parents; (2) in which thèse latter are in their tum
transferred, in whole or in part, to new love objects.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 tlie parents in âge 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 and other investigations — we may regard as the normal
development of the individual mind in regard to the family
relationships, we hâve hitherto been concerned more particularly
with the sexual émotions and tendencies, using the word sexual
in the wide sensé current among writers of the psycho-analytic
schooL This has been the case, partly because in our account
we hâve been largely governed by historical considérations with
regard to the actual chronology of récent 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 thèse
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 diffi-
cult to assimilate. The results considered in the last two
chapters are of such a nature as to hâve 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 spécial technique capable of overcoming the formidable
résistances which, as we hâve seen, are interposed between the
conscious and the unconscious levels of the mind.

The positive results of récent research on the psychological
influences of the family as regards matters less directly con-
nected with sexuality are of a less unexpected kind, and seem

Non-sexuaJ
aspects of
Individual
development
in relation to
the family

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 thèse methods that
has given some précision to our knowledge in thèse respects
also, and rendered more certain and definite what before
was but vaguely suspected, At this point^ therefore, it becomes
necessaiy to review the principal results of psycho-analytic
research with regard to thèse non-sexual aspects of mental
development in relation to the family environment.
Controversies The treatment of thèse non-sexual aspects is of spécial

on this subject difficulty for two reasons. In the first place, thèse aspects are,
in their actual occurrence, intimately bound up with the
processes of sexual development with which we hâve 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 hâve dealt more
especially with the non-sexual aspects hâve written largely
under the influence of this dispute and from a somewhat
différent point of view from that of the writers who hâve 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 thèse difficulties, however, certain conclusions
stand out with some degree of cleamess from the mists of
controversy, and thèse are of considérable importance for our
présent 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 gênerai development
of character and vital activity of the individual. It is however
' The work of more especially to C. G. Jung of Ztirich that we are indebted
J""5 for a more explicit, vigorous and extended treatment of the

problems of the family from this point of view^. The more
récent work of Jung is marred by an exaggeratèd insistence on

1 Many of the most important contributions of Jung are contained in
"Collected Papers on Analj'tical Psychology." 2nd. éd. 1917, translated by
Constance Long, and "The Psychology of the Unconscious," translated by
Béatrice Hinkle.

THE LJFE TASK OF THE INDIVIDUAL

a single aspect, and by a tendency to mysticism which is apt
to confuse and obscure the scientific considération of the
problem. But in spite of thèse 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 hère con-
cerned.

Jung's présent position is, in many respects, a reaction
against Freud's views as to the extrême importance of the
sexual tendencies in mental life. With Freud the term Libido
had been used to signify the sum total of thèse tendencies
taken in a sensé much wider than that which seems to hâve
been contemplated by any previous writer; so wide indeed
that many inferred that there could be but a small field left
over for the opération 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 sensé,
but by a still further extension of its meaning so as to include
ail 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 mani-
festations by ignoring their spécifie 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 gênerai attitude to our The family and
own immédiate problem, Jung appears to look upon the family *^^ f ^T\h^'
influences as principally of importance in so far as they afford individual
the necessaiy conditions and mental environment for tlie growth
of the gênerai life force of the individual personality. The child
at birth is entirely dépendent on his parents for the satisfaction
of his vital needs. His development and éducation would
appear to consist ultimately in the process of leaming to satisfy
thèse ever increasing needs himself. Hence if the child remains
dépendent on his parents for an abnormal length of time or to

33 3

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAiMILY

Attachment to
the parents
regarded as
symbolic of
déficient
individual
development

Difficulties

presented by

this view

It does not
accord with
the gênerai
importance
of sex

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 leaming 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
an unçonscious tendency to return to this happy state of affairs
rather than to face the hard struggle which adult hfe 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
hfe imposes and to return once more to the irresponsible con-
dition of childhood. ;

There are probably no experienced psycho-analysts who
are prepared to follow Jung to this last extrême position, in
which he appears to deny ail ultimate significance to the sexual
aspects of the family complexes. Jung's view would seem indeed
to involve a number of serious difficulties, amongst which the
following are perhaps the most important.

(i) It does not (as does the view expounded in the earlier
chapters) cast any light upon the origin and development of,
nor is it altogether consistent with, the very important part
which the sexual tendencies play in the conscious and unçon-
scious 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 hfe imposes, it is hard to

THE LIFE TASK OF THE INDIXTDUAL

see why sexual feelings, thoughts, phantasies and symbols shoulcl
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

incestuous relations should be subiect to so much repression f-'^pl^i" the
11 . Tr , • • 1- 1 11 strong repres-

as it actually is. 11 there is in reality no deep-rooted tendency sion of ince&t

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-mecha-

nism, manifesting itself in consciousness as repulsion and dis-

gust, 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 gênerai 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

may hâve arisen from some other cause, it still remains difficult Northechoice
to account for the fact that the désire to return to infantile ^^ ^^Ymbof^ ^
conditions should persistentiy avail itself of such an objectionable
sj^mbolic form. We should expect that the path of least
résistance 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 serions
objection on gênerai grounds.

(4) Jung's view seems incompatible with ail we know as It is not in
to the gênerai relations of Repression and Displacement to ^xh^^glnZal"
conscious and unconscious factors respectively. The gênerai laws of
rule, which is exemplified in innumerable dreams, myths, «ymbolism
neurotic symptoms and cases of "everday psychopathology"

would appear to be that the symbol expresses some tendency
or désire in the unconscious which is more opposed to con-
scious tendencies and desires than is the symbol itself *. But in

i For an important discussion of the gênerai laws of symbolism, see
Ernest Jones*s *'Papers on Psycho-Analysis" 1918, 129. The whole Chapter is
worth careful study in connection with the questions considered in the
présent chapter.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

the présent case, îf Jung s view were correct, this rule would
no longer hold. The désire for incestuous relations with one's
parents is obviously exposed to much more serious inhibitions
at the conscious level than is the désire to escape from the
labours and responsibilities of adult life. The latter désire,
although it may of course become the object of moral dis-
approval 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 hypo-
thesis, must, it would seem, hâve fallen ill owing to the re-
pression of the desires connected with thèse ideas) without
arousing any overw^helming sensé 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 en-
counters sufficient opposition to be kept out of waking con-
sciousness altogether. It would therefore seem that, on Jung's
view, it is the conscious which is symbolised at a relatively un-
conscious level — a complète reversai 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.
Such a view It would thus appear that we hâve good reasons for

^a^ compfete*^ rejecting the view that the apparent^ sexual manifestations of
explanation love by the child towards its parents are only symbols of the
^ntâncertSn desire to retum to the state of tutelage and protection enjoyed
valuable ele- in early years. It does not foUow, however, that tlie whole of
ments of truth jy^g's conclusions as regards the relation of the parent
complexes to the development of individualité^ 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 over-
looked, 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

THE LIFE TASK OF THE INDIVIDUAI,

in a non-sexual sensé is implied by what Freud has himself
taught as regards the laws governing the formation of symbols,
more especially by the doctrine of Overdetermination\ according
to which a single dream symbol or neurotic symptom may
often be found to constitute a complète or partial fulfilment of
two or more distinct wishes or conative tendencies. Moreover,
at least two authors besides Jung hâve carried ont analyses in
this sensé. Silberer^ has shown that a number of myths and
fairy taies may be interpreted in at least two ways: — first, as
an expression of the Œdipus complex as outlined in our previous
chapters; secondly, as the expression of certain moral or
religious strivings, which he calls the anagogic aspect; the
synibolism in this latter case being of the *4unctional" kind
(/. 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^
Ferenczi* (foUowing Schopenhauer) has seen in the Œdipus
myth the existence of certain functional symbolisnis in virtue
of which the character of Œdipus and Jocasta (as drawn by
Sophocles) stand for opposing tendencies in the mind brought
out by the tragic situation, vis. the tendency, on the one hand, to
bring ail the facts of the case into the clear light of conscious-
ness, even at the risk of painful discoveries; and on the other
hand the contrary tendency to repress and prohibit ail further
inquiry for fear of such discoveries.

In so far as thèse attempts hâve been successful (and in
the case of Silberer's work at any rate the évidence brought
forward in favour of the simultaneous existence of the two
tendencies as symbolised in the same legend would appear to
be very considérable) they afford some ground for accepting
Jung*s interprétation of the incest fancies as constituting, in
one of their aspects, an expression of certain ideas and tendencies

1 *'The Interprétation of Dreams," 280.

2 "Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism," translated by S. E.Jelliffe.

3 As Silberer points out, students of mythology had already shown
the possibility of still a third interprétation, the " naturalistic " one, according
to which the représentations of the incest motive in myth and legend may
be taken as a symbolic portrayal of certain important and impressive
natural occurrences — the séquence of day and night, summer and
winter etc.

4 "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," translated by Ernest Jones, 214.

Over-

détermination

and the

multiple

interprétation

of symbols

CK-er-

deterraination

in the case of

the Œdipus

Complex

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

relating to the original conditions of dependence in which a
child stands towards its parents— tendencies which exist along-
side, 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 représentation
(in dreams and elsewhere) of the Œdipus coniplex 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 présent case the
aspects symbolised are not in any sensé repressed, so that the
reason for the adoption of the symbolic form must be sought
in other conditions.

Among thèse conditions the most important is probably to
as a product be found in the still active repression of the Œdipus complex
of repression j^self. 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 ail probability, largely due to the effort of the
repressing tendencies to prevent their true significance from
being realised in consciousness^. The new meaning, therefore,
as interpreted by Jung, Silberer and others, obviously cor-
responds to a more récent and superficial (though not therefore
less real) mental level than does the original significance in
terms of the Œdipus complex.
and as sennng Another reason for the adoption of this secondary

rnora" tendent symbolism is probably sometimes to be found in the fact that
cies the ethical or religions strivings expressed in the anagogic

aspects undergo a very considérable reinforcement through
association with the primitive trends which manifest themselves
in the Œdipus complex. The latter lie very much nearer to the
ultimate sources of human feeling and émotion than do the

1 II is interesting to note that in the naturalistic interprétation of
myths the same influences are pretty clearly at work, as when Max Millier
observes that one of the advantages of this naturalistic interprétation is
that it absolves us from the necessity of taking literally many of the more
objectionable features of the myths as they actually stand.

THE LIFE TASK OF THE INDIVIDUAL

former, which, by themselves in their abstract purity, are apt
to be only too ineffectxial as motives of désire and conduct.
But when clothed in the symbolic form of the Œdipus com-
plex, they at once acquire some of the primitive energy inhérent
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 éléments of the original love and hâte that the
child has felt towards its parents. Symbolisation of lofty aims
and motives in terms of primitive émotions 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^.

1 In order to distinguish more clearly between the two kinds of
symbolism with which we hâve been hère concemed — that in which an
unconscious (repressed) thought or tendency is expressed by something
more permissible to consciousness, and that in which the thing expressed
is of as high or even higher cultural value than the thing through which
it finds expression, Ernest Jones has, in the chapter àlready referred to
("Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 129 ff.) proposed to confine the term
symbohsm to the former class, ail examples of the latter class being
included under the term metaphor.

CHAPTER V

THE FAMILY AND THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDUAL

PERSONALITY

We must re- The considérations raised at the end of the last chapter

^he sexual^and ^^^^ somewhat in the nature of a digression. Such a digression
the individual was however inévitable, for the questions involved in the
de^bpment controversy between the psychological schools of Vienna and
Ziirich (whose leading exponents are Freud and Jung respectively)
are of fundamental importance for our présent inquiry. Our
whole attitude towards the psychological problems presented
by the family relationships must to a very considérable extent
dépend upon whether we believe, as the more extrême exponents
of the Zurich school would sometimes seem to do, that the
whole significance of thèse problems lies in the fact that they
are intimately concemed with the development of the vital
énergies and independence of the individual, or whether
(following the Vienna school) we feel bound to recognise also
the existence of a number of highly important sexual aspects
which, directly or indirectly, play a fundamental rôle in the
psychology of the family.

Our short review of the principal points concerned in this
controversy (so far as they touch our présent purpose) bas led
us to the conclusion that the sexual aspects with which we
were dealing in Chapters II and III possess more than a mère
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 continuons with,
and comparable to, the fuUy developed sexual tendencies of
adult life.

THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY

We concluded also, howevêr, that besides thèse 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. Thèse 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 abnonnalities 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
symbolism, with which Jung and his foUowers hâve tended to
surround the whole matter, it is I think, abundandy clear that
normal psychic development involves a graduai émergence from
a condition of dependence on parental authority and care to
one in which the individual is dépendent to a greater or less
extent upon his own efforts as regards his HveUhood, and upon
his own judgment as regards his conduct^. Failure in such
development will resuit in a relatively feeble adult personality
— one which still seeks the support of its parents (or their
substitutes), when it should hâve leamt to stand alone. Such
failures are, however, (as ail psycho-analysts will admit) of very
fréquent occurrence. Normal development in this respect
appears to be at least as difficult as in the case of the sexual
tendencies we hâve already considered, and is hable, as in
their case also, to arrests and retardations at various points
and to régressions to earlier stages of development, whenever
serious obstacles and difficulties are encountered,

It would seem possible to distinguish tvvo main aspects of
this process of development, though in real life thèse two
aspects are, it is cdmost needless to say, throughout intimately
connected with one another. The first, and more primitive

1 The somewhat sharp distinction hère drawn between the sexual
aspects of the family relationships and those hère under considération
(which for the sake of convenience we may call the dependence aspects),
although employed throughout this essay, is made primarily for purposes of
exposition and is not intended to imply that the distinction is in fact so
sharply eut as the présent method of treatment might possibly suggest. In
real Ufe the sexual and the dependence aspects are inextricably intervvoven,
and it is probable that the majority of psycho-analysts would be inclined
to lay somewhat less stress on the distinction than does the présent
writer.

Difficulties of

individual
development

Self-
presei*vation

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 individuaFs aims and desires. J
During babyhood the child is almost entirely dépendent on his
parents or other grown-up persons for the accomplishment of
thèse 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 thèse 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 continuons
output of energy is required, and it wiU 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 désire. If the
conation is sufficiently strong, however, it may continue to
manifest itself in différent ways; if the first means of approach
is unsuccessfui, other means will be tried, until the end is
eventually attained. Of thèse other means, one that is frequently
among the most effectuai 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 inévitable 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 âge
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

THE GROWTH OF- INDI\aDUAL PERSONALITY

arises; and this habit niay persist throughout life, rendering
the individual a relatively useless and helpless member of
Society, incapable of any prolonged or intensive effort^ Normal
development, however, implies that the occasions on Avhich
assistance is required should grow fewer and fewer as ability
and expérience 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 économie
principle of the division of labour makes it désirable to call in
the assistance of other persons possessing abihty ortrainingof
a différent nature to his own.

The other. main aspect of the principle of development Self-

that we are considering, is concerned with the matter of self- détermination
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
dépendent upon the efforts of his parents for the necess-
aries of life, so is he also dépendent upon their décision
as to how and when he shall enjoy thèse necessaries. He feeds,
walks, sleeps, works and plays very largely according to their
pleasure. At most the nature of his plaj^ activities is left to his
own discrétion. 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
dépendent on the judgment of others. He hears certain tendencies,
activities and sentiments condemned as wicked, others upheld

1 This, of course, is especially liable to be the case in those children
—for example in most of those technically described as "mentally déficient"
and in many of those technically described as "backward"— who do not
readily acquire interest in the détails of a process leading to a desired
end, apart from the end itself (i. e. in whom work does not become
pleasurable for its own sake), or in those in whom there is no strong self
feeling associated with the idea of successful achievement. The granting
of an undue amount of assistance will, however, in its tum tend to retard
or prevent the formation of thèse désirable mental characteristics.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

as praiseworthy, and even when he begins to pronounce moral
]udgments on his own account, thèse judgments must, for a
long period, consist for the most part merely of fresh applications
of the moral code that he has leamt 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 expérience 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 considérable
extent dépendent on the amount of such capacity. He who can
only carry out the instructions of others, however obedientiy
and skilfully, is only fitted to occupy an inferior position in the
économie 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 économie
responsibility.

On the moral side also, he is debarred from the higher

Autonomy and levels of ethical development. At the best, his morality will be

Moral Qne of hard and fast rules, the dictâtes of parental, ecclesiastical,
Development , , . , , . '. , , r i- t . ,

légal or social authonty, mcapable of enlightened growth or

modification to suit the ever changing flow of circumstances

and the widening expérience of hfe. At the worst, he may

grow up destitute of ail true moral consciousness whatsoever,

morality being regarded by him as a certain (usually xmpleasant)

kind of conduct, arbitrarily imposed by exteriial 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 tlie desires of its parents, as expressed in

threats, punishments or rewards. Thereafter, the idea of **good,"

as signifying conduct in accordance with thèse desires, becomes

THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY

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 conceming right conduct (continually
enlarged by the expérience of new persons and new situations)
become more and more dissociated from their original authori-
tative sanctions, new ** inner" sanctions being substituted for
the old **external" ones which are abandoned. Thèse inner
sanctions are themselves capable of many différent levels of
development, ranging from the simple idea of the individuars
own benefit in the immédiate future, to the désire for the
ultimate benefit of humanity as a whole or the concept of action
in conformity with the gênerai principles of tlie 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 thèse inner sanctions, he must
hâve opportunities for the graduai development of his own
powers of initiation, délibération and self-control; this implying
a corresponding graduai émancipation 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 thèse considérations we hâve throughout laid the
principal emphasis upon the desirability and necessity of the
acquirement of self help and self guidance on the part of the
individual. This has been chiefly because the results of psycho-
analytic work hâve indicated that the danger lies most frequendy
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 ailowed to blind us to the
existence of a danger of an opposite character — that of a too
rapid or too complète émancipation from parental authority.
Such émancipation would, it is true, seem to occur seldom
enough as a direct conséquence 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 tiie very young by the
greater power, knowledge and expérience of the parents,

Autonomy

should corne

about

gradualiy

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FMHLY

èffectxially prevents this in the majority of cases. But it may

easily corne about as the resuit of a reaction against a toc

insistent or despotic use of the parental power. Parents who

and not sud- are too severe, too répressive, or even too careful, as regards

denly as the ^^ upbrinffine: of their children, will— especially if the latter
conséquence r&& » ir- r

of a revolt happen to possess strong tendencies to seli-assertion — oiten

TY^^^î?^^^' bring about a state of revolt against their own authority, in
which ail that may be good and wise in that authority is
deliberately neglected or condemned, since tlie children hâve
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 froni profiting to the désirable
extent by the wisdom and expérience of past âges, as represented
in the traditions and dictâtes of authority, and (what is worse)
may even become unfit for taking their place in any scheme
of harmonious social life, through inability to submitto the
degree of individual subordination, which such social life
^ inevitably demands^.
The wider These considérations with référence to the growth of the

ofThis^sublect i^idividual personality in relation to the family environment
are indeed, as we hâve already pointed out, for the most part
of a sufficientiy obvions character and, in their more gênerai
bearings at any rate, hâve for some time been commonplaces
in certain schools of social, ethical, and educational thought.
Where modem psychology (and particularly the work of the
Zurich 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 subséquent
progress in the wider sphères of scholastic, social and poUtical
life very greatiy dépends. The rapidity v^th which, and the
extent to which, a child attains to independence in relation to

1 There is good reason to believe that revolt against parental authority
constitutes an important factor in the production of a certain class of
delinquents. Sec e. g. several of the cases recorded in Healy's "Mental
Conflicts and Misconduct," 19x9.

THE GROWTH OF INDIVIDU AL PERSONALITY

his family, are to a large extent prophétie of the subséquent
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 ail initiative
and originality in individual thought and action. On the other
hand, a too sudden or too complète 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 ail use and enjoyment of the expérience
of the past and ail orderly co-operation in the social life of the
présent With thèse possibilities as the resuit 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 VARrETIES OF DEVELOPMENT—
LOVE AND HATE

The study of Up to this point, in studying the process of individual

^^s^^h^™^ development in relation to the family environment, we hâve 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 thèse
b3^ways into which the human mind may wander in the course
of its development — bjrways which we hâve hitherto passed un-
noticed, or at most examined with a hasty glance, as we traced
the direct path of emotional development from childhood to
maturity. Some of thèse bjrways lie near to the direct path
which we hâve aLready followed; others départ more widely
from it, approaching near to, or sometimes definitely entering^
the région of the abnormal or pathological.

As regards thèse latter, however, it must be borne in mind
that hère (as in most other cases of the treatment of the ab-
normal in Psychology) the distinction between normal and ab-
normal is one which is drawn for the sake of practical con-
venience only, and which indicates merely a différence of
degree not a différence in quality, between the phenomena
which it distinguishes. Even those manifestations which mark
the most extrême departures from the normal are présent as
, possibilities in ail of us: it is only a question of the extent of
our tendency towards them and of the intensity of the pre-
disposing causes in our environment A sHght altération in the
balance of our mental forces or in the circumstances of our
life and upbringing, and we too might fall victims to the

VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT — LOVE AND HATE

aberrations which now seem to us so répulsive, foolish or
ridiculous, when displayed by others. The abnormal in Psycho-
logy 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 nieans of investigating the minute
structure of the normal: and in the présent case we shall find
that when we hâve 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 décision 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 in- Abnormalities
tellectual, may diverge from the main track at varions points in ^l^^^^^F'
its course^ — some near its origin in the infantile strata of the ent levels
mind, some at a later stage of progress. Those which leave
the main track at a relatively early point préserve, 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 subséquent 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 de-
velopment in gênerai is true more particularly of the development
of the individuars relation to his family. The more primitive varia-
tions vtdll 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 hâve seen that in the earUest
stages of development the most important psychic reactions of
the child (so far as they concern us hère) are those connected
with the parents. At a later stage, the tendencies and émotions
originally centering in the parents undergo (under the influence
of Repression) a process of Displacement on to other persons

49 4

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 éléments 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 resuit of

which the abnormality is no longer directly connected with the

parents themselves but with a substitute for thèse.

Abnormalities As regards the first class, the gênerai nature of the psychic

f"1ï,y^^™ "*^ defects which may be met with is, in the main, familiar to us

in the parent- . , . ^ , , r ^ ^ , '

regarding from our considération of tlie early stages of normal develop-

tendencies ment. If any of the features of the individual's relations to his

parents which we there passed in review — the love and hâte

aspects of the Œdipus complex, the dependence on the efforts

of the parents as regards seK maintenance and préservation,

the gênerai obédience to, and reliance on, the authority of the

parents — should persist at a relatively advanced âge in an)rthing

like their original quality and intensity, then there exists one

of the defects in question. Not that any of thèse features will

be found to manifest themselves (except perhaps on rare

occasions) in exactly their original form and manner. The

gênerai mental and moral growth of the intervening years

usually ensures that many of thèse features shall hâve under-

gone a process of repression in virtue of which they are nô

longer permitted to express themselves fully and openly in

consciousness. More especially is this the case with regard to

the love and hâte éléments in the psychic relationship of the

individual to his parents. Thèse will seldom manifest themselves

quite openly and directly though they may attain to indirect

expression in dreams, neurotic sjonptoms, fahcies and (as Rank

has so abundantly shown) jn works of art. The psycho-analytic

treatment of thèse productions has shown, however, that the

original tendencies may persist in dieir crude form in the un-

conscious; and thence may exercise a profound influence on

character and mental life.

Fixation at the In so far as, under the force of the repression, thèse

^^^^love^^^^^ tendencies do not suffer some clearly marked modification or

displacement as regards their object (and thus fall within our

VARJETIES OF DEVELOPMENT — LOVE AND HATE

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 négative forms characteristic
of repression, rather than in any positive form indicative of the
original nature of the repressed désire^ 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 vénération
for, or in an abnormal degree of dependence on, the parent in
question; combined perhaps with an unusuaUy strong désire
for the présence of the loved parent, and a feeling of contentment
with life in the parent's home that leads to a relative v^ant of
interest in persons and things outside it, and a liability to
home-sickness if compelled to be away from home or parent^.
The sexual nature of the (unconscious) source of this attitude
reveals itself hov/ever unmistakably in the négative 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^; marriage will

1 An excellent condensed treatment of many of the effects of
incestuous fixation will be found in K. Abraham's *'Die Stellung der
Verwandtenehe in der Psychologie der Neurosen." Jahrhiich fur psychor
anaîytische ttnd psychopathoîogîsche Forschtmgm, 1909, L, iio.

2 In a rather extrême case known to the writer a woman of about 35
had never been able to leave home without the most intense feelings of
sorrow and loneliness, which usually impelled her to retum precipitately
after the absence of a day or two. In childhood she could seldom be
induced to go more than a mile or so from her home unless accompanied
by her parents and in later life neurotic symptoms were developed which
effectually prevented her from living apart from her nearest relatives. As
was to be expected, analysis revealed a very strong parent fixation, and
after treatment she was able to fill a responsible post in a town far removed
from the résidence of her family.

3 Cp. M. Steiner, "Die funktionelle Impotenz des Mannes und ihre
Behandlung," 1913.

Freud, " Beitràge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens." Jahrhich fur

5ï

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

frequently be avoided, or will be entered into from motives
other than those of real affection^ — sometimes from the very
need to escape from an unconscious incestuous désire.
Conflict and These négative manifestations, like so many others of a

Compromise similar kind, are the resuit 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 ail objects towards which similar feelings
could be experienced; thus producing an inhibition of a gênerai
kind upon a whole class of feelings as such, where an inhibition
of a spécifie kind upon a particular manifestation of such
feelings {L e. their manifestation in an incestuous direction)
was ail that was originally întended or required. In the second
place, thèse predominantly négative aspects of fixation contain
also some éléments of positive gratification of the repressed
tendencies. In the failure to extend any considérable degree of
affection upon a new object (parent substitute), the mind expresses
its abiding fidehty to its first love-object (the actual parent) and
its refusai 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 négative aspects of fixation on the love-object of

psychoanalytische und psychopathoîogische Forschungen, 1912, IV, 40.

Ferenczi, "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," 9.

ï Even if marriage is at first apparently successful, it may be unable
to stand the strain of circumstances which would présent Uttle or no
difficulty in the absence of parent fixation. Thus in a case known to me,
after a happy honeymoon spent near home, a wife proved unable to
accompany her husband to a distant locality, where business affairs
necessitated his résidence but (in spite of his protests and entreaties)
tumed back while on the journey and retumed to live with her parents.
It appeared that she had very seldom left home before her marriage, having
been brought up by kindly but indulgent parents, as regards whom there
was a strong emotional fixation. In her youth she had only travelled orice
without her parents, being then so miserably unhappy that she begged to
be sent home again as soon as possible.

VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT — LOVE AND HATE

early childhood affords a striking instance of the compromise
formations which so frequently arise in the course of mental
development as the resuit of struggle between conflicting
tendencies.

In a number of cases the repression of an incestuous Homosexuality
affection for a parent may manifest itself not merely in relative ^. ^ ^^f "^* ^^

• J-rr 1 '^. , , r , , mCCStUOUS

indiiierence to the attractions of others of the same sex as that fixation

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

thèse 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 ail persons of that sex, and then, as a further step, —

the way to ail heterosexual affection being now barred — to the

displacement of sexual désire into the homosexual direction.

Some indication of the secondary and derivative character of

thèse 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, tendemess or effeminacy in the

case of men or boys and some quality of unusual strength or

"mannishness" in the case of women^

On a priori grounds we might expect to find that in other
cases of homosexuality the direction of affection is detennined
in a more direct manner, viz. by the fixation of an original in-
fantile 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 hâve never completed
the step from a prédominance of mother love (usually, as we
hâve seen, the first form of object love with children of both
sexes) to a prédominance of father love'^-

1 Cp, expecially Ferenczi, "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," 250.

2 In the case of a woman, the record of whose analysis was kindly
shown to me by Dr. E. M. Cole, there appears to bave been a complète
father fixation (with corresponding hatred of the mother) at one level and
at a lower and more unconscious level an equally complète mother fixation

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

With men, too, it is possible that an overstrong affection
and admiration for the father may lead to a corresponding-
resuit. In thèse cases \ve 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
objecta selected being correspondingly typical of their own sex,
î. e. womanly women and manly men ^. The existence of such
a type of homosexuality has indeed been demonstrated by
Ferenczi^ (though hère, as in most cases of "types" in psycho-
logy, it is probable that the types themselves are only extrême
forms between which there exist an indefinite number of inter-
mediate characters, the majority of individuals partaking to some
extent of the nature of both types). So far as the évidence
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 hâve 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 représentatives of his own
beloved Ego.
Idéalisation of It is an important characteristic of the phenomenon of

^ paren?^ 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

(with alî the indications of an "inverted*' Œdipus compîex), the two levels
being characterised by a prédominance of heterosexual and homosexual
tendencies respectively.

1 In three cases of homosexual tendencies in men which I hâve re-
cently had the opportunity of studying, the désire to be used by the father
as a sexual objective was quite clearly apparent. Cp. Freud*s "Ans der
Geschichte einer infantilen Neurose.'* Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur
Neurosenlehre. IV. 578 ff.

2 "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis,*' 250 ff.

VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT — LOVE AND HATE

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 idéalisation of the loved parent
is especially Uable to exercise a potent influence in ail 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, hâve inevitably to some extent become ex-
posed. In any case, however, it is not surprising that in com-
parison with thèse beautiful products of the child*s imagination
(for we can scarcely doubt that, hère 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 spécimens of humanity who are
available as love objects in the real world hâve but little power
of attraction ^.

It is principally from this source that there is apt to rise the
fruitless search for the **ideal" man or v^oman — 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 idéal that has been found to Don Juanism
underlie the inability to find permanent satisfaction in any ^^^ the^^ideal
individual of the opposite sex; an inabihty of a most distressing
nature which characterises the love life of a certain class of
persons^- Thèse 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 w^hich thèse
individuals, through their instability and faithlessness, are apt to
bring not only on themselves but on the unf ortunate objects of
their love, is too well known to need further emphasis or
description. It is, however, paradoxically enough, the extrême
steadfastness of their love towards its original object that is the
cause of their fickleness towards ail subséquent objects of
affection.

1 Cp. Rank, *'The Myth of the Birth of the Hero," 1913.

2 Freud, "Beitrâge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens," Jahrbtich fur
psychoanaîytische nnd psychopathoîogische Forschttngen, 1910, II, 389.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

"Myth of the As a resuit of this same process of idéalisation, it may

birth of the ^igo happen that the réalisation 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 expérience so
widespread and of such deep emotional significance as to hâve
found expression in a frequently recurring type of myth and
legend, which has received illuminating treatment at the hands
of Freud and Rank^ In thèse myths (of which the stories
connected with Moses, Perseus, Œdipus, Romulus, Cyrus,
Christ, Siegfried, Lohengrin afford typical examples) a child is
born of noble or divine parentage, but for some reason (usually
connected with hostility on the part of the father) is lost or
otherwise, severed from his rightful home, and is reared by
foster parents of lowly station (or sometimes by animais), only
to be eventually restored to the position which is by birth his
due. Hère 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 expérience of his human
environment, begins to realise the discrepancy bëtween the
actual position of his parents in the world of men and the
idéal qualities with which his infantes fancy had endowed them.
Unwilling however to give up the lofty conception of his
parents' dignity which he had f ormed 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^, the individual finds

* See Rank, op. cit., also the more récent treatment by the Question-
naire method by Edmund S. Conklin, "The Foster-Child Fantasy," American
Journal of Psychology, 1920, XXXI, 59.

2 There can be no doubt that this is a factor of very considérable
significance. The child projects on to its parents its own desires, ambitions
and aspirations, thus finding compensation for the graduai réalisation of its
own deficiencies, limitations and want of power (in much the same way
as parents in their turn find consolation for their own disappointmcnts
in contemplating the successes — real or anticipated — of their children. Cp.
below Ch. XIV.). In this way certain of the Narcissistic impulses find displaced
expression in the idéalisation of the parents and the exaggeration of their
powers — a factor which probably plays a part of great importance in the
Psychology of Religion {Cp. below Ch. Xm.).

The f oUowing incident in connection with a young boy personally known
to me amusingly illustrâtes the tendency ta substitute an idéal parent for a

VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT — LOVE AND HATE

in the noble parents of the myth the re-embodiment of those
conceptions which had become untenable as regards the real
world. The séries of legends (in so far as they immediately
concern us hère) thus serve to express the persistence in the
Unconscious of the original infantile idéalisation of the parents
as a consolation for the loss of the parent idéal which an
appréciation of the actual human imperfections of the parents
has inevitably brought in its train.

The manifestations of the hâte, as distinct from the love, Exaggerated
éléments of the Œdipus complex, may also, when subjected to ^°X^/^^^^|^^'
repression in the course of moral development, assume a négative
form — in this case usually appearing as a morbid and exaggerated,
but of course relatively superficial, love for the hated parent;
a love v^hich 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 corne to some harm. This sj^mptom merely
constitutes a form of repression of the unconscious wish that
the parent should corne to some harm. Persons afflicted with
a neurotic anxiety of this kind will frequently suffer very greatly
at the death of the parent conceming v^hom the anxiety is
felt; for this event constitutes the suprême 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 émotion 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-
love tendencies — the hâte impulse may manifest itself with a hatred
very considérable 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 conséquence of jealousy or envy has been
(disappointing) real one, together with the religious and Narcissistic implications
of this tendency. S. F., aged 7, insisted on being called Jésus Christ, in spite
of the remonstrations of his father who pointed out to him among other
things that Jésus Christ was the Son of God; to which S. F. repUed **So
ami" On receiving the reply: "You cannot be, for I am your father," he
retorted, "God is my real father, you are only my professional father"
(referring to the fact that his father was a "professional" musician).

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Conflicting

interests of

parents and

children

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 — ail this
may bring about a sénse 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 graduai under-
standing and assimilation of the parent's point of view, as
mental growth proceeds. If the original feehng 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 resuit of some genuine want of considération on the
part of the parent) the child should expérience no compen-
satory émotion of love towards the parent — then the hatred
thus aroused may persist with unabated vigour into adult hfe,
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
of hostile feelings in children towards their parents, is to be
found in the natural and to some extent inévitable compétition
of the successive générations 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 âge attain to an économie
position little if at ail inferior to that of their parents. In many
well-to-do families, however, the prospect of succeeding at the

VARIETIES OF DEVELOPMENT — LOVE AND R\TE

death of the parent to a considérable sum of money, a tide,
or a recognised business, social, or professional position, will
frequendy supply a motive for secredy desiring the death of
that parent — a motive which of course usually suffers a very
considérable degree of repression, but which nevertheless may
constitute a factor of importance in the détermination 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
disposai of the former are markedly insufficient for the satis-
faction of his needs (real or supposed), or again where the lack
of adéquate funds is fdt as a hindrance to some important
step in life, such as entering upon a marriage or upon some
business enterprise. Hère the contrast between the économie
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 raost ardent aspirations — is
only too likely to resuscitate the dead relies of infantile envy
and hostility. Such a revival, by the circumstances of later life,
of hâte 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 uncon-
scious, but hâve worked themselves off naturally and hâve lost
their pow^er 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
happens — towards the parent of the same sex as that of the ^cMM's °own^
child, but towards the parent of the opposite sex. This ^ex

abnormahty may arise in some cases from a gênerai tendency
to homosexuaUty on the part of the child, in which case he is
apt to suffer from an "inverted Œdipus complex", as Ferenczi
has termed it; love being felt towards the parent of the same
sex and jealousy towards the parent of the opposite sex; the
émotions 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 conséquence of the natural tendency of
this parent to display affection towards the other parent {i, e.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 conscious-
ness or may suffer varions 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 hâve to refer in a later chapter.

CHAPTER Vn

ABNORMALITIES AND VARETIES OF DEVELOPMENT-
THE DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

In the fixations and régressions we hâve so far considered Failure to
we were concerned more or less exclusively with the love and ^y^te^^^inde-
hate aspects of the relations of the individual to his family. pendent of
Wè must now tum to consider the influence of thèse fixations ^^^ parents
and régressions upon the rather wider problems of the indi-
vidual*s developraent and attitude towards life as indicated in
Chapters IV and V.

The opération of any failures or abnormalities of develop- is subject to
ment in this direction is for the most part subiect to less inten- |ess repression
sive and far reaching repressions than are met with m the hâte fixations
case of the love and hâte aspects which we hâve 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, thèse may indeed become objects of censure,
especially when présent 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
obédience to, and reliance on, the authority of the parents or
their substitutes, may easily corne to be regarded as virtues
rather than as faults, since they are readily associated with the
quahties (désirable enough in a reasonable degree and in so
far as they do not interfère with the developraent of individual

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAAHLY

character) of conscientious exécution of instructions and gênerai
amenability to discipline in nursery and school or, later on, in
social, industrial or military life.

In conséquence 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 négative
form. In so far as the failure is of the nature of a simple arrest
or régression as distinct from a displacement (cases of v^rhich
v^rill, 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 hâve been outgrown in the process of normal
adaptation to adult life, and w^hich, v^rhen persisting in an indi-
vidual of mature years, constitute, as has been sufficiently
shov^rn 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 obvions in nature and v^rhich may therefore
well be mentioned hère, especially as a considérable degree
of light has been throv^rn upon them by récent psycho-analytic
research.
The influence! In the first place it must be recognised that the degree of

of heredity ' independence developed by an individual and the amount of
energy and self-reliance v^rith which he faces the difficulties of
life, is apt to dépend to a very considérable extent upon the
degree of development of thèse very same qualities in one or
both of the parents.; No doubt, so far as concems direct inheri-
tance of mental characteristics, there is a tendency, hère as
elsewhere, for the child to develop qualities similar to those of
his parents. This inherited tendency may moreover be rein-
forced as the resuit of precept and imitation, the child tending
naturally to foUow 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 — cornes to regard them as
ideals to which he may himself hope one day to approximate.
Psychological -^ On the other hand there are often certain influences at
cïusr'lt'r'^nl ^^^k» which tend to make the child unUke his parents in just
thèse qualities of energy and self-reliance. Thus a high degree

VARIETIES OF DEVELOPiMENT — THE DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

of initiative, self-confidence or masterfulness in the predominating parents to hâve

parent may easily cause the child— unless himself endowed with ^^^^K children
« 1 . or vice versa,

thèse 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 décision and

resource, thus developing in him, to some degree at least, those

character qualities in vt^hich his parents were defective. For

thèse reasons it may often happen that strong and masterful

parents hâve children who are relatively weak as regards .

initiative and power of self-assertion, while thèse in turn may

be foUowed by a génération more resembling their grandparents

with respect to thèse qualities than their immédiate predecessors.

This ** alternation of générations" as regards certain important

mental powers and characteristics has attracted some attention

among students of heredity and some attempts hâve 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 hère indicated as the sole, or at least the chief,

causes of the phenomenon,

Another way in which parents may influence the gênerai Children may

attitude to life adopted by their children is through the direct ^"g'^elvl^^wit^

— but for the most part unconscious — identification by the latter their parents

of themselves with their parents. We hâve already referred to

the conception frequently entertained by children of their parents

as ideals of humanity, — ideals the attainment of which may be-

come a constant source and driving power of effort. We hâve

seen too in the last chapter some of the évidence for the

potency of this idéal and the constancy with which it may be

cherished. This idéal, however, frequently serves not only as a

means of leading the child to embrace some gênerai 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 httle doubt

that in a large number of cases a son adopts his particular

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

means of eaming hîs livelihood as the resuit 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 présent con-
ditions 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 \
or from a pious désire to carry on some work begun but not
completed by the parent.
Désire to be In still Other cases, however, a désire to be différent from

différent from ^^e parent rather than a désire to resemble him may be deci-
paren ^.^^ 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, philosophie or religious thought.
The adoption of such a course dépends naturally upon hatred
and aversion instead of love and admiration, and is due as
much to a désire to oppose the parent as to the wish to avoid
resembling him. It is especially liable to occur in cases where
the occupation or gênerai behaviour of the parent lias întnided
itself in an irksome and insistent manner into the life of the
child; and may lead not only to a dislike of the parentes occu-
pation 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 illu-
strâtes \

Thus, either positively or negatively, the lives, fates and
convictions of the parents hâve a great but often subtle power
in moulding the careers and opinions of their children — an in-
fluence 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

^ There is reason to believe that an influence of this kind was a factor
of importance in determinlng the nature of Darwin*s scientific work. Cp.
E. J. Kempf, "Charles Darwin. The affective Sources of his Inspiration and
Anxiety Neurosis." Psychoanaîytic Review, V. 151.

2 For a study of unconscious family influences affecting the careers
of children cp. Stekel, "Berufswahl und Kriminalitât/* Archiv fur Kriminaî-
anthropoîogie und Kriminaîistik, XLI.

VARIETIES OF DEXHELOPMENT — THE DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

as it is not manifest except upon close psychological investigation,
constitutes a very considérable, 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
économie sciences of the future to see that thèse forces, where
bénéficiai, 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 thèse sciences, in the course of their further
development, may stand possessed.

Birth and

womb
phantasies

Btfanifestations

of the désire to

return to the

womb

CHAPTER Vm

IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL LIFE

We hâve now reached a point in our discussion at which
we may perhaps proîitably pause awhile to consider a group
of phantasies, which, on account of their widespread occurrence
and curious character, would seem to deserve some very spécial
attention at the hands of the psychologist and anthropologist
The phantasies in question are those which psycho-analysts hâve
found to cluster round the idea of retuming 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 sjrmbolic form) in many
myths, legends, dreams, rêveries and sjonptomatic 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*. In consciousness this phantasy of retuming
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 smaU rooms or closets or in
the comfort which may be experienced in snuggling under the
bed-clothes in the présence of real or imaginary danger^. Sleep

1 "The Interprétation of Dreams/* 243 £f.

2 To the same cause is probably due the use of four-poster beds
in which the sleeper is completely enclosed by curtains and of those old-
fashioned beds (still to be seen in some parts of the world) which could
be entirely shut off from the rest of the room by a wooden partition or
sliding door containing only one very small circular aperture for the
admission of air.

IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL LIFE

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^ 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 ail
environmental influences and sometimes adopting a characteristi-
cally 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 foUowed 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 eut off
from human intercourse and from the light and bustle of the
outside world. In a more distinctiy neurotic form again, its
influence may be traced in agoraphobia — the fear of open
spaces — or negatively (the reaction against the tendency pre-
dominating) in its opposite, claustrophobia — the fear of narrow,
confined rooms or places — or in the morbid dread of being
buried alive.

In ail thèse manifestations the dominant motive would seem Meanmg of
to consist in a désire to escape from the troubles, labours, ^^'^^ désire
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 hfe the child lives effortlessly, free
from danger and with ail its needs provided; in striking contrast
to post-natal (and more especially adult) life, where in gênerai
the stem rule holds that **if any will not work, neither shall
he eat", and where the individual constantiy finds his strength
ail too small to do battle with the formidable obstacles that so
often stand in the way of the fulfilment of his desires,

1 Ferenczi, "Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," 189. Freud, "Vor-
iesungen 2ur Einfûhrung in die Psychoanalyse," 486.

67 5«

THE PSYCHO^ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Difficulty of It is, as Ferenczi^ has been at pains to show, only in sa

the process of f ^^j. ^g ^q fj-ge ourselves from the habits, associations and

^ ^^reaUty ^ implications of this pre-natal life that we can learn to aclïi'eve

f the fulfilment of our wishes by taking the necessary steps to

" \ bring about their accomplishment in the outer world, instead

u of endeavouring to make the outer world conform to our desires

I by the shorter and easier method of imagination and delusion.

In the earliest stages of our existence we are in a sensé indeed

omnipotent, inasmuch as provision is made for ail 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,

fuKilled 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 corne to stand

as the suprême goal and object of ail désire to escape from

the turmoîl, labour and conflict which developed life inevitably

brings in its train.

Life before If the idea of life within the raother's womb is in this

^'Se/death ^ ^^^ closely associated with the désire 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 complète stoppage of

ail vital activities at death. As a matter of fact, the unconscious

identification of tlie state after death with the state before birth

would seem to be one of fréquent and widespread occurrence,

the idea of the mysterious intra-uterine life before birth

1 Op. cit., 181 fî.

A La Alderman

I wish'I v/as a rock a-sett*h* on a hill

A-doln* nothin^ ail dày long

But just a-s0tt*n* still;

1 wouldn^t oat, I ^wouldn^t drink,

ï v;ouldn*t î3vsn v/asli-
l^d set an^ sot a thcusand 7/3ars
An* rest myself, hj ffoshl

IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL LIFE

fumishing, 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, ail our desires
and needs are fulfilled without the necessity for toilsome and
unpleasant effort.

It is not only in our gênerai attitude towards death that
the influence of this identification may be traced, but also in
many of the détails as regards the beliefs and cérémonies
connected with the dead. The parallehsm hère 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 (ail of
which are womb symbols) or under the earîh (itself among the
most fréquent of mother symbols); or that in many places the
dead hâve been placed on small islands^ caves, mountain tops,
or other secluded spots, or deposited (like King Arthur) in boats
and pushed ont to sea. In this last practice we may probably
trace the influence of an identification of theprocess 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®. For not only is the sea a fréquent mother sjmabol, but
the idea of water is closely connected with that of birth, occurring
as it does in a great number of symbolic représentations of the
latter'. 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, Stjoc 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 hère meet with,
plays of itself, as we hâve already indicated, a part of very
great importance in the unconscious mental life of many Birth
individuals*, a part indeed sometimes of even greater significance P^^^^^^s

1 Cp. the striking emotional effect of Bôcklin's well known picture
^'The Island of the Dead." In Sir J. M. Barrie's remarkable- play "Mary \
Rose" (which is full of interest in connection with our présent subject) j
this pièce 6f symbolism is duphcated— the "island that likes to be visited" !
being situated in a lake on a larger island.

2 Rank, "^Die Lohengrinsage/' 46 ff.

3 Freud, "Interprétations of Dreams," 1243. Rank, op. cit., 27 ff. ''-^-f^ -
^ Freud, op. cit. 243 ff. C. G.Jung, "Psychology of the Unconscious,"

233 £f.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

than that of the idea of returhing to the mother's womb, with
which it is so frequently associated. In its indirect (displaced)
représentation in consciousness, this idea of birth or re-birth
will find expression as an émergence 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
lôcality. More especially, however, is the idea connected in one
way or another with a passage through or out of water — a
pond, river, canal, Iake or the sea. It is thus for instance that
it appears in a typical form of myth relating to the birth ôf
some heroic personage {e, g, Moses, Kama, Perseus, Romulus,
Siegfried, Lohengrin) in which the birth is symbolicaliy
repfesented by the child's floating on the water in a cradle, boat
or basket^.
Birth and fear Birth phantasies of this kind are frequently accompanied

by the idea of difficulty or danger and by a corresponding
émotion of fear. According to Freud»^ 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 prototjrpe of ail 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 àyx^) ail of which appear to be connected with the
Sanskrit anhus or anhas, signifjdng narrowness or constriction
— bears witness to the fundamentàl association of fear with
pressure and shortness of breath, which — the former owing to
the passage through the narrow vagina, the latter to the inter-
ruption of the foetal circulation — constitute the most menacing
and terrifying aspects of the birth process.
The meaning If, and in SO far as, the phantasy of re-entering the mother's

^^phantasy ^omb représenta a désire to esc£çe 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 rebirth would
naturally seem to give expression to tlie tendency to émerge

1 O. Rank, "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero.''

2 "Vorlesungen zur Einfûhrung in die Psychoanalyse," 461.

IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL LIFE

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 ^ and others^ hâve shown, actually associated
with the phantasy in very many cases. In this sensé, then, the
désire to attain to individual independence and freedom from
the parents finds symbolical représentation as a répétition of
that process whereby we first acquired the status of an inde-
pendent organism distinct from that of the mother who
bore us.

In other cases however the symbolism is of a rathef more Spiritual
remote kind, the idea symbolised being that of moral or spiritual régénération
régénération 3. 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 phraseologj' of many religious formulae and by
the nature of many of the cérémonies connected with moral or
religions conversion. Thus the rite of baptism, as is pretty
generaUy recognised, consists, in one of its principal aspects, in
a symbolic représentation of the act of birth, and^ the same is
true of many of the initiation cérémonies performed at puberty
in aU parts of the world *.

The association — so often found in this connection — of re-
birth with a previous retum 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 sàid, a man
cannot literally **be bom again" unless he has previously
"entered the second time into his mother*s womb"; but pro-
bably it has itself a further and deeper significance. As the
resuit of his researches upon this point, Jung^ considers that
the association in question expresses the necessity ol gathering
fresh sources of psychic energy from the deepest strata of our
mental life in the Unconscious, if the moral or spiritual con-
version is to be successful. Starting from the considération of

1 " Psychology of the Unconscious," 397.

2 Especially Silberer, *'Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism," 307 if.
2 Cp, Jung and Silberer as above.

* For an important discussion of certain further aspects of baptism
from the psycho-analytical point of view, see Ernest Jones, "Die Bedeutung
des Salzes in Sitte und Brauch der Vôlker", Imago, 1912, I. 463 If •

û "Psychology of the Unconscious," :233 ff .

Physical
régénération

The literal

interprétation

of the womb

and birth

phantasies

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

the products of the collective mind as exemplified in cuit and
legend rather than from the phantasies of the individual, other
investigators, such as Sir J. G- Frazer ^ hâve come to the con-
clusion that it is primarily a physical rather than a moral
régénération that is symbolised by the ideas of re-birth. Thus
the historiés of such divine personages as Attis, Adonis or
Osiris, whose death and subséquent retum to life are plainly
analogous to the phantasy of the retum to the mother*s womb
(burial in the earth) and re-birth from it, hâve been interpreted
as expressions of the désire for rejuvenation on the part of the
individual or the race, or again as représentations (probably
magical in intention) of the periodical decay and revival of
végétation or of the periodical changes of the seasons upon
which thèse dépend. This view would seem to be supported
by the fact that such a significance (often however associated
with that of moral régénération in Jung's sensé) is inhérent in
many of the mysteries and superstitions of ail âges, as in the
ideas of the philosopheras stone or the dixir of life, and in the
symbolic practices, legends and traditions characteristic of secret
societies and of mysticism generally^.

Ail thèse interprétations are probably correct, so far as
they go and as regards certain cases. Certainly the désire for
the préservation or recoveiy of youth, the attainment of im-
mortality, the ensuring of a good harvest or even the felt need
of spiritual' régénération are sufficiently strong and récurrent
motives of the human mind to justify their fréquent appearance
m symbolic form. Nevertheless, from what we know of the
conditions goveming the most deeply rooted and widespread
human phantasies and from the gênerai laws which underlie
the use of symbolism ^ it would seem likely that in a considér-
able number of cases the meaning of the ideas of re-entering
the womb and of re-birth is not exhausted by thèse interpré-
tations. The frequency and relative uniformity of thèse womb
and birth phantasies make it probable that, in one of their
aspects at least, they are no mère symbols but represent things
actually desired on their own account. The actual retum to
the womb does, as we hâve seen, represent the extrême ex-

1 "Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild."

2 Silberer, op. cit.

3 Cj^. Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 129 ff.

IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL LIFE

pression of the tendency to escape from the troubles of the
outer world to a condition in which there is complète immunity
from effort, responsibility, difficulty and danger. Further, psycho-
analytic investigation of the womb and birth phantasies as they
occur in individuals seems to show that they often hâve a Sexual sîgni-
sexual or quasi-sexual significance, being the expression of ficance of the
sexual tendencies and arousing sexual feeling*. Through the
extrême intimacy which a child establishes with its mother by
the processes of gestation and birth, it may find in imagination by
means of thèse 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 feeUng. It is pro-
bable too that in men and boys, the process of passing to or
from the womb through the vagina is treated, on the principle
of iofum 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 privilège of being in that place,
whence his incestuous desires impel him to return. In this sensé
then, the womb and birth phantasies express the incestuous
tendencies in a milder and less objectionable form^.

^ Thus in a case known to the présent writer a boy frequently
indulged in phantasies of entering into the bodies of women and girls
whom he admired, the ideas of effecting an entrance into the body, of
being carried therein and of re-emerging therefrom, being ail accompanied
by voluptuous feehngs of a sexual character.

2 A striking example of this is to be found in Sir J. M. Barrie's "Mary
Rose "\ in which a grown up son, on retuming after many years to the
home of his childhood, is eamestly warned and entreated by the house-
keeper in charge of the (now empty) house not to enter his former nursery
(womb symbol), a small room which is approached by a short passage
(vagina symbol). He eventually overcomes his fears and boldly enters the
forbidden apartment with a Hghted candie (phaUic symbol) in his hand. At
that moment the ghost of his mother appearsî

The identification of the processes of birth and coitus is well shown
in the foUowing dream of a patient. "1 was with difficulty crawHng through
a very narrow tunnel under a mountain which, I thought, was called the
Aalberg. I was a good deal frightened but saw the end of the tunnel a
long way off. In trying to get out, I seemed to force my way forward by
continually butting with my head against some kind of soft wall". The

THE PSYCHG-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Sezual
curiosity

Children's
questions

In gifls (or in boys, in so far as they possess homosexual
inclinations) the retum to the mother may be used as a means
of attaining sexual intimacy with the father, indirectly through
fusion, or identification, with the mother V

The directly sexual feeling thus attaching to thèse phantasies
is in many cases powerfully reinforced by the curiosity which
is experienced by children in relation to the processes of
conception, gestation and birth. Most children would seem to
possess at an early âge a very lively interest in ail matters
directiy or indirectiy connected with the reproductive function.
The question **Where do babies corne from?" is one of the
most absorbing of ail the problems of our early years; one
which, in its more sublimated forms, may lay the foundation
of that restless désire 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 théories of
reproduction which hâve recentiy attracted the attention of
psycho-analysts^.

Curiosity of this kind is also found to underlie much of
that désire for knowledge which manifests itself in the incessant
asking of questions so characteristic of children at a certain
âge, Where this is the case, the actual questions asked are

movement hère described is a clear coitus symbol (head = pénis), while
the mountain would appear to hâve derived its name Irom the phallic
significance of the eel.

In a certain number of cases the idea of retuming to the mother*s
womb or of being bom is coloured by the infantile " cloacal theory " of
birth, according to which the child imagines birth to take place through
the rectum. This is shown with exceptional cleamess in the following
dream. "I was walking down a long and narrow flight of stairs. They
seemed to be the back stairs of a large house or hôtel and were very
dirty and iU-lit, and every now and then I would tread in a pool of dirty
wàter. The stairs suddenly (note the words in italics) opened out towards
the àotiom and I emerged into a back yard. I found I was covered with
soot and dust and my boots were filthy.*' {Cp, the well loDCgiTii passage
from St. Augustine, **Inter urinas et faeces nascimur").

1 Freud, "Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre." IV, 693, 694.
Further évidence has recentiy been brought together by Mrs. S. C. Porter
in a (not yet published) paper on Brontephobia,

2 Freud, " Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre," H, 169,
Jung, "CoUected Papers on Analytical Psychology," 132.

IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRE-NATAL UFE

often only substitutes for the real problem which so insistendy

demands solution — die problem of the origin of men — and are

shown to be ôf litde importance in themselves by the lisdess

and uninterested way in which the child frequendy 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 tum to be equally unsadsfying. In ail such

questioning the true nature of the real problem is for the most

part kept below the threshold of consciousness, through the

opération of répressive 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, direcdy or by implication, has

taught the child to regard such questions as taboo, This notion The forbidden

of the question which is forbidden but which nevertheless **^f^^and"

imperiously demands an answer is one that is of fréquent legend

occurrence in myth and legend, the forbidden question often

disclosing itself as one which has référence to the birthplace,

parentage or birth of the hero (as for instance in the Lohengria v

legend) or the origîn and nature of man in gênerai (as in the

case of Œdipus)^.

Under thèse circumstances, it may well seem to the child
tiiat his curiosity conceming the process by which he and
other children came into the world could be most satisfactorily
gratifred by the expérience 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 désire
thus satisfied may again in some cases be still further rein-
forced 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,

1 Rank, "Die Lohengrinsage," 107 ff. '*Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung
und Sage," 261 ff. This however does not exhaust the significance of the
forbidden question motive, another important aspect of which is refêrred
to later.

IIIE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Summary Summarising our discussion as to the significance of the

womb and birth phantasies, we hâve seen that they may hâve
any or ail of the following meanings: —

As to the return to the womb:—
(i) 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 désire for the effortless gratification of ail needs and
wishes,

(b) the désire for protection from the dangers of the outer
world^

(c) the équation of life after death with Ufe before bh-th, the
former being invested with ail 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 $exual intimacy with the father
through fusion vn\h the mother,

(i) A more or less symbolic significance; in which the emphasis
may be laid upon: —

(a) the désire 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 désire for physical rejuvenation (of the individual, of
the race, or of the means of subsistence),

(2) A more Uteral significance, in which the emphasis may be
laid upon: —

(a) a direcdy sexual pleasure in the contemplation of the
act, the process of birth being treated as a substitute for
sexual intercourse,

(b) the possibility of satisfjdng sexual curiosity^.

^ Il is a question of considérable psychological interest, as to how the
ideas of birth and intra-uterine life corne to acquire the significance which
we hâve found them to possess. In what way for instance do we corne to

IDEAS OF BIRTH AND PRÉ-NATAL LIFE

associate life within the womb with freedom from effort, difficulty or
danger? In the majority of cases, not from conscious thinking on the
subject ; on the contrary, the connotation of safety and effortlessness would
seem in some way to belong inherently to the idea of pre-natal existence
from the very beginning, or at any rate to hâve become attached to it
through a purely unconscious process of association. Again, how do we
corne into possession of the ideas of birth and pre-natal life themselves?
Is the knowledge which has gone to the formation of thèse ideas entirely
acquired after birth, or is there retained in the mind anything in the
nature of impression or memory of that early period of existence in which
gestation and birth were actually experienced? From the fact of the very
gênerai obliviscence which attends the first years of infàncy, as well perhaps
as from the relatively undeveloped state of the cerebrum in the newly
bom child, we might, with considérable show of reason, be inclined to
disbelieve that any memory traces can be operative. On the other hand, the
surprising fact of the sudden recovery in hypnosis, during psycho-analysis
or otherwise, of early memories which had been entirely lost for many
years, or again the fact that phantasies of "birth or intra-uterine life seem
sometimes to refer to détails {e. g. the amniotic fluid or the différent
stages of labour) of which there is little opportunity to leam in ordinary
life and which play but a small part, if any, in the average. adult's
conscious notions on thèse subjects, hâve' made some writers hesitate to
affirm too strongly the absolute impossibility of such opération. Again
some may suggest that the knowledge which is mysteriously revealed in
thèse phantasies may compel us to assume the existence of some such
innate ideas as are perhaps involved in Jung's conception of the împersonal
or racial Unconscious, according to which there are présent in the uncon-
scious mind certain materials (capable, apparently, of crystallisation into
ideas of a certain degree of definiteness) which in their origin are assumed
to be independent of personal expérience, being, like our more fundamental
instincts and tendencies, derived and inherited from a long Une of ancestors.

It is perhaps possible that more exact information on this important
subject might be forthcoming as the resuit of careful investigations into
such questions as the following:

(i) To what extent (if at ail) do children display — in dreams, phan-
tasies or otherwise — knowledge as to the circumstances of their birth and
pre-natal life which they could not possibly hâve obtained except from
memory of their own past expérience?

(2) Do the phantasies of prematurely bom children differ in any way
from those of children bom at the end of the normal term? If, for instance,
there really exist any memory traces of the later period of gestation or
of the process of birth, it might be expected that they would be less vivid
than usual in prematurely bom children, owing to the less developed
condition of their brain at the time of birth.

(3) Are the phantasies conceming birth in any way more vivid or
fréquent or of greater emotional intensity in those whose birth has been
a process of difficulty and long duration than in those who hâve enjoyed
an easy delivery?

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

(4) Do the womb phantasies of twins indicate any knowledge of the
anusual conditions of their pre-natal life ?

(5) Do the phantasies of chiidren who hâve been removed from the
womb by Caesarian section reveal any peculiarities corresponding to the
absence of the usual birth process ?

CHAPTER IX

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF INITIATION AND
INITIATION RITES

The phantasies of return to the womb and of re-birth,
withwhichwe hâve just been concemed, are intimatelyconnected
with another phantasy which is met with surprisingly often in
the investigation of dreams and other manifestations of the
Unconscîous — that of initiation. The idea of initiation corresponds
to a vnsh 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 désire for sexual initiation
at the hands of the parents (or of obvions substitutes for thèse) ;
such initiation constituting (in the mind of the phantasy maker)
at once a removal of the prohibition which the parents had
formerly laid upon aU manifestations of sexuality and an invi-
tation to pénétra te those mysteries of sexual, reproductive and
adult life generally, which they hâve 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
privilèges of maturity in the sexual or in any other sphère 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 gênerai that is required, but initiation
into the incestuous form of this life which was characteristic of the
first obj'ect-love of the child. Indeed the very persistence of thèse
infantile desires constitutes one of the principal motives of the
initiation phantasy; it is just the fact that ail the sexual trends

The
psychological

significance
of initiation

Initiation and
Incest

TIÎE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAAIILY

are to an appréciable extent stiU tinged with the atmosphère
of the repressed incestuous tendencies, which makes the removal
of the inhibitions and prohibitions attaching to thèse tendencies
to be feit 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 tfiis signifies to him a
removal of the prohibition imposed by his father on ail 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*,
the boy may feel that the original prohibition is still too power-
ful to be overcome and that his sexual life will remain for

^ The following three dream extracts from the writer's own psycho-
analytic expérience afford very clear examples of the kind of dream to
which référence is hère made.

(i) "I was trying to catch a train, but à gâte leading to the
platfonn was closed and I could not succeed in opening it. Then
my father suddenly appeared, shook the gâte violently, opened it
and hurried me across the platfonn. He opened the door of a com-
partment and pushed me in. I found a lady sitting there." The lady
hère was associated with the mother and the opening of the gâte and
door symbolised the sexual act.

(2) "An elderly man" (father symbol) "led me upstairs" (coitus
symbol. Cp. Freud, "Interprétation of Dreams," p. 252) "to the interior of a
church or chapel" (mother symbol). "Hère hymns were being sung"
(initiation ceremony) "I thought I ought to sing too, but had some bother
to find the right place in the hymn book. Then one of the people said to
me * You are one of us.' "

(3) "I wanted to get into a house, but could not find the way in.
Suddenly our doctor" (in this case, as so often, a father substitute) "came
along and said: *A doctor always goes in by the window'. From a bag he
brought out a long elastic instrument" (phallic symbol) . "with which he
opened a window on the first floor" (symbol of sex intercourse). "We
entered and I found it was my mother*s bedroom. The doctor said *You
should now go to sleep' and I prepared to go to bed."

As will be seen from thèse examples, the initiation idea may be
easily combined with the idea of retuming to the mother's womb discussed
in the last chapter. This combination is perhaps still more clearly shown
in the following dream of the patient, who provided Example 2. "I was on
a boat sailing on a river or canal which gradually became narrower and
shallower. Finally the boat grounded on a sandy bottom. I got out and
walked up a staircase into a cathedralwhere some ceremony was going
on, in which I took part.''

INITIATION AND INITIATION RITES

ever under the ban of the strong inhibitions aroused' by a sensé
oî parental disapproval ^.

Similar considérations 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 gênerai conduct Initiation
and, more particularly, in the attitude to be adopted toward the cérémonies
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 thèse 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 privilèges
and responsibilities of their new condition. This tendency has
found definite and elaborate expression in the rites and
cérémonies of initiation which are to be found in societies of
every stage of culture and in every part of the world. Thèse
cérémonies are of very considérable interest and importance
for our présent purpose, for hère, 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 amphfy and corroborate one another, leading
ultimately to a degree of certainty and précision which it would
be difficult or impossible to attain by the pursuit of either
discipline alone.

Since the change from childhood to maturity involves re- Initiation and
adjustments 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

1 Thus in a case known to me the inhibition in question constituted
one of the principal factors in the production of a very prolonged condition
of sexual impotence in married life.

8r f>

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

of its aspects taken the form of a symbolic process of re-birth ;
the re^birth phantasy, as we hâve seen^ being closely associated
with the idea of moral or spiritual conversion or régénération.
The process' of re-birth in thèse cérémonies 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 "hâve a curions 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
prétends to go through ail the labour pains and the boy on
being rebom cries like a babe and is washed, He lives on milk
for some days afterwards h** Elsewhere the novice is swallowed
by a monster and again disgorged, thus simulating the retum
to the womb and the re-birth therefrom^. In still other cases
a drama of death and résurrection is enacted by the novices
or played before them^. Frequentiy an essential part of the
process of initiation consists of a more or less prolonged period
of seclusion about the time of puberty*; girls especially being
often confined in small buts for weeks, months or in some
cases years, at or before the time of their first menstruation^.
General and These initiatory rites would seem, like the womb and birth

isexual olgects phantasies which we hâve already studied, to hâve in the main
two principal objects in view; first, an introduction of thé
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, religions beliefs and cérémonial
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 privilèges o( 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 hcence),
but at the same time is instructed in the numerous prohibitions

1 Sir J. G. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy.'* IV. 228.

2 Sir J. G. Frazer, "Balder the Beautiful." H. 239.

3 Op. cit n. 243, 246.

* op. cit, n, 253, 259.

3 Op, cit. I. 22.

INITIATION AND INITIATION RITES

and taboos as regards persons, circumstances and occasions
which are usually placed upon such indulgence.

Many of the détails of thèse initiation cérémonies hâve, The abandon-
directly or indirectly, référence to the emotional attitude of the ^^^} ^i ^?""
children towards their parents with which we hâve been con- on the part of
cemed in the earlier chapters of this book^. A gênerai effort *^^ initiated
to repress the mental attitude which the novice has at an
earUer period adopted towards his parents, is to be observed
in the — real or feigned — amnesia^ 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 séparation
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 séparation
(especially of the son from the mother) and in many of the
symboUc 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)^-

In the cruel rites which are so often inflicted on the novices xhe attitude of
by the elder members of the community it is possible to see *^^ initiators
a manifestation of that fear and hatred which fathers often feel initiated
towards their sons and which mothers often feel towards their
daughters — feelings which often correspond in nature and
intensity to the équivalent émotions 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 hâve 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

1 A careful study of thèse ail important aspects of the initiation
cérémonies has recently been made by Th. Reik (Die Pubertàtsriten der
Wilden, Imago, 1915, IV. 125, 189) from whose work many of the state-
ments and conclusions hère given hâve been taken.

2 An amnesia the production of which is often facilitated by the use
of intoxicants.

3 Sîr J. G. Frazer, op. cit., I. 22.

83 ^»

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THlE :FAMILY

they can be admitted to the full privilèges of maturity, they must
hâve killed a man— in order, probably, to work off their hostile
feeUngs on some third person who may serve as a substitute
for the father who was the original object of thèse 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 privilèges from which they hâve hitherto
excluded them, and from the gênerai tendency to grudge the
abandonment of that superiority over the youths which they
themselves hâve hitherto enjoyed. The manifestation of thèse
feelings in some form of cruelty is most often rationalised as
a désire to prove that the novices are worthy of admission to
the privilèges and responsibilities of the initiated and to ensure,
by adding to the impressiveness of the occasion, that they will
remember what they hâve seen and heard during the
initiation cérémonies*. Similar motives, leading to similar
manifestations, may often be observed even in highiy civilised
communities, where the initiation is usually oçe destined to
intrôduce the individual not into adult life in gênerai but into
some spécial class, institution or society, or into some corporate
body consisting of persons who hâve enjoyed some spécial
kind of expérience or mode of life. Under this head, for
instance, come many of the time honoured customs and
cérémonies, to which boys on entering school or joining a
"gang", students on going to collège, or persons joining some
professional societj?^ or guild, are made to submit^.

^ Sometimes apparently this procédure is very successful. Thus a
well known psychologist has told me; **0n passing every illumination
during the night of the Jubilee, my father, who was carrying me, smacked
me *to make me remember the day'. I was four, and I hâve remembered 1"

2 In many of thèse, as for instance the nautical practice of ducking or
"keel hauhng" those who are crossing the equator for the first time, it is
possible also to trace certain typical symbols of the re-birth phantasy.

The sexual aspects of initiation are apt to be particularly prominent
in the case of boys entering a criminal or anti-social **gang". Thus an
acute student of this subject writes to me: "I hâve often found that a
delinquent boy was initiated into sexual knowledge and practices on the

INITIATION ÀND INITIATION RITES

In other aspects of the cérémonies, however, the motive
of sexual jealousy stands unmistakably displayed. Thus the
rites of circumcision and subincision, the puUing out of hairs
from the head, face or pubic région and the knocking out of
teeth, which so frequently précède or accompany the process
of initiation, are ail 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: — (i) as a means of rendering impossible the
réalisation 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 Umits 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^), The same object
of preventing incest is sought in the stem "avoidances" which Prohibition
are often practised at the same tïme; as, for instance, that by and licence
which a youth must keep very carefully from ail contact with
his mother, even to the extent of avoiding her footprints.

But if ail love in the old direction is forbidden, sexual
activity in other directions is often encouraged as a substitute,
as in such instructions as the followng: **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 hâve no fear of maidens; sleep and
bathe together with them"^. Even so, however, there usually
remain, as we might expect from the gênerai nature of dis-
placement, some remuants 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 him-
self or his partner in the act must shortly die (as a punishment,

first evening that he joined his "gang"; e. g. in one such gang every new
member had to exhibit himself. He was asked if he knew "what it (the
pénis) was for"; this was explained; and after certain criticisms were
passed, the leader, after a thorough inspection, dçclared "you will do".
Thére was also a: catechism; "Do you know what your mother and father

do " etc; the resuit being to discrédit them in the eyes of the

boy .and to lead him to emulate them or at least to defy and despise them."

* A. Schweiger, "Der Ritus der Beschneidung*" Antkropos. 1914.

3 K. Weule, " Negerleben in Ostafrika," 304. Quoted by Reik., op. cit.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

we must , suppose, for the sin committed) — a belief which
leads young men to fall upon and bave forcible intercourse
wîth old women (mother substitutes)^. Hère the youth is
definitely permitted some degree of (symbolic) incestuous
indulgence before he finally abandons bis infantile desires. A
still wider permission of the same kind is^ however, granted
in the fairly widespread practice of remo^^ng the usual sexual
taboos on ail or most of the .prohibited persons during "the
period of revehy which follows initiation, where the nearest
relationshîps — even those of own brother and sister — seem to
be no bar to the gênerai licence," even though shortly after-
wards thèse same "brothers and sisters may not so much as
speak to one another".^
Rerbirth and The monster from whose belly the novices are rebom

Reconciliation would appear in many cases to represent the yoting 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 — zsx identification of very fréquent occurrence
and considérable significance, the psychological foundations of
which can however be more appropriately discussed in a later
chapter. (Ch. XIV). The novice in being bom from the body
of the grandfather becomes in a sensé a re-incamation of
the grandfather and is endowed with ail his powers and
attributes-

In a secôndary and "rationalised" sensé, this process of
re-birth from the grandfather bas been interpreted as the
expression of a désire to re-create the youth as the son of his
tribe rather than as the son of his mother, «. ^. to sjrmbolise
and emphasise the fact that he bas now exchanged the narrow
sphère of family rule and affection for the viâder one of
obédience 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 bom 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 désire and on the

1 Chazac, " La religion des ïCikuyu." Anthropos II. 317, 1910.

2 Sir J. G. Frazer, "Totemîsm and Exogamy/' n. 144.

INITIATION AND INITIATION RITES

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 casés
rigorously excluded.

Thus it would appear that the ideas underlying the almost
universal social custom of the initiation ceremony are those
which we hâve alreàdy. met with in the study of the development
of the individual mind in relation to the family: showing thereby
that thèse ideas are to be found not only in mmds of a certain
constitution or of a particular âge, race, or type of culture, but
represent a gênerai human characteristic, having its foundations
deeply rooted in the history of mankind; a part of our mental
inheritance which bas to be reckoned with in ail efforts at
social or individual improvement, a factor for good or evil
which éducation, instruction or upbringing may perhaps modify
but can scarcely hope to eradicate.

CHARTER X

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES

Our last two chapters hâve again been something in the

nature of à digression — a digression however which, we will

;hope,-faas net beea altogether unprofitable, inasmuch as it bas

opened to our view some of the wider aspects of our problem,

and afforded us a ghmpse of the extent to which ..the aspects

of family life which are forcing* themselves on the attention of

psychologists at the présent day, are the same as those which

hâve exercised the greatest influence upon mankind in ail

places and of ail degrees of culture, and hâve manifested

themselves everywhere in human beliefs and institutions. It

is now time, however, to résume 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.

Varieties and In the failures and abnormalities of development vnûi which

^^re^ds^th^ we were Concemed in Chapters VI and VII, the principal

displacement characteristic was the persistence of, or retum to, an infantile

re^rdln^ or childlike relationship towards the parents. In normal

tendencies development, as we hâve 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 trans-

ferred 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 hâve proceeded

normally along thèse Unes for a certain period, it is still possible

for an arrest or régression to occur, as a resuit of which any

of thèse later stages may become permanent instead of transitory,

in precisely the same manner as in the case of the earlier

DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SÙBSTITÛTÈS

stages in which the émotions and feelings are still directly
related to the parents themselvés.

From one point of view abnormalities occurring in thèse
later stages are perhaps less serious than those which we
considered in the earlier chapters, inasmuch as the régression
is less complète; sôme degree of psychical émancipation from
the parents being still preserved. Nevertheless thèse abnormalities
may constitute a very grave hindrance to the gênerai development
and mental health of the individual and, in the case of the
displacement of very intense affects, may give rise to conséquences
of a distinctly pathological order; while, on their more sublimated
side, they hâve contributed much to somé of the most important
aspects of social life and culture.

We hâve already in Chapter III studied some of the ways in
which the displacement of the original love from parents to
other persons takes place. If the displacement remains at a
stage in which the associative link between the origiital and
the later object of love is a very firm or close one, we may
say that the development is incomplète, inasmuch as the
individual's love is still to an undue extent on an infantile
fixation. Of the various associative links which wé hâve
enumerated as being those of most fréquent occurrence — mental
or physical characteristics, âge, circumstances of life, past history,
family relationship etc., the last named is apt to play an
especially important part in cases of arrested or régressive
development. The displacement of love from parent to brother
or sister may probably, as we hâve seen, be regarded as a
normal transitory phase. The intensity of the attachment
frequently aroused and the sexual nature which it often retains
in the Unconscious right on into adolescent and adult life are
vouched for, on the négative side, by the strength of the
repressions raised against incestuous tendencies of this kind —
repressions which arescarcely 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 bave already seen (p. 86) that on occasions of spécial
licence connection between brother and sister, though otherwise

Insufficient
Displacement

Displacement
depending
on family

relationship

Brother and
sister

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Cases wheie strictly tabooed, may be temporarily permitted. It seems to be

brother-sister p^etty srenerally aereed among anthropologists that thèse

mcesthasbeen f J i> -^ , , ^ f -1 j-^- c

permitted occasions are of the nature ot reversions to a condition or

affairs that was once comparatively fréquent, if not indeed quite

gênerais There are in fact nimierous indications that such

brother-sister connections were, among certain peoples at any

rate, the rule rather than the exception. H. L. Morgan, to whose

crédit 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^. The évidence for the really

primitive character of any such family has been seriously dis-

puted in more récent writings'; but the fréquent 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 hâve been, common among the Antambahoaka of South East

Madagascar*, among many tribes of Brazil*, in Cali® (Colombia),

Tenasserim^ (Burma), .Mexico^ and many other places. The

ancient Persians seem to hâve permitted incest of this kind,

though Herodotus remarks with référence to the marriage of

Cambyses to his sister that this was not a usual procédure ®-

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 tum also sprung from a union of the same

^ See e. g. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," n, 145.

2 Ancient Society, 385 ff.

3 See especially W. H- R. Rivers, "On the Origin of the Classificatory
System of Relationship." Anthropological Essays, presented to E. B. Tylor,
p. 310 ff.

* Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy/' E, 638.
5 Frazer, op. cit. El, 576.

^ L. Femandez de Piedrahita, " Historia de las Conquistas del Nuevo
Reyno de Granada," 1688, 113.

' Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengaî, VU, 856.

? F. S. Clavigero, *'The History of Mexico." Trans. 1787, I, 319.

9 Book. m, 31.

DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES

sort"*. Even in Greece a similar practice does not seem to hâve
been unusual, for, if we may believe Cornélius Nepos^, no dis-
grâce attached to Cimon's marriage with his sister Elpinice,
since his fellow-citizens had the same custom, Among the Jews
too, the prophet Ezekiel» 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
hâve 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 récent times\ afford further évidence of the former wide-
spread occurrence of brother-sister unions.

On the négative side too, there is évidence to be gained Répression of,
from the nature of the taboos and institutions erected against ^uch^inc^eiT^
incest. According to Frazer^ the exogamous Systems of the
Australian aborigines seem to hâve 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 subséquent developments and
elaborations of the primitive two class System, instituted for
the purpose of avoiding brother-sister marriages, The abhor^
rence of brother-sister incest is indeed very marked in many
primitive communities, and that this abhorrence represents the
repression of a genuine désire 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
necessarj^"® and by the fact, already referred to, that as soon
as the customary restrictions are relaxed, the otherwise for-
bidden connections are freely indulged in. To this évidence
from anthropology there might be added the scarcely less con-
vincing data from mythology and literature, vt^hich has been

» Sir Gaston Maspero, quoted by Miss R. E. White, "Women in
Ptolemaic Egypt"» Journal of Heîîenic Studies, 1898, XVIII, 244. Q. Frazer,
"Adonis, Attis and Osiris." II, 214, who also quotes the above.

2 Cimon.

3 ch. xxn, u.

* Cp. €, g. W. Ellis. *'Tour through Hawaii," 414.

ïi "Totemism and Exogamy," I, 273 ff.

« See e. g. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," H, 189.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

studied in such détail by Rank* and which perhaps, for this
reason, we need not stop to dwell on hère; it being sufficient
to remind the reader in passing of such well known mytho-
logical cases as the unions of Zeus and Hera and of Osiris
and Isis, or, as regards literature, to refer him to such récent
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.
Displacement As a further stage of development the original parent

of parent- jq^^ j^^y be displaced, not on to a brother or sister, but on
tendfncies^on to some more distant relative, such as a cousin (a brother or
to more distant gjg^g^ substitute) or an uncle or aunt (more directly parent
substitutes)^. 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 stemest prohibition^ and of warm
approval*. Any kind of sexual relationship between nephews
and aunts or between nièces and uncles seems to hâve been,
too, reminiscent of the repressed tendencies to parent-incest to
hâve received sanction either legally or morally, but unions of
this kind hâve nevertheless sometimes been found among pri-
mitive peoples^, and are not infrequently présent as objects
of désire in the unconscious mind of those who live in civilised
communities to-day.
Relatives by Of particular interest in this connection is the displacement

marriage ^f feelings originally directed to the parents towards relatives
in law, Since by marriage one partner in the marriage is
supposed to hâve 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
hâve in some measure effected such an entrance, it is not

1 ** Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage/' 443 ff.

2 See especially K. Abraham, " Die Stelle der Verwandtenehe in der
Psychologie der Neurosen," Jahrbuch fur Psychoanalytische und Psycho-
pathoîogische Forschungen, I, 1909^ iio.

3 See e. g. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy/' I, 346, 439, 449 ff 475^
483, n, 75 ff., 233 ff.. m 552.

^ See e. g. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," I. 180 ff. II 6^.

î> See e. g. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," II, 525, UI 575, IV 316.

DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES

altogether surprising to find much the same conflict of tenden-
des centering about the new relatives acquired by niarriage
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 hâve no
dealings with some or ail of the members of his wife*s family,
nor a wife with those of her husband's^. On the other hand
a number of practices indicate that connections of an intimate
kind between relatives by marriage are, under certain circum-
stances at'any.rate, regarded as permissible and appropriate.
Such, for instance, is the widespread custom of the Levirate*,
whereby a man is expected to take unto himself his deceased
brother's wife or the scarcely less fréquent usage of the
Sororate^ whereby a man marries his deceased wife's sister
— practices which seem to hâve made their influence felt
(negatively) in our own table of relatives with whoin wedlock
is forbidden, including, as this does, not only blood relatives
but relatives by marriage^.

In récent times the relationship by marriage which has
attracted most attention is that of parent-in-law and child-in-
law. In view of the complex nature of the relations between
parent and child and of the elaborate process of re-adjustment
in thèse 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 mar-
riage, he should expérience some difficulty in establishing a
satisfactory relationship with thèse new parents, with whom,
unlike his own original parents, he may hâve had but little
time or opportunity to grow acquainted. To this gênerai 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 spécial sources of embarrassment, to the consi-
dération of which we may perhaps profitably dévote a few
words hère. In the first place, husbands and wives are not
free to adjust their relations to their parents-in-law according

Parcnt-in-law

and
child-in-law

Difficulties

cause d by

parent fixation

on the part of

husband or

wife

1 For numerous examples see Frazer. "Totemism and Exogamy."

2 The reader will remember that in England permission to marry a
deceased wife's sister has only recently been granted.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

to the inclinations of the two parties directly concerned, but
must (if they are to be successful) also bring thèse relations
into some degree of harmony with those of their partners in
marriage towards thèse 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 hâve 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 vénération
and (unconscious) love towards her fathen 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 vrife upon the parent of his or her
own sex, /. 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 marrage may (quite
apart from its influence on the harmony of the marriage itself)
be sufficient to bring about a very considérable degree of
difficulty in the relationship between one partner and the
parents of the other.
The displace- This tendency is moreover liable to be largely reinforced

ttm ^païinte ~ ^^ ^^ ^^^^^ complicated — by the other factors to which
to parents-in- we referred above. The second of thèse sources of difficulty
(the one which is mdeed most intimately connected with our
présent line of thought) lies in the fact that the child-in-law
himself is frequentiy 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 émotions; men or women expressing
relatively freely towards a father-in-law or mother-in-law

law

DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES

respectively those feelings of hatred which they had felt (but Hâte

had perhaps repressed) with référence to the corresponding
parents by blood. The natural identification of their parents-in-
law with their own parents, in virtue of which this displace-
ment of affect is enabled to take place, is often facilitated by
the opération of the factor we hâve 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
détriment 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 resuit 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
recendy aroused (and perhaps to some extent legitimate) feeling
of annoyance is reinforced by the émotions 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
émotion concerned is love ralher than hatred. Such a transfer
may nevertheless occur in certain circumstances. Li a positive
form it may resuit in a high degree of vénération 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 négative 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

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIG STUDY OF THE FAMILY

them) a transfer of this kind may lead to fréquent troubles^

misunderstandings and frictions between the child-in-law and

parent-in-law whom it conceras,

Corresponding The third and last of our three factors which complicate

displacement ^j^^ relations of children-in-law and parents-in-law consists in a

on tne part of r « i x ^

the parents-in- similar displacement of affect on the part oi the parents-

law them- fn-law, in virtue of which they may direct towards their
children by marriage the affection or hostility which they
ôriginally experienced in relation to their own children; a
factor the significance of which may perhaps be more fuUy and
easily appreciated after we hâve discussed the intimate nature
of Âese original feehngs 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 mère passing
référence hère,
Son-in-lawand The relation between child-in-law and parent-in-law which

Mother-m-law j^^g become notoripusly the most difficult in récent times is
that of son-in-law and mother-in-law. This relation too has
been made the object of some spécial study by psycho-analysts*,
who hâve found in it ail the factors which we hâve referred
to above. Among the most important grounds for the hostility
which so often marks this relationship hâve been observed
the foUowing: —

I. 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 fréquent giving of advice, appeal to her own
greater expérience or otherwise) some sort of control over
die daughter's household or mode of life. This interférence 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
suprême 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 maternai
supervision after her marriage. On the other hand, shôuld the

^ See especially Freud, *Totem and Taboo,** 24 ff.

DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES

daughter display a marked tendency to be influenced by her
mother or a high degree of vénération or affection for her,
the son-in-law will again* resent the interférence 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 sensé of sexual attractiveness
which his wife possesses for him. The mother-in-law reminds
him of his vdfe, but is without her youthful beauty and this
is apt to produce in him a dim sensé of appréhension lest, as
a resuit 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 thèse 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 hâve already indicated, feelings which are
incestuous in origin, being a displacement of those originally
directed towards his own mother; the repression of thèse
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 évidence too — on the négative 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.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

4. A corresponding displacement of incestuous désires^
leading to a similar repression and reversai of émotion, 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 éléments of the mother-in-law's love
which are directed to the son-in-law, since thèse 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.
Step-child and Only less important than the relations of child-in-law and

Step-parent parent-in-law are those of step-child and step-parent ^ ; and such
lesser degree of importance as thèse hâve is due rather to the
lesser frequency of their occurrence than to any lesser signifi-
carice which they possess for the individuals actually concemed.
The generally outstanding feature of thèse 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 hâve 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 hâve 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 hâve helped to
inhibit the original hostility experienced towards him through
arousal of the opposite émotions of love, gratitude or admiration.
The step-father, therefore, may easily re-awaken in his step-son

^ Cp. Rank, **Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage," 44 ff.

DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES

any remnants of the hatred which the latter may hâve ex-
perienced towards his real father, without re-awakening in
corresponding degree the compensating forces which kept the
hâte in check.

Furthermore, the boy's mother only marries the step-father
after a period of widowhood during which the boy may hâve
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 hâve been,
in a very real and poignant sensé, unfaithful to himself, and
to hâve 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 ^ has so convincingly shown,
underlies and forms the principal psychological motive in
Shakespeare's tragedy of *'Hamlet". It is this which is the cause "Hamkt" as a
of Hamlet's vacillation in regard to the contemplated murder ^^^e^ijtionsiij^^
of his step-father; the latter had only done what Hamlet him-
self would fain hâve done before him, but was inhibited from
doing. The contemplation of Claudius's ill deeds serves dimiy
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 feit 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 sensé no worse than
himself, the would-be punisher. Moreover, in virtue of his
marriage with the queen, Claudius now really stands in the
old king's place; in killing him, therefore, Hamlet is to his
own unconscious mind becoming guilty of the very crime of
Œdipus which had tempted him before his father's death;
hence the résistance 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
up towards her step-mother on the re-marriage of her father— ^*^fP[^''2les"'
feelings which hâve found expression in the very numerous
and familiar myths and fairy taies (such as those of Cinderella,

1 ''TheFrohlemoîUam\eX;'AmericanJournalofPsychoIogy,jgio, XXI, 72.

99 '*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Snow White, Mother Holle), of the wicked step-mother who

kiUs, beats, neglects, falsely accuses, drives out or otherwise

ill-treats her step-daughter^ Hère the feelings of the girl, Hke

those of the boy under similar circumstances, are given free

vent towards the step-mother, v^here they were formerly

inhibited by émotions of an opposite character (or at least

repressed by considérations of gênerai or traditional morahty)

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 récipient of, hostile and jealous feelings, which

had hitherto successfully been held in check.

The attitude of These feelings of hostility on the part of children to their

step-parents step-parents are of course bound to call up some degree of
towards their .^,r,. , r, ii

step-chiidren reciprocal feehng 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).

Hère, hov^ever, 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 résistance than

usual so that genuinely cruel or neglectful behaviour is more

hkely to occur.

The displace- Although it is the displacement of hâte which manifests

ment of love itself most openly and strongly in the relations of step-children

step-parents 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^- 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 hâve

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

1 Cp. Riklin, "Wishfulfillment and Symbolism in Fairy Taies"

2 Cp. Otto Rank, "Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage/' 44 ff.

after divorce

DEVELOPMENT OF PARENT SUBSTITUTES

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 thèse and the remaining parent, is one which
has indeed been used for âges 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
fréquent expression in myth, legend and literature^.

AU that we hâve hère said as regards the feelings of Re-marriage
children to their step-parents holds good to an even greater
extent than usual in the case of the re-marriage of parents
aftor a divorce or on their acquiring a fresh sexual partner
after séparation from their lawfnl husband or wife. Hère indeed
the feehngs and émotions aroused are apt to be still further
intensified by the fact that the children hâve 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 hâte towards his parents
are usually intensely stirred by ail manifestations on their part
of conjugal unhappiness or infidelity and when the barriers
which prevent the full expression of thèse 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 hâte which had hitherto been pent up.

In this chapter we hâve been concemed with the dis-
placement of the parent-regarding émotions 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 opération of which this
displacement may be effected.

1 For numerous examples see Rank, op. cit. 119 ff.

CHAPTER XI

FAMILY INFLUENCES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE

LOVE LIFE

The more ad- When the original object-love, at first directed to the

vanced stages parent, has been successfulv transferred to some more remote
of love dis- ^ , . ' . , 1 . 1 • 1 1 1 i_

placement 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 conséquence it is

often possible to trace in the sélection of the object of love

the influence of similarity, or of some other Connecting Hnk,

between this object and the lover's sister, brother, cousin or

other relative. Hère, however, the émancipation from the original

object is carried too far for the underlying motive determining

the direction of affection to be regarded as in any sensé

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 hâve been following and as an indication of the

attainment of maturity as regards the direction of the love

impulse.

"Falling in The importance of the displacement hère at work will be

^°^^" more readily grasped, if we bear in mind that it constitutes

one of the principal factors in the normal and ail-important

process of ** falling in love," and particularly of that most

I02

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE

striking but at the same time most mystifying aspect of that
process which we call **love at first sight." Love and its causes
hâve 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 spéculation, 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
Uttle if at ail superior to those of others of the loved one's
âge 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 récent article^ summarizing the results of psycho-
analysis in this direction, has divided loves into two main
types:— Two types of

(i) the narcissistic type, love:—

(2) the dependence type.

In the first type the love is the resuit of a projection of
the lover's self on to some other person — the narcissistic love The

originally directed to the Self being thus displaced on to the ^^'*,^J^t^^^*^
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 hâve 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
féminine qualities which are présent in himself but to which,
so long as they are in himself, he is unable (owing to repression
of the féminine side of his nature) to afford fuU récognition
or appréciation; 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

^ *'ZurEinfûhrung des Narzifîmus:" Jahrbuch fur Psychoanalyse y VI, i.

103

type

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

she has since sacrificed to make way for a more pronounced
development of her **woinanly*' characteristics.

The dépend- In love of the second type the affection is more genuinely

ence type ^^^ primarily **objecMove.'* The lover is hère 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 hâve 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 toc which, in its displaced
form, we hâve 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 resxilt 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 hâve 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-analj^ic method) before the nature of the association
becomes apparent.

The repression The fact that in the personality of the loved object there

uous^^basis^ of ^^^^^ ^^^^ hidden, as it were, the buried image of a brother,
affection, as sister, parent or other object of incestuous affection in the past,

^^arXl^end^ would seem to play an important part in the formation of a
type of story of world-wide occurrence, of which the Cupid-
Psyché myth and the Lohengrin legend are perhaps the best
'known examples ^. In thèse 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 érection of some other prohibition, such as one which

1 See especially Otto Rank, "Die Lohengrinsage," Schriften zur ange-
wandten Seelenkunde.

104

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE UFE

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. Hère 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 réco-
gnition of this fact would spoil the pleasure of the union by
arousing the repressions connected with incestuous love and
must therefore (as in the case of the marriage between Œdipus
and Jocasta in the Œdipus myth, where Jocasta — in Sophocles'
play — strenuously opposes, ail efforts at investigation) be pre-
vented by the most rigorous prohibitions, the breaking of which
involves the permanent dissolution of the union.

Among associations other than those of family relationship
by means of which the process of displacement is brought
about, those depending on mental or physical similarity are
probably the most important; of ail 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 fréquent
occurrence of the displacement of the love impulse along thèse
lines constitutes a factor of very considérable sociological and
historical importance. The tendency to choose a mate re-
sembling in some essential aspects — mental- or physical — one's
own nearest relatives, must, for good or evil, act as a potent
means of preserving the purity of individual types and of
family, national or racial qualities; especially when, as may
often happen, there is added to the influence of this factor that
of the narcissistic élément of love to which we hâve already
referred. So long as the associative link which conditions the
displacement is one that has some correspondence to reality,
the doser 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 ail probability,
the resemblance of the ensuing offspring to their parents.

Among the similarities of a less essential kind which may
assist in the process of displacement, those of name are apt to

Similarity as
a basis of dis-
placement

Its biological
significance

Name

105

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

play an important but subtle part and one that is veiy liable
to be overlooked or where observed, ascribed to coincidence
rather than (as it more often should be) to the opération of
unconscious mental factors^. They are in some respects a source
of danger, inasmuch as they are concerned with relatively
superficial characteristics^ which hâve little to do with the real
nature of the person selected, thus making easy the choice of
otherwise unsuitable objects of affection.
Age Similarities with the parents as regards âge often exercise

some influence in early years and in the early stages of dis-
placement, 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 un-
conscious parent love of adult life has as its object the image
of the parents as they appeared to the child in infancy; thèse
image-parents being therefore of a considerably younger âge
than that which the real parents hâve actually attained by the
time the child has reached maturity.

1 An influence of this kind may also manifest itself by causing the
successive falling in love with several persons of the same name, as for
instance, in the case of Schiller (Charlotte von Wolzogen, Charlotte von
Kalb, Charlotte von Lengefeld) or in that of Shelley (Harriet Grove, Harriet
Westbrook and the later affection for Harriet de Boinville). The incestuous
origin of such a name influence may be shown even more clearly in cases
where the names of persons successively loved are those of différent
members of the lover*s own family; as in the case of Môrike; (Clara and
Louisa, after the name of his two sisters). Cp, Rank, *' Das Inzestmotiv in
Dichtung und Sage," pp. 91, 543. In a case known to me, a young woman
fell in love successively with three men possessing the same Christian
name, one of whom had the same surname as herself. In a fourth love
affair the surname of the man was the same as the Christian name of her
brother, to whom she was much attached, and contrary to her usual custom
she always called this fourth lover by his surname instead of by his
Christian name.

2 Though not perhaps quite so superficial as is often supposed.
Psycho-analytic work has drawn attention to the influence that a name may
often exercise upon the behaviour and mental characteristics of its
possessor. (Cp. Stekel, "Die Verpflichtung des Namens," Zeitschrift fur
Psychothérapie und medizinische Psychologie, m. Part 2, 1911. Abraham,
"Ûber die determinierende Kraft des Namens," Zentralbîatt fiir Psychoanalyse^
n, 1912, 133. Goethe (Wahlverwandtschaften, Part I, Ch. 2) too had already
noticed the possibiUty of this influence.

106

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE

The similarities as regards gênerai or spécial circumsiances
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
in relation to its earliest love object were impeded by the "^are^a^re^^^
fact that this object was already bound by affection, law or married^or
both, to a third persan {i. e, the parent of the same sex as betrothed
that of the child), so in adxilt hfe the individual^s choice may
fall only on objects who are similarly not at liberty in the
disposai of their affections ^ 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 répétitions of the
unsuccessful love of their childhood^. 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 fréquent treatment of the subject
in legend and literature {Cp. Tristan and Iseult, Paolo and
Francesca, Pelleas and MeHsande, Don Carlos and his stepmother,
Casandra and a host of other examples in which the expression
and fulfilment of a great love are prevented by the fact that

^ Cp. Freud, ** Beitrâge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens," Jahrbuch
fur Psychoanalytische und Psychopaîhoîogische Forschtmgen, 1910, II, 390.

2 It is such a character for instance that Ibsen appears to hâve met in
the person of Emilie Bardach of Vienna, who served as principal model
for Hilda Wangel in The Master Builder and who is referred to in the
following description given to his friend EHas {Neue Deutsche Rundschau
1906, p. 1462, quoted by WilHam Archer in his Introductions to Ibsen's
plays, Vol. X, p. XXIV) "He related how he had met in the Tyrol a
Viennese girl of very remarkable character. She at once made him her
confidant. The gist of her confessions was that she did not care a bit
about one day marrying a well brought-up • young man — most likely she
would never marry. What tempted and charmed and delighted her was
to lure other women's husbands away from them. She was a little daemonic
worker: she often appeared to him like a little bird of prey, that would
fain hâve made him too, her booty."

107

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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.)^.
The désire for In a number of other cases stress is laid not so much on

obstacles in the ^-j^g 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
merdy add its force to those demanding previous marriage
or betrothal to another as a necessary quahfication 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 dérive fuU
satisfaction from the union or to remain permanently attracted
to his chosen object in the absence of such hindrance^.
Hère it will usually be found that the loved object is un-
consciously identified with the parent or with some other near
relation.

In other cases the désire 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,
The rescue Since the thought of the sexual relations of the parents

is, both on account of jealousy and on account of the re-
pression of incestuous cravings, one that is usually extremely
distasteful to the child, the latter often hkes to imagine that
the loved parent enters into such relations unwillingly and
under compulsion. Such a belief can anse 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

^ Otto Rank, ** Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage," especially p. 121.

' An interesting example of this curious désire is quoted by Rank
(Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage, p. 94.) from the life of Schiller:
on the occasion of the publication of the banns for the marriage between
the poet and Charlotte von Lengefeld, the former is said to hâve remarked
jokingly to his bride that it would be a pity if no one came to
raise some objection to the marriage or to dispute his right to Charlotte's
hand!

108

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE

and tyrannical attentions of the father^; 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^. 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^ or again by the struggle for
the libération of an oppressed section of a community from
the tyranny of a ruhng class*.

The idea of rescue has too, as has recently been discovered, The symboUc
a further symbolic meaning, which may be présent to the naeaning of the
Unconscious^. To rescue means to save from death, t. e. to
présent with hfe, 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, t. 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 déterminant of the rescue
phantasy in this sensé there is sometimes to be found an
obscure notion of self-begetting — the création of oneself without
the co-operation of the parent of one's own sex, ail obligation
to and connection with this parent being thus repudiated.
Such a répudiation 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

1 This belief is often strengthened by, and in its turn tends to confirm,
the frequently held infantile theory which regards sexual relations as
consisting essentially of an attack on the mother by the father — a theory
which itself exerts in many cases an important and often harmfui influence
on subséquent sexual life.

2 Cp. E. S. Hartland, "The Legend of Perseus." Vol. I, p. 94.

3 Byron's espousal (note, by the way, the implications underlying the
use of such an expression in this connection) of the cause of Greek
independence may be cited as a classical example of this form of
sublimation.

4 Cp. below, Ch. Xn.

5 Cp. Otto Rank, **Die Lohengrinsage." 87. ff., Ernest Jones "Papers
on Psycho-Analysis/' 233.

109

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Hatred and
contempt of

the mother
for permitting
the advances
of the father

The mother

regarded as a

prostitute

The
dissociation of

sexual

attractiveness

and esteem

The import-
ance of this
dissociation

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
case of displacement — not infrequent among men and of very
considérable importance for subséquent sexual life — which
seems to dépend 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^. 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 thèse advances, The father, being, according to
the estimation of the child's Unconscious, a partner altogether
undesirable, one who would under no circumstances be
preferred to the child himself by any woman of good taste,
the mother is regarded as a person quite lacking in such taste,
a woman who indeed might give herself to anybody (a view
which of course also encourages the hope that she may some
day give herself to the child). If this view should persist in
the Unconscious, the mother may come subsequently to be
regarded as a a sort of prostitute.

Now although such a séquence of ideas in the Unconscious
may lead to contempt of the mother, it has not deprived her
of her original power of attracting love and admiration; it
leads rather to a mental spKtting up of thèse original attractive
attributes, the more purely and direcdy sexual ones being
separated from the other characteristics in virtue of which
she stands as an example of ail that is morally désirable in
womanhood. Thèse two différent aspects of the mother attributes
are then in later hfe sought and found in différent individuals —
the sexual attributes in prostitutes or in women of inferior
morality, éducation, 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 tendemess,
esteem and the other components of fully developed love, is,
if we take account of its présence in minor as well as in
major degrees, of such fréquent occurrence, that it has been

1 "Beitrâge zur Psychologie des Liebeslebens." Jahrbuch fur psycho-
analytische und psychopathoïogische Forschungen, 1910, II, 389.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE

Influences
in later life
which are
liable to
reinforce it

regarded by some as a normal feature of the sex impulse in
the human maie. 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 ail generally valid, this aberrant process of development
must be regarded as one that entails very serions conséquences
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 considération may perhaps not
unprofitably be devoted hère.

The dissociation between the more purely sexual consti-
tuents of love and the éléments of esteem, révérence 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 estabhshed, 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
thèse conditions are the two foUowing:

(i) The first actual expérience 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 rôle of
sexual partner is played by women or girls known to the boy.
As masturbation itself is usually carried on in the face of
considérable psychic opposition, being looked upon as sordid,
disgusting or injurions 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 resuit of which they
make no appeal to the boy s sensé of higher moral values.
Through fréquent répétition of this process, women of an
inferior tjrpe come to be firmly associated with the more
directly sexual aspects of love, from which women who are
looked upon with tenderness or vénération are correspondingly
dissociated, lest thèse dear objects of affection should be sullied

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

by being brought into contact with what the boy regards as
dishonourable, lewd or filthy^.

Prostitution (2) At a later stage of development the original dissociation
thus reinforced is frequently still further strengthened by the
association (in thought or deed or both) of sexual practices
with prostitutes — a class of women whom the youth is himself
prepared to condemn because of the already existing connection
in his mind between inferiority and sex, and as regards whose
condemnation from the moral point of view he, as a rule, finds
ample corroboration in the opinions expressed or implied by
those around him,

Effect of the The moral dégradation of the sexual object thus receives

dissociation on j^g £jj^^ confirmation, and when later in marriage the young
man endeavours to unité esteem and tendemess with sexual
passion, he may find that the dissociation between thèse
éléments of love has grown too wide and fundamental to be
overcome, so that one or other of thèse requisites of a com-
plète and happy married life has necessarily to be sacrificed.
As a resuit 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 sensé; in which case he will often be
tempted after a while to seek a more complète degree of
sexual satisfaction elsewhere. Or else, should the directly sexual
trends prevail, he may sélect 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 2.
The liability There can be httle doubt that women are, on the whole,

co^esponding ^^^^ liable to suffer from this kind of dissociation than are men.
dissociation With women the directly sexual éléments of love are more
frequently aroused together with the éléments of tenderness
and esteem, than is the case with men. Thus many women
1- Indeed it frequently happens that a boy will call up the image of
some girl whom he sincerely loves in order that he may the better resist
the temptation to practise masturbation.

' For an interesting and suggestive study of the influence of a high
degree of this dissociation upon married life and upon the gênerai attitude
towards questions of sex and of morality, the reader is referred to J. D.
Beresford's novel "God's Counterpoint ".

112

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE

expérience sexual désire or gratification only in relation to
men to whom they are bound also by feelings of deep affection,
admiration or respect. This différence between the sexes is
perhaps to some extent a constitutional one, the éléments in
question being by nature more intimately fused and integrated
in one sex than in the other\ Som^ part oî the différence is
however due, beyond ail reasonable doubt, to environmental
and educational factors.

Of the three principal factors we hâve 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 subséquent reinforcement of the dissociation by the
two remaining factors is however to a considérable extent in-
operative with women. The influence of masturbation is in
nearly ail respects less marked in women than in men, partly
perhaps because at the important âge, at or about the time
of puberty, the practice is less fréquent 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^. Nor again is the

1 If this is so (and indeed perhaps in any case), it is évident that the
différence in question must be taken into considération in dealing with
such questions as those affecting the pre-marital chastity or unchastity of
men, the "double moral standard" in sexual matters etc.

2 Among the causes of the greater condemnation of masturbation in
men one of great importance consists in the fear of castration which — as
resuit of threats by parents and nurses and otherwise — frequently becomes
intimately associated with the onanistic act. Closely connected with this is
the fact that the significance and conséquences of masturbation are more
obvions in the maie than in the female — the émission of semen and the
lassitude that follows this being very hable to produce a sensé of loss and
injury, thus easily arousing or reinforcing the fears connected with the
ideas of castration. Perhaps a further factor of a more gênerai nature is
played by the greater freedom of narcissistic impulses in women {Cp.
Freud, '*2ur Einfûhrung des Narzifimus/' Jahrèuch/ur Psychoanalyse^VIA.),
The relatively greater persistence of infantile self-love shows itself clearly
in the greater freedom of the milder manifestations of homosexuality in
women (the homosexual partner being a projection of the lover's seH;

IÏ3

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Manifestations
of the dissocia-
tion in women

association of sexual activity with prostitution (although the act
of prostitution itself may be regarded with considérable re^
pulsion) so deeply ingrained in women as in men.

In spite, however, of the lesser opération of thèse factors
in the case of women and in spite of any possible doser
connection (through innate organization) of the éléments of the
love impulse which are liable to dissociation, it is nevertheless
true that a very considérable number of women do suffer from
some degree of this dissociation ^

Such women will often be attracted to two kinds of men
— one of which (frequently physically inferior) may arouse
sympathy, respect, dévotion or tendemess, while the other
(frequentiy of a morally, socially or intellectually inferior type,
but often physically superior^) will alone be capable of arousing
sexual désire. Quite often the attraction to an inferior person
is combined with the désire 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 obvions that the
difficulties which bar the way to a completely successful
marriage for such women are but httie if at aU inferior to
those existing in the case of men who suffer from a corre-
sponding condition of dissociation^.

Cp. above p. 103) and may very well also be the cause of women's more
natural attitude to masturbation as a form of auto-erotic gratification,

1 Cp. Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho -Analysis/' 558, the whole
chapter being important in this connection.

2 Since there is a very gênerai tendency for physical superiority in
men to arouse sexual feelings in the woman, whereas inferiority in men
as regards size, strength, health, ztc,^ is apt to arouse a sympathetic,
motherly affection in the woman.

s I am indebted to my friend Major O. Berkeley-Hill for the suggestion
that the attraction which women often feel for men of a racially more
primitive type, and the corresponding jealousy that the (often subconscious)
perception of this attraction arouses in men of the women's own race,
are among the most important factors which prevent the re conciliation
or co-operation of différent races and which are the cause of much of the
brutality and violence which a superior race is apt to exercise towards an
inferior one. {Cp. the fréquent lynchings of negroes for real or supposed
sexual offences in America, or the anti-negro or anti-Chinese riots that are
of not infrequent occurrence in EngHsh seaport towns.) K this should be

114

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOVE LIFE

In a certain number of cases there is to be observed a Combinationof
combination of the original prostitute phantasy (the remoter *^^ prostitute
conséquences of which we hâve been hère considering) with phantasies
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 désire to lead the prostitute, fallen or abandoned
woman (mother substitute) to a better way of life {Cp. Hamlet
and his mother) ^ In women too this combination of motives
may not infrequently be observed, manifesting itself most often
as a désire to effect the régénération 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 thèse cases the superior sexual attractiveness of such men
is of course usually an additional — though not always a reco-
gnised — motive).

In still other cases again the intensely disagreeable feeling The désire for
that is associated with the idea of the mother giving herself chastity
to the father may lead to an overwhehning désire 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 faith-
lessness 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 concer-
ned — a purification of this former object. Such feelings as
thèse, working in the Unconscious, are probably among the
most powerful factors which détermine the behaviour of that
not inconsiderable number of men whose affection and gênerai

true (and there can be little doubt that it applies to certain cases) it would
appear that we are dealing with a psychological fact possessing historical
and sociological bearings of even wider significance than would at first
appear — bearings which must be kept in mind in ail attempts to produce
rapprochement or better understanding between the différent races of
mankind. (For a study of the tendency In question in individual cases Cp.
the novels of Robert Hichens, e, g. *'Bella Donna" and "Barbary Sheep.")
1 A very interesting case iUustrative of the rescue and prostitute phan-
tasies will be found in Ernest Jones. " Einige Fàlle von Zwangsneurose,"/*»^'^-
huch fur Psychoanaîytische und Psychopathologische Forschungen, 1913, V, 55.

115 8*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 vénal intercourse
will go to much trouble or expense to secure a virgin for
their partner^.
The import- The brief review which we hâve undertaken in this

ance of^dis- chapter of the displacement of the love impulse from persons
theTove^life of the immédiate 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 dépendent on the way in which this displacement is
achieved^. There is little doubt but that the further advance of
psychological science will reveal more intimately the working
of those mechanisms with which we hâve hère been dealing,
and of whose nature and importance we are now beginning
to gain some rough prehminary 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 Psycho-
logy will bring us.

1 This psychic tendency must of course be distinguished from the
sexual jealousy so characteristic of paranoïa, which has been shown to be
due to repressed homosexuality, the paranoiac projecting on to his v/ife
or paramour the tender feelings towards some person or persons of his
own sex, which he himself harbours in his Unconscious. {Cp. Ferenczi,
"Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," trans. by Ernest Jones, Ch. XI, p. 238 ff.)

Both the importance and the incestuous origin of this désire for
chastity are clearly demonstrated by the irequently recurring thème of
the Virgin Mother in religion and mythology. Cp. below Ch. XIV.

2 An Interesting historical case of one whose career was probably
influenced to a large extent by quite a number of the unconscious motives
discussed in this chapter is that of King Henry Vm of England. See
J. C. Flûgel, "On the Character and Married Life of Henry Vm/' The Inter-
national Journal of Psycho -Analysis, 1920, I, 24.

116

CHAPTER Xn
FAMILY INFLUENCES IN SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

In studying the hâte aspects of the original Œdipus complex Displacements

we saw that thèse aspects, on their first appearance and in so °^ ^f ^ l^^s
r ^111.1 T complex than

lar as they dépend on mère jealousy or envy, are secondary those of love

products, arising as a conséquence 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 hâte. It is probably for this reason that

the displacements of the hâte 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, corrélative forms of hâte 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 thèse cases the rival with

whom the lover competes for the possession of the loved object

or the tjnrant 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) manif est substitutes for the original

rival or tyrant who existed in the person of the father. The

intensity of hostile feeling of which thèse représentatives 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 éléments of hatred or of love. Some-

times the hostile rival may be présent only in a vague and

shadowy form, constituting little more than a necessary back-

ground; as, for instance, in cases where the existence of some

kind of opposition is essential to the arousal or enjoyment of

117

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAJVIILY

love. In other cases, however, the hâte élément may be equaJ
in importance to the love élément, or may even constitute the
prédominant motive of the whole displacement.
The develop- In thèse latter cases it will usually be foimd that the

ment of hâte hostility brought about secondarily as the resuit of jealousy has
been powerfuUy reinforced by hatred of a more direct and
indépendant kind, arising as a reaction against a more gênerai
interférence with the child's aspirations or desires on the part
of a tyrannous parental authority (or one that is considered to
be such). The présence, in some degree, of this form of reaction
is very prévalent, 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, stîmulated or restrained in its
actions, or tendencies to action, by the exercise of parental or
of delegated parental authority^.

The exercise of such restraint or guidance, even within
necessary and désirable hmits and with ail the care, refinement
and regard to the child's own natural course of development
which modem methods of training may dictate, is bound to
give rise to some feeling of resentment, especially in children
of self-wiUèd, 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 under-
standing of, its own feelings, susceptibihties or tendencies. In
ail 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 resuit of which this
hatred may constitute an important — and usually maleficent —
component of the individual's character throughout his life.
Displacement We hâve already, in the earlier chapters, discussed the

of hâte on to manner in which parent hatred of early origin (together with
substitutes most other aspects of the young child's attitude towards its

^ Cp. Emest Jones, *'Papers on Psycho-Analysis/' 2nd. éd. 540 ff. for
a study of the manner in which restraint of the child in one particular
respect — ^with regard to the excretory functions — may lead to a hostile
attitude of this kind on the part of the child.

118

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

parents) should, in the course of normal development, be over-
come. We hâve already seen, however, that certain of the
secondary hatreds conséquent 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 conséquent upon the parentes interférence with the
child's more gênerai wishes and desires. In the course of the
individual's life, the authority over his expressions, activities
and gênerai mode of Uving 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,
poUce officers, employers, professional or miUtary superiors, or
persons occupjdng gênerai positions of command, such as
magistrates, statesmen or kings.

There can be little doubt that much of the gênerai This displace-
resistance to, and intolérance of, authority, that may be ex- ment may lead
hibited by certain individuals, or at times by whole sections against
of a community (or even by whole peoples) dérives its motive authonty and
power from a persistence in the Unconscious of parent hatreds who

of this kind. A very considérable proportion of criminal actions exercise it
in the individual are also due to the same unconscious source,
the still existing désire to resist the authority of the parents
finding outlet in a displaced form in infringements of the laws,
conventions, or régulations 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 régicide or of attempts on
the lives of officiai personages hâve been committed by those
suffering from insufficiently controlled parent hatreds of un-
usual strength. Bearing in mind the dangers that beset a com-
munity in which tendencies to anarchy, lawlessness or un-
reasonable opposition to governmental authority are widespread,
it is obvious that the fréquent occurrence of violent and per-

119

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Displacements

of respect and

esteem

Médical

practitioners

as parent-sub-

stitutes

sistent 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 ^

Thèse same persons in authority, who thus become the
récipients of displaced enmity towards the parents, may how-
ever also serve in later life as substitutes for those aspects of
the parents in virtue of which thèse latter were in childhood
reverenced as the possessors of unlimited power, wisdom,
virtue or knowledge {Çp, above p. 54). Especially is this the case
perhaps with regard to ecclesiastical authorities; the priest, as
the interpréter 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 référence
to a certain sphère of thought) with the character of perfect
knowledge and perfect v^sdom, which the young child with the
sensé of its own immense inferiority in thèse respects, is hable
to attribute to its parents. The teacher too, in his position of
moral and intellectual authority, frequently becomes the récipient
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 hâve been
mistaken or to hâve been ignorant with regard to any matter,
lest the réalisation of his fallibility should detract from the
suggestive power that he has hitherto enjoyed.

The displacement on to médical advisers and attendants
of feelings originally directed to the parents, has frequently
been recognised. Hère again, it is more particularly the attri-
bute of benevolent omniscience that is liable to be transferred.
Three factors contribute especially to this resuit: — (i) The

^ Thus, as Mr. Burt has suggested to me, the influence of displaced
father-hatred is probably in large measure responsible for the fact that
strikes and other crude forms of rebelUon against authority in industry
occur principally among the working classes, where the tyranny of the
father is often of a primitive and répressive type. For the same reason the
number of delinquents from thèse classes is almost certainly relatively
jarger than that from the upper and, middle classes, quite apart from the
influence of économie and educational factors. Cp, too in this connection
p. 128 below.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

physician's knowledge on matters of the highest interest
and importance, about which others are relatively ignorant
(particularly perhaps "médical" matters, in the sexual sensé
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 sensé of helplessness which others feel in thèse
situations being similar in many respects to that frequently
experienced in early years when, as children, we were dépen-
dent upon the efforts of our parents in many of the important
affairs of life; (3) the fact that this sensé of helplessness and
the gênerai attitude of suggestibility are still further increased
in the case of the patient by the gênerai régression to a rela-
tively 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 consiilt him, is undoubtedly
the secret of much real success in médical practice, inasmuch
as the mental factors in disease — the importance of which is
now becoming fully recognised, although their nature is net 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 promi- The rôle of
nent part in dealing with disorders of a directly psycho-pathic pare^t-regard-
nature ^ and peculiarly so where a condition of enhanced in suggestion
suggestibiHty is deliberately induced and utihsed with a view ^^^ hypnosis
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 hjrpnotic trance as a régression
to a relatively infantile state of mind, the rapport between
operator and subject being regarded as, in certain important
respects, a répétition or revival of the relations which had
previously existed between parent and child. Ferenczi^ has

1 Cp. Ernest Jones, "Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 2nd. éd., 318 ff.

2 ^'Contributions to Psycho-Analysis," trans. by Ernest Jones, Ch. n,
especially 57 ff.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTÏC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

gone so far as to regard the différent 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 in-
fancy it was lulled to sleep by its mother with the aid of a
very similar procédure.
"Trans- ^^ ^^e practice of psycho-analysis, too, the displacement of

ference" in emotional attitudes originally adopted with référence to the
^sJysîs 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^. Psycho-analysis aims at producing a state of greater
co-ordination in the patientas mind by giving him an under-
standing 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 différent impulses which
formerly, by their mutual antagonisms, were responsible for
the production of the neurosis. A mère understanding of the
nature of the unconscious processes involved is however, as
has frequently been shown, powerless to effect the desired
resuit, unless the conative and affective sides of thèse processes
are also loosened from their fixations in the Unconscious and
made available for use in other directions. It is hère that the
transference of tendencies originally directed to the parents
becomes important. Just as, in the first unfôlding and develop-
ment 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 in-
volves, 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
intégration of the emotional life. Not of course that the parént-
love is the only impulse requiring displacement in this way,
1 Ernest Jones, " Papers on Psycho-Analysis," 2nd. éd. 301.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

but, inasmuch as the Œdipus Complex is (as Freud has put it)
the nuclear complex of the neuroses, it is just the émotions
that centre round the parents that usually coristitute 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 him-
self — as is now well recognised — usually plays a highly im-
portant, though a transitory, rôle; the émotions loosened from
their fixations by the process of analysis being temporarily dis-
placed 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^.

It is principally because a displacement of this sort can be Transference
much more easily produced in certain kinds of neurosis than ^^/ ^^^ ^^^^
m others, that neuroses differ from one another markedly m
their amenability to treatment; what Freud has caUed the
Transference Neuroses^ (such as Hysteria or Obsessional
Neurosis), in which the patient, though unable to adjust his
émotions 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.

Ail the displacements with which we hâve been hitherto The displace-
concemed hâve at least this one important feature in common, mentof^rent-
that the feelings and tendencies originally directed to the feelings, on
parents are transferred to definite individuals. There are, how- ^*îh*^^''fh^
ever, certain forms of displacement, of very considérable individuals
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
parents lived and in which the feehngs of love, tenderness and Home
admiration towards the parents were first developed, acquires

1 In technical psycho-analytic literature, the term ''Transference" is,
as a rule, used to dénote this particular kind of displacement only.

2 "Vorlesungen zur Einfûhrung in die Psychoanalyse,'* 526 ff.

123

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 sensé 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.
Family or Clan In certain persons again — especially in members of an

aristocratie 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, obédience, admiration or idéalisation originally aroused
by the child's immédiate 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
hving and will continue to exist in their descendants. This
kind of transference may constitute a sublimation of considér-
able 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 ail that may enhance, and avoiding ail that may dégrade,
the family réputation ; 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 adhérence to
tradition.
School In many persons, again, the school, as the centre of

influence that succeeds in time (and often in importance) to
that constituted by the family circle, naturally draws to itself
many of the émotions which had hitherto found their exclusive
outletin the family; loyalty and obédience to school traditions,
together v\àth respect, tenderness, pride and admiration for the
school as a collective body replacing to some extent the

124

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

corresponding feelings which had previously been experienced
principally or solely in relation to the parents.

At a later âge, thèse same feelings may be again displaced University
on to a Collège or University; the term Aima Mater ^ so
frequently applied to the latter, bearing witness to the extent
to which a University is habitually endowed with maternai
attributes — being regard ed as a kindly mother (often of
vénérable âge and expérience) who imparts to her sons the
learning and wisdom that she possesses, and generaUy equips
them for the tasks and trials of life in the outer world.

Towns^ may also become the récipients of parentally, and Town
especially matemally, 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 émotions
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
from the sociological point of view is that in which parental J^^ .^^*^^^j^J^^!
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 thèse factors are, as
Ernest Jones ^ 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
of patriotism; — on the conscious, inteUectual level, through a tendencies
récognition 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

1 O. Rank, "Um Stâdte werben," Zeitschrift fur Ârstliche Psychoanalyse,
1914, II, 50. B. Dattner, "Die Stadt als Mutter/' Zeitschrift fur Ârstliche
Psychoanalyse, 1914, II, 59.

2 **War and Individual Psychology," Sociological Review, 1915, p. i.

125

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

the State, as a resuit of which the former participâtes 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 thèse 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.
Mother regard- The displacement of the mother-regarding feehngs on to

ing tendencies ^^le 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, béUefs and institutions ; in retum for which
her children are prepared to work and fight for her — and above
ail, 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.
Father-regard- In the displacement of the father-regarding feelings on to

ing tendencies ^j-^^ state, the tendencies connected with the attitude of respect,
obédience 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
suprême 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 hâve 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 évidence of language and
of certain common appellations applied to thèse persons fully
endorses the conclusions of Psycho-Analysis in this respe ct. \
Thus, as Rank^ and Jones^ following Max Millier, hâve pointed
out, the word king is ultimately derived from the Sanskrit root

^ " Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage,*' 83.
2 "Papers on Psycho -Analysis," 143.

126

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

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 CathohcChurch is called the **Holy Father,"
or by his Latin name of "Papa^" (from the root pa to protect,
nourish). Similarly, the word '*queen" cornes from the Sanskrit
gain^ which means mother (Greek yovri, Gothic quinof' and a
queen who has had children, is the mother of the reigning
monarch or has merely attained to a certain âge, is frequently
spoken of as the ** Queen Mother."

There are considérable différences, both individual and
national, as regards the relative importance of the father and
the mother éléments respectively in the gênerai attitude adopted
towards the state, and it would seem probable that thèse
différences 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 modem — as distinct from pre-
revolutionary — France (though, as Ernest Jones ^ points out,
the term 4a patrie' — combining as it does a féminine form with
amascuHne connotation — implies to some extent the co-operation
of both éléments), 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 modem nations, as the Father of his country,
The tendency to blind loyalty and obédience manifested in
thèse 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,

1 Ernest Jones, îoc. cit.

2 Ernest Jones, Ioc, cit.

3 "War and Individual Psychology," Sociologicaî Revim, 1915, p. 10.

Political
importance

of thèse
tendencies

127

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

and suggests the existence of a fairly close correspondence, on
the one hand between the maternai view of the state and the
development of démocratie institutions and individual indepen-
dence, and on the other hand between the patemal view and
the development and rétention of autocracy and a relatively
strict subordination of the individual to the authority of the
govemment and of its représentatives.

It would be possible also perhaps to point to a gênerai
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 extrême
progressiveness, in certain respects, of modem Germany has
shown that any such tendency does not hold for ail cases or
for ail aspects of culture.

Where the attitude towards the state, its institutions and
authority is not one of love, friendliness or révérence, but one
of hâte and rébellion, 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 révolutions in autocratie
patemal states {cp. the récent upheavals in Russia and Germany
and the French Révolution) are usually more violent and ex-
trême than in the case of the freer and more libéral maternai
countries, since the désire for rébellion 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^ and Jones ^

hâve already suggested, a considérable degree of correspondence

Family between . the nature of the family system as found in any

^liTstatr country and some of the political features to which we hâve

organisation 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

^ " Das Inzestmotiv in Dichtung und Sage/' 414 ff.
2 Ernest Jones, îoc. cit.

128

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

patriarchal System was developed to its fullest extent and this
people has shown its inhérent conservatism and stability by
the préservation of many of its characteristic physical, psycho-
logical, 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 ail 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, ex-
pansion or decay of nations, the correspondence cannot be an
absolute one.

As regards the attitude adopted by the individual member Ambivalent

of a State towards the king or ruler, Freud has shown ^ that , ^^^^î^^^i.

• T^i 1 » r 1 1 • towards the

it tends to be, m Bleuler s useful phrase, ambivalent, t. e.y to king

be determined by two motives of opposite character, in one

of which hâte is the principal élément, 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 différent parts of the world, and that are to some

extent still operative eveh in civilised societies at the présent

day. Thèse taboos are in the main of two kinds : —

(i) Those that restrict the activities of the king himself, such Taboos affect-
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 of this attitude
ail 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 hâve 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

1 "Totem and Taboo," 70 ff.

129 9

THE PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

the guise of assuring his dignity or safety). The exaggerated
fear of some harm coming to the king, which is manifested in
(a), anses by way of a reaction against the unconscious désire
that some harm may befall him, in the same way as an
exaggerated and unreasonable anxiety as regards the health
, and wdfare of some relative usually indicates a repressed
I feeling of hostility towards that relative {cp. above p. 57);
while (b) even more obviously involves éléments 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. Thèse may hkewise be
traced to two prédominant motives: — (a) the désire, as before, to
préserve the king from any harm — in this case more especially
from harm that may resuit from the actions of those about him;
(b) the désire to avoid any harm befalling the subjects as a resuit
of influences emanating from the king, the latter being regarded
as a potent but mysterious source of danger to ail who rashly
approach or come in contact with him. The latter tendency, with
its corrélative belief, arises as the resuit of a projection of the
hostility felt towards the king; this hostility (in accordance vdth
the mechanism of Projection — now well recognised both in normal
and in abnormal psychology)*, being falsely attributed to its object,
instead of to the person in whose mind it really originates.

In both sets of taboos the présence of hostility towards

the king is thus made manifest, the taboos themselves arising

chiefly as a resuit of this hostility and aiming only secondarily,

and by way of reaction, at an increase of the king s safety,

dignity or happiness.

Hostility The reality of this hostile feeling is placed beyond ail

and^uJder ^'^^sonable doubt when we bear in mind the fréquent occurrence

of the king of openly cruel practices, such as imprisonment, enforced

immobility^, starvation^, or even beating"*, especially when we

1 For a brief général account of projection cp. Bernard Hart, "The
Psychology of Insanity," 117 ff.

2 A certain priestly king in West Af rica may not even quit his chair,
in which he has to sleep sitting. Frazer, "Taboo and the Périls of the
Soûl," 123.

3 Frazer, op. cit., 124.
* Frazer, op. cit., 18.

130

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

take into considération 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 thème which
Frazer has treated with such charm of manner and such
wealth of érudition in the twelve immortal volumes of the
Golden Bough. Both on account of the actual nature of many
of its manifestations^ and because of the close unconscious

^ We may briefly mention hère a few of the main lines along which
the évidence for the identification of régicide and parricide proceeds: —

(i) The very person who performs the deed of murder is frequently the
one who succeeds to the throne; taking this in combination with the fact
that it is usually the son or some other near relative who is the recognised
successor, it is évident that there exists a natural tendency for the murderer
to belong to the murdered king's own family.

(2) The birth of a son is very frequently associated with the idea of
<ianger to the father. This danger would appear to be the principal motive
for the widespread custom of killing the king's son, which seems to be
regarded as, in many respects, an alternative to the killing of the king
himself (see Frazer, *The Dying God," Ch. Vï, 160 ff.) Cp, the very fréquent
legends (of which the story of Œdipus is one) in which a kingly father, to
avoid threatened danger to himself, exposes or otherwise attempts to murder
his young son. See Rank, *The Myth of the Birth of the Hero."

(3) There exist many cases in legend, and some in actual fact, in which
the son fights with his father for the privilèges of chief tainship ; while in
at least one case (Frazer, *The Dying God/' 190) the king is made to abdicate
as soon as his son is bom.

(4) In the many quaint practices of the Camival type, which, as Frazer
has shown (*The Dying God," 205 ff.), usually represent, in one at least of
their aspects, the murder of the king in the shape of the spirit of végétation,
the death of the old monarch is usually followed, immediately or after an
interval, by gênerai rejoicing at the coming to power of his successor {cp.
the well known phrase, **Le roi est mort, vive le roi") showing that the
idea of the superseding of an outwom potentate is a prominent underlying
feature of the whole type of ceremony.

(5) Festivals of this kind, and indeed those connected with the succession
of kings generally, are usually associated with some kind of sexual orgy, in
which the relaxation of the usual prohibitions, especially those which relate
to incest, is often a prominent feature; this fact seems to point to the
existence of some connection between incest and succession to the kingship,
such as that which is manifested in the myth of Œdipus.

(6) This connection is indicated even more clearly by the widespread
custom of the new king taking over the wife of the king whom he has
succeeded, even if she should be his own step-mother, or in some cases
perhaps his real mother (See Frazer, 'The Magic Art and the Evolution of
Kings," n, 283 ff ., "The Dying God," 193 ff .). Where (as seems to hâve happened
not infrequently) this is combined with the murder, déposition or defeat

Ï31 9*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

identification of king and father, to which we hâve already
referred, it is évident that this hostility is in many of its aspects
a displaced form of the hâte éléments of the Œdipus complex;
the historical, sociological and political bearings of which acquire
in this light, and in the light of the other facts and considé-
rations brought forward in this chapter, a new, and in many
respects an altogether overwhelming, significance.

of the old king, we get both éléments of the Œdipus complex in intimate
association, and openly expressed.

(7) Among the prohibitions and conditions to which a king is subject
during his tenure of office, not the least burdensome are those connected
with his sexual life. On the one hand his sexual activities are often restricted,
permitted only under certain circumstances and conditions or even forbidden
altogether; while on the other hand any failure or weakness of sexual power
may be made the reason for his déposition or exécution. If the sexual
jealousy, which is such an important constituent of the Œdipus complex,
plays an active part in the attitude habitually adopted towards kings
(especially by those who are hkely to become their successors), such
restrictions on the king's sexual activity or such a utiHsation of any sexual
failing on his part as an excuse for his déposition or exécution are only
what we might expect to find.

In bringing forward thèse arguments in favour of the opération of the
Œdipus complex in the treatment accorded to kings, we must not of course
shut our eyes to the co-operation of other important motives belonging to
the later and more conscious levels of the mind, such as that emphasised
by Frazer, according to whom the king is regarded as the embodiment of
natural fertility, so that, if he were to become old or enfeebled. Nature (in
virtue of the principles of homoeopathic magie) would suffer from a
corresponding weakness and produce less abundantly; this beUef naturally
leading to the désire to kill the king 'while he is still in his prime, lest in
âge or disease he should endanger the sustenance of the community. Such
a motive as this (and perhaps still others) may very well coexist with the
motives connected with the Œdipus complex, in virtue of the psychological
mechanism of over-determination, just as — as Silberer, Rank, and others
hâve shown — many myths, legends and neurotic symptoms may give direct
or symbohc expression at the same time to two or more distinct sets of
tendencies.

133

CHAPTERXm
FAMILY INFLUENCES IN RELIGION

concemmg
the Divine

We saw in the last chapter that the feelings with which The rôle of

men tend to look upon the holders of the hiehest earthlv parent- regard-
j . , , 1 , 1 f , , T . i"g feelings in

dignity and power — the heads of churches, states and empires primitive

— are to a large extent derived from those which had originally notions

shaped and coloured the child's attitude towards its parents.

From the position of suprême human authority to that of

superhuman power is, in imagination, but one further step; and

accordingly we find that the tendencies and émotions connected

with the parents can frequendy 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

religions feelings of mankind.

Apart from this however, reasons for the transfer of many

of the parent-regarding émotions to the sphère of religion are

not far to seek. There exists a close and obvions 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

individuaFs 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 dépendent upon the beneficence and

approval of thèse 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

133

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 com-
prehend, 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
âge and expérience, 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 expérience
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 ail 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 hâve some notions,
constitute in this way a very natural substitute for the exaggerated
and idealised estimation of the parents which the child's increas-
ing knowledge of human life compels him to abandon, but
which he nevertheless, as we hâve seen {cp. above p. 55), gives
up reluctantly.
The divine The displacement of the parent-regarding émotions and

and the human tendencies in this direction is, in the case of the individual,
often further facilitated in the three following ways: — (i) 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 suprême forces of
the Universe as créative — créative on a large scale, just as
his own parents and other human beings are créative on a
small scale; further he learns that he owes his own création
to God as much as to his own parents — to God ultimately,
to his parents proximately; (3) in both thèse respects the

134

parent

RELIGION

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 représentation in language,
literature and art.

The correspondence between the divine and the human
parent is one that, for thèse 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 immédiate creator respectively,
but at a more primitive mental level it is usually brought into
connection with the distinction between remoter ancestors and
immédiate 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 ^;
hâve entirely originated from this source. Granted the
fundamental assumption of animism — the existence of an indi-
vidual soûl 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 there-
fore 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
gênerai fear of the dead^ which easily attributes to its objects
an exaggerated power — especiaily for evil. The more remote

Remoter
ancestors as
divine parent

substitutes

1 ** Principles of Sociology." Vol. I.

2 A fear which, as modem psychological knowledge seems to show,
is largely the resuit of the guilty conscience of the living; the feelings of
hostiUty (including of course death wishes) which the living had ex-
perienced towards the dead during their lifetime being projected on to
the dead (in accordance with the now famihar mechanism, which can be
studied most clearly in psychopathological disorders such as Paranoia ;
cp. above pp. ii6, 130); as a resuit of which the dead are conceived as being
on the whole evilly disposed towards the Hving and consequently to be
feared. Hence the very gênerai fear of ghosts. Cp. Freud, "Totem and
Taboo," 88 ff.

135

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Unsatisfying

features of

simple

ancestor

worship

TheAIl-Father

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 rehgion of simple
ancestor worship, such as has existed in very many parts of
the world^ 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 religions feelings and tendencies aroused
lack the stimulating force which they dérive from the coopération
of the herd instinct (in virtue of which the individual is partic-
ularly liable to be affected by the émotions to which his
fellows give expression) ^ 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 thèse and other reasons, ancestor worship is not often
found in its pure and simple form, but is usually complicated
and modified in at least two important ways : — (i) 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 ail living beings or, ultimately, of
the whole Universe. There is thus created the notion of a

1 For numerôus examples, see Herbert Spencer, "Principles of Socio-
logy." Vol. I, Part I, Ch. 20. p. 280 ff.

2 Cp. W. McDougall, *' Social Psychology," 1908, pp. 84 ff., 296 ff.
W. Trotter, "Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War," 1916.

136

RELIGION

single AU-Father, who serves at once as the suprême and
most satisfying embodiment of the father-ideal for the individual
and as a potent means of strengthening and iiniting the com-
munity through the sensé of brotherhood and loyalty that
attaches to a common worship and a common origin from a
divine ancestor. The satisf5âng character of the religions con-
cept that is hère reached is apt to be still further increased
by a complète or partial fusion of the notion of the divine
father with that of the kingly father which we hâve already
discussed. The mythical divine ancestor, the founder of the
race, is frequently supposed to hâve been originally a king
also, and it is usual for the reigning line of sovereigns to trace
their descent more especially from him, Verj?- 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 illustrions 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
kind we hâve been hère considering that we corne across a
widespread social and religions System so curions 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. Ail 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 révérence, but (in the case of animal
totems at any rate) are sometimes killed and eaten at a solemn
sacrificial feast. Combined with thèse religions 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 ail stricdy 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

Totemism

Exogamy

137

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

The totem as
a father

Relies of

Totemism in

religion

and psychological influences that led to the création 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 théories hâve been propounded on the subject, and although
many of them are suggestive, there is perhaps no single one
that fully and satisfactorily accounts for ail the facts^ Among
the few points that émerge 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 complète or to a partial ex-
tent, plays the father's part in the création 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 2.

That this vagueness on the subject of paternity in the
mind of primitive man finds its counterpart even in civilised
societies^ is shown by the many legends of a supemormal
birth in which the father is dispensed with or is replaced by
some non-human being*. The deep rooted and persistent nature
of the tendency to totemism is shown also by the very fréquent

^ A clear and instructive examination of the whole question is given
by Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," Vol. IV.

2 It is still to some extent a matter of dispute as to how far existing
races of savages are ignorant of the rôle of the father in reproduction.
There is much évidence in favour of such ignorance being often very con-
sidérable and sometimes perhaps complète (See E. S. Hartland, "Primitive
Paternity," 1910). Some authors however {e. g. Walter Heape, " Sex Antago-
nisme' and Carveth Read, *'No Paternity," Jour, Royal Anthrop, Inst. 1918,
XLVm, 146) hâve maintained that the facts do not admit of the assumption of
complète ignorance. Read especially has shown that such ignorance as exists
may often be due to social or individual inhibitions, which prevent the know-
ledge of the true facts (a knowledge which exists in certain persons even in
primitive communities) from penetrating to the consciousness of the majority
of the inhabitants. If this view is correct, it reveals an interesting parallel to
the f ate of sexual knowledge in the individual ; psycho-analytic investigation
often showing that knowledge of the facts of sex and reproduction can be
repressed from consciousness, though persisting in the unconscious levels
of the mind. {Cp. Freud, "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex," 37 ff., 51.)

3 Where of course the vagueness in question is beyond ail doubt due
to repression.

* E. S. Hartland, "Primitive Paternity." Vol. I, Ch. i.

138

RELIGION

occurrence at ail stages of culture of theriomorphic gods, whose

cuit often leads to certain animais or classes of animais being

regarded as sacred, just as in the case of totemic communities,

Even when the gods are no longer habitually regarded as

animais, they still occasionally take on animal form {cp, the

fréquent animal disguises of Zeus) or are connected with, or

represented by, animal symbols {cp. the dove, the pélican, the

lamb, the fish and the ass in Christianity). In the individual and in the

mind of the civilised person animais are frequently utilised as individual

symbols of the parents in dreams and other productions of the "^^

Unconscious^. There are indeed persons who expérience a

peculiar fascination for some kind of animal, which they regard

with mixed feelings among which love, admiration, awe, disgust

and hâte are often to be found; those émotions usually pre-

dominating which are most prominent in the individual's relations

to his fathen Thus in one case well known to the présent

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 ^ and

Ferenczi^ hâve each reported interesting cases in this connection,

in both of which the father-regarding tendencies and émotions

had become displaced on to a particular kind of animal (in

one case the horse, in the other the fowl) with the resuit that

1 A fréquent dream in childhood consists in being chased by some
wild and dangerous animal, which on analysis is almost invariably found
to represent the father — the dream being comparable as regards conative
tendency to the games of being pursued, in which children so often delight
and which arouse in them a pleasant combination of fear and excitement,
highly tinged with masochistic feeling. As regards mythology, the cases in
which — as in that of Romulus and Remus — the rôle of foster parent is taken
over by animais are of course quite numerous (cp. too in this connection
the récent literary examples of Mowgli and Tarzan; also the dog Nana in
Peter Pan), while in fairy stories there are also many examples of animais
being endowed with parent attributes.

2 "Analyse der Phobie eines fûnfjâhrigen Kmben.'' Jahrbuck/ûr Psycho-
pathoîogische und Psychoanaîytische Forschungen, 1909. Vol. I, p. i.

3 "Contributions to Psycho- Analysis," Ch. IX, 204.

139

The psycho-
logical con-
nection be-
tweenTotem-
ism and
Exogamy

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

this animal exercised an intense and persistent fascination, in
which opposing éléments of love and hâte could clearly be
distinguished^.

If, as thus seems probable, we hâve in Totemism a peculiar
form of displacement of the feelings originally directed to the
parents (and especially the father), it is not surprising that
Totemism should be frequently accompanied by manifestations
of the other, and sexual, aspect of the Œdipus complex. Such
manifestations are, in effect, not far to seek and are in ail
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^ or xinconsciously)
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 hâve respectively come into being as the resuit of
the opération of two closely-joined psychic factors, namely the
two principal éléments of the Œdipus complex. Just as in the
individual mind, the présence in any high degree of one of
thèse éléments tends to bring about the présence of the other,
so too in societies, the manifestations of the one élément
tend to be closely correlated with the manifestations of the
other^.

In touching on the subject of Exogamy, we hâve come
very near to the most fundamental sociological problems
connected with the main thème of this book. To thèse 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 considération of certain other

1 Sometimes however, one of thèse opposing éléments is directed to
the animal, the other to the human parent. Thus, as Mr. Burt has suggested
to me, it would seem that in delinquents the tender éléments are often with-
drawn from the parents and manifest themselves in the excessive fondness
for animal pets, to which Lombroso has drawn attention. ("Criminal Man,"
1911, 62—3.)

2 Frazer considers that the Australian system of exogamy bears the
stamp of "deliberate design.*' "Totemism and Exogamy." IV, 112 ff.

3 Freud, "Totem and Taboo," 198 ff.

140

RELIGION

aspects of the influence upon religion of psychic tendencies
connected with the family.

We hâve seen that the child's attitude towards his father
is usually an ambivalent one, /. e. it is determined partly by
tenderness and affection and partly by hostihty or fear,
Naturally the relative prédominance of one or other motive
varies from one case to another, both as regards the religious
life of individuals and as regards the behefs and forms of
worship adopted by varions races, nations, sects or dénomi-
nations. Thus the patemal 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 help-
ful wisdom and tender pity, to whom it can turn for encourage-
ment, 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
tjT-ant who enforces strict obédience to his harsh commands
and who inflicts dire penalties upon ail who dare to oppose
his wishes or defy his laws. In the higher forms of religion
the more direcdy 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 obédience 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 évolution of thought as regards the
relations of the individual to the state or the king, to which
we hâve already drawn attention. It is a change of this nature
for instance that, more perhaps than ail else, marks the step
from Judaism to Christianity ; the latter giving promise of a
reign of kindiiness and forgiveness in place of the harsh and
uncompromising exercise of patemal 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 en-
countered the opposition or contempt of those who see the
patemal authority (and therefore its projection as the authority

The ambi-
valent attitude

towards

the father as

reflected in

religion

141

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

of the Universe) in a sterner shape^ or of those who (like
Nietzsche's Supermen), in their own sensé of power and indé-
pendance, despise ail who» as though théy were still children,
require the assistance of a beneficent father to help them
through their lives.
The splitting In polytheistic religions, or those with polytheistic tenden-

up of parental ^j^g^ ^-^e différent paternal qualities may be divided among a
among two or number of divinities; though as a rule there is a single
moredivinities heavenly father who combines in his person the most exalted
aspects of créative and paternal power. Especially fréquent is
the splitting up of what appear to be the désirable and un-
desirable aspects of the father and the attribution of them to
distinct deities, so that a kind, benevolent, forgiving and pro-
tecting divinity, upon the one hand, is contrasted with a stem,
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 ^ 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 con-
tempt may be freely poured and who can convenientiy be
made responsible for nien's ill deeds and evil thoughts^; the

^ The Puritanical movement represented, in one of its most important
aspects, an attempt to re-introduce the notion of the stem, relentless
father. It is interesting to note that there seems to exist an association
between the puritanical attitude in religion and a harsh, authoritative
relationship between parents and children.

'^ "Der Alptraum in seiner Beziehung zu gewissen Formen des mittel-
alterlichen Aberglaubens." Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde.

^ Particularly for undesirable thoughts of a sexual nature, the Devil
being the recognised source of temptations and obsessions of this kind.
The sexual aspects of the Father God are of course throughout chiefly
noticeable in his relations to v^omen and in the attitude adopted towards
him by women. Thus the long séries of amorous adventures on the part
of Zeus are typical instances of father-daughter incest. In many places the
cohabitation of a god with a mortal woman, who is regarded as his bride,
has been an essential part of religious cérémonial; though the god himself
is often, convenientiy enough, impersonated for this purpose by his priest.
The very widespread practice of religious prostitution seems to be derived
from the same source (C/. Frazer, "Adonis, Attis, Osiris," 1. 57 ff.). That girls
should, before they marry, give themselves to the god, to his représentative,
or to some other man under his auspices, may be regarded as a custom
having some relation to the initiation phantasies and cérémonies which we
hâve already considered; the girl's introduction to sex life being, through

142

RELIGION

attitude towards the heavenly father being correspondingly
purged of thèse undesirable features. The process of duplication^
which is frequently operative in other fields than that of religion,
particularly in those of myth and legend^ arises of course as xhe

a conséquence of the psychical antagonism and resulting dis- dissociation of
sociation between the love and the hâte attitudes towards the huheoîogyand
father, and can easily be made use of in religion owing to the in the individu-
général 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 hâte éléments in the primitive
levels of the mind hâve 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 ail the members of the family, the father, as The mother-
its head, most frequently and regularly undergoes apotheosis, regarding
the other members of the family are not without considérable religion^
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 éléments would seem to be almost
always, if not invariably, subordinate to those of the father; the
former, so far as they are represented at ail, being submerged
or incorporated into the latter^. But very few religions remain

this custom, accompUshed by the father, or at least under his guidance and
with his approval. A social parallel to this religions custom is to be found
in the droit de seigneur^ in virtue of which the lord of the manor had the
right to sexnal interconrse with a bride before she conld be claimed by
her hnsband.

In the Christian Church, owing, we may suppose, to the increasing
repression of the more directly sexual aspects of the father-regarding
feelings, the sexual éléments in the religions attitude of women is more
frequently directed to Christ than to God the Father (corresponding to a
brother-sister rather than to the older father-daughter type of affection).
Nevertheless, the persistence of incestuous tendencies towards the father^
can often be observed in individual cases.

1 Q>. Rank, "The Myth of the Birth of the Hero/' 83 ff.

2 Though there are indications that the Christian God is sometimes re-
garded as bisexual (cp. von Winterstein, "Psychoanalytische Anmerkungen zur
Geschichte der Philosophie/' Imago, 1913, II» 195), comparing in this respect

143

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

The mother-

son relation-

ship and its

repression

The struggle

round
the mother
élément in
Christianity

strictly and consisténdy monotheistic; and in most of those that
show tendencies towards polytheism the mother éléments 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
fathen

Nevertheless, it would appear that the mother-goddess is,
at a certain stage of culture at any rate, liable to meet with
opposition from which the corresponding father-god is usually
exempt. This opposition would seem to be due to the admixture
of incestuous passion which is brought over into religion from
the original attachment of the child (and especially of course
the son) to his earthly mother. The relations between mother
and son fairly often find expression in religions 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 resuit of which the young
son-god often meets with his death. The relations of Attis and
of Christ to their mothers are of spécial interest in this
connection, inasmuch as they plainly indicate the existence of
an inner inhibition on the son's part as well as a séparation
brought about by interférence from without. Attis according
at least to some versions of his story, unmans himself on
discovering the incestuous nature of his affection (as Œdipus
himself had done, in a symbolic form, by putting eut his eyes).
In Christ the repression of the mother-regarding tendencies
seems to hâve led to an attitude of aloofness towards his
mother, and through her towards ail women {cp, his words
**Woman, what hâve I to do with thee?," John 2, 4) — an
attitude that has profoundly affected his followers throughout
the âges: for in the history of the Christian religion there is
évidence — even apart from its notorious aversion from and
distrust of women in gênerai — of the existence of a constant

with the original bisexual world parents found in some more primitive
religions, e. g, Ymir, the giant out of whose body the world was made
according to Scandinavian mythology.

144

RELIGION

struggle centering round the idea of the divine mothen 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 évidence
to shov^ that the notion of the Holy Ghost corresponds in one
of its aspects to that of a female deity who complètes the
natural trinity of Father, Mother and SonK 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 feehngs has
in this respect been kept alive^.

1 Cp. Frazer. "The Dying God," 5. Gibbon, " Décline and Fall of the
Roman Empire,'^ 1858, Vol. Vï. Ch. L, 223. The notion of the Holy Ghost
as a mother is also found to occur spontaneously in children. Cp. Sully,
" Studies of Childhood," 132.

2 The repression of the mother-regarding feelings has had its influence
not only on the attitude towards the mother élément in religion and on
the attitude towards women in gênerai, but also on everything that is
(consciously or unconsciously) associated with women and especially with
the mother. There is one curious instance of this influence which has been
of very considérable importance in the history of philosophy, science and
of man's attitude towards some of the most important problems of life and
mind. There exists a very gênerai association, on the one hand between
the notion of mind, spirit or soûl and the idea of the father or of mascuUnity;
and on the other hand between the notion of the body or of matter
{materia = that which belongs to the mother) and the idea of the mother
or of the féminine principle. The repression of the émotions and feehngs
relating to the mother has, in virtue of this association, produced a tendency
to adopt an attitude of distrust, contempt, disgust or hostility towards the
human body, the Earth, and the whole material Universe, with a corre-
sponding tendency to exalt and over-emphasise the spiritual éléments, whether
in man or in the gênerai scheme of things. It seems very probable that a
good many of the more pronouncedly idealistic tendencies in philosophy
may owe much of their attractiveness in many minds to a sublimation of
this reaction against the mother, while the more dogmatic and narrow
forms of materialism may perhaps in their tum represent a retum of the
repressed feelings originally connected with the mother. {Cp. Von Winter-
stein, op, cit.)

145 10

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

The
Immaculate
Conception

Open
depiction of
the parents
and of the

Œdipus

complex in

primitive

religions

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which has
played such a prominent part in Christian theology and
theological discussion, is of course only one of the many
similar instances of the notion of the supematural birth^ Like
many of thèse other instances, it is due, not merely to the fact
of its being a relie 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, éléments, of
which the chief are perhaps the foUowing: — (i) the désire 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. iio) — a désire
which at the same time purifies the mother-regarding love of
its grosser éléments and renders it less liable to repression;
(2) the désire to be independent of the father and to owe
nothing to him (cp. above p. 109); (3) a désire to avoid sexual
jealousy of the father together with the envy, hostility or
contempt that would inevitably — especially in view of the
gênerai Christian attitude towards sex — accompany the notion
of the father as a sexually active being. Thèse 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 2.

In more primitive forms of religion the correspondence of
the heavenly family to the earthly family and the projection
on to the former of the feelings and tendencies aroused in
connection with the latter (and particularly those which enter
into the Œdipus complex) can as a rule be even more clearly
and unmistakably observed. Thus in primitive cosmogonies^

1 See E. S. Hartland, '* Primitive Paternity," Vol. I. Ch. L

2 It is suggestive to note that, in order to make sure that Mary had
no connection with men whatsoever, it was decided (Papal Bull 1853) that
she did not even hâve a father.

3 Cp, Lorenz, '* Das Titanenmotiv in der allgemeinen Mythologie,"
ImagOj n.

146

RELIGION

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 thèse world parents the father is very frequently
regarded as a personification of the heavens, while the mother
is indentified with the Earth^; Heaven and Earth being some-
times 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 M3^hology). In the Greek version Ouranos and
Gaia (of whom the latter seems to hâve been the mother of
the former, their union being thus incestuous) are separated
by their son Cronos, who, at the instigation of his mother,
déposes and castrâtes his father and marries his sisters Cybele,
the mother of the gods. In the next génération thèse barbarous
relations between parents and children are repeated. Cronos,
fearing that he in his tum 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
between successive générations displayed crudely and nakedly, ^^^r^^ ^ession
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 per-
formed with the same singleness of purpose and freedom from
inhibition, but being accompanied by indications of a sensé of

1 The very gênerai identification of the Earth with the mother has
probably played an important part in the history of human culture
inasmuch as it has afforded a ready means of rendering psychic energy
available for the practice of agriculture; the cultivation of the Earth 's surface
being from the psychological point of view a displacement of the original
incestuous desires directed to the mother. On the other hand the very
closeness of the association between mother and Earth has in some places
led to a reluctance to till the soiî, such an act being looked upon as
impious (See Frazer, ^'Adonis, Attis, Osiris," I. 80 ff.).

147 10*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 (l e.
RebelUon and defended their parents) and those who rebelled against the
punishment patemal power were in the end defeated and punished (though
the punishment itself may sometimes — by a pièce of over-
determination — constitute a continuation of the rebellions deed,
as in the above-mentioned case of Atlas); Adam and Eve, on
transgressing the divine prohibition to eat of the tree of know-
ledge {cp. the forbidden question motive, p. 104) are tumed 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^ from Heaven to benefit man-
kind, the offender is brought into conflict with the father from
the highest motives and bears his punishment with a résignation
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 considérable ex-
tent, the milder rule of the Son for the harsher régime 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 conséquences of their equal guilt 2;
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).

1 Ultimately of course a sexual symbol. Cp. Abraham, "Traum und
Mythus," 26 ff.

''^ For a full treatment of the Scapegoat motive. See Frazer, "The
Scapegoat."

148

RELIGION

Not only religious beliefs, but many religious rites, cere- Famiiy

monies and practices may be shown to be connected with the ^^^^P^es in
• 1 fT • i.t religious nies

meas, leelmgs and tendencies which centre round the famiiy. and practices

We hâve already seen how the rite of baptism (besides of

course its significance as a purification or washing away of

sin)^ is linked on to the ideas of rebirth and initiation, with Baptism and

ail that thèse imply {cp. above Chs. VIII and IX). Still more Confirmation

intimately connected with the idea of initiation, and corresponding

to the initiation cérémonies 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

représentative).

Of particular interest in this connection is the central rite The

of the Christian Church — the sacrament of the Communion 2, Communion
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 hâve
just had occasion to refer.

Although Totemism is by many authorities supposed to Totemic and
hâve been foreign to the culture and religions of those peoples eie^ments^/nthe
from whom western civilisation has chiefly sprung, Robertson Communion
Smith has brought much évidence to show that many of the
religious and social practices of the Semitic races bear traces
of totemic origin^. Among thèse not the least important are Their psycho-
those connected with sacrifice — animal and human. In animal ^^ff^fancF"
sacrifice the slaughtered animal was originally regarded as a
kinsman*; 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^; it was also in many cases regarded
with mingled feelings of révérence and horror very similar to
those with which the totem animal is often looked upon^, the
Semitic concept of Uncleanness corresponding closely to the

1 The '* original sin" which it is intended to remove being again not
unconnected with the famiiy complexes.

2 Cp. throughout, with regard to this subject, Freud, "Totem and
Taboo," 220 ff.

3 '* Religion of the Sémites."

4 Op. cit. 289.

5 Op. cit. 294.
^ Op. cit. i2g^.

149

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Polynesian notion of Taboo. In thèse respects we hâve a
striking resemblance to Totemism as practised in more primi-
tive commmiities.

New we hâve 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; atthe same time the slaughtered animal represents
a sacrifice in honour of the father and a gift to him. We hâve
hère an example of the ambivalent attitude towards the totem-
father; the father, as theGod 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 wonld
appear in another aspect to stand as a substitute for the son
who, as we hâve seen, may be slain instead of the father,
atoning by his own death for the intended or wished-for
mnrder of the father.

As regards the eating of the sacrifice, it may perhaps in
one respect be regarded as the consmnmation 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
thème 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^.

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 présent form 2.

The most important aspect of ail 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) himsdf acquiring directly some of the qualities of the

1 Frazer, "The Dying God," 14.

2 For a most important and illuminating discussion of the psychology
of eating and of the other activities of the mouth, see Abraham, "Ober die
frûhesten prâgenitalen Entwicklungsstufen der Libido," Imago^ 1916, IV.

150

RELIGION

divinity, (b) becoming assured of his kinship with God, the
common meal being regarded as the especial symboI of this
kinship (as indeed of kinship in gênerai) ^ (c) becoming like-
wise assured of his kinship with his fellow worshippers, ail
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: —

(i) 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: —

(i) the eating of the Father

(a) as a sign of hostility,

(b) as a sign of honour or affection,

(2) the eating of the Son, as a means of establishing
identity with him and thus sharing in the atonement which he
bas made by his sacrifice.

(3) the establishment of a sensé of communion and of
kinship between the fellow worshippers themselves and between
them and the deity, through participation in the divine meal
with ail that this implies.

We thus see that, as regards both religions beliefs and The influence
religious practices, the émotions, feelings and tendencies tendenck;s^ in
originally aroused in connection with the family play a part of religion
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 atti-
tude towards the parents which has found no adéquate subli-
mation 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

1 Robertson Smith, op. cit.y 270.

151

Value of
religion as a

fonn of
displacement

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

expression in the behaviour of the divine beings. It is for this
reason that the conduct of the gods is, from the moral stand-
point, 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 hâve 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 v^hich represents a sublimated
form of that which existed between child and parent.

In spite of its basis in primitive infantile fixations, there
can of course be no doubt that religion has performed a v^ork
of very great value in the history of human culture. Both in
the case of the individual and in that of the race the displace-
ment of the primitive tendencies directed tov^ards members of
the family has been, as we hâve 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 adéquate 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 feUow tribesmen, through the con-
sciousness 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 con-
ceming 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
partofhis 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 Narcissisme;

^ As Freud has pointed oui ("Totem and Taboo," 147), there exists a
parallelism, on the one hand between the stage of Magic and Animism and

152

RELIGION

the stimulation of interest in natural forces, objects and events
by endowing them with the strong emotional tone originally
connected with the parents; thèse are some (and only some)
of the benefits which humanity has derived from the dis-
placement 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,

the Narcissistic level of individual development, and on the other hand
between the stage of Religion and that of the first object-love as directed
to the parents. In Magic man attributes omnipotence to himself, while in
Religion omnipotence is transferred to the gods, or in so far as it is re-
lained by the individual, can be exercised only through the gods; man no
longer finds the satisfaction of his own needs in and through himself, but
obtains his desires only through his relations with others whom he loves
and vénérâtes.

In rehgion too however there exist, beside the object-regarding
éléments, certain éléments which are derived from, and give expression
to, the Narcissistic impulses. God is to some extent a projection of the
primitive mental egocentricity and self-sufficingness which the infant enjoys
before it becomes clearly conscious of the distinction between its own
organism and the external world — a distinction which necessarily brings
with it a gradually increasing réalisation of the individual's limitations and
dependence. Unwilling to give up the primitive sensé of power and
importance which a growing insight into reality shows to be unfounded, Man
displaces on to his God the desired quaUties which he can no longer
attribute to himself and deludes himself into believing that he can still
attain his wishes, through prayer and similar rites, by merely wishing them
aloud to God. This mechanism is clearly seen al Avork in those persons
who (like the late Kaiser Wilhelm II) treat their God as a being whose
principal function it is to approve and carry to fulfilment their oAvn
ambitions, schemes and undertakings.

The conception of the Devil also is to a very considérable extent
derived from the Narcissistic impulses — the individual projecîing on to
**the author of evil" those aspects of himself of which he disapproves
(more particularly perhaps the sexual aspects). In this way he, in a sensé,
frees his own personality from tabooed wishes of whose opération in
himself he would otherwise become unpleasantly aware, and in this way
absolves himself from the responsibility for actions committed at the
instigation of thèse wishes.

These self-regarding aspects constitute without doubt a most important
factor in the psychology of Religion and serve to remind us once again
of the limitation of our psychological treatment. They fall outside our présent
thème, inasmuch as they take their origin from a mental level phylogenetically
and ontogenetically prior to that at which are developed the psychic relations
of the individual to his family which constitute our subject in this volume.

153

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

intolérance, persistent opposition to the progress of scientific
or unprejudiced thought, the fostering of manifold delusions
and absurdities, the rétention of vast masses of mankind in
superstitions fear and ignorance when they shonld hâve been
acquiring confidence and knowledge. In spite however of thèse
and of the many other very serions charges that may be brought
against it, religion can claim to hâve played a very necessary
and bénéficiai rôle in the past history of culture. Sublimation
is, as we hâve 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 feehngs 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 ail others, that we are indebted to
rehgion in the past.
The future of As regards the future, it is évident that the needs of

religion humanity to which religion has ministered will, in some sensé
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 ail subséquent 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 dépends
upon his parents both for happiness and life — thèse are influences
which may well continue to make religion in some form a
permanent necessit5^

Nevertheless it would appear that the future progress of
human culture will demand a verj^ considérable modification
and purification of most existing religions forms. The study of
the psychology of religion is showing that thèse forms are, for
the most part, based on crude unconscious motives which hâve
to be outgrown and superseded if civilisation is to prosper and
advance. In retaining and fostering thèse 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 présent level of development, it is necessary indeed to
understandj but not to venerate or even to approve. Even in

154

RELIGION

so far as the forms of religion give expression not so much to
the direct promptings of thèse baser aspects as to the reactions
we hâve formed against them, it must be remembered that true
moral advance lies in sublimation rather than in repression
and that so long as the humah mind confines itself to the
purely négative task of opposing its own primitive tendencies,
it will never achieve either true émancipation or true
progress^-

Further, the study of religion shows that the conceptions
which religion has formed as to the nature and working of the
Universe hâve arisen as products of the human émotions, 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 âge. 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
évidence, hâve 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. Onty so will
Man achieve his fuU stature and be able to play that part in
Naturels scheme of things to which, in virture of his intellectual
powers and his moral aspirations, he appears to be entitled.

1 Cp, J. C. Flùgel, " Freudian Mechanisms as Factors in Moral Deve-
lopment/' British Journal of Psychology^ 1917, VHI, 477.

155

CHAPTER XIV
THE ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

The affective

reactions of

the parent

towards the

child

In dealing thus far with the psychic aspects of the filio-
parental relations in their origin, nature and development, we
hâve for the most part based our considérations on the stand-
point 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 individuàl 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
expérience as a child, there can be no corresponding influence
of a converse nature. As a matter of fact, however, we hâve,
in the course of our considération of the psychic development
of the child in relation to the influences emanating from the
family, fairly often had occasion to concem ourselves at least
indirectly with the mental attitude of the parents as a factor
in this development.

Thus we hâve 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 tum 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 resuit, to
give their love most freely towards those of their children who
are of the opposite sex to their own. We hâve seen too that
the nature and duration of the feelings of envy, jealousy and
hâte which a child is liable to expérience towards one or other
of its parents are to a very considérable extent dépendent on
the behaviour of this parent towards the child, It is évident

156

ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

also from our previous considérations that there is likely to
be a quantitative as well as a qualitative correspondence between
the love and hâte which a child may feel towards its parents
and the manifestation of corresponding émotions in the parents
themselves. Ail that is left for us to do in this direction is to
look a little more closely into some of the factors which
détermine the nature and extent of the affective reactions of
the parent towards the child.

It is now pretty generally agreed among psychologists The instinctive
that the love of parents to their children takes place in virtue ^^^^f chlMren^^
of the formation of a sentiment ^ 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
émotion of more or less spécifie quality, to which McDougall,
following Ribot, has given the now familiar term "tender
émotion." Now there are clear indications that the energy
involved in this disposition (like that of ail other instinctive
dispositions) can play a part — and normally does play a part
— in many other sentiments besides that which is concemed in
the love of a parent towards his (or her) child. For this reason The love of
the emotional outflow along the lines of this latter sentiment cijjdren^stands
varies to some extent in inverse proportion to the outflow in reciprocal
along the hnes of other sentiments. Thus the amount of love ^fhe^°"rents*'°
which a parent can bestow upon a child is limited by the other interests
amount of the affection and interest which he bestows upon other ^^^ affections
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 thèse children by emotional ties of a much doser, more
intimate and more intensive nature than is one whose énergies
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

1 Mr. Shand's term, adopted by McDougall, is perhaps (in England at
any rate) the most generally used and understood in this connection. The
term Constellation is, however, used in the same sensé by psycho-analytic
wrilers. A Sentiment (or Constellation) differs from a complex only in
that it manifests itself openly in consciousness, vi^hereas the complex is
unconscious.

157

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

The consé-
quent Jealousy
between
parent and
cMld

Conflicting

interests of

parents and

children

one of his. Again, the parent whose sexual émotions and ten-
dencies hâve 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 wido-
wers, widows and those who are unhappily married^ frequently
display a more than normal degree of attachment to their
children, the latter receiving, in addititon to the love that would
ordinarily fall to their share, the displaced affection which
would otherwise find its outlet in the love of v^fe or husband.
For this reason the tie between such parents and their children
is apt to be more than usually close ; and ail psychological
characteristics which are produced by such a tie will occur
more readily in thèse 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 pré-
vention 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
respectively stand thus to some extent in reciprocal relation to
one other, renders inévitable a certain amount of compétition
for this love, whenever the demands from both sides are strong
and persistent. We hâve already seen how from this source
j'ealousy may arise in the cbild 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 dis-
coverable 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 présent 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 émotions towards
the parents that arise from jealousy are liable to be powerfuUy

1 Often, too, unmarried mothers ; though in this case, owing to the fact
that under existing social conditions children bom out of wediock cause more
than the usual amount of anxiety and trouble, love is very liable to be
complicated or even replaced by hâte.

158

ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

reinforced by those due to more gênerai interférence 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 resuit of

jealousy are likely to be complicated by other causes of

hostility. If it be to some extent inévitable that children should

corne to regard their parents as obstacles to the full attainment

of their own desires and as unwelcome causes of interférence

with their most cherished activities, parents hâve at least equal

reason to complain similarly of their children. The responsi-

bility, the effort, the anxiety, involved in rearing children, xhe sacrifices

diminish very considerably the time and energy available for involved in

more directly personal occupations and enjoyments. To some P^^^"^*^*^^

extent the individual inevitably sacrifices himself in becoming

a parent, in accordance with the gênerai 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 nécessitâtes 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 considérable

différence 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 présence of children, especially within the

confines of a small home, inevitably to some extent a cause of

annoyance to the parents. As Bernard Shaw ^ so well points

out, children are indeed to some extent necessarily and un-

avoidably a nuisance to grown-up persons; with their ill-

regulated and impulsive energy and their disregard of the

habits and conventions to which their seniors hâve become

accustomed, they constitute an ever présent menace to the

comfort and tranquillity of adult life — a menace from which

even the most devoted parent must sometimes wish that he

coiold free himself.

The mother, owing to the greater demands which children Theirinfluence
make upon her time and health and energy is perhaps that ^^ ^^ mother
one of the parents to expérience most keenly such hostile

1 "Parents and Children."

159

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

feelings, though the existence of a strong counter-impulse
towards maternai love wiil often insure repression of thèse feel-
ings 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 interfères
wiÂ her more directly individual needs and aspirations ^
On the father The interférence of children with the activities and desires

of the father is usually less direct and the iU-will which fathers
bear towards their children is therefore more apt to be aroused
in conséquence of jealousy than is the corresponding feehng
of the mother. Nevertheless, in the case of the father too,
there almost always sooner or later anses some degree of
interférence 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 enjo5niient.
Identification The hostile feelings of parents towards their children which

with^its er^^^d^ ^^^ ^^^^^ origin f rom one or more of thèse sources are often
parent powerfuUy 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^. Thus in several parts of the

^ Thus the analysis of dreams occurring during pregnancy would
seem to show that a surprisingly large number of thèse hâve as their
principal motive the death of the child which the mother cames in her
womb. Nor do such death wishes on the part of the mother fail to mani-
fest themselves on occasion in the mother*s waking thoughts and actions.
Abortion and attempts at abortion are of course extremely common
(especially where, through ignorance, carelessness or législative inter-
férence, the more humane method of préventive sexual intercourse is not
practised), but, even after birth, attempts of one kind or another on the
hves of children are by no means rare, even in civilised societies to-day.
(The practice of infanticide in more primitive communities is of course
notorious). I am assured by one who has good opportunities for obser-
vation on this matter that "practical child murder (by slow and safe
methods) is far commoner than the newspaper reading public imagines:
and it is usually the mother who attempts the process"-

As a milder method of disposing of an unwanted child, a mother will
often attempt to leave it in some institution for the care of children. So
much is this the case that almost the first question the authorities of such
institutions hâve to ask themselves, when the mother brings a child, is
whether she is trying to get rid of it.

' See e. g. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," III, 298.

160

ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

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 narae of

their patemal grandfather^.

For the grounds of this belief and the tendencies which Causes of this

hâve given rise to it, it is probable that we must look to the ^^"^^1^^^^,^*!
..,.., , , . , , ., , , , parent-child to

similanties between the relations of parent to child and those previous

which had existed a génération earlier between child and ^^l^donsbr

parent. As we hâve just seen, the feelings that are liable to

be evoked by thèse 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 émotions 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 compétition 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 reversai of

générations 2." According to this phantasy — to which attention The "phantasy

had also been called by psychologists other than those of the ^^^of'^generl-^^

psycho-analytic school, notably by Sully^ — it is supposed that, tions"

as children grow bigger and finally attain to adult stature, their

parents, as they increase in âge, undergo a corresponding

diminution; so that eventuaUy a complète reversai of size as

regards the two générations 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

^ See e. g. Frazer, 'Totemism and Exogamy," H, 302. *'Taboo and the
Périls of the SouI," 370.

2 " Papers on Psycho-Analysis/' 658.

3 " Studies of Childhood/' 105.

161 11

THE PSYCHOANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

in size and power, are themselves able to behave in a quasi-
parental manner to their parents. The ultimate psychological
foundations of this quaint bdief are as yet not clearly under-
stood, 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 émotions 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^ In this way children are
liable to become somètimes the innocent victims of bulljring 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 conséquences ; and it is probable that
in the majority if not in ail of those sad cases, where a parent
conceives a permanent and unreasoning antipathy to one or
more of his children, the foundations of the dishke 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 spécial importance

1 This is somètimes shown quiteopenly in poor families, where the
parents "don't believe in their children having a better time than they
did" and where the children will not infrequently console themselves for
the sufferings they endure at the hands of their parents by the thought of
what they in their tum when grown up^ will do to their children.

Often however, the cruelty inflicted from this motive is rationalisée
as a désire to avoid spoiling the child and to prépare him for the rough
time that he will hâve in later life. {Cp. this with the motives underlying
the infliction of punishment at initiation cérémonies among primitive
peoples. p. 83.).

162

ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

where parents definitely sélect a favourite from among their

children, this favourite child being then invested with the love

that v^^as formerly directed to the favourite parent^. 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^.

In ail cases where a parent resents the coming into being The effect of

or the présence of children, and especially in those where the parent-child

^^•1111 ^. , -^ , r love on the

resentment is based largely upon jealousy, some degree of attitude of

displeasure is apt to be directed upon the other parent, who parents to

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 recaUs in

the parent's mind the earlier one in which, in his own child-

hood, he resented the love of his parents for each other, and

in conséquence 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. iio). Thus a father may expérience

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 ail 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.

1 Cp. Brill, "Psychanalysis: ItsTheory and Practical Application/' z^/çiL

2 The identification of the child with its grandparent is of course not
without effect upon the mind of the child himseK, where it is reinforced
by a variety of other naotives, such as: — the wish to become the parent
of his own parent (/'. e. the corresponding notion to that in the mind of
the child's parent which we hâve just been considering), the wish to dis-
pense with his parent {cp. p. 109), the projection on to the grandparent of
the grandiose ideas formerly entertained with regard to the parent (cp.
p. 55), and finally the results of the happy relationship that often exists
between child and grandparent (owing to the fact that the grandparents
are as a rule less responsible for the child's upbringing and éducation and
less stem and vigorous in the assertion of their authority). As a conséquence
there may arise in the child a strong tendency to imitate the grandparents
— a tendency that may constitute an important factor in moulding the
child's beliefs, attitudes, desires, and occupations. Cp. Ernest Jones, "Papers
on Psycho-Analysis," 652, ff.

163 11*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

The Couvade It has recently been shown by Reik^ that this last mentioned

factor of the resentment against the wife together with the
previously discussed jealousy and hatred of the child are capable
of throwing a very considérable 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 thèse
customs we may well dévote a brief considération hère, 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: —

(i) the pre-natal or pseudo-matemal 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 expériences in reality;

(2) the post-natal or dietetic Couvade, in which the father
prétends 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.

The pre-natal As regards the pre-natal Couvade, it is obvious that the

Spressfon^ ^ occasion of his wife's labour is one which is liable to arouse
ambivalent strong, and to some extent conflicting, émotions in the father.

towards^the ^^^ danger and distress to which the mother is exposed
wife naturally tend to arouse in the father feelings of sympathy and

anxiety together with a désire 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 magie. 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 principaJJy
to the Unconscious, they will usually be présent in a greater
or a less degree; since, besides any gênerai 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 spécifie

1 *' Die Couvade und die Psychogenese der Vergeltungsfurcht."
Imago, 1914, in.

164

ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

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 sup-
pose therefore that at certain levels of the father's mind there
is often présent 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 tahon 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
with regard to démons which are frequently found associated démons
with the Couvade, Démons are, from the psychological point of
view, merely projections of thoughts and tendencies of the un-
conscious mind, and the démons who are supposed to be in-
flicting pain upon the mother are therefore an expression of the
unconscious désire to infhct such pain. This désire manifesta
itself also in not a few of the measures which are taken to drive
away the démons, 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 mani- The post-natal
festation of repressed hostility towards the mother, the post- suhsprkicip^^"
natal Couvade would seem to arise chiefly as the resuit of a ly from hostile
similar attitude towards the child. This is shown by the fact towards^the
that the practices associated with this aspect of the Couvade child

are held to be necessary for, or at least conducive to, the life
and health of the newly born infant, who is regarded as pe-
culiarly 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 appré-
ciation 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 re-
pression 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

165

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

ail, taboos on foods would appear in the last resort very largely
to dépend, 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 wheri
rest and freedom from trouble would hâve been more welcome.
The Couvade Certain other students of the Couvade, such as Bachofen,

^ A ^y tw^ ^^^ probably to some extent right too in maintaining that the
rights practice represents an assertion by the father of his rights and
privilèges, 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.
The This feeling of inferiority is frequently shared by fathers

*^°"j?^P?^^^S in modem civilised societies, who at the birth of their children
modem Ufe 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 ma-
lady, in order to claim care and sympathy from those about
them and to prevent a too exclusive préoccupation with the
mother. In other ways too it is évident that many of the mental
tendencies which underlie the practices connected with the
Couvade are still rife in modem hfe. By his exaggerated ex-
citement and anxiety, a father will often betray the conflicting
nature of the émotions that beset him at the time of the birth
of his child; while the manifold crude superstitions and prac-
tices and the numerous unreasonable beliefs and attitudes that
are connected with pregnancy and birth serve further to de-
monstrate the archaic, and therefore fundamental, nature of the
ideas and feelings that centre round thèse events^.

^ As an example of an attitude obviously akin to one of the main
tendencies underlying the Couvade — a désire to inflict pain upon the

i66

ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

The hostility which a parent may harbour towards his
child or children from the causes we hâve been considering
wiU, under happy conditions of individual and family develop-
ment, tend naturally to diminish as time passes and permits of
adjustment to the new circumstances occasioned by the exis-
tence of the children. More especially of course, the feelings of
hatred and jealousy, which may originally hâve 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 remuant 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 resuit of the sacrifices that hâve to be incurred
by the parent. In gênerai however it may be safely asserted
that in no case does the very real antagonism that exists be-
tween the activities and enjo3anents 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 resuit from this anta-
gonism entirely abolished from the mind.

As time proceeds and children grow up, two new factors
of great importance are liable to be added to those that
détermine the attitude of parents towards their children,
although in many cases one or both of thèse factors may hâve
been présent in germinal form from the beginning. Both factors
are connected with the biological truth that in the histoiy
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.

mother— we may mention the strong objection that was originally taken to
the use of anaesthetics in midwifery, on the ground that the suffering of
pain in childbirth was a just punishment for sin and that it was therefore
ethically undesirable to seek to do away with or abate this pain.

Parent-child

hostility in

later Ufe

New factors
influencing
the attitude
of parents
to children
in later life

167

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Envy The first of thèse two factors consîsts in the unwelcome

of childrens' réalisation that the child will shortly be, or perhaps already is,
supenony ^^^ 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 leaming;
while the mother may similarly find herself becoming outrivalled
by her daughter in beauty, charm, accomplishments or intellec-
tual power. This awareness on the parent's part of the
increasing failure of their own powers relatively to those of
their children is naturally hable to increase the bitterness that
they may already feel towards their children for other reasons.
Just as the seiï-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 seiï-love may
cause them to grudge their children that superiority which
nature in the course of time bestows upon them.

Parents' It might well seem indeed as though some degree of

of^^hem^^^" ill-feeling on thèse grounds would be inévitable in ail parents

with their in whom the self-regarding sentiments were strongly or even

children 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 hère that there cornes 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 incorporâtes 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 hâve 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 âge 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

i63

ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHÏLDREN

as if they were his own, while the mother often foUows 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 Thisidentifica-

still more important part inasmuch as it affords a means of tionasameans
, f. ,. r . 1. . 1 , 1 t 1 . t ot obtaming

overcommg the fmality of mdividual death, and msures the immortality
parent, through his children and ultimately through their des-
cendants, the nearest approach to material immortality that can
be hoped for hère on earth. The love of children and interest in
their weKare 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 individuai — the désire for immortality — thus
obtaining satisfaction in the same way and at the same tinie
as the strongest and most distinctive of ail 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 recon-
ciliation 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, privilèges, successes and pleasures of which he him-
seK has been deprived or has failed to reap advantage. What
the pessimist von Hartmann has styled the third stage of Vicarious en-
humanity's illusion with regard to the possibility of happiness ^""l^xàrixÂ^
— the idea that the pleasures which we hâve ourselves failed pleasures and
to find may nevertheless be enjoyed by those that come after successes
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 thèse on the whole of the
nobler minded sort) are willing to labour that their children
may enjoy the resuit of their efforts, to amass riches that their
children may hâve the power that wealth confers, or even to

169

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTÏC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

acquiesce in personal failure, if only their children may thereby
be brought nearer to success.
Its sociological This aspect of the process of identification is one which,

significance ^e may very reasonably expect, will tend to play an increasing
rôle as mental development proceeds and men corne 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 présent
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 dépendent not only his own
happiness and well being but those of his children and his
chUdrens' 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^

1 For thèse reasons it would seem very undesirable to tamper
to any appréciable extent with the motives that may impel a man
to work for the advantage of his immédiate posterity; as would be done
for instance, by any prohibition to transmit property to heirs, or by any
measure that too greatly diminished the value of such property, such as
an excessive death duty.

What seems to be to some extent the American idéal of each
génération "making good" in their own persons, is of course based mainly
on perfectly sound ethical and psychological considérations. There is nothing
in thèse considérations however which is incompatible with the hereditary
transmission of wealth or rank. On the contrary, it would seem to be an
ennobling and inspiring idéal for each génération to start life at a some-
what higher ail-round level — material and moral — than the one before
it, each one adding a little to the well-being of the family in body and
mind and handing on the improvement to its successor.

In spite of the great advantages that may thus follow from the
identification of the parent with his children, it behoves us not to over-
look one possible danger that may ensue from it, if carried to excess. An
individual's actions affect posterity, not only in the persons of his own
offspring, but also by their influence on the history of humanity at large;
and it would be highly undesirable if, while contemplating the benefit of
his own family, an individual ceased to bear in mind his duties to the
wider circles of his social environment. The deeds of great men obviously
détermine Xo a considérable extent the future of the race. It is however
the privilège of ail of us to contribute to this history to some degree;
hence an enlightened moraUty must needs emphasise the responsibility
that is incurred in this respect even by the humblest, since, by his actions
during life, he has to some extent made himself immortal, and influenced
the world through ail time for good or ill.

170

ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

In order that the benefits and compensations attendant The develop-

upon an identification of this sort may be achieved, it is ^^ï^} °^ ^^^

necessary that there should take place a graduai change of corresponding

attitude towards the child on the part of the parent— a readjustment
i_ 1 • , • , , ^ , ^ of the parents'

Change which is very necessary also upon other grounds. In attitude

the fourth and fifth chapters of this bock we studied the
manner in which the successful development of the child requires
an ever increasing degree of émancipation from the ties of
affection and dependence which bind him to the parent. The
proper carrying out of this émancipation requires a correspon-
ding loosening of the ties that bind the parent to the child,
involving a readjustment in the direction of the parenfs
interests and affections. If the parent continues to lavish
on the child, as he grows up, the same amount of
attention and affection that he required in infancy, the
normal development of the child's love impulses is liable
to be very seriously impeded; and should the child, in spite
of this difficulty, attain the stage of directing his love outside
the family, the parent is bound to suffer disappointment at
what appears to him (or at least to his unconscious mind) to
be the thanklessness and faithlessness of his child, and to feel
jealousy and hatred towards the person who has supplanted
him in the child^s affection. Similarly, should the parent too This is as
long or too extensively afford protection to the child, exercise rjecessary for
authority over him or take over responsibility from him, the child for the child
will inevitably find it difficult to acquire the necessary degree
of émancipation from the parenfs care and jurisdiction; and
should he after ail succeed in acquiring such émancipation, the
parent will certainly suffer as the resuit of being deprived ail
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 extrême demands on the énergies
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 graduai modification, redistribution and redirection of the
émotions and interests that centred round the child in its early
life; an undue prolongation of the tendencies natural to the

i7t

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Difficultyand
importance
of this re-
adjustment

early days of parenthood must necessarîly in the long run be
detrimental to the true interest both of child and parent.

Obvions as thèse considérations may well seem to be, the
logical carrying out of the conclusions to which they point is
often far from easy. In practice it is often as hard for parents
to wean themselves from their primitive attitude towards their
children, as it is for the children themselves to acquire the
necessary mental and moral independence of their parents, The
intense and profound émotions 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 resuit, The conséquent
struggle of the parent to keep possession of the child gives
rise to some of the most serions 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 générations of the same
family; it tends, as we hâve 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 un-
happiness to the parents when, as inevitably happens to some
extent, they observe that, in spite of ail 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* acqaintance, 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^

^ It may be well to bear in mind in this connection Mr. Bernard
Shaw's striking words from his brilliant essay on Parents and Children
(the whole of which deserves most careful reading). On the subject of
marriage from the point of view of the parents, he writes with his usual
pénétration and with a gênerons understanding of the real difficulties of
the situation: — "Take a very common instance of this agonizing incompati-
bility" (between the point of view of parents and that of the children).
"A widow brings up her son to manhood. He meets a strange woman,
goes off with and marries her, leaving his mother desolate. It does not
occur to him that this is at ail hard on her; he does it as a matter of
course, and actually expects his mother to receive on terms of spécial
affection, the woman for whom she has been abandoned. If he shewed

172

ATTITUDE OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN

The question of marriage is, under existing conditions The attitude of
one of spécial importance in this connection, since nothing else Parents to the
(with the exception perhaps of permanent séparation in space) theijTcfridren
tends to eut off individuals to an equal extent from the direct
influence and contact of their parents. Parents who ardently
désire 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 fréquent
domestic unhappiness. Since the marriage of their children is how-
ever 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 opération of
their own (the parents') influence. Hence it often cornes about
that the persons selected are sexually unattractive, of weak
character or déficient in inteUectual power^

any sensé of what he was doing, any remorse; if he mingled his tears
with hers» and asked her not to think too hardly of him because he
had obeyed the inévitable destiny of a man to leave his father and
mother and cleave to his wife, she could give him her blessing and
accept her bereavement with dignity and without reproach. But the man
never dreams of such considérations. To him his mother's feeling in the
matter, when she betrays it, is unreasonable, ridiculous and even odious,
as shewing a préjudice against his adorable bride.

ï hâve taken the widow as an extrême and obvious case; but there
are many husbands and wives who are tired of their consorts, or dis-
appointed in them, or estranged from them by infidehties; and thèse
parents, in losing a son or a daughter through marriage^ may be losing
everything they care for. No parent's love is as innocent as the love of a
child; the exclusion of ail conscious sexual feeling from it does not exclude
the bittemess, jealousy, and despair at loss which characterize sexual
passion; in fact, what is called a pure love may easily be more selfish
and jealous than a carnal one. Anyhow, it is plain matter of fact that
naively selfish people sometimes try with fierce jealousy to prevent their
children marrying." p. XXXVIII.

1 Cp. Jung, *'Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology," 156 ff. On
the other hand in cases where^ as in those we considered above, the
parent identifies himself with his children, he is very hkely to expérience
a strong attachment to the marital partners of his children.

173

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Meansofavoid- The avoidance of the evils conséquent upon the insuffi-

ingmsufficient ^j^jj^ readjustment of the parents attitude towards their children
re-adjustment is one of the most pressing tasks of an enlightened hygiène
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 hâve seen, it is especially
in cases when marriage is unsuccessful that there is likely to
be an excessive outflow of émotion 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 graduai reinforcement of such interests as
the growth of the children renders the demand upon the
parentes energy less extensive and continuons. Where the
circumstances in thèse two respects are satisfactory, they
usually permit of the necessary readjustment of parental
énergies with the minimum of friction and suffering.

174

CHAPTER XV

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES — HATE ASPECTS

The descriptive portion of our task is now completed. We Recapitulation
hâve traced, with such degree of détail 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 hâve
seen how thèse feelings and tendencies are of fondamental
importance in the formation of individual character and how
they hâve also exercised a vast influence on social life and
social institutions. We hâve seen also that, throughout their
multitudinous transformations and ramifications, the tendencies
originally connected with the family préserve some likeness
to their primitive character, being ultimately reducible upon
analysis to a séries of displacements of a very few original
trends and impulses. Thèse 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 hâte or fear; the trends falling ,within each of
thèse groups being manifested either in a direct and positive,
or in a reactionary and négative form; the latter being assumed
as the resuit of a conflict between one of the trends in question
and some other trend of an opposite, or at any rate a diffé-
rent, character (very often one of the family trends belonging
to the opposite group).

Since thèse groups of impulses hâve shown themselves to
play a part of such importance in human mind and human con-

175

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

The theoret- duct, it is not unnatural that, having completed our review of
ical treatment ^-jj^jj. manifestations, we shovJd feel some curiosity as to the
^and^ks**^^ manner in which they hâve corne to play this part in the
difficulties course of the past history of the human race and as to the
nature of the influence which they hâve exerted on this history.
Unfortunately in the présent 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 hâve been dealing hâve themselves,
for the most part, been too recently discovered to hâve as
yet been adequately correlated, or brought into connection,
with the relevant facts of anthropological, ethnographical or
biological science. The data from thèse latter sources are more-
over, in spite of much diligent research in récent years,
still in many important respects too incomplète to afford a
satisfactory basis for such corrélation. As a conséquence of
thèse conditions, it is to be feared that any attempt that we
may make to exhibit the psychical tendencies with which we
hâve been concerned, in their bearings upon early human
history, or to explain their origin in the hght of this history
or of the gênerai conditions of human life and mind, wiU resuit
in little more than a restatement of our psychological principles
from a slightly différent point of view. Nevertheless the attempt
may be worth making. A summary of some of the main im-
plications 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, thèse may perhaps serve as starting points — to be
either proved or else corrected — for subséquent enquiries
based on a more sound foundation. The reader wiU understand
therefore that, in so far as in the présent and the two succeed-
ing chapters there is anything that is not — explicitly or im-
plicitiy — contained in what we hâve already said, -we shall
hâve left the région of comparative certainty afforded by the
results of observation and induction, and shall be travelling
for the most part on the unsure ground of spéculation — spé-
culation that can be justified only on the plea of natural curio-
sity, and by the hope of opening up a few vistas which may

176

FAMILY TENDENCIES — HATE ASPECTS

be more fully surveyed by better equipped workers in the
future,

Of the two main groups of tendencies to which we hâve
above referred — which we may briefly call the love and hâte
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 hâte 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 émotions which chiefly underlie the attitude of
hâte. Anger arises when the activities, tendencies or wishes of
the individual are interfered v^th or when the individual is
unwillingly forced to undergo some disagreeable or undesirable
expérience, and it is directed to the object from which such
interférence or such infliction of undesired expérience is forth-
coming. 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^.

Now, as we hâve seen, the normal conditions of family
Ufe necessarily give rise to some extent to the situations which
arouse thèse émotions. Through the mère exercise of ordinary
parental authority and care, and more especially through the
process of elementary moral training and éducation, the parent
invariably interfères in some ways v^âth 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 présent for the arousal
in the child's mind of anger and fear towards the parent,
should the child be at ail susceptible to thèse émotions.

1 Though we ought possibly to make an exception hère in the case
of that fear which seems to anse as the resuit of a transformation of
sexual impulses. On the other hand, it is possible that this too may be
brought under the more gênerai formula, if we recognise that the fear is
in this case directed not to some outer object but to some threatening
élément within the mind. For a discussion of this matter see Freud, "Vor-
lesungen 2ur Einfûhning in die Psychoanalyse," 466 ff. For a most important
discussion of the fundamental nature and conditions of love and hâte and
of the différent causes from which they originate, see Freud, " Sammlung
kleiner Schriften 2ur Neurosenlehre," IV, 270 ff.

The hâte
tendencies to
some extent

inévitable

177

Jealousy as
a necessary
conséquence
of marriage

and especially
of monogamy

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

We hâve seen that the hâte attitude îs sometimes and
to some extent brought about indirectly as a conséquence of
jealousy aroused in connection with the love attitude (jealousy
being caused by interférence with the successful function of
the love impulses), sometimes more directly by a more gênerai
hostiUty between parent and child. In so far as the first case
is concerned, the hâte attitude is obviously dépendent 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 hve
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 bas 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 immémorial antiquity.
It is therefore not surprising that we find évidence 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 bas been
called into existence in innumerable successive générations
and bas thus had ample opportunity to impress itself on the
forms, traditions and institution^ of human society,

In those societies which bave developed or maintained a
relatively strict monogamy we should expect that this kind of
parent hatred would be more easily and extensively developed
than in those in which the marriage tie is looser, wider or more
elastic, since in the former case the hatred bred of jealousy
would necessarily be^^directed on to a single individual, whereas
in the latter it might lose in intensity through diffusion over
a number of différent persons, Now it is a feature of that
relatively early stage of culture which with Wundt^ we may
perhaps call the Totemic âge that the family ties are as a
rule relaxed in favour of those wider bonds that unité together
the différent members of the tribe or clan. In this âge we

i W.Wundt, "Eléments of Folk Psychology," trans. by E.L. Schaub^
1916. 116 ff.

178

FAMILY TENDENCIES — HATE ASPECTS

often îind that some form of group marriage exists or shows

évident 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 hâve reached a more advanced

stage of culture. We might imagine therefore that this Totemic

âge was distinguished by a lessening of the parent jealousy Parent-child

v^^hich must probably hâve existed both in the earlier and in jealousy

the later societies of a more strictly monogamie kind. We hâve p?onounced in

seen indeed that a reconcihation between fathers and sons is ^^e Totemic

one of the motives which finds expression in the initiation ^^

cérémonies — cérémonies that arise and flourish principally at

the Totemic stage of culture. The men's clubs — one of the

institutions most typical of this âge — 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 stricdy with-

in the confines of their own families. A similar resuit 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 maie 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 correspon-

dence 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

privilèges over one or more members of the opposite sex, they

are bound to resent any conduct which might appear to con-

stitute an infringement or challenge of thèse rights; freedom

from jealousy can only be obtained under thèse 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 complète adaptation to the married state on

the part of ail concerned than can usually be secured. On the

179 12*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

other hand, if no such exclusive privilèges 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 hère ail sexual tendencies and
privilèges are centred round one person, who has to be guarded
at whatever cost against the advances of ail other suitors^

The Totemic âge, 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 hâve
been marked by a strong tendency to get rid of jealousy,
which differs together with certain other of the passions which are aroused
'"both from^* ^^ connection with, or centre round, the family. It differs thus
preceding and from the more strictly monogamie condition, which, according
succeedmg ^^ ^^j. ^q^^ récent knowledge, would seem to exist among the
really primitive races of mankind ^- 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 culturel At this latter stage the
family — now however often in an enlarged form comprising
several smaller family groups and several générations — once
more becomes the prédominant 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 décline of jealousy and of the hatreds based thereon was
therefore, we may suppose, at the close of the Totemic âge
replaced by a recrudescence of that more vigorous hostility
between father and son, mother and daughter, between brothers

' It is of course tnie that with a System of group marriage the
opportunities for sexual relations among young people may sometimes be
no greater than under monogamy, since ail the available women may be
regarded as belonging exclusively to a certain class of men — usually
those who hâve attained a certain âge. The hatred and jealousy aroused
in the young men towards their elders may in such cases be equal in
intensity to those felt under monogamie conditions, but the fact remains
that this hatred is no longer intimately connected with the family (at any
rate as we understand that institution at the présent day).

2 Wundt. Op. cit. 34 ff .

3 Wundt. Oj>. cit 311 ff.

180

FAMILY TENDENCIES — HATE ASPECTS

and between sisters, which is to some extent inévitable in a
closely united monogamie family — a hostility which has continued
to exist uninterruptedly until the présent 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 monogamie families of primitive man thèse Similar
latter aspects of hostility had no doubt free scope within certain <^ifferences
limita. In the looser family conditions of the Totemic âge it other aspects
seems probable that passions based on mutual interférence of ^^ intra-family
différent 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 modem civilised nations is less xhe hate-pro-
closely organised than that of the patriarchal family at its full ducing causes
development; children as a rule becoming relatively or completely in modem
free from parental jurisdiction, if not before, at least as soon civilisation
as, they hâve married and founded a home of their own.
Nevertheless the Jessening of antagonism that is brought about
by this relaxation of the family organisation is often to some
extent counterbalanced by the increasing social and économie
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 ^-

1 This is of course specially the case where the moral code upheld
by the parents is one of unnecessary or extrême severity, in which almost

181

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

For thèse reasons the antagonism between parents and
children remains, as we know, strong even in présent day
civilisation, though there are grounds for thinking that it may
perhaps hâve been stronger in those earlier stages of society
in which a more complex patriarchal System flourished.

Négative As regards the négative or reactionary aspects of the hâte

aspects of the attitude, it is pretty clear that the influences which tend to
produce repression or inhibition of the hâte are in the main
of two kinds: — (i) ^^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 hâte of a genuine
love, admiration or respect towards the parent who is hated.

"Moral" As regards the ultimate psychological nature of the first

influences ^j thèse factors, we are face to face with a problem concerning
which there is at présent no very great degree of certainty or
unanimity, i. e. the problem of the gênerai nature of the forces
of repression which inhibit the immoral or anti-social tendencies
of the mind. Freud ^ 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 ^
Trotter^ and Hart*, 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 thèse
moral forces on the whole increase with advancing culture,
thus tending always to substitute an indirect or négative for
the more primitive direct or positive expression of the hâte
attitude towards the parents.

Love that As regards the second factor, the arousal of love in oppo-

confhcts with gition to hâte is evidently dépendent partly (a) upon the child's
and represses j r tr ^ \ / tr

hâte

every natural manifestation of youthful joy, or vitality is condemned; as is
sometimes the case, for instance, with parents of an ultra-puritanical way
of thinking, whose own mental life, however admirable in other respects,
has been warped by excessive inhibitions. Although marked perhaps by
less bittemess than is usual in such cases, Edmund Gosse's remarkable
work *' Father and Son" affords much interesting ground for thought in this
connection.

^ €. g. *'Zur Einfûhrung des NarziÔmus." Jahrbuch der Psychoanaîyse,
1914, VI, 5 ff.

^Psychiatrie Bulletin, I, No. i; *The Psychology of War," 49.

3 *' Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War," 79 ff.

^ "The Psychology of Insanity," 167 ff.

182

FAMILY TENDENCIES — HATE ASPECTS

own innate capacities for affection, tenderness and gratitude;
partly (b) upon the extent to which thèse capacities are
awakened and called into play by a kind and loving attitude
on the part of the parent towards the child. As regards thèse
factors it seems very difficult to say in the présent state of our
knowledge whether there has been any considérable or lasting
change during the later period of human development. The
extent to which tender feelings hâve been aroused between
parents and children of the same sex (for it is of course with
the relations between thèse that we are chiefly concemed hère)
has naturally varied from âge to âge and from one family
System to another; the intensity and frequency of thèse feelings
being as a ruie in inverse proportion to the intensity of the hâte
attitude. Thus it is that those times and places which hâve produced
the minimum of hatred between parents and children hâve 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 hâte. Nevertheless it is not easy to bring forward
any évidence to show a gênerai tendency towards increase of
the tender feelings with which we are hère concerned. Savage
parents in many cases appear to exhibit a very considérable
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, hâve often shown themselves (under a veneer of kindness
or considération) 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
thèse circumstances it would seem that we are perhaps justified
in attributing the undoubted increase in the repression of the
hâte attitude to the more efficient opération of the **morar'
factors, rather than to any growth of tenderness between parent
and child which might hâve served more effectually to counter-
act the hostile tendencies.

183

CHAPTER XVÏ

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE FAMILY TENDENCIES— LOVE ASPECTS

The love
attitude

The positive
and négative
aspects that
hâve to be
considered

The problems connectée! with the origin, development and
influence upon human history of the love attitude in relation
to the family are, as we hâve said, in some respects both more
important and more difficult than those connected with the
hâte attitude — more important because, as we hâve seen
throughout, the hâte attitude is to a considérable extent merely
a conséquence of, or at any rate dépendent on, the love
attitude; more difficult, because the psychic tendencies which
enter into the love attitude are in gênerai more tmconscious
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 re-
pressions.

We hâve seen that, in its positive form, this love attitude
manifests itself in an incestuous affection — in the first place,
perhaps always of the child for its mother ; in what is perhaps
a slightly more developed, but certainly a more easily recogni-
sable 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 négative 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 hâve hère 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 hâve seen,
it détermines to a large extent the nature and course of the

184

FAMILY TENDENCIES — LOVE ASPECTS

whole of the subséquent love life of the individual, as well as
of many of the activities which lie apparently far removed
from the sphère of love or sex; secondly, given the existence
of this attachment, what are the further influences which hâve
brought about its repression — a repression that corresponds
in strength and influence to the importance of the positive
impulse to v^hich it is opposed.

Let us consider first the positive side of the love attitude.
The influences M^hich, 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 con-
veniently grouped under a number of separate heads.

(i) First in time and perhaps also in importance would
seem to be a group of factors connected with the long period
of infancy, childhood and youth, which characterises, to a
greater or a less extent, ail branches of the human race. During
this long period, the child is, as we hâve more than once
emphasised, wholly or partially dépendent on its parents for
the satisfaction of its needs. Now it is a fundamental tendency
of the mind to expérience pleasure in connection with, and
generally to appreciate, those objects which administer to, or
are associated wâth, the basic needs and requirements of the
organism ; i, e, the mind tends naturally to react towards thèse
objects in a manner which, at a higher level of development,
we should designate as love^. 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
of a process which McDougalI^ has conveniently designated
primitive sympathy — among the stimuli which are most effective
in producing any given feeling or émotion are the manifestations
of that feeling or émotion in some other person or persons.
Now it is generally admitted by psychologists that the présence

1 Cp, in this connection Abraham, *'Untersuchungen ûber die frûheste
prâgenitale Entwicklungstufe der Libido", Zeitschrift fur àrztlicke Psycho-
analyse, 1916, IV. Also Freud, "Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosen-
lehre*', IV, 274.

2 **Social Psychology", 91.

Influences

determining

the positive

aspects

The long
duration of

human
childhood

Primitive sym-
pathy reacting

on the

expressions of

instinctive

parental

feeKng

18.^

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Love and

respect as

éléments of

imitation and

suggestibility

of children tends to evoke an instinctive affection and
tenderness on the part of the parents; the biological justi-
fication, 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 considérable extent in
men also. In virtue of this instinctive tenderness parents
naturally give expression to their affection in the présence of
the children, whereupon the latter, reacting through primitive
sjnnpathy, tend to expérience affection in their tum and to
direct it upon the nearest and most appropriate object — L e. the
parent whose manifestations of tenderness hâve aroused the
émotion, This séquence of events being frequendy 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 évident that, especially in primitive
communities, the child is dépendent on its parent, not only for
the fulfilment of its elementary needs and desires, but also for
the opportunity of leaming how to fulfil thèse needs and
desires in its own person. This process of leaming implies —
especially perhaps in immature minds — a tendency to imitate
the teacher and to be suggestible towards him. New sugges-
tibility, as we hâve already seen, probably dépends to a
considérable extent upon love ; it certainly dépends 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 vénération.
This being the case, the adoption of an attitude of love and respect
towards his parents, would be of considérable advantage to the
child, as enabling him to acquire more readily those capacities,
habits and ideas which he most naturally leams 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 hâve hère
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.

186

FAMILY TENDENCIES — LOVE ASPECTS

(4) Modem psychology is showing more and more that
the growth of man^s principal instinctive tendencies is continuons
from early youth upward to maturity, there being few or no
sudden changes, transitions or fresh departures as development Early arousal
proceeds. The work of Freud and his followers has, above ail, ,°^ ^?^ .
clearly shown that the sexual tendencies are not narrowly the family is
confined to processes intimately connected with the reproduction necessary for
of the species, but pervade the whole life of the individual, displacements
manifesting themselves in a great variety of ways, many of
which are very far removed from the reproductive sphère but
are of the greatest importance in the increase and maintenance
of culture. More especially it has been shown (in a way which
we hâve to some extent already studied) that thèse tendencies
undergo a continuons process of development from childhood
upwards, and that on their growth and histoi-y dépends to a
considérable 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 évident 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 émerges,
as it were, fuUy grown at the time of puberty, that the
existence of sexual éléments in the loves of an earlier âge
appears surprising. In reality it is necessary, if the sexual
tendencies are to play their important rôle 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 sensé assigned to them by
Freud) were made available in infancy or early childhood, the
child would hâve too little motive at its disposai to make the
vast efforts necessary to enable it to pass from the helplessness
and ignorance of infancy to the relatively enormous skill and

187

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 inévitable — condition of any high
degree of human civiUsation or cultural achievement.

Necessity for (5) Another factor of great importance in mental and

the early moral development, as regards which the early direction of

Autoerotism love on to the parents plays an important part, is one to

to object-love vv'hich we hâve 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 thèse are of very considérable
significance. Failure to carry out the change successfuUy v^ould
seem to bring with it almost inevitably certain grave defects
of character, involving an exaggerated egoism and a corre-
spondingly déficient altruism ; defects which must seriously
detract from the social value of the individual, and which when
présent in large numbers of the poptalation, 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 hâve 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 désire in the outer world rather than in intimate
connection with the self, the tendency upon which ail altruism
is ultimately based. Just as the early awakening of the sexual

188

FAMILY TENDENCIES — LOVE ASPECTS

impiilses ensures that thèse impulses shall hâve time and
opportunity to dévote the great motive power at their disposai
to the work involved in mental growth and éducation, so the
early arousal of object-love in connection with the parents
ensures that thèse 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 Narciss-
development of object-love, we must not forget that at the ^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^
same time it is calculated to give a considérable degree of also satisfied
satisfaction to the Narcissistic éléments of love. In their most ^y incestuous
characteristic and pronounced form, thèse Narcissistic éléments
will usually manifest themselves in a homosexual direction and
therefore not in the typical form of incestuous heterosexual
affection with which we are hère 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 éléments 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 opération of this
Narcissistic factor in object-love dépends, may of course take
place at many différent 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 expériences of pre-natal life
— such a bond for instance as that which arises perhaps as a
resuit of the close vital connection between mother and child
during the period of gestation and lactation i.

1 Cp. T. Burrow, "The Genesis and Meaning of Homosexuality and its
relation to the problem of introverted mental states." Psychoanaîytic
Review, IV. 272.

189

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Thus two In this way the love of a child to those who are related

opposing |-Q it -[yy ties of blood — and particularly to the parents — is such

^k)v"*find^" as to afford a convenient compromise between two sets of

simultaneous conflicting impulses — the impulses that tend to the development

gra ication ^^ ob]ect-love and those more primitive ones that manifest

themselves most clearly at the autoerotic and Narcissistic levais.

Such a compromise formation is, as we know, peculiarly

characteristic of the process of displacement. It is a gênerai

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 éléments that are connected with the

satisfaction of both conflicting aims. As a ready means of

providing such common éléments, 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.

The dépend- (7) Another set of factors working towards the production

ence aspects ^md maintenance of the tendencies to incest are those connected

directly^Lster with the dependence of the youthful individiual on the family,

incestuous ^^^ ail that this implies. We hâve already, in Chapters IV
tendencies •/ ±

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 earher stage of development

in the face of obstacles, ail combine to produce the rétention

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 évident 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 gênerai 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 corre-

190

FAMILY TENDENCIES — LOVE ASPECTS

sponding 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 considérable 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 v^here it seemed to hâve been superseded or outgrown.

(8) The sentiment of parent love having been called into
existence by the aid of the factors we hâve already enumérated —
directly in the case of i and 2, more indirectly in the case of
4, 5 and 6 and still more indirectly perhaps in the case of
3 and 7 — ail conditions are particularly favourable for its
continuance and growth. In the first place, it is almost certainly The sentiment
one of the earliest important sentiments to be formed, the only ^^ powerf'u^^
other one which can compare with it in this respect being the virtue of its
self-regarding sentiment. It thus enjoys as compared with most ^^rlyformation
others sentiments ail the advantage afforded by priority. What
the exact nature of any such advantage may be, it would be
hazardous to suggest in détail: we know however that it is a
gênerai 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
subsequendy acquired. Even where, as so often happens, the
function of the earlier dispositions is modified or obscured by
the results of later expérience, the phenomena of "régression"
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
résistance 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 ah the earliest
channels of conative energy not only to remain capable of
functioning in later Hfe, but actually to continue to function,
though often in such a degree or in such a way as to hâve but
little if any direct influence on consciousness or action. Thus

191

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Furthermore,

numerous

influences

favour its

persistence

it would appear that when a sublimation is formed and
emotional energy is directed into a fresh channel, not ail 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 Une
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 sensé, 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 ail other early channels of
the Libido. Just as the autoerotic trends connected with the
oral, anal and urethral régions of the body and the primitive
tendencies to sadism, masochism and exhibitionism hâve 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
ail the earliest manifestations of the Libido,

In one important respect however the history of parent
love differs from the history of many other of thèse early
manifestations. Parent-love not only comes into being at a very
early âge, but, as regards many of its attributes, it normally
persists with but little altération throughout the whole of the
impressionable period from infancy to adolescence. The sensual
éléments of this love are, it is true, for the most part repressed
soon after they appear, but the éléments of tendemess and
vénération usually remain and build up a sentiment which
opérâtes 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

192

FAMILY TENDENCIES — LOVE ASPECTS

of a far more temporary and evanescent character. It is true,
as we hâve 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 Ufe
fixated on its original object, Moreover as regards this fixation
of affection on the parents (provided only no sensual élément
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 Ufe.

We see therefore that both as regards priori ty of formation
and as regards duration, Angour and continuity of function
throughout the ail 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 rôle it plays in human life,

(9) Finally, the tendency to incestuous direction of affection, The tendency
having once been brought into existence, has no doubt been b^roug^fabo^^
strengthened and Consolidated by the actual practice of incest isstrengthened
that has pretty certainly occurred on a wide scale among certain ^^ tradiUwi
races and at certain levels of development ^.

1 We hâve already (p. 90) given certain examples of that most common
form of incest, the connection of brother and sister. We may hère refer
briefly to a few further instances, more especially to those in which there
occurs the more intimate connection between parents and children. Such
instances would seem to hâve been observed with especial frequency
among the Indians of North America. Thus Samuel Hearne, writing in 1795,
tells ns of the Chippewayans that ** it is notoriously known that many of
them cohabit occasionally with their own mothers and frequently espouse
their sisters and daughters. I hâve known several of them who, after having
lived in that state with their danghters, hâve given them to their sons and
ail parties hâve been perfectly reconciled to it." ('*jbumey to the Northern
Océan," 1795, 130). Eighty years later Bancroft tells us much the same of
the Kadiaks ("The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America,"
1875, I, 81). An observer of about the same period writes conceming the
eastem tribes of the Tinnehs that "instances of men united to their mothers,
their sisters or their daughters are far from rare. I hâve heard among them
of two sons keeping their mother as a common wife, of another wedded

193

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

to his daughter, while in cases of polygamy having two sisters to wife is
very usual." ("Annual Report of Régents of the Smithsonian Institution,"
1867, 310).

In South America too the practice of incest of this kmd would appear
to hâve been fairly freqiiently observed. Thus in Brazil the Indians of the
Isanna river *'marry one, two or three wives and prefer relations, marrying
with cousins, uncles with nièces, nephews with aunts, so that in a village
ail are connected" (A. R. Wallace, "Travels in the Amazon and Rio Negro,"
1889, 352). Commenting on this report, Frazer adds that "in this préférence
for marriage with blood relations the Indians of the Isanna agrée with other
Indian tribes of South America, especially of Brazil" ("Totemism and
Exogamy," III, 575). Conceming this same part of the world, another traveller
says that "in gênerai it may be asserted that incest in ail degrees is of
fréquent occurrence among the numerous tribes and hordes on the Amazon
and the Rio Negro" (See Martius, *' Zur Ethnographie Amerikas, zumal
Brasiliens," 1867, 116). Of the Peruvian aborigines we are told by an earlier
authority that they " follow their own desires without excepting sister,
daughter or mother. Others excepted their mother but none else"
(Garcilasso de la Vega, First part of the " Royal Commentaries of the
Yncas," trans. by C. R. Markham, 1869-71, I, 58).

Similar observations hâve been made by travellers among primitive
peoples in many other parts of the world. Thus with the Karens of
Tenasserim "matrimonial alliances between brother and sister or father and
daughter are not uncommon" {Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of
Befîgalf Vn, 856). In Africa "the kings of Gonzalves and Gaboon are
accustomed to marry their grown-up daughters and the queens marry their
eldest sons" (A. Bastian, " Der Mensch in der Geschichte," 1860, III, 293). In
a district of Celebes " father and daughter, mother and son, brother and
sister frequently lived together in bonds of matrimony" (S. J. Hickson,
" A Naturalist in North Celebes " 1889,277). With the Kalangs (probably the
aborigines of Java) "mother and son often live together as man and wife,
and it is a belief that prosperity and riches flow from such a union"
(E. Ketjen, De Kalangers, Tijdschrift vo7t Indische Taal-Land en Volkenkunde,
1877, XXIV, 427). Very similar practices hâve been reported from New
Guinea (Rev. J. Chalmers, " Notes on the Natives of Kiwai," Journal of the
Royal Anthropological Institute, XXXI, II, 1903, 124), the Indian Archipelago
(Wilken, Over de Verwantschap en het huwelijks en enfrechts bij de volken
van het maleische ras, 1883, 277), and Melanesia (Frazer, "Totemism and
Exogamy," H, 118).

But it must not be supposed that the fréquent practice of incest is
confined to primitive races. Although in civihsed communities regarded
with almost universal condemnation, incest has probably always existed to
some extent among certain sections of the population and the practice of
incest among modem white races is undoubtedly much more prévalent
than is commonly supposed. A well known British psycho-analyst assures
me that in the exercise of their profession he and his colleagues hear with
astonishing frequency of cases of incest, the report of which is otherwise
suppressed. Particularly is this so as regards children. At the présent day

194

FAMILY TENDENCIES — LOVE ASPECTS

Apart from the actual observation of incestuous practices The

at the présent day, the previous occurrence of incest on a wide occurrence of
scale may (as we hâve already to some extent indicated in '"brinTeTred^
earlier chapters) frequently be inferred with some degree of ^^^^, certain
certainty from the nature of practices, customs, observances ^"instUuLnT
and institutions which seem to be remnants or vestiges of a
one-time gênerai prevalence of incest. We hâve already referred
to the practice of brother-sister marriage among certain hnes
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 frequendy permitted at certain festivals
such as initiation (p. 89).

Evidence for the previous existence of incest is also forth-
coming from the measures and prohibitions erected to prevent
it. The "avoidances'' practised by a large number of savage
peoples are very numerous and bave référence to ail the
principal relationships, both those of blood and those acquired
by marriage. Thèse "avoidances" are unhesitatingly regarded by
most authorities as customs adopted as a précaution against Especially

incest . from Exogamy

The most striking institution of this kind is however un-
doubtedly that of Exogamy. There is as yet no complète con-
sensus of opinion as to the causes that bave led to the origin
and development of exogamy, but the majority of the eminent
investigators who bave devoted themselves to the subject agrée
that the avoidance of incest is the principal factor that has led
to the création of the system. The varions stages of exogamic
development, as seen in Australia, appear to constitute so many

however, incest undoubtedly occurs most frequently among the poorer
classes, where want of adéquate housing accommodation renders the
temptation greater. It is startling to note in this connection that, according
to the Chicago Vice Commission, out of a group of 103 girls examined, no
less than 51 reported that they had received their first sexual expérience
at the hands of their father ("The Social Evil in Chicago," 1911, quoted by
W. A.White, *' Me^'chanisms of Character Formation," 1916, 163). Even if We
allow a libéral margin for incorrect or exaggerated statements (in this case
of course^ instances of wish-fulfilment), thèse figures would seem to afford
astonishing évidence as to the prevalence of incest of the father-daughter
type in the towns of America. In this country there is reason to believe
that similar occurrences are far from being uncommon (cp, " Downward
Paths", 20).

195 13*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

fresh encroachments upon the liberty of inceste the later and
more complex four class system prohibiting certain unions
between relatives that the earlier and simpler two class system
bas permitted, while tbe eight class System in tum 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 maie or
female line.
Exogamywas There is a considérable amount of évidence to show that

Pi'^^^bly exogamy, where now in force, was preceded by a period in
Endogamy 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^ say that tradition **seems to point back to a time when
a man always married a woman of his own totem. The
référence to men and woman of one totem always living
together in groups would appear to be too fréquent 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 émerges 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 graduai
increase in the frequency and strictness of exogamy, as we
proceed from thèse to the more advanced communities of the
north ^. Among the Kacharis of Assam we hâve 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 hère thus not only permitted
but enjoined*. Other indications of the co-existence of endogamy
with a totemic system are found in Madagascar^ and in
N.W. America®.

Frazer supposes that exogamy in its beginning arose

1 Cp. Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy," IV, 112 ff.

2 *' Native Tribes of Central Australia," 419.

3 Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy/' I, 242 ff.

^ Idem, op, cit., IV, 297, quoting Rev. S. Endle.

5 Idem, op, cit.y H, 636.

6 Idem, op. cit., HT, 340.

'• 196

FAMILY TENDENCIES — LOVE ASPECTS

originally as a restriction upon complète promiscuity, though
he admits that such promiscuity need not hâve been charac-
teristic of absolutely primitive man^. As a matter of fact the
most primitive races that we know seem to be usually
monogamous and endogamous. This is for instance to a greater Really
or less extent the case with the Veddahs^, the Andamanese^, prinùtive races
the lowest forest tribes of Brazil*, the inhabitants of the ^amous"^and'
interior of Bornéo^, the Semangs and Senoi of the Malay endogamous
Peninsula®, and the Negritos of the Philippines'' and Central
Africa®-

In thèse primitive peoples and in those who, as we must The family is
suppose, formerly resembled them, the family would appear to therefore their
be a more closely knit and socially a more important unit than social unit
in the later âge 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
beheve 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 imit; such approximation to
tribal organisation as exists being mostly of a temporary or
fluctuating character. With such peoples the low state of culture ïncestanatural
will often necessitate a relatively scattered population, and in conséquence
thèse circumstances endogamy and incest may be a natural — conditions
indeed possibly sometimes an inévitable — conséquence ; 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 thèse 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 thèse conditions from the early
ripening of the sexual instinct which is generally found in

1 Op. cit., IV, 138.

2 "Among whom death alone séparâtes husband and wife". John
Bailey, "An Account of the Wild Tribes of the Veddahs of Ceylon." Trans.
of the Ethnological Society, N. S. II, 1863, 293.

3 Westermarck, "History of Human Marriage", 507.

4 Idem, loc. ciL
^ Idem, loc. cit.

6 Wundt, "Eléments of Folk Psychology", 48, 50.

7 Idem, îoc. cit.

8 Idem, îoc. cit.

197

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

primitive man K The yery early cohabitation of the sexes which

results therefrom would, in relatively isolated families, almost

necessarily occur in an incestuous form.

How do past If thèse influences hâve made incest a common practice

incestuous ^^ ^^ç. period of man^s history, in what ways has this practice

oractices t)ro~ •/ *

duce présent contributed to the tendency to incest found at a later date and
tendencies to ^^ ^j^^ présent 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
différences of culture, training, and environment, of the great
strength which it possesses even after âges of repression, there
is not unnaturally a temptation to regard it as an innate factor
in man's mental constitution, i. e.y to assert that there is in
man an hereditary tendency to direct his love and sexual
The influence inclination to those who are of his own blood or at any rate
ofiiereditYand ^q those with whom he has been brought up and has been
familiar since his infancy^. Possibly in the long âges 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 hâve contributed both to more
rapid multiplication and to the greater consolidation, and
therefore greater safety and stabihty, of the family, as the
most important social unit. The tendency to incest may thus
be due ultimately to the action of natural sélection; the long
period during which incest was regularly practised may hâve
established and ingrained it as a normal feature of the
race and its persistence to-day may be due to the con-
tinuance of the hereditary disposition thus formed and thus
Consolidated.

1 Cp, E. S. Hartland, "Primitive Patemity", H, 254, ff.

2 It is not perhaps quite easy to see what can be the psychic
mechanism in virtue of which men should be attracted to blood relations
strictly as such, though to the présent writer it would seem to be a
possibiUty which should not be entirely lost sight of. Such a tendency
may perhaps hâve arisen : (i) as the resuit of some vague and imconscious
sensé of affinity, similarity or harmony, based perhaps on an unconscious
memory impression of pre-natal life (in the case of child and mother or
of twins), or upon some other condition of a psychical, physiological or
Chemical order; (2) at a higher level through the action of perceived
physical or psychical resemblance, thèse in tum playing on the Narcissistic
components of the love impulse.

198

FAMILY TENDENCIES — LOVE ASPECTS

Apart from the direct influence of this hereditary factor
however, a long period during which incest was habituai
may hâve affected the tendency to incest at a later time through
custora, law and tradition. Thèse 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 hâve been abandoned
in the main in favour of exogamy. Thèse influences may hâve
kept alive the remembrance of, and désire for, incest, which
would otherwise possibly hâve succumbed to the forces working
to bring about its suppression.

199

CHAPTER XVn

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY
TENDENCIES — THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

Causes of

Incest
Repression

Explanations

of primitive

peoples

Supposing the tendency to incest to hâve been called into
being and. maintained by some such causes, or combination of
causes, as we bave considered in the last chapter, what are the
influences that hâve brought about the inhibition and repression
of this tendency — influences which, as we hâve akeady
remarked, must be strong in proportion to the strength of the
tendency itself? We find hère, as was not the case with
our discussion of the positive aspects of the tendency, that
certain explanations hâve aiready been advanced, though thèse
are for the most part obviously unsatisfactory, or at best
incomplète.

(i) The reasons which are given by primitive peoples for
their obédience to the rule of exogamy are various ; sometimes
it is considered that harm would come to the pair who are
guilty of the forbidden union, this perhaps being usually of
the nature of some disease, or else very frequently, impotence
or barrenness ; sometimes it is the offspring of the guilty pair
who will incur the penalty; quite often, however, the evil
results of such a union are supposed to affect the whole
community to which they belong and consist not uncommonly
in gênerai infertility of women, animais and plants. Thèse
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 rationali-
sations to be taken at their face value ; though the study of
them on psycho-analytic principles would no doubt bring
interesting and suggestive results.

THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

Hardly much more satisfactory, if regarded as attempts
at affording complète and ultimate explanations, are some of
hypothèses that hâve been put forward by modem students
of exogamy.

(2) Thus, Durkheim^ suggests that exogamy arose as a Durkheim's
resuit of the religious respect for blood, particularly menstruous Theorv of the
blood; the divine totemic being is supposed to be résident in blood
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 hâve 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 abnost certainly at best but a very limited
field of application 2.

(3) Westermarck ^ would explain exogamy and the avoidance Wester-
of incest generally as due to the fact that there is an innate ^f^^'^i^^ate^
aversion to sexual intercourse between persons living together aversion to
from early youth, and that, as such persons are in most cases
related by blood, this feeling would naturally display itseiï in
custom and law as a horror of intercourse between near kin*.

1 *'La Prohibition de Tinceste et ses origines," U Année Sociologique,
I, 1890, 55 ff.

2 Cp, Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy", IV, 100 ff.

3 " History of Human Marriage/* 320 ff.

4 A difficulty in connection with Westermarck's theory is concemed
with the question as to how an aversion to sexual intercourse between
those who hâve hved from infancy together changed to a similar aversion
between blood relatives. How is it, if the original aversion was of the
former kind, that it has left but Httle trace of its existence, while the
aversion to marriage between blood relatives, which is supposed to hâve
been derived from it, is grown so strong? It would seem as if the theory
would perhaps hâve to be modified so as to postulate the existence of an
original aversion to the marriage of blood relatives, as such ; though of
course this only opens up the fresh difficulty of accounting for the manner
in which such an aversion could anse. We are hère faced with the same
problem that we hâve already encountered in the case of the positive
aspects of the love impulse between relatives (p. 198 footnote).

201

incest

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

As to the gênerai 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 f act 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 i. An explanation in terms of this incest horror is
not, however, that which we are seéking; it is, on the contrary,
the very existence of this horror for which we are trying to
account. We hâve to ask, what are the conditions in human
life and mind that hâve brought about the widespread aversion
resulting from to incest that is so generally manifested. According to Wester-
*^eff "cts^of^^ marck, thèse conditions are to be found in the process of
inbreeding natural sélection ; marriages between near kin are, he maintains,
on the whole injurions to the species and, therefore, throùgh
survival of the fittest, the existing races of men show a marked
aversion to such marriages.
Thèse effects In estimating the correctness of this theory, it is well to

^^ certain ^"^ remember that the supposed ill effects of inbreeding in men
and animais are by no means as yet universally admitted by
those who hâve studied the subject, and that, even so far as
their existence is admitted, they are not yet fuUy understood
or accurately measured. It is indeed often a matter of
considérable difficulty to discover any ill effects that may be
due to this cause, especially in the case of slow breeding
animais, such as Man, and the conclusions that hâve been
arrived at with regard to the human race hâve to a great
extent been derived by analogy from observations made upon
lower animais. 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) générations without
evil conséquences, though possibly a loss of vigour, strength or
fertihty might ultimately occur. In the case of the Ptolemies of

1 If this were not the case^ we might well ask with other critics why
a natural instinct to avoid incestuous relations should need the reinforcement
of légal penalties and prohibitions.

THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

Egypt and the Incas of Peru inbreeding of this kind has (as
we hâve already observed in another connection) actually been
practised and does not seem to hâve produced any conspicuously
bad results. There is some évidence, 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 hving^

East and Jones in their récent valuable survey of our
présent knowledge on the subject^ conclude quite défini tely
that inbreeding is not in itseK 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 détérioration, in good stock
inbreeding is the surest method of making the désirable
qualities a stable and permanent characteristic of the race.
Nevertheless there are, in the opinion of thèse writers, certain
advantages of a gênerai nature to be derived from outbreeding
connected principally : (i) with the occurrence of heterosis
or hybrid vigour as a resuit of outbreeding, (2) with the fact
that outbreeding leads to greater variability betvveen individuals
than does inbreeding, thus giving greater scope for the action
of sélective agencies and therefore endowing the race with
greater power of adaptation to a changing environment — a
factor which is probably of very considérable importance and
which indeed seems to hâve been overlooked in a number of
previous discussions of the subject, especially by non-
biological writers.

It thus appears that stress shoiold 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

1 For a discussion of the question of inbreeding in the présent con-
nection , see Frazer, "Totemism and Exogamy", IV. 160 ff.

2 ''Inbreeding and Outbreeding", Monographs on Expérimental
Biology, 1919.

203

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

and can
scarcely ac-
countforthe
intensity of
the incest
prohibition

Influence of

non-sexual

factors

that Westermarck's theory requires. But although the theory
that incest prohibition is due to natural sélection 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 hâve worked in the
same direction. For it appears veiy doubtful whether the
factors we hâve just been considering can be regarded as an
adéquate explanation of incest prohibition as we know it. If it
is the advantages of outbreeding rather than the disadvantages
of inbreeding that are potent; if the evil effects of
inbreeding are so relatively slight as to leave room for doubt
as to their nature and even the fact of their existence; if they
are of such kind as to leave healthy stocks but little if at ail
affected and to become serions only after long continuance
without admixture of fresh blood from outside (a state of affairs
that can but rarely hâve occurred); and if they are liable to
be counteracted by a change of locality or of life*s conditions
(which must sometimes hâve occurred, especially among
nomadic peoples): then it is not easy to imderstand how such
a widespread and powerful human characteristic as the aversion
to incest can hâve arisen solely as the resuit of natural sélection,
working through the bad effects of incest or the superior
advantages of outbreeding. The largeness of the resuit would
be manifestly out of proportion to the cause, and it would seem
that although we may allow some considérable influence to this
factor, we hâve to admit that it must be supplemented by
some other cause or causes of appréciable magnitude^.

^ Supposing that natural sélection does exercise some influence of the kind
indicated, such influence does not of course, hère any more than elsewhere,
necessarily imjply any appréciation of the nature of the causes at work. On
the contrary, as some authorities hâve pointed out, it is scarcely possible
to ascribe to primitive man any conscious réalisation of the ill effects of
inbreeding (if thèse exist). Thèse ill effects manifest themselves much too
slowly to be observed by the savage with his relatively short memory
and his lack of interest in remote events, especially when, as has often
been the case, there has been uncertainty as to the nature of patemity.
Even if the savage were able to realise the nature of this hereditary
influence, it is pretty clear that his actions and feelings would be but
little affected thereby, for it is one of the most gênerai characteristics of
the primitive mind that it takes but small account of distant conséquences,
whereas Eugenics involves the appréciation of such conséquences in a
high degree.

204

THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

(4) According to one type of explanation {e. g. that
held by Wundt* the horror of incest is not the cause of
exogamy, but the conséquence of it — the origin of exogamy
itself being due to some other influences only indirectly
connected with the sex life. Of such théories of the origin of
exogamy a number hâve been put forward by eminent
authorities.

Thus McLennan 2, the discoverer of both Totemism and
Exogamy, held the view that exogamy was a conséquence of
the wide prevalence of marriage by capture; this latter being
itself a resuit of the prépondérance of the maie sex over the
female in primitive communities and of the gênerai condition
of hostility existing between neighbouring tribes. Herbert
Spencer^ similarly thought that exogamy arose from marriage
by capture, men belonging to successful tribes nearly always
acquiring their brides in this w^ay, so that it eventuaUy became
a disgrâce to marry within the tribe. Lord Avebury^, believing
that group marriage or promiscuity w^as the rule in primitive
Society, suggests that women taken in war belonged to their
individual capter, marriage in a narrow sensé being thus
exogamous from the start. Kohler^ beheves on the contrary,
that exogamy arose as a means of bringing about inter-tribal
friendships or alliances. Andrew Lang^ 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 w^ant 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 ail thèse factors— and others too perhaps— may very
well hâve 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 reaUy primitive

Such factors

cannot fully

explain

exogamy

1 "Eléments of Folk Psychology", 151.

2 "Studies in Ancient History" (snd. éd.) 160.

3 "Principles of Sociology", I, 619.

4 "The Origin of Civilisation'*, 135 f^-

5 "Indisches Ehe- und Familienrecht", Zeitschrift fur vergîeichende
Rechtswissenschaft, m, 1882, 361.

6 Atkinson and Andrew Lang, "The Primai Law."

205

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

conditions would be very likely to hâve had the effect of
driving the younger members of the family away from the
immédiate circle of their parents. Nevertheless there appears
to be a pretty gênerai agreement that none of thèse théories
affords a complète and sufficient account of the origin of
exogamy. The conditions postulated by McLennan's theory
(shortage of women and fréquent wars between neighbouring
groups) are by no means universally found among primitive
peoples, and even if there exists the required prépondérance
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 ail
the tribes of a given area, since in constant warfare there
must be some which are vanquished, and among thèse 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 hâve corne 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 \
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 théories of
this kind, it is at once évident that we hâve hère no adéquate
explanation of the strictness with which the system is enforced,
The psycho- the severe penalties that are exacted for infringement of its
ÎTf^^i ^nc^est ^^^^^ (which is very often punishable by death), the intense
prohibition nature of the incest horror generally, and the fact that this
insXcie^cy ^orror persists even where, as in civilised countries, there is
of thèse no organised System of exogamy in the technical sensé. The
psychological researches of Freud and his followers would seem
to hâve shown conclusively that this intense aversion to incest
(like ail répugnances and taboos of a similar kind) is the

1 A full discussion of thèse théories will be found in Westermarck's
" History of Human Marriage" and Frazer^s "Totemism and Exogamy"-

206

influences

THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

négative expression of a correspondingly intense désire for
the forbidden thing, and therefore no explanation which
neglects to take into considération this désire can be regarded
as even approximately satisfactory. If the aversion to incest
had arisen merely as a conséquence 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
v^ith the positive tendency to incest or of sufficient strength
to overcome this tendency, with the pov^erfulness of v^hich
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 hâve 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 resuit of any institution or
custom itself unconnected with the tendency to incest.

(5) Turning to factors that hâve in gênerai received less The biological
explicit récognition at the hands of the authorities who hâve ^ ^^^^^f^^h'id
written on the subject, we may note first that as regards the incest
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 hâve been to some extent
instrumental, through the agency of natural sélection, of bringing
about that inhibition of the incestuous tendencies for which we
hâve to account. Parents and children necessarily differ consid-
erably in âge, 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 différence is veiy appréciable, 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
âge 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

207

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

in conséquence very probably be lacking in that degree of
vitality or health normally possessed by the children of parents
of more equal âge; 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 foUowing génération;
for if a son were to cohabit with his mother and if a maie
child resulted from their union, this child could not in tum
fruitfuUy unité with his mother (who would also be his grand-
mother), as she would be now definitely past the reproductive
âge. 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 appréciation of beauty in the opposite sex in gênerai, we
may suppose has been shaped largely, if not wholly, by the
opération of natural sélection, 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 ia
which thèse unions did not occur or occurred less frequently;
the latter races tending therefore to supplant the former. Given
then the existence of â strong impulse towards parent-children
unions, we can see how biological factors may very well hâve
favoured the growth of strong counteracting factors, such as
manif est themselves in the repression of the tendencies towards
this form of incest.

Thèse considérations would of course apply not only to
relations between parents and children but to ail other unions
in which the âge différence between the partners is consid-
érable. They would not however apply to unions between
brother and sister or between cousins who are of approximately
equal âge. The influences which lead to the aversions to thèse
latter unions must be sought elsewhere^

1 Whatever real tnith there may be in this argument, we must not.
fail to bear in mind that it is admirably adapted for use as a *'rationali-
sation", /. e, the fear of evil conséquences (dysgenic or other) from;

208

THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

(6) A potent set of influences calculated to inhibit tendencies Fear of the
to incest are those connected with sexual jealousy. A boy*s conséquents
love towards his mother, as we hâve seen, almost necessarily jealousy
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 jealou&y 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 fréquent and important are: —

a. fear of punishment at the hands of the jealous
parent, and

b. unwiUingness to cause injury or sorrow to this parent
because of genuine affection being felt tov^ards him (or her) —
affection which of course may quite well co-exist with very
considérable jealousy and rivalry. Both thèse motives appear
prominently in psycho-analytic investigations of the conditions
underlying the repression of the Œdipus complex in normal
and neurotic persons of the présent day, and both hâve been
operative for long âges in the past wherever the family has
existed in a monogamous form in which the parents lived
together for a considérable 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
degree of antagonism between the development of strong and ^f^h^g^af
permanent ties within the family and the development of those development
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

marriages between young and old may well be a conscious (and, in a
sensé, artificial) substitute for the unconscious aversion to such marriages
on the ground of their being an indirect expression of incestuous desires.
We must therefore be on our guard against the tendency to overemphasise
this argument in the absence of adéquate objective évidence.

209 14

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

to the wider environment of school, collège 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 dépend. The indivi-
dual who finds the satisfaction of ail his émotions and desires
within the circle of his family is unlikely to develop to the fuU
those wider interests in his feUow men and in the social
conditions of his âge and place, without which ail higher
political progress and development become impossible.

At an earher stage of human society the conflict was very
possibly much more acute. Man, as we hâve 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 sélection
would be likely to ensure its rétention 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 révulsion against the monogamie family which is mani-
fested in the totemic âge — an âge 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 âge which elaborated the most complex,
far-reaching and intense barriers against the incest tendencies
which are shown in the varions Systems of exogamy.

At a later stage of human development, when the found-
ations of society were more securely settled, circumstances seem
to hâve 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 firmlyknit 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

2IO

THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

to tolerate the co-existence of the smaller (or, more strictly
speaking, to include the smaller within itself) without fear of
compétition or disruption.

Thus, though the urgency of the pressure may very well
hâve varied in différent times and places, it would seem
probable that the claims of social life hâve constantly exercised
some influence in restricting the interests and affections v\rhich
centre round the family and hâve therefore probably constituted
one of the forces which hâve helped to bring about that inhibition
of the incest tendencies for w^hich we are hère tr3âng to account.

(8) There exists a very similar antagonism betw^een a high xhey conflict
degree of family attachment and the claims of individual ?ls? y^*
development. We hâve seen in the earlier chapters the way development
in which the fuU unfolding of the individual's capacities — his
ability to maintain himself by his ow^n 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
iamily. It is true that the relations of an individual to his
family v\rhich are hère in question are not primarily the erotic
ones; stiU they are everyvi^here in contact with thèse erotic
aspects of the family relationship and v\rould seem to be highly
correlated with them — so much so that it is often a matter of
great difficulty to décide where the erotic éléments end and
the purely dependence relationships begin^. In virtue of this
corrélation 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 hâve flourished
would, other things equal, consist of less energetic, self-reliant,
and efficient individuals than those in which thèse tendencies
had been kept within more moderate bounds. Natural sélection
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 hkely 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 thèse tendencies had free and unrestricted play.

1 It is round this point of course, as we hâve above shown, that the
<iifferences of opinion between Freud and Jung hâve largely centred.

14*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Both greater
intégration
and greater
differentiation
of Society is
thus secured

Among those

who live
together sex-
ual reactions
are inhibited
bynon-sexual

Under the last heading (7) we saw that the repression
of incest would on the whole lead to the greater intégration
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 présent
heading we hâve seen that the repression of the incest
tendencies would also lead to greater differentiation through
a more thorough development of individual characters, abilities
and différences. If, with Herbert Spencer, we agrée that the
progress of society (like évolution generally) involves both
intégration and differentiation, it is easy to see how the
inhibition of the tendencies to incest may hâve 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 doser blood relatives). While we must disagree
with Westermarck in his implicit déniai of the underlying
attraction between thèse persons — an attraction which makes
the aversion in question to a large extent nothing more than
a reaction against the désire 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 concemed.

Westermarck would regard the objection to intercourse
between those living together from youth as due to the
biological causes discussed above (3). Without denying the
truth of this view, we may venture to suggest that there
perhaps exist psychological causes, which tend to bring about
the same resuit. Those who live much together must necessarily
react in and to each other's présence in a great variety of
ways, involving a very considérable number of instinctive and
habituai mechanisms, the majority of which are not — or at most
are only quite indirectly — sexual in nature, being concemed
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

2x2

THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

their time together, the sexual instincts of the persons concerned
are therefore held in check in order that the other mental
trends involved in thèse varions necessary functions may enjoy
full play; in fact the reaction to each other*s présence along
the Unes of thèse other trends becomes much more habituai
than does reaction along the Unes of sexual feeling. The very
constant inhibition of this latter feeUng occasioned by the
almost continuai préoccupation 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 hâve free play, even when opportunity
offers; and is therefore calculated to make a union between
those whose hves hâve long been intimately connected appear
imsuitable or unattractive, quite apart from the opération of
any definite taboo or prohibition; whereas with strangers inhi-
bitions 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
connected with the actual hostility (conscious or repressed) that tenden^des
so frequently exists between those whose lives and interests
are connected. As we hâve already had occasion to see, the
compétition 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 indiscemible to con-
sciousness) will add its weight to any force which tends to
inhibit love of the person towards whom hostihty is felt.

Hère then we hâve 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^.

1 That some such factors as thèse are probably really operative in
addition to the more spécifie sexual inhibitions that compose the incest
barrier proper, is shown by a considération of cases in which no such
spécifie inhibition exists, e. g, that of husband and wife. In spite of the fact
that sexual relations between husband and wife are not only permitted but
enjoined and that mutual sexual attractiveness has usually played some
considérable part in bringing about the union, there can be little doubt that
in very many cases a husband and wife, after a certain period of married
life, tend to find— superficially at any rate— greater sexual attractiveness in
strangers than in one another, The reasons for this (in the absence of any
other adéquate cause) are often fairly clearly of the kind described— first,

213

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

The incest (lo) The incestuous tendencies with which we are hère

tendencies are concemed are, as we hâve amply seen, among the earliest
by^die gênerai manifestations of sexuality (in the wide sensé of this tenu
sexual commonly employed by psycho-analysts) and, like most other
1 ibitions jnanifestations of this aspect of human nature, suffer from the
gênerai repression to which sexuality in ail its more direct
expressions is habitually subject. It is no doubt true that the
incestuous direction bf the youthful sexual impulse itself
contributes in very appréciable measure to the conditions which
bring about this gênerai 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 gênerai tendency to the repression of ail mani-
festations of the sexual instinct may be regarded as consti-
tuting an additional factor in the inhibition of incestuous
affection for which we hâve been trying to account^.

the fact that their associations with one another are largely connectée! with
the "humdrum" activities of everyday life in which non-sexual instincts are
principally concemed (whereas with strangers the sexual feelings may
constitute the prédominant, or perhaps the only, bond); secondly the fact
that through the very intimacy of their connection there are (as in the case
of blood relatives) a number of matters as regards which the husband and
wife are competitors or hâve conflicting interests, thus leading to a certain
degree of (usually more or less repressed) hostility on either side.

1 The reasons for the existence of a gênerai sexual repression, over
and above the incest inhibition, and the psychological mechanisms by which
this repression is brought about, form a vast and highly important thème
on which there exists at présent but little gênerai agreement and which^
being only indirectly connected with our subject, need fortunately not be
entered into hère. It is perhaps worth while to point out however in
passing, that some of the factors which are responsible for the more gênerai
sexual repression are, in ail probability, similar to those which we hâve
considered in connection with the production of incest inhibition. Thus
there would seem to exist an antagonism between a highly developed and
intensive sexuality and those wider social bonds in virtue of which alone
the larger human communities are possible. It is on the basis of the mani-
festations of this antagonism that some writers — as already mentioned — hold
that the chief motive forces which are active in sexual repression are to
be found in the instincts of the herd. Still more marked perhaps is the
antagonism between sex and individuation. It has long been recognised^

214

THE REPRESSION OF LOVE

We hâve now studied some of the principal factors which,
it seems, may hâve had some influence in producing the
txemendous conflicts in the human mihd which centre round
the family. In so far as we hâve been correct in our analysis
of thèse 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 hâte which constitute the Œdipus complex. The existence
of the mental struggles which this complex inevitably brings in
its train may therefore, on a wider view, appear less startling
than on a first approach, Both the hûman 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 inhérent limitations of the human mind at the uncon-
scious and primitive levels — its difficulty in overcoming habits
that hâve once been formed, its tendency to give expression
simultaneously to incompatible impulses, its relatively small
power of creating distinctions and differentiations — itis inévitable
that the différent tendencies which are thus created and aroused
should frequently corne into conflict. It would seem to be more

and modem psychological researches hâve pretty definitely proved, that
many of the more complex desires and activities of the individual — desires
and activities upon which human culture ultimately dépends — are built up
upon sublimations of the sexual tendencies. Ail thèse subUmatlons involve
a deflection of sexual energy from its original and primitive direction — a
deflection which occurs for the most part or entirely as the resuit of conflict
with the sexual tendencies when thus primitively directed.

As regards the motive forces engaged in this conflict, there is again
at présent much uncertainty, but they probably to some extent differ from
one case to another. The conflict would seem to be waged, sometimes
between two aspects of the sexual impulse, e. g. between Narcissism and
object-love or between physical désire and tender affection (when thèse
éléments hâve been dissociated in the ways we hâve already studied). In
other cases the gregarious instincts are probably engaged in the manner
suggested by Trotter and others; while, in still other instances, there may
be an antagonism between the sexual impulses and the tendencies of self-
assertion, self-respect or self-preservation, as emphasised especially by
Freud. For a more gênerai discussion of the factors concemed in sexual
inhibition, see E. Bleuler, " Der Sexualwiderstand ", Jahrbuch fur psycho-
anaîytische und psychopathoîogische Forschungen, 1913, V, 442, and J. C. Flûgel,
**On the Biological Basis of Sexual Repression and its Sociological Signi-
ficance", British Journal of Psychoîogy (Médical Section), 1921, I, 225.

Thus the
circumstances
of human life
are respon-
sible for the
mental con-
flicts that
centre round
the incest
tendencies

215

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

especially the function of consciousness however to produce
a clear distinction between différent 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 hâve 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 deUcately 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 présent
acquire such value as they may possess.

216

CHAPTER XVm

ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS— LOVE AND

HATE ASPECTS

Having now complétée! our theoretical survey, it may be Practical
well to undertake, as a final instalment of our task, some brief conclusions
considération of the main practical conclusions that émerge
from our psychological study of the family relationships. The
gênerai nature of thèse practical conclusions has indeed already
emerged with some degree cA 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 hâve been concemed would seem to
admit of, and to demand, practical apphcation, may perhaps
prove of some value^ now that we hâve reached the end of
the descriptive and theoretical portions of our task.

It is probable that the chief practical gain that may resuit They hâve to
from the study of the psychology of the family will ensue more ^ ^^^p extent
or less directly from the mère increase in understanding of emerged
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 hère 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 hâve brought to con-
sciousness the hidden motives that lurk in the buried strata of
our mind, our practical judgment and our reason hâve a grasp

217

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

of the psychic situation of such a kind as was before
impossible; and very often the true course to be steered
appears with unmistakable clearaess before our vision as the
resuit of our increased self-knowledge. This is only an instance
of what so frequently — one might say generally — occurs as the
as usual in result of psycho-analysis; not only in the case of psycho-
P^y^?" analytic research into the processes of the individual mind,

investigations but also to some extent in the case of the gênerai treatment
of a problem or a situation upon psycho-analytic lines. That
too is the reason why, in the présent case, the practical
conclusions to be drawn from our considérations hâve to a
very large extent emerged of themselves in the course of thèse
considérations and hâve in the main become évident to us
without any further procédure being necessary to ehcit them.

The two chief Thus it will by now hâve become amply clear, what, in

(Temaru^rf ^^^ main, are the pitfalls to avoid in the course of family life,

ethical and what are the chief ends which it is désirable to seek. The

considération ^eaning 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 graduai loosening of the psycho-
logical, moral and économie dependence of the individual on
the family hâve revealed themselves as the two chief aspects
of the task with which the ethical treatment of our subject
has to deal. The considérations brought forward in the last
three chapters hâve shown that human beings are subject to two
opposing tendencies in thèse respects — one of thèse 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
thèse 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.

The tendencies Our treatment of the subject during the greater part of

Œy'^mïe *^^ ^^^^» foUowing as it does the actual findings of those

primitive than who hâve been brought face to face vdth thèse tendencies in the

frw^the^frrmly ^ourse 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

218

APPLICATIONS — LOVE AND HATE ASPECTS

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 déficient in strength or in

development, and which therefore most frequently requires

artificial stimulation and encouragement. This impression is Thelattermore

indeed one that is inevitably conveyed by a careful study of ^^*^^. ^^|l^i^^

the khowledge that we at présent possess upon the subject.

In whichever direction we look, Man's chief handicap, as regards

those aspects of his mind which hère concem 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 ontogénetically and phylogenetically the older

and more fundamerital 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 itseK with sufficient force in the manner and direction

that successful biological adjustment would require.

Nevertheless, if this is so, the mère fact that the tendency But the former

towards the family is thus in some respects prior to, and more arebiologically

•^ 1 r* T deeper and

fundamental than, its antagonist, would mdicate that it is based more essential

upon biological and psychological conditions and requirements

that are correspondingly more primitive and therefore more

essential. We hâve seen in effect that the causes which hâve

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 — thèse are in the main connected with less pressing

and immédiate conditions of existence; conditions which are no

doubt of great importance for the ultimate fate of the individual

219

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

and the race, but which are pot essential for the immédiate
préservation and growth of the individual in his early life, and
which frequendy involve a diminution rather than an increase
in immédiate benefit or pleasure; representing, as they do,
biological values of a higher and more complex order, v\rhich
come into opération only when those of a more primitive kind
hâve been attained.
The family K this is so, it would seem fairly clear that our practical

attachments efforts must on the whole be directed to aid the process of
grown rather weaning the individual from his family attachments rather than
than destroyed ^^ ^^y attempt at preventing or destroying thèse 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 perforai a necessary and bénéficiai part in the process
of psychical development — a part for which no adéquate
substitute could easily be found ; so that it would be undesirable
to eliminate the opération of thèse tendencies, even if such
élimination were within the bounds of possibility. Thus it
would seem that aU schemes and attempts that hâve 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 thèse feelings
are too strong, too intimate and essential a part of human
nature to be successfuUy and permanendy inhibited by any
altération of environment^; 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 thèse
feelings and would probably fail to ripen if thèse feelings were
abolished.

It would then be a hasty and disastrous conclusion if we

^ It would seem that children who hâve never known their parents
or any normal parent substitutes, such as those who are brought up
entirely in orphanages and other institutions, nevertheless do actually find
corresponding objects on to whom their parent-regarding tendencies can
be directed ; if not in reality, at least in imagination — imagination that tends
to find a real équivalent as soon as a suitable object présents itself. This
is amusingly and instructively illustrated in Jean Webster's recently
successful book and play "Daddy Long Legs"-

220

APPLICATIONS — LOVE AND HATE ASPECTS

were to infer from the widespread occurrence of insufficient

émancipation from the family ties that it is our duty to

endeavour to prevent the formation of thèse ties or to deal Family love in

harshly and destructively with them as soon as they make necess^^^^^for

their appearance. It would be as useless, as it would individual

be cruel and unwise, were we to attempt to abolish the ^nd^ha^^hiess

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 certaînly

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 désirable features of a child's environ-

ment, 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

sensé of injury, a permanent feeling of a void or loss in some

essential aspect of the emotional life, leading in its tum 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 gênerai) for having withheld the love, appréciation

and encouragement which the young child so much desires

and needs; or once again, it may lead to a tuming inward of

the child's affections, when thèse 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 hâve 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 necessaiy 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— tiie child who for social, psychological or

221

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

économie 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 conséquences both to himself
and to Society ^

The same considérations make it évident that especial care
shpuld 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 hâve 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 psycho-
logical development demands.

Although it is necessary thus to urge both the inevitability

and the desirabïlity of the love relationship between parent

Family hatreds and child, our attitude towards the hâte relationship, which so

however are frequently accompanies the child's early love, need not in ail

when intense respects be similar. The early ^arousal of love in connection

and prolonged ^^|^ ^^ parents or their substitutes is, we hâve maintained,

essential for the proper imfolding of the emotional and moral

characteristics, and is therefore to be desired, even apart from

the immediately pleasurable and bénéficiai aspects of this love

both to parent and to child. The corresponding hatreds are

certainly not in themselves either pleasurable or bénéficiai, and

their undesirable conséquences are often, as we hâve seen, aU

too clearly obvions.

Nevertheless, there can be litde doubt that certain
thoughtosome tendencies and affects (useful and necessary under certain
%l^^^ d^^^^*' conditions — such as anger or those feelings that are aroused

c ssary ^ j^ -^ g^arcely necessary to point out the Neo-Malthusian bearings

of thèse considérations. They add one more argument to the many that
already exist in favour of the practice of birth-control, which is now
adopted by the more cultured classes of nearly ail civilised communities —
a practice the ethical justifications of which are becoming constantly more
manifest.

On the other hand, the desirability of a limitation of the size of the
family must not of course blind us to the fact that a very small family,
especially one where there is an only child, will often hâve certain
difficulties of its own, from which larger families may be relatively free.
There can be very little doubt that, in the case of the only child, the
émancipation of the individual from the family influences may frequently
présent more than the usual amount of difficulty: where this is so, the
tendencies towards émancipation will need a correspondingly greater
amount of assistance and encouragement.

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

family, and particularly between the two parents, is also an
advantage, since under thèse 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 unwilKngly submits. For this reason the
divorce or séparation of parents, whose marriage is unhappy, may
often be of very considérable benefit to the child and is by no
meaiis, as is sometimes urged, an unmitigated evil.

Apart from thèse gênerai measures any conduct which
needlessly stimulâtes 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
I présence of their children, particularly in such a way as to
' make the latter appear neglected or left out in the cold. The
more direcdy sexual relationships between the parents are
almost inevitably painful or embarrassing to the children; and
should not be too openly manifested in their présence or within
their hearing^.

On the other hand the maintenance of strict and unnecessary
enlightenment gecrecy as regards thèse relationships, or as regards sexual
matters in gênerai, is also very undesirable. The child's
curiosity and envy are, by any such procédure, 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 déception. 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 ail
those who hâve devoted their attention to the subject^.

A matter of no less importance is that parents should
beware lest any feelings of jealousy which they themselves
may harbour with regard to the children, should be allowed
to exercise an undue influence over their own conduct. There
is less excuse for the existence of such feelings in the parent

Sexual

Parental

jealousy

1 Hence the desirability, which has repeatedly been urged by psycho-
analytic wiiters, of the sleeping room of the child being separate from
that of the parents, even at a very early âge.

2 Cp. from the psycho-analytic point of view: Freud, "Zursexuellen
Aufklârung der Kinder" and "Uber infantile Sexualtheorien", Sammlung
kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, II, 151, 159. Jung, "Collected Papers
on Psycho-Analysis", 132, ff.

224

APPLICATIONS -. LOVE AND HATE ASPECTS

than there is in the child, inasmuch as the former possesses,

or should possess, greater intégration and maturity of mind

and a more thorough understanding of the nature of his acts

and of their conséquences; 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 ^fections

of his partner.

In spite of ail such précautions however, it is probable By suitable

that it will always prove an impossibility to prevent altogether ^^^^0^^^^^

the arousal of some degree of hostility on the part of the child tween parents

towards the parent of his own sex. The nature of the and children
, ^ , .,..,,. . . can be greatly

antagonism between the two mdividuals m question is too reduced,

deeply rooted in human motives and humàn institutions to be though never

without some conséquences even under the most favourable abolished

circumstances. AU 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 graduai 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 wovdd be to refrain from ail

appréciable interférence with the child's tendencies and impulses,

while fulfilling ail its wants. This, however, is an obvions

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 ail respects désirable, since the proper éducation

of the child undoubtedly requires some degree of extraneous

interférence. Nevertheless we are beginning to réalise tiiat such

interférence need often be less irksome than was previously

supposed, The old idea that éducation, to be profitable, must be

unpleasant, is nowprobablyabandoned by ail thoughtful students

of éducation, even in its application to early childhood — a period

in which the extrême immaturity of the mind and the

remoteness of its aspirations from those of the culture the

225 16

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

rudiments of which it is starting to acquire would seem to make
the process of training almpst necessarily difficult and disagree-
able, Dr. Montessori and others are showing how the éducation
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 hâve to be
learnt to those in which the child naturally and spontaneously
indulges; while the possibilities of éducation on sirailar principles
in the case of older children hâve been very successfully
demonstrated in the case of the George Junior Republic and
the Lfttie Commonwealth. In so far as the more gênerai control
and instruction exercised by parents can be conducted on the
sarae lines, the friction between parents and children that
anses as a conséquence of this necessary control will tend to
dirainish, though the total avoidance of such friction will
scarcely ever be attained.

The ties be- AU that we hâve hère been saying as regards the désirable

^and^'cSldre^ relationship between parents and children has primarily

must be référence only to the early years of childhood. As the child

loosened as g^ows up, considérable 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 hâve 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 hâve 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-Iove which involve a weaning of the child from
the origfinal incestuous object and a corresponding readjustment
of emotional attitude on the part of the parent. A Avise parent
will thus do ail that is possible to avoid a too enduring con-
centration 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 hère perhaps more than at any other point that our
standards of conduct require revision in the light of psycho-

the children
grow up

226

APPLICATIONS — LOVE AND HATE ASPECTS

analytic expérience. Elsewhere the lassons of psycho-analysis The neccssity
for the most part merely reinforce educational aims and aspira- ^9^" ^^ ^^
tions of which we had aiready and independently become instSfidenîy
aware; but as regards the necessity for the graduai weaning recognised
of affection between child and parent, our responsibilities had
been anything but clear, and there can be little doubt that
many well raeaning parents hâve in the past ail unwittingly
jeopardised their children's future by an unwiUingness to loosen
the close ties of affection and dependence which were
appropriate in infancy, but which are prejudiciaj 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 hâve 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 hâve 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
inferibr 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 hâve
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
parents to keep a close watch, not only on the development pî^rentaUie
of their children's emotîonal life, but on the course and requires a
direction of their own affections. Only by the graduai replacement o^S'Jlrenrs
in the parentes mind of that love and interest which centred life

round the child by a corresponding absorption in some other

227 16»

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Displacement

of tîie parent-

regarding

tendencies

Complète

émancipation

from incest

tendencies is

never

achieved

direction (whether in other children, in the sexual partner or
in some totally différent matter) can thei necessary readjustment
of the filio-parental relations be successfully and. painlessly
accomplished. This is a duty which, difficult as it may some-
times 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 thèse 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 tiie growth of
the children renders such a readjustment necessary ^

Siipposing that fixation of the love impulse upon the
actual person of the parent has been successfully avoided,
there remains the possibility of fixation upon the numerous
parent substitutes that we considered in Chapter X. Thèse
fixations really . imply, as we hâve seen, an incomplète
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 thèse images
has been achieved. Nevertheless we must remember that such
freedom is at best only relative; the associative connections
that bind the earliest to ail subséquent objects of love (either
directiy or through a séries of intermédiare links) would seem
never to be really broken; in ail probability they continue
throughout life to exercise a certain measure of influence upon
the direction of. the affections. Ail that we can reasonably
demand under thèse circumstances is that thèse 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 littie 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

^ The dangers and difficulties which we hâve hère in view are, it is
almost neediess to say, in most cases more liable to beset the mother
(with her more intensive préoccupation with the children in their early
years) than the father (who is usually less intimately and continuously in
contact >Adth them).

228

APPUCATIONS — LOVE AND HATE ASPECTS

restriction of the liberty that is now permitted in thèse 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 sélection 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 smaUer as culture advances, and there

is every reason to suppose that in the main this tendency is Thèse tenden-

still at work. Indeed we hâve only recently witnessed an cies become

example of its action in this country in the removal of the and more

ban upon the marriage with a deceased wife*s sister. influenced by

«4 1 .f . , , reason, as

Ihe same resuit émerges ii we consider the matter, not development

from the point of viêw of sociology, but from that of an proceeds
enlightened System of nlorality. The évidence 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 sisten
Our condemnation of such unions is due to influences emanating
from the repression of the incést tendencies, and not to any
soùnd appréciation or expérience of thëir ill effectis; and in so
far as the taboos conséquent upon repression gîve way to
more balanced moral judgments based on a real understanding
of the issues involved (and this is the gênerai tendency of
ethical development), the disapproval of thèse unions between
rîèar 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 possibihty of inferior
offspring, especiaDy in the case of families with marked
hereditary defects, and the psychological one of too Ûttle
émancipation from the family influences, with aU thé consé-
quences that this may involve. As regards this lattef, however,
it will hâve to be recognised that complète émancipation may
ôften be beyond the boimds 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.

229

CHAPTERXIX

ETHICAL AND PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS—
DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

Our con- AU that we hâve said with regard to the weaning of the

clusions with ^^^ fj-Q^ ^^ i^y^ relationship that binds him to the family
rcc&TQ to tne i i j i •

love and hâte applies with but little altération to the dependence relation-

^d^or^^thc ships. During his earliest years the child is necessarily
dependence dépendent on his parents (or their substitutes) both for the
aspects actual means of his subsistence and for guidance and protection.
As he grows up however (as we hâve 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 duty of the parents, or failing them of the community,

parents to j^^ regard to the provision of material necessities for offspring
ofispring now is now sufficiendy recognised, so that there is litde need to
^^] . insist upon it hère. We may perhaps pnly suggest in passing
that the profound and complex nature of the satisfactions
which parents hâve in their children, and which we had
occasion to refer to in Chapter XIV, would very possibly
make the communistic rearing of children on à large
scale as unsatisfying and inadéquate from the point of view of
the parents as it would probably be from that of the children
themselves.
The necessity The duty of the parents or their substitutes in the direc-

^Yosei^^of ^^^ ^^ gradually weaning the child from his initial condition
the dépend- of dependence has however received less adéquate récognition
however not ^^^ ^^ ^^ difficult and délicate nature of this duty been
f\illy realised sufficiently appreciated. On the économie and social sides
indeed it is admitted that it is incumbent upon parents to

230

APPUCATIONS — DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

provide their children with the means of eaming 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 éducation for thèse 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 éducation and

for the expenses incidental to marriage, than in the case of

sons; lack of adéquate provision in thèse respects inevitably

tending of course to produce an undue degree of dependence

— economical and moral — on the parents.

If, on the économie side, the duty of weaning children especially as

from their primitive dependence on the family is thus not yet regards the

DsvcnolOËfical
always fully recognised, the récognition of the corresponding aspect of this

duties on the psychological side is still less complète. Parents *^^

are often unwilling to abandon the jurisdiction and control

which they hâve been accustomed to exercise over their

children and which may hâve becorae very pleasant to them,

both as providing an agreeable source of interest and as

ministering to their sensé of powèr. Often too in the beginning

it may be easier for them to help their children than to let

thç latter leàm 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

thèse latter through ignorance and inexpérience; or again because

of an exaggerated tendemess which makes them loth to

abandon those manifestations of affection which parental

assistance may imply. It must be understood however that

none of thèse motives — powerful though some of them may

be — provide an adéquate excuse for the omission to carry out

the weaning process, which, as we hâve seen, is of such vast

importance for the development of the full capacities of the

individual. It can scarcely be too frequently emphasised that

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

parents who bring their children up without regard to the
necessity of this emaneipation are guilty of a very serions
neglect of their childrens' welfareK

1 As regards the actual steps which should be laken to secure this
graduai émancipation of the growing individual from the influence and
control of his family and parents, it is perhaps superfluous (and in any
case inappropriate in a book of this scope) to enter fuUy into détails here.^It
will be sufficient to indicate a few very obvious directions in which die
gênerai principles hère refèrred to may find application. Thus, it is clear
that children should from early years hâve opportunity of acquiring
expérience in the use of money, having at first small sums at their
disposai, with larger amounts as they advance in âge. They should also hâve
expérience— at first perhaps occasionally and then regularly— in purchasing
their own clothes, books, writing materials and other personal requirements.
The abiiity to travel alone, to find one's way in strange places and to mix with
unknown people is also one that should be acquired early, leading, as it
tends to do, to the development of resourcefulness in dealing with new
situations and with varieties of human character. In vie^y of modem
educational movements, it is perhaps hardly necessary to point out in this
connection the desîrability of considérable (and eventually of complète)
freedom in the choicë of studies, of occupations and of career. The need
for toleration in religions and political matters is also nowadays one that
is becoming recognised. .\

On the other hand, it is perhaps necessary to emphasise the
advantages to be derived from the formation, by each individual member
of the family, of his owii friendships and companionships as distinct
from those which are, so to speak, found for him by his family. Thus, it
is far from désirable that members of the same family should always
accompany one another to social gatherings, places of entertainment or
instruction, or on visits to friends. On the contrary, they will often benefit
by being freed from each other's society on thèse occasions, and no
restraints should, as a rule, be placed upon habits of independent
occupation or enjoyment or upon choice of associâtes. Nor should the
individual members of the family be expected on every occasion to render
a detailed account of ail their activities outside the family circle, nor to
confine thèse activities rigorously to certain days or hours. Much family
friction can often be avoided by the simple process of bestowing a
latchkey! As regards extrême cases, moreover, it should be realised that
wherever there is unusual difficulty in the relations between an individual
and the other members of his family, a removal from the family
environment is the surest, perhaps the only, method of avoiding disaster.

Above ail it is necessary, throughout the process of development
and éducation, to aim at the attainment of a due measure of self-respect
and self-reliarice, avoiding the pitfalls of too great self-satisfaction on the
one hand and an imreasonâble sensé of inferiority on the other. It is hère,
more than elsewhere, that considérable differentiation in the treatment of

232

APPLICATIONS — DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

The danger is perhaps greatest in the case of strong The danger is
willed, self-assertive and energetic parents, who in any f ^^^^f ^ arents
case, as we hâve seen, are lîkely to exert a powerful influencé of strong
over their children, and who, by an undue insistencé on personality
the- authority which they possess, may easily cripple ail
initiative on the part of thèse latter. In parents who them-
selvès are weak and averse from serions effort there is
naturally less likelihood of this occurring: in such cases the though. there
danger lies more frequently in the direction of their devoting ^^ie^\i*^^^"
too little time, trouble or guidance to their children : or else the case of
in their adoption of a changeable and inconsistent attitude — ^^^^ parents
petting, indulging, spoiUng and bribing one minute, bullying,
nagging and punishing the next; being now overstrict, now
easy-going.

Hère, as in the case 6f the love-weaning, it is difficult or Necessity of
impossible for parents to carry eut satisfactorily the steps reacyTstoent
necessary for the graduai émancipation of their children, except
in so far as they are able to make a corresponding read-
justment of their own émotions and tendencies. New interests
and occupations must gradually take the place of those thiat
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 neurôsis.

In considering the question of the émancipation of children Too prolongée!
from the authority and influence of their parents, it is weU to P^[^^^^ ^^^l'
bear in mind also that it is the exercise of this authority and cause of filio-
influence which affords the principal occasion for the develop- P^^iiaS^i^e"^
ment 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 inévitable. Its
continuance into later life, with ail 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 success-
individuals is required. Those who are inclined to be too well pleased
with themselves wUl usually benefit by a somewhat rougher treatment,
and will need to hâve their deficiencies brought home to them. Those who
lâck self-confidence, or who hâve an unduly low estimate of their
attainments or capacities, will need encouragement and reassurance. In
the former case some very appréciable degree of parental authority may
be called for, in the latter any treatmerit savouring of harshness is for the
môst part tragically out of place.

233

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

fully 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 Uberty and of opportunity for self-guidance and self-controL

The dépend- What we hâve hère said as regards the necessity for the

ence of CTadual relaxation of parental control applies of course not
children upon ^ , , . , t . . t • j-

parent- only to the parents themselves but to their subsbtutes — guardians,

substitutes nurses, teachers and others who are placed in similar positions
must aiso be ' '- '^

gradually of trust and authority. There is indeed reason to believe that in

reduced thèse quarters the necessity of émancipation 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 graduai relaxation of parental and quasi-
parental authority. Though hère, 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 yoimg men and
women, are subjected in some of our larger and better known
educational estabUshments.
The ethics of Thèse last considérations point the way to certain wider

mS!t ho^iver ^^^^^^ *^^ ^^^ connected with the ethics of the family— issues
be brought into with which we hâve already been brought face to face in
^S'mïî- Chapters XIH and XIV, and which we need therefore only
social refer to hère by way of recapitulation, We hâve seen in thèse
questions chaptçrs that there exists a corrélation 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 sphère bf éducation, politics and rdigion—
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 considérable extent derived from, and dépendent

234

APPLICATIONS — DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

on, that of the child towards his parent (the former attitude
being a displacement of the latter), it is obvions that moral
considérations and décisions 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 hâve done, the desirability of a Our ethical
graduai émancipation of the grov^âng child from the controlling conclusions in
and protecting influences of the parents, unless we are at the ^mJtTa^o^-^
same time vrilling to permit a corresponding growth of autonomy ^^^e with one
in school and collège. 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 govemmental authority, then it would (in
the absence of any counteracting influence) be absurd to
demand the complète émancipation of the individual from his
family, if at the same time we desired to uphold autocracy
in govemment or to increase the stability of pohtical 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 rehgion 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 boxmds of his own family. It must be
realised that our attitude in the one case must be brought into
harmony with our vîews in die other. Our ultimate conclusions
as to what is désirable within the family must be arrived at
only after due considération of their wider outside bearings ;
and again, our opinions on thèse wider issues may profitably
be reviewed in the hght of the knowledge that is gained
by a biological and psychological study of the family.

In the présent pages we hâve followed in the main the The extent of
latter course. Neverthéless it would appear that on the whpie ^^ harmony
the conclusions we hâve arrived at by this method are not in
any way seriously incompatible with the gênerai tendencies of
contemporary thought While recognising the necessity and
desirability of the family influences in early life, we hâve for

235

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

the most part demanded émancipation ôf thè individual from
àîiy such growth and rétention of thèse influences as would be
liable to hamper or delay his personal development. This is
wéU in harmony with the tendencies which are manifested
nowadays towards freedom in éducation, with the analogous
tendencies aiming at the overthrow of autocracy and the
estàbhshment of democracy in politics and with the growing
toleration and increasing abandonment of the Judaic attitude in
religion,
in éducation In éducation there would seém to be almost complète

agreement between the implications of our own conclusions
and ail the more modem and progressive tendencies in
discipline and teaching; it is only with the antiquated remains
of sjrstems that are now universally condemned by ail reformers
that there remain any serious éléments of conflict

in religion ' In religion the agreement is also vety considérable, though
pérhàps less thoroughgoing; there are perhaps many who
would still retain the notion of a quasi-an thropomorphic Father-
God as an extra-mental reality, even though the purely mental
drigin of such a God has become apparent.

in politics It is in politics howevei" that such discrepancy as there

existe is perhaps most apparent. Although the primitive
political father^ — thè autocrat — ^would seem to be rapidly dis-
appéaring, it is fairly clear that there exists a tendency to
fesurrect 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 obédience to
the State and ite représentatives — military and civil; the right
ôf independent thought, action and criticism being to a large
ëxtent stispended and the minute détails of our lives being
subject to ôrder and inspection in much the same way as in
our childhood they were subject to the supervision of our
parents. Again, modem socialistic thought — espécially in its
cruder aspects — has produced a state of mind, as a resuit of
which the individual becomes to a large extent absolved from
the responsibility for his own éducation, progress and main-
tenance, or fôf those of his children, The adult individual is
thus led to trànsfer on to the State that attitude of dependence
which he originally adopted in relation to his parents, faihng
to this éxtént to attain that full degree ôf self-reliance and

236

APPLICATIONS — DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

independence which.we hâve had in view in considering the
graduai émancipation of children from their parents. In thèse
respects] it wôuld seem that the conclusions arrived at in thé
course hf 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 at it is liable to
prevent that full development of individual power, initiative
and self-reliance which can only be obtained by a high degreê
of émancipation 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 ovu* ethical conclusions with regard to the
family may hâve to be correspondingly revised.

There remains but one more set of ethical considérations The

to review before we finaUy take leave of the reader. Supposing ^^î^^^g^to
that the relations of the individual to his family environment his family in
hâve successfuUy passed through the stages we hâve outlined ^^"^
and that the individual has at maturity attained the désir-
able degree of émancipation 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 évident enough from our previous considérations that
thèse 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 v^^ithout causing any very considérable
amount of distress or inconvenience to any of the parties They must be
concemed. Sooner or later thèse relations are necessarily ^^^ b^roken
broken by the great divider Death, and even before this final altogether
and inévitable séparation, distance, diversity of occupation or
otherconsiderations may place the members of a once closely
knit family entirely out of touch with one anothen According
to our principles it is obviously désirable that thèse unavoidable
séparations should involve no élément of bitter regret or thoug it^is
paralysing sorrow. some relation-

Supposing however that circumstances are such as to sl^jho^d be
make possible relations of some degree of intimacy between

237

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

the members of a family, ail of whom hâve reached maturity,
what will be the désirable extent and nature of this relation-
ship? Presupposing always a satisfactory previous history on
the Unes we hâve considered, there would seem reason to
think that some kind of relationship will, and shonld 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 hâve been formed
between those who Uved se long together and hâve so long
been subject in varjâng degree to each other's influence.

We must remember, however, that there very often are

reasons to the contrary. In many cases, for instance, the love

except where or dependence fixations in an individual's mind are such that

(^ °^*^^^^P"- continued intimacy with the parents will seriously detract from

are definite that individual's capacity to make the best of Ufe. Fréquent

reasons to the meeting with the parents may sap his energy or deprive him

of initiative and self-reliance in the manner we hâve studied:

or again, it may cause serious interférence with his love life,

as where the constant arousal of the not whoUy 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 fréquent

meetings between brothers and sisters may often be dis-

advantageous. Still more clearly is it undesirable to continue

family intimacies where not love but hatred is the prédominant

tendency aroused and fostered by thèse intimacies. In such

cases it is évident hypocrisy for the parties concemed to meet

more often than is absolutely necessary : the fréquent stirring

up of conscious or unconscious hatred can onlj^ cause

unhappiness, improfitable and dangerous mental conflict or

détérioration of character; and the more that relatives who

. are unable to **get on" with one another keep apart, the

; better it will be for ail concemed.

With thèse wide and sweeping réservations however, it
would probably seem to accord best with psychological and
sociological considérations if at any rate some moderaté degree
of connection be maintained between relatives, whom
circumstances hâve not definitely set apart. Given freedom

238

APPLICATIONS — DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

from ail undesirable fixations (whether of hatred or of love),
brothers and sisters hâve at least as good reasons for being
permanently helpful and agreeable to one another as hâve
friends who hâve been intimate with one another in the course
of school, collège, social or professional life, Still doser perhaps
in some ways are the bonds that may permanently unité
parents and children. The long period through which they hâve
been bound to one another by ties that are biologically
justifiable and necessary wrould 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 ail human existence and
human intercourse, that most, if not ail, of our mental Ufe, in
so far as it has référence to our fellov^ créatures, is to some
extent reminiscent of them, or affected by them. We can never
root out frona our mind the tendencies connected writh 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 thèse tendencies to
continue to flow in its original direction,

This is not to say however that the manifestations of this But the rela-
energy will not undergo considérable altération as time passes. ^^pa^^nte^T
As children grow up and parents grow^ older, the former children mtist
increase, the latter decrease in natural strength and ability of pro^ound
mind and body. In course of time therefore the attitude w^hich modification
parents and children naturally and reasonably adopt towards as time passes
each other must gradually change to suit the varying conditions.
At first children are dépendent 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
vdthin reach of one another, the former may corne to look to
the latter for some retum 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
which appears to be pecuUar to human society. Throughout Hjeir^fhildren
the animal world and even in many primitive human communities

^239

THE PSYCHQ-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

is culturally there is no thought or care or tendemess devoted to old âge,
very désirable ^j^^ increasing moralisation of human character (in which the
relationship between parent and child has probably played a
leading part) has brought it about that at least some degree
of attention is given in ail civilised societies to the needs — '
material and mental — of those who are no longer able fully to
support themselves or tp cany 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
though it has its own. Thus, it might seem at first as though the care and
^^Umitedons*^^ attention that a person of mature âge may bestow upon his
parents is but a just and reasonable retum for the benefits
which he himself received from thèse parents in his infancy and
youth. BiologicaUy however the cases are not similar. The
care of parents for their young is necessary for the perpétuation
of the race. The care bestowed upon the aged and infirm
who are no longer able to provîde 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 ail competing
individuals or races hâve adopted the practice, Further, from
the point of view of the race, the real équivalent that is given
in retum for the benefits received from parents in early life
lies in the corresponding benefits bestowed upon the next
génération in its tum, 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 extrême
end of a long life, that the old are entirely dépendent upon
the care and efforts of others. In a civilised society ttiey
usually remain permanently able to provide for a considérable

340

APPLICATIONS — DEPENDENCE ASPECTS

part of their immédiate needs, and the sounder and more stable Satisfactory
is their own and the gênerai économie condition, the more is ^^J^^g^"
this the case. On the whole it is perhaps rather on the conduce to
psychological than on the strictly économie side that they ^^P|5°^^|^
will be in need of assistance, and hère it is that the
principles that hâve emerged from the study of the facts and
tendencies with which we hâve been concemed in this book
may prove of use. In so far as family life is able to proceed
and develop on the Unes which a true morality based on soxmd
psychological principles and an adéquate psychological knowledge
would seem to indicate as most désirable, 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
thèse satisfactions, by the disappointments and misunder-
standings, or by the unhappiness and bittemess 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 compen-
sation for the decKne of their own personal interests and
capacities. If they hâve 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 en]oy.

With thèse considérations regarding old âge we may Conclusion
appropriately end. The subject of the human family is a
mighty thème, of which no full treatment has been attempted
hère. If I hâve illumined certain aspects of the subject, if I
hâve led the reader to realise something of the depth ànd
complexity of the problems involved and of their vast
importance for human weal and woe, nay, even for human
existence, I shall hâve accomplished ail, or more than ail, that
I set out to do. We hâve seen that, just as on the biological
side the family is an essential factor in the development and
préservation of the human race, so too on the psychological
side, the thoughts, feelings and impulses that centre round the

241

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

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 désirable, it is
very necessary that we should hâve a full and accurate
knowledge of the way in which the mind is influenced by, and
in its tum 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 suprême importance.

0/|0

INDEX

Abandonment of infantile ten-

dencies, 83.
Abdication, 131.
Abnormalities of development,

48 ff., 61 ff., 88 ff., 102,

188, 191, 218, 219, 241.
Aborigines, 91, 140, 194 ff., 229.
Abortion, 160.
Abraham, K,, 51, 92, 106^ 148,

150, 185.
AcK N., 7.
Acheron, 69.
Adam, 148.
Adaptation to reality, 68, 215,

216, 219 tf.
Adler, A., 14.
Admiration, 98, iio, 123, 124,

139, 186, 227.
Adolescence, 51, 149, 192, 233.
Adonis, 72.
Africa, 194, 197.
Age:

As a factor in love, 28 ff.,

89, 106, 207, 208.
Classes, 87.
Old, 239 ff.
Aged, care of, 240.
Agoraphobia, 67.
Agriculture, 147.
All-Father, 136, 137.

Aima Mater, 125.

**Alternation of générations",

63.
Altruism, 188.

Amazon, Indians of the, 194.

Ambivalency, 129 ff., 141, 143,
149, 150.

American Indians, 193, 194, 196.

American Psychological As-
sociation, 2.

Americans, 127, 170, 195.

Amnesia, infantile, 77, 83.

Amniotic fluid, 77.

A-moral, 21.

Aîiœsthetics, 167.

**Anagogic" symbolism, 37, 38.

Anal Libido, 192.

Ancestor Worship, 135 ff.

Ancestors, 86, 124, 135 ff.

Andamanese, 197.

Andromeda, 109.

Angel Clare, 116.

Anger, 9, 177, 222. See also Hâte.

Animais, 137 ff., 149 ff., 200,,
202, 239.

Animism, 134, 135, 152, 153.

Annunzio, G. d , 92.

Antombahoaka, 90.

Anxiety, 57, 70, 158, 159. See
also Fear.

243

IG*

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Applications:

Of Psychology, 2, 3, 65.

Practical, 217 ff.
Archer, William, 107.
Art, so, 135.
Arthur, King, 69.
Artzibasheff, 92.
Ass, 139.
Assam, 196.
Atlas, 147, 148.
Atonement, 151.
Attila, 127.
Attis, 72, 144-
Augustine, S/., 74.
Aunt, 92,
Australian, aborigines, 91, 140,

195. 196, 229.
Authority, 47, 119 ff., 125, 129,

152, 163.
Parental, 43 ff., 58, 61, 63,

96, 118, 128, 152, 163,

171, 177, i8i,223,233ff.
Autocracy, 128, 235, 236.
Autoerotism, 14 ff., 122, 188,

192.
Autonomy and moral develop-

ment, 44 ff., 234 ff.
Avebury, Lord, 205, 206.
Aversion to incest, 200 ff.
**Avoidances," 35, 85, 91, 93,

97» 195- ^
Awe, 139.

Babel, Tower of, 148.
Bachofen, J, J,, 66.
**Backward" children, 43,
Bailey, /., 197.
Bancroft, H, //., 93.
Baptism, 71, 149.
**Barbary Sheep," 115.

Barrenness, 200.

Basket, 70.

Basfian, A„ 194.

Beauty, 208.

Bedrooms (of child and parents),
224.

Beds, 66, 67.

"BeUa Donna," 115.

Beresford, J, D,y 112.

Berkeley-Hill, O., 114.

Birth, 66 ff., 82 ff., 146, 164 ff.
Control, 222.
Supematural, 146.

Bisexual, God as, 143, 144.

Bleuler, E., 129, 215.

Blood, 201.

Boats, 69, 70, 80.

Bôcklin^ 69.

Body, 145.

Bomeo, 197.

Brain, 77.

Brazil, 90, 194, 197.

Breath, Shortness of, 70.

Breeding, 202 ff»

Breuer, Joseph, 8.

Brill, A. A„ 6, 163.

Brothers and Sisters, 19, 20,
27, 30, 86, 89 ff., 102,
104, 143, 144, 147, 180,
181, 184, 193, 205, 208,
209, 229, 238.
Half-, 229.

Brothers through Totem feast,

Buddhist monks, 67.

BuUying of children, 162, 233.

Burial, 69, 72.

Buried alive, fear of being, 67.

Burrow, T,, 189.

Burt, Cyril, 20, 29, 120, 140.

244

INDEX

Business, 59, 63, 210.
Byron, 109.

Caesarian Section, 78.

Cali, 90.

Cambyses, 90.

Canal, 70, 80.

Cannibalism, 147.

Care of aged, 240.

Career, 64 232.

Casandra, 107,

Castration, 85, 113, 144, 147.

Caves, 67, 69.

Celebes, 194.

Celestial City, 69.

Cerebrum of infant, 77.

Cérémonies, 69, 71, 81 ff,, 142,

149.
Chalmers, Rev, J., 194.
Change of parents' attitude,

171 ff., 226 ff., 233.
Character, 50, 61 ff., 187, 188,

238.
Charcot, J, M., 7.
Chastity, 113, 115, 116, 146.
Chazac, 86.

Chicago Vice Commission, 195.
Childbirth, 77, 164.
Childhood, duration of, 185.
Chinese, 114, 129.
Chippewayans, 193.
Christ, 56, 57, 143 ff., 148.
'^Christian, The", 115.
Christianity, 139, 141, 143 ff.
Church, 69, 123, 143, 145.
Cimon, 91.
Cinderella, 99.
Circumcision, 82, 85.
**City of the Dead,'' 92.
Clan, 136 ff., 178, 180, 201.

Class;

Poorer, 58, 195.

Ruling, 109.

Wealthy, 58.

Working, 120.
Classificatory System of rela-

tionship, 90.
Claustrophobia, 67.
Clavigero, F, S., 90.
Clergymen's sons, 64.
Clitoris, 17.

"Cloacal theory" of birth, 74.
Club, 210.

Clubs, Men's, 87, 179.
Cole, E. M,, 53.
Collège, 125, 210, 235, 239.
Côffin, 69.
Coitus, 73, 75, 76.
Communion, Sacrament of,

i49ff-
Communistic rearing of child-

ren, 230.

Community, see Society.

Complex, 95, 157. See also
Œdipus Complex.

Compromise, 51, 52.

Conception, 74, 138.
Immaculate, 146.

Confirmation, Sacrament of, 149.

Conflict, intra-psychical, 21 ff.,
52, 81, 92, 93, 113, 143,
147, 148, 166, 167, 172,
175, 184, 190, 215, 218,
223, 238.

Conflicting Interests, 58, 158,

159-
Conklln, E. S,, 56.
Conscience, 135.
Consciousness, Function of,

215, 216.

245

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Conservatism, 124, 129, 153,

154.
Constellation, 157.
Contempt, iioff.
Continence, amongsavages, 197.
Contrast (in Displacement), 27.
Control, parental, 231 ff.
Conversion, 71.
"Cosiness", 66.
Cosmogonies, 146, 147.
Country, 124 ff. See also Nation.
Court routine, 129.
Cousins, 27, 92, 102, 208, 229.
Couvade, 164 ff.
Cradle, 70.
Creator, 134, 135.
Criminals, 84, 119, 221. See also

Delinquents.
Cronos, 147, 150.
Cruelty, 58, 83, 84, 100, 130,

141, 142, 150, 162, 164.
Cupid, 104.
Curiosity, 74 ff., 224.
Cybele, 144, 147.
Cyrus, 56.
Czar, 127.

"Daddy Long Legs'*, 220.
Danger, 130, 131, 164, 170.
Darwin, Charles, 64.
Daughter, 46, 64, 83, 96 ff., 180,

207, 209, 227, 231.
Daughter-in-law, 94, 173.
Dattner, B., 125.
Day dreams, 155. See also

Phantasies.
Dead, the, 135.
Death, 10, 22, ,68, 69, 76, 82,

83» 99» 109» 148» 237.
Duties, 170.

Wishes, 10 ff., 22, 59, 99,
135, 160, 165.
Deceased :
Brother's wife, 93.
Wife*s sister, 93, 229.
Deëmotionalisation, 11.
Dégradation of sexual object,

112.
Delinquents, 46, 120, 140, 221.
Democracy, 128, 236.
Démons, 165.
Dependence:

Of child on adults, 42, 121.
Of child on parents, 49, 51,
61 ff., 94, 95, 121, 154,
175, 181, 185, 188, 189,
211, 218, 219, 230 ff.,
236 ff.
Of individual on the State,

236, 237.
Of old on young, 239 ff.
Type of love, 103, 104.
Déposition of king, 131, 132, 147.
Descent :

Through father, 166, 196.
Through mother, 166, 196.
Development:
Abnormal, 40 ff., 61 ff., 88 ff.,

102, 188, 191, 241.
Mental, 4, 13 ff., 21 ff., 31 ff.,
40 ff., 48 ff., 61 ff., 83,
88 ff., 102 ff., 152, 171,
175, 186, 188, 191,
219 ff., 227 ff.
Moral, 44 ff., 76, 152, 154,
155, 177, 183, 188, 210,
218 ff., 229, 240.
Of individual personality,
31 ff., 40 ff., 171, 189,
211, 219 ff., 237 ff.

246

INDEX

Sexual and individual, 41,

187.
DeAnl, the, 142, 153.
Différent, désire to be from

parent, 64.
Differentiation in Society, 212.
Disappointment, 56, 171.
Disease, 3, 121, 166, 200. See

also Neurosis.
Disgust, 9, 10, 139, 145.
Disobedience, 223.
Displacement, 25 ff., 35, 49, 50,

62, 69, 88 ff., 98, 100 ff.,

ii6ff., 122, 125, 133 ff.,

147, 158, 163, 171, 172,

175, 186, 187, 190, 193,

215, 228, 235.
Dissociation, 11, 21, 26, iioff.,

142 ff., 152 ff., 215.
Distrust of women in Christia-

nity, 144.
Division of labour, 43.
Divorce, loi, 224.
Doctor, 80, 120 ff.,
Don Carlos, 107.
Don Juans, 55.
Dove, 139.
Dreams, 10 ff., 50, 66, 79, 80,

139, 160.
"Tj^ical", 10.
Droit de Seigneur, 143, 195.
Dualistic principle, 143.
Duplication, 143.
Duration of childhood, 185, 219.
Durkheim, E, 201.
Dysgenic influences, 202 ff.,

208, 219, 229.

Earth, 69, 72, 83, 145, 147.
East and Jones, 203.

Eating, 147 ff., 165, 212.
Economie position, 58, 59, 231,

241.
Eden, 148.
Education, 65, 177, 186, 189,

225, 226, 230 ff., 234 ff.
Effort, 67 ff., 73, 170, 188.
Ego, see Self.
Egypt, 90, 91, 203.
Electra Complex, 12.
Elixir of life, 72.
Ellis, W, 91.
Emancipation:

From control, 44 ff., 70, 171,

190, 222, 231 ff.
From early love objects, 29,

30, 70, 171, 190, 222,

227 ff .
Emergence from womb, 70.
Enclosed space, 67, 70.
Energy, psychic, 71, 192.
England, 127.
Environment, 15 ff., 24, 46, 64,

170, 198, 203, 204, 216,

220, 221, 232, 235, 237.
Envy, 167, 168, 224.
Ephialtes, 148.
Escape from life, 67.
Ethical applications, 217 ff.
Eugenics, 205, 208.
Eve, 148-
"Everyday psychopathology",

35-
Exaggerated love (or anxiety),

57, 130.
Excretory functions, 118.
Exhibitionism, 192.
Exogamy, 91, 137 ff., 195 ^f-,

200 ff., 229,
Ezekial, 90.

247

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Fairy taies, 99, 155.
Falling in love, 51, 102 ff.
With married or betrothed
persons, 107.
Family, as object of love, 124-
Father, 17 ff., 46, 53, 54, 58,
64, 74, 75, 76, 80, 83 ff..
94» 95» 98, 110,117,120,
122, 125 ff-, 132 ff-, 160,
163 ff., 179 ff., 207, 209,
227, 235, 238.
-inJaw, 94, 95.
Favourite child, 163.
Fear, 9, 67, 70, 83, 130, 135, 139,
141, 142, 154, 175, 177.
See also Anxiety
Feast, 137.
Fechner, G. T„ 7.
Ferenczi, S., 14, 37, 52 ff., 59,

67, 68, 116, 121, 139.
Fertility, 132.
Festivals, 131, 137, 195.
Fire, 148.
Fish, 139.

Fixation, 51 ff., 61, 86, 89, 94,
95, 102, 106, 118, 123,
124, 152, 158, 190, 193,
223, 226 ff., 238, 239.
Flûgel, J. C. 116, 155, 215.
Foetal Posture, 67.
Forsyth, David, 14.
Foster parents, 56, 139.
Fowl, 139.
France, 127, 128.
Fratricide 20,

Frazer, Sir J. G. 72, 82, 83,
90» 91» 92, 93, 130, 131»
1321 138, 140, 142, 145,
147, 148, 150, 160, 161,
164, 194, 196, 201.

Freud, Sigmund, 6ff., 22, 24,
26, 32, 33, 40, 51, 54,
55» 56» 66, 67, 69, 70,
74, 80, 96, 103, 107,
iio, 113, 123, 129, 135,

138» 139» 140» 149» 152»
177, 182, 187, 192, 206,
207, 211, 215, 224.

Friands, 172, 232.

Frigidity, 51,

Functional symbolism, 37.

Gaboon, 194.

Gaia, 147.

Game, 139, 155.

"Gang^ 84, 85.

George Junior Republic, the,
226.

Germany, 127, 128.

Gestation, 74, 75, 77, 189.

Ghosts, 135.

Giant, 109, 150.

Gibbon, 145.

God, 133 ff., 234 ff.

Goethe, 106.

"Golden Bough, The", 131.

Gonzalves, 194.

Gosse, Edmund, 182,

Grandchildren, 241.

Grandfather, 86, 161.

Grandparents, 161 ff.

Gratitude, 24, 98, 183.

Graves, 69.

Greece, 91.

Gregariousness, see Herd In-
stinct,

Group marriage, 90, 179, 195.

Guardians, 234.

Guilt, i48.

Gurney, E,, 7.

248

INDEX

Half brothers and sisters, 229.

Hall Caine, Sir, 115.

Hamlet, 99, 115.

Happiness, possibility of, 169.

Hardy, Thomas, 116.

Hart, B., 7, 130, 182.

Hartland, E. S., 109, 138, 146,
198.

Hartmann, E. von, 7, 169.

Harvest, 72.

Hâte, II f{., 18 ff., 24, 27, 28,
50, 57 ff., 61, 64, 83,
94 ff., icx>, 117 ff., 128 ff.,
139 ff., 151, 156 ff., 162,

171» i75i 177^-1 184,

215, 222 ff., 233, 234,

238, 239.
Healy, W., 46.
Health of children, 208.
Heape, Walter, 138.
Hearne Samuel, 193.
Heaven, 147, 148,
Heirs, 170.
Helmholtz, //. von, 7.
Henry VIII, 116.
Hera, 92, 147.
Herd Instinct, 23, 24, 135, 182,

210, 212, 214, 215.
Hereditary wealth and rank, 170.
Heredity, 62 ff,, 87, 105, 198,

199, 202 ff.
Herodofus, 90.
Heterosexuality, 15 ff., 54, 103,

156, 189.
Heterosis, 203.
Hichens Robert, 115.
Hickson, S, J,, 194.
Hindrance, in love, 108.
Historical treatment of subject,

176 ff.

Hodgson, R., 7.

**Holy Father", 127.

Holy Ghost, 145.

Home, 51, 56, 123, 124, 159, 223.

Home-sickness, 51, 124.

Homosexuality, 16, 17, 53, 54,
74, 103, 113, 116, 189,
In girls, 16, 17, 53, 113.

Honouring of father, 150, 151.

Hostility between members of
family, 10 ff., 18 ff., 57 ff.,
94ff., ii7ff., 135, 141,
i46ff., 156 ff., 177 ff.,
213, 214, 221 ff.

**Humdrum" activities, 214.

Husband and wife, 93 ff., loi,
158, i63ff.,2i3, 227,238,

Hybrid vigour, 203.

Hypnosis, 67, 121, 122.

Ibsen, H„ 107.

Idéalisation of parents, 54 ff.,
62, 63, 94, 120, 124,

134» 137» 152, 163.
Idealism, 145.
Identification:

Of husband and wife, 92.
Of parents with children, 103,

168 ff.
With country, 125 ff.
With grandparents, 86, 160 ff.,

165.
With parents, 63, 105, 115,

163, 168.
With self, 103, 189.
Illness, see Disease.
Illusion of happiness, 169.
Imaginaiy fulfUment of désire,

42.
Imitation, 186.

249

•IHE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Immaculate Conception, 145.

Immortality, 72, 162, 169, 170.

Impotence, 51, 81, 132, 200.

Inbreeding, 202 ff., 219.

Incas of Peru, 91, 203.

Incest, 12 ff., 22, 34 ff., 51 ff., 61,
73» 79«-i 89 ff., 97 ff.,
104 ff., 108, 116, 131,
139, 142 ff., 147, 184 ff.,
193 ff., 200 ff., 219 ff.
As symbolic, 34 ff.
Examples of brother-sister,

90, 193 ff.
Examples of parent-child,
193 ff.

Independence increasing with
growth, 42 ff., 61 ff., 71,
76, 171 ff., 211, 230 ff.

Indian Archipelago, 194»

Indians;

N. American, 193.
S. American, 194.

Individual, the, 32 ff., 40 ff., 65,
72, 76, 81, 136, 137,
152, 154» 160, 169, 170,
175, 209ff., 214, 215,
218, 227, 230 ff., 237 ff.

Individualism, 237.

Individuation and Genesis, 159,
214, 215.

Industrial life, 62.

Infanticide, 160.

Infantile attitude in love, 28 ff.

Inferiority, feeling of, 166, 232,

234-

Infertility, 201.

Infidelity, 99, loi.

Inheritance, see Heredity.

Inhibition, 52. See also Re-
pression.

Initiation, 71, 79 ff., 142, 149,

195-
Innate :

Ideas, 77.

Tendencies, 15, 23, 77.
Insanity, 67.
Instinct, 157, 169, 186, 187,

2I2|ff.

Institutions, 160, 234.
Intégration :

In Society, 212.

Psychic, 3, 122, 216.
Intercourse, sexual, 73, 75, 76.
Interests of parents, I57ff.,i7iff.
Interférence:

With children's desires, 18,
28, 58, 64,97, 118,119,

157» 177» 178, 225.
With parenfs disires, 159,

160, 171 ff.
"Interprétation of Dreams,The",

10.
Intra-uterine life, 66 ff., 189, 198.
Inversion, sexual, see Homo-

sexuality.
"Inverted" Œdipus Complex,

54» 59-
Isanna River, Indians of, 194,
Ishtar, 144.
Isis, 92, 144.
Islands, 66, 69.

Janet, Pierre, 7.

Java, aborigines of, 194.

Jealousy, 17 ff., 28, 57, 84, 98,
100, 108, 116 ff., 132,
146, 156, 158, 159, 163,
i64,i67,i7i,i73,i78ff.,
209, 223 ff., 233, 234.

Jews, 90, 128, 129.

250

INDEX

Jocasta, 37, 105.

Jones, Ernest, 6, 35, 37, 39, 71,

72, 99, 109, 115, 118,

121, 125, 126, 127, 128,

142, 161, 163.
Judaism, 141, 148, 235, 236.
Jung, C. G„ 32ff., 40, 69, 71,

72, 173, 211, 224.

Kacharis, 196.

Kadiaks, 193.

Kaiser Wilhelm II, 153.

Kalangs, 194.

Karens, 194.

Karna, 70.

*'Keel-hauling", 84.

Kempf, E, J„ 64.

Ketjen, E., 194.

Kikuyu, 86.

King, 119, 125 ff., I29ff., 137,

141.
Kinship, 151.
Knight Dunlap, 7.
Knowledge, 120 ff ., 138, 148,

154-
Tree of, 148.

Kohler, J., 205^ 206.

Labour, 77, 164.
Lactation, 189.
Lake, 69, 70, 125.
Lamb, 139.
Landesvater, 127.
Lang, Andrew, 205, 206.
Language, 135.
Latchkey, 232.
Latent sexual period, 26.
Laziness, 36, 61, 231.
Leaming, process of, 186.
Legend, see Myths.

Leibnitz, 7.

Lethe, 69.

Levels of development, 49.

Levirate, 93, 195.

Liberty, statue of, 127.

Libido, 33, 192.

Licence, period of, 82, 86, 89 ff.,

13I) 195-
Life after death, 68, 69, 76.
"Life task", 34.
*'Literature", 13,89, 91, 92, loi,

107, 135-

''Little Commonwealth, The",
226.

"Little Father", 127,

Livelihood, 41, 64, 231.

Lohengrln, 56, 70, 75, 104.

Lombroso, 140.

Loosening of parental ties,
218 ff., 226 ff., 230 ff.

Lorenz, Emil, 146.

Love, 8, 12 ff, 22, 27 ff, 49, 51,
57, 58, 61, 64, 89 ff.,
94» 95) 98» ^oolL, 117,
123, 129 ff., 139 ff.,
156 ff., 160, 171, 173,
175» ^77» 178, 182 ff.,
200 ff., 209, 221 ff., 230,
238, 239.

**Love at first sight", 103.

Low, Barbara, 6.

Lynching, 114.

McCurdy, J, T., 182.
McDougall, W., 136, 157, 185.
McLennan, /. F., 205, 206.
Madagascar, 90, 196.
Magic, 132, 152, 153, 164.
''Making good", 170.
Malay Peninsula, 197.

251

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTlC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Marriage, i8, 51, 52, 59, 81,
82, 90 ff., 99, 107, io8,
112, 114, 115, 158,
172 ff., 178 ff., 195 ff.,
205 ff., 213, 214, 224,
229, 238.
By capture, 205.
Group, 90, 179 ff., 195, 205,

206.
Relatives by, 92 ff.
Martius, C, F. P. von, 194.
Mary (mother of Christ), 144 ff.
"Mary Rose", 69, 73.
Masochism, 139, 192.
Maspero, Sir Gaston, 91.
Masturbation, m, 113.
Materialism, 145.
Matricide, 83.
Matter, 145.
Maturity, 102, 237 ff.
Médical attendant, 80, 120 ff,
Melanesia, 194.
Memories, recovery of, 77.
Memory, in savages, 204.
Men's Clubs, 87, 179.
Menstruation, 82, 201.
"Mentally déficient" children,

43-
Metempsychosis, 162.
Mexico, 90.
Midwifery, 167.
Military life, 62.
Monasteries, 67,
Money, 59, 232.
Monks, 67.
Monogamy, m, J78, 197, 209,

210.
Monotheism, 144.
Monster, 82, 86, 109, 150.
Montessori, Maria, 226.

Moral code, 181 ff., 229, 240, 241.
Moral:
Development, 44 ff., 76, 152,

154) 155» 177. 183» 188,
210, 218 ff., 229, 240.
Influences, 182, 183.
Tendencies, reinforcement
of through primitive
trends, 38.
Tendency and repression,
23 ff., 61.
Morality, 170.
Morals of gods, 152.
Morgan, H. L., 90
Morfon Prince, 7.
Moses, 56, 70.

Mother, 15 ff., 46, 53, 55, 64,
66 ff., 80, 82 ff., 104,
iio, 115, 122, I25ff.,
131 ff., 143 ff., 158 ff.,
163 ff., 171 ff., 180, 184,
189, 190, 198, 207, 209,
227, 238.
Unmarried, 158.
Holle, 100.
-in-law, 94 ff.
Mowgli, 139.

Mountains, 66, 69, 73, 125.
Muller, G. E,, 7.
Mûller, Max, 138, 126.
Murder, 83, 84, 99, 119, 131,

148 ff., 160, 165.
Mysticism, 72.
"Myth of the birth of the hero",

56, 70-
Myths, 12, 13, 37, 56, 66, 69,

70, 75» 91» 92, 99» loi,
104, 105, 109, 116,131,

138, 139, i43i 147) 148)
178.

252

INDEX

Nagging, 162, 233.
Name, 105, 106, 161.
Narcissism, 54, 56, 103, 105,

113, 122, 152, 153,

i88{{., 198, 215, 221,
Narcissistic neuroses, 123.
Narcissistic type of love, 103,105.
Nation, 109, i25{f., 129, 136, 209.
Natural Sélection, 198, 202 ff.,

207, 208, 210, 211.
**Naturalistic" of interprétation

myths, 37, 38.
Neglect, 100.
Negritos, 197.
Negroes, 114.
Neo-Malthusianism, 222.
Nephews, 92.
Nepos, Cornélius, 91.
"Neuclear complex'', 13, 123.
Neurosis, 3, 17, 122, 166.
Neurotic symptoms and mani-
festations, 50, 57, 67.
Neurotic, the, 34, 36, 209.
New Guinea, 194.
New York, 127,
Nicodemus, 71.
Nièces, 92.
Nietzsche, 7, 142.
Nomadic peoples, 204.
Normal and abnormal develop-

ment, 48.
Novels, 155.
Novice, in initiation cérémonies,

83.
Nnnneries, 67.
Nurse, 15, 119, 234.
Nursery, 62,

Obédience, 50, 61, 62, 124, 125,
127, 134, 141, 200.

Object love, i4ff., io2ff., 152,

153, 169, i88ff., 215,

226.
Obligation towards parents,

109.
Obsessional Neurosis, 123.
Obstacle, need for in love,

108.
Œdipus, 56, 75, 105, 131, 144-
Œdipus Complex, 12 ff., 37 ff-,

49» 54, 57» 99) 105, 117,

123, 132, 140, 146, 209,

215.
Old âge, 239 ff.
Old women, 86.
Omnipotence, 68, 134, 153.
Omniscience, 134.
Onanism, m, 113.
Only child, 157, 222.
Oral Libido, 192.
"Original sin", 148, 149.
Osiris, 92, 144.
Otos, 148.
Ouranos, 147.
Outbreeding, 203, 204.
Over-determination, 37, 132,

148.
Owl, 139.

**Papa", 127.
Parental:

Control, 231 ff.

Readjustment, 171 ff.

Tendencies, 157, 169, 221.
Parental ties, loosening of,

218 ff., 226 ff., 230 ff.
Parenthood:

Of father emphasised, 165.

Sacrifices involved in, 159 ff.,
167.

253

THE PSYCHO-ANALYTIC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Parents, 8, 12 ff., 26 ff., 42,
45ff., 61 ff., 71, 79ff.,

88, 89, 93 ff., 100, 104,
loBff., iiSff., i33ff.,
156 ff., 177 ff., 185 ff.,
205, 207 ff., 221, 223.

-in-law, 93 ff., 173.

Strong and weak, 233.

Substitutes for, see Substi-
tutes.

World, 147.
Parricide, 12, 83, 131, 132.
Participation in divine nature,

151-
Patemity, knowledge concer-

ning, 138, 146, 204.
Patria potestas, 128, 235.
Patriarchal system, 129, 136,

i8off., 197.
"Patrie*, 127.
Patriotism, 125 ff.
Pathological, the, in mental

development, 48, 88,

89, 102, 229.
Paulo and Francesca, 107.
Pélican, 139.

Pelleas and Melisande, 107.
Pénis, 73, 74, 80.
Perseus, 56, 70.
Persians, 90.
Peru, 91, 203.
Peruvian aborigines, 194
Pfister, a, 6.
Phallus, see Pénis.
Phantasies, 66ff.,79,io8,io9,iii,

115» II?) 151» 155» 161.
Philippines, 197.
Philosopheras stone, 72.
Philosophy, 64, 74, 145.
Physician, 80, 120 ff.

Piedrahita, L. F, de, 90.
"Pilgrim's Progress**, 69.
Plants, 137, 200.
Plaio, 220.

Play, 43-

Politics, 64, 125 ff., 232, 234,
236, 237. See also So-
ciety.

Polytheism, 142 ff.

Pond, 70.

Poorer Classes, 58, 195.

Pope, 120, 127.

Porter, S, C, 74.

Posterity, 169, 170.

Practical applications, 217 ff.

Prayer, 153.

Pregnancy, 160, 166.

Prematurely bom children, 77.

Pre-natal life, 66 ff., 189, 198.

Pressure, 70.

Préventive sexual intercourse,
160.

Pride, 167, 168.

Priest, 120, 142.

Primitive Sympathy, 185, 186.

Priority of parent-love sen-
timent, 191, 192.

Privilèges of maturity, 84.

Profession, 63, 163, 210, 212, 239.

Professional position, 59.

Prohibitions, 105, 131^ 132, 148,

165, 177» 195» 202, 204,
213.
Projection, 103, 130, 135, 141,

143, 146, 151 ff-» 163,

165, 241.
Prometheus, 148.
Promiscuity, 90, 197, 205.
Property, 169, 170.
Prostitute, iioff.

254

INDEX

Prostitution, religions, 142.
Protestant Church, 145.
Psyché, 104.
Psychology :

Applications of, 2, 3, 65.

Présent status of, i ff.

The abnormal in, 48.
Ptolemies, 91, 202.
Puberty, 71, 82, 113.
Punishment, 85, 141, 147, 148,
165, 167, 177, 206, 209
233.
Puritanism, 142.
Purity, 146. See also Chastity.

Queen, 127.
Questions:

Children's, 74 ff., 224.

In myths, 75, 104, 105, 148.

Racial factors, 72, 76, 81, 105,
109, 114 ff., 129, 152,
169, 170, 190, 198,
202 ff., 208, 219, 220,
240.

Rank, Otto, 13, 33, 50, 55, 56,
69, 70» 75» 92, 98, 100,
loi, 106, 108, 109, 125,
126, 128, 132, 143.

Rationalisation, 84, 86, 200,
208.

Reaction formations, 155, 175,
182 ff.

Read, Carveth, 138.

Readjustment of parents atti-
tude, 171 ff., 226 ff., 233.

Real world, 155.

Rébellion, 119, 120, 128, 129,
148, 223.

Rebirth, 66 ff., 79, 81 ff., 149.

Reciprocation of love, 15, 16,

226, 227.
Reconciliation, 86, 148, 179.
Reconstruction, i.
Rectum, 74.
Régénération, 71, 72.
Régicide, 119, 131, 132.
Régression, 13, 41, 61, 62, 68,
76, 88, 89, 121, 123,
190 ff.
Reik, Th., 83, 85, 164.
Reincaration, 86.
Rejuvenation, 72, 76.
Relatives:

By marriage, 92 ff,, 195.
-in-law, 92 ff.
Religion, 56, 64, 71, 72, 76, 81,
116, 120, 133 ff., 201,
232, 234 ff.
Future of, 154.
Value of, 152.
Remarriage, 99 ff.
Remus, 139.

Repression, 9ff., 22ff.,35,37ff.,
49 ff-» 57» 61, 62, 74,
80, 89, 91, 95, 98,
103 ff., 130, 138, 143
K-» 155) 165, 183, 192,
T98, 200 ff., 229.
Rescue, 108 ff., 115, 117.
Resemblance, as a factor in
displacement, 27, 102,
105, 189, 198.
Respect, 45, iioff., 186.
Retum to womb, 66 ff.
Revenge, 162.
Reversai:

Of filio-parental relationship,

239 ff.
Of générations, 161.

255

THE PSYCHO-ANALYnC STUDY OF THE FAMILY

Revision of standards of con-

duct, 226, 227-
Revolt against parental

authority, 46, 47, 223.
Ribot, Th., 157.
Riches, 169, 170.
Rights, 82.
Riklin, F„ 100.
Rio Negro, Indians of, 194.
Rites, 69, 71, 81 ff., 142, 149.
River, 69, 70, 80, 125.
Rivers, W, H, R,, 90.
Robertson Smith, 149 ff.
Roman Catholic Church, 120,

127, 145.
Romans, 128, 136.
Romulus, 56, 70, 139.
Rooms, 66.
Royal familles, 91.
Ruler, see King.
Russia, 127, 128.

Sacrifice, 148 ff.

Sacrifices involved in parent-

hood, 159 ff.
Sadism, 98, 109, 164 ff., 192.
Sadistic theory of coitus, 109.
St, George, 109.
"Sanine", 92.
Saviour, 148.
Scapegoat, 148.
Schiller, 106, 108.
School, 43, 62, 124, 210, 234,

235» 239.
Schopenhauer, 7, 37.
Schumann, F,, 7.
Schwârmerei, 28.
Schweiger, A,, 85.
Science, iff., 74.
Sea, 69, 70, 125.

Seasons, the, 72.
Seclusion before puberty, 82,83.
Secrecy în love, 108, 113.
Secret societies, 72, 83, 86.
Self, i4ff., 125, 153, 182, i88ff.

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