Character and the Unconscious
International Library of Psychology
Philosophy and Scientific Method
GENERAL EDITOR : C. K. OGDEN, M.A.
(Magdalene College, Cambridge)
VOLUMES ALREADY ARRANGED
PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES . . . . by G. E. MOORE, Litt.D.
THE MISUSE OF MIND by KARIN STEPHEN
Prefatory Note by Henri Bergson
CONFLICT AND DREAM . . . . by W. H. R. RIVERS, F.R.S.
PSYCHOLOGY AND POLITICS . . . by W. H. R. RIVERS, F.R.S.
PSYCHOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY . . by W. H. R. RIVERS, F.R.S.
THE ANALYSIS OF MATTER . . by BERTRAND RUSSELL, F.R.S.
TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS . . . by L. WITTGENSTEIN
Introduction by Bertrand Russell
MATHEMATICS FOR PHILOSOPHERS . . by G. H. HARDY, F.R.S.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES . . . . by C. G, JUNG, M.D., LL.D.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MYTHS . . by G. ELLIOT SMITH, F.R.S.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS by E. VON HARTMANN
Introduction by Professor G. Elliot Smith
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY by ALFRED ADLER
SCIENTIFIC METHOD by A. D. RITCHIE
SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT by C. D. BROAD, Litt.D.
THE MEANING OF MEANING . . by C. K. OGDEN and I. A. RICHARDS
THE THEORY OF MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS
by F. G. CROOKSHANK, M.D., F.R.C.P.
THE ELEMENTS OF PSYCHOTHERAPY by WILLIAM BROWN, M.D., D.Sc.
THE MEASUREMENT OF EMOTION . . by W. WHATELY SMITH
Introduction by William Brown
EMOTION AND INSANITY by S. THALBITZER
Introduction by Professor H. H off ding
THE LAWS OF FEELING by F. PAULHAN
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC by EDWARD J. DENT
COLOUR-HARMONY by JAMES WOOD
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE THOUGHT by LIANG CHE-CHIAO
THE HISTORY OF MATERIALISM by F. A. LANGE
THE PRIMITIVE MIND by P. RADIN, Ph.D,
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES
by B. MALINOWSKI, Ph.D., D.Sc.
THE STATISTICAL METHOD IN ECONOMICS AND POLITICS
by P. SARGANT FLORENCE
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF REASONING . . by EUGENIC RlGNANO
THE PRINCIPLES OF CRITICISM . t , . . by I. A, RICHARDS
THE PHILOSOPHY OF ' AS IF ! . . . . by H. VAIHINGER
Character and the
Unconscious
A Critical Exposition of the Psychology
of Freud and of Jung
By
J. H. van der HOOP
Authorized Translation by
ELIZABETH TREVELYAN
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.
NEW YORK: HARCOURT, BRACE & COMPANY, INC.
1923
PRINTED IV GREAT BRITAIN BY
THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND II YOUNG STREET, EDINBURGH
PREFACE
THIS book is intended to be a critical survey of the
psychology of Freud and Jung. Although many intro-
ductions to this subject have already been published in
English, little attention has so far been paid to the
causes of divergence in the theories of these scientists,
who originally were in complete agreement with each
other. This question should be of interest to all who
are not content merely to condemn and ignore the point
of view which they do not approve of. I believe that
only a thorough understanding of this problem will
enable us to realise the significance of the new psycho-
logy, which cannot grow into a harmonious system
of scientific theory unless psychologists will take the
trouble to investigate the origin of existing differences
of opinion.
I have tried to avoid a detailed description both of
psycho-analytical technique, and of the origins of various
neuroses. Those subjects seem to me too difficult and
complicated, and hardly ripe enough for this kind of
general treatment. It i important to realise that
psycho-analysis is a most subtle and difficult method,
which leads to very complicated psycho-pathological
theories ; otherwise we might be tempted to form
premature and one-sided judgments, and there would
be a danger that practitioners and others might attempt
to treat patients without sufficient scientific training,
and so might bring psycho-analysis into discredit.
This book is the result of nine years' intensive study
of the practice and theory of psycho-analysis. It was
written before the publication of Jung's Psychological
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
Types, after which I revised and added to the fifth
chapter, which treats of the psychological types,
Thus the book everywhere represents my own views,
though I need hardly say how much they owe to both
Freud and Jung.
The reader will perceive that I have represented
psychology as a science that is still in a state of growth.
New experiences are continually accumulating, and
giving rise to new and divergent generalisations. Those
who have no opportunity of judging from their own
experience may easily be confused by this mass of
facts and opinions, and will find it very difficult to
obtain a clear survey of the whole. Notwithstanding
these difficulties, I think that a somewhat general
account may be of great use, because the subject-
matter of this new psychology has aroused such
universal interest, and is so closely connected with
many contemporary problems. Our time is full of
external and internal strife. In the social world we
are faced by many intricate problems, whose solution
requires a profound understanding of the human mind.
But in our own lives too, we all of us meet with dilemmas
and uncertainties which should make us eagerly welcome
a science which may throw light on the hidden depths
of the soul. I hope that this book may help to convince
the reader that the new psychology will in time fulfil
many of our expectations.
Next to Mrs R. C. Trevelyan, I wish to express my
thanks to Mr R. C. Trevelyan for his revision of the
translation, to Miss Constance E. Long, M.D., and to
Miss Sybil I. Welsh, M.D., for their criticism of the
fifth chapter.
J. H. van der HOOP.
VI
CONTENTS
PAGES
PREFACE .... v
CHAPTER I. THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS 1-30
Natural science and psychology The study of
hysteria Charcot Hypnotism and hysteria
The nature of suggestion Janet's investiga-
tions Breuer's experiences The effect of re-
pression Resistance The influence of past
experiences Significance of childhood A new
basis of psychology Sex and hysteria The
hysterical type Causes of hysteria Method
of treatment Conditions for treatment
Conclusion
CHAPTER II. THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL
MIND .... 31-59
Expression in the normal mind Slight dis-
turbances Slips of the tongue and of the pen
Slight mistakes Analysis of dreams Desires
Unpleasant dreams The censor Signifi-
cance of dreams The latent and manifest
content Dream-symbolism The use of re-
pression Over-repression The importance of
sex Sex and emotions Ego-ideals Difficult
temperaments Psycho - analysis and self -
knowledge
CHAPTER III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
EMOTIONS . . . 60-95
Importance of earliest childhood Infancy
Digestive disturbances and cleanliness Bed-
wetting- Desire for movement Bodily gratifi-
cationThe ego and the outside world
CEdipus - complex Conflicting emotions
Brothers and sisters Problem of the stork
Emotional harmony The child's relation to
the family Influence of early experience
Death of a near relation Illness General
account of the first period Arrest and regres-
sion Latent period- Puberty Emancipation
from the parents-*Homosexuality Education
and development of emotions
vii
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
PAGES
CHAPTER IV. THE ANALYTIC AND THE SYN-
THETIC POINTS OF VIEW . 96-131
Criticism of psycho-analysis The pathological
standpoint Sublimation Freud and evolu-
tion Science and the creative principle
Psychological growth The analytic and the
synthetic methods The dreams of Rosegger
Interpretation of dreams The two aspects
of symbolism Constructive interpretation
Two methods of dream-interpretation Arbi-
trary interpretation and suggestion
CHAPTER V. PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES . . 132-198
Ideals in education Individual needs in edu-
cation Synthetic psychology Development
of individuality Introvert and extravert
adaptation The four primary functions
Relation between the functions Rational and
irrational functions Sensation Intuition
Feeling Thinking Leading and compensating
functions The extravert feeling type The
introvert feeling type The extravert thinking
type The introvert thinking type The extra-
vert intuitive type The introvert intuitive
type The extravert sensation type The in-
trovert sensation type Importance of Jung's
classification Contrasts between types
Attraction between types
CHAPTER VI. THE RELATION BETWEEN THE CON-
SCIOUS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS 199-218
The unconscious as a hypothesis Nature of
the unconscious according to Freud and Jung
Dangers of psycho-analysis Synthetic and
analytic treatment Psychic Development
The Ego Relative importance of the con-
scious and the unconscious Changes in the
Self Re-birth Psychology and Religion
Natural Development Arrested Development
The future of psychology
BIBLIOGRAPHY . 219
INDEX ...... 221
Vlll
Character and the Unconscious
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
ANY enquiry into the origin of psycho-analytical
research inevitably leads us into the region of medical
science, and more especially to the consideration of that
peculiar disease, hysteria. The new_ psychological
outlook did not arise from thaj^ psychology which has
been evolved, and is still being developed, by philo-
sophers and academic psychologists ; it has been the
necessary outcome of daily medical practice. We will
begin by considering the attitude of the doctor towards
his patient, when he desires to determine the nature
and causes of a disease. He will carefully examine
all the physical symptoms, and note the presence of
any peculiar phenomena from which he may infer
that a particular organ is ailing. It may happen that
these phenomena cannot be ascribed to any physical
cause, that they originate in a hidden distress, in over-
strain or inner conflict. In the old days when no
proper line of demarcation was drawn between the
two sets of causes, disease of any sort was attributed
to mysterious forces, such as the hand of God, the
workings of the devil and of evil spirits, or the malign
influence of one individual upon another. There has
been a gradual improvement since then ; but even
to-day the origin and tfte cure of disease are imputed
i A
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
to hidden causes by the superstitious. Consider-
able progress was effected in medical science by the
development of the natural sciences, and many fan-
tastic theories were uprooted by more methodical and
acute observation. The patient's physical condition
was examined with ever increasing care ; the nature
of the disease was circumscribed within better defined
limits, and the causes of many ailments became better
known. But this advance in knowledge was restricted
almost entirely to the physical world. The state of
the patient's mind was overlooked, as it was thought
impossible to apply here the same accurate methods
of observation and experiment. To a great extent
this is still the case, and many well known scientists do
not believe in the possibility of dealing with psychology
in a really scientific manner. Although the symptoms
and the course of mental diseases have been patiently
and carefully described, reviewed and classified, in
practice these labours have not yielded anything like
the harvest which mankind has garnered from the
natural sciences. So far, we have scarcely advanced
beyond the stage of superficial generalisation. Now,
however, owing to our growing interest in the work-
ings of the mind, new paths are being discovered
which will lead to increasingly practical results.
There was something accidental in the origins of
psychological research. During the latter half of the
previous century, Charcot, then professor in Paris,
achieved world-wide fame by his penetrating investiga-
tions into all manner of nerve troubles. He was able
to point out that the cause of many cases of paralysis,
of physical disturbance of the senses and of the muscles,
was to be looked for in certain diseases of the brain
2
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
and the spine. A slight inflammation or tumour
somewhere in this delicate nerve tissue was some-
times found to be the explanation of all sorts of com-
plicated symptoms. After much further enquiry into
the nature of nervous diseases, Charcot dedicated
himself to the study of hysterical phenomena. At
that time the greatest confusion reigned on the subject.
Most students preferred not to deal with it at all, and
hysterical patients were often looked upon as frauds
and impostors. Charcot however was compelled to
be interested in symptoms which often closely resembled
those of his nerve patients, and he was thus led to
differentiate between the various symptoms, and to
circumscribe them within their own limits. This was
no easy matter ; for he found not only that hysteria
was liable to bring about every conceivable physical
and mental disturbance, but also that its symptoms
were often characterised by considerable variability.
They would suddenly be called to life by events of
many kinds, particularly of an emotional character,
only to disappear with equal rapidity after a certain
time. The symptoms of hysteria are manifold, and a
few instances must suffice. They may be of a mild
nature, such as headache, fatigue, lack of appetite,
and spleen ; or they may take a more serious turn and
appear as grave physical disturbances, such as acute
pain, complete or partial paralysis, persistent coughing
fits and hiccoughs, blindness, deafness, dumbness and
grave nerve attacks. The mental disturbances are
primarily of an emotional character. The emotions
are violent and impulsive, irrational and very variable.
They may lead to a state of deranged excitability, and
reach such a pitch that the patient appears to be
3
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
insane. He may act as in a dream, and afterwards lose
all recollection of his actions. All these symptoms
were closely examined by Charcot and his pupils,
but it was not found possible to localise the disturb-
ances in any definite part of the spine or the brain.
The cause of the disease was therefore to be looked
for elsewhere, and Charcot assumed that in such
cases there was_a deterioration of the whole nervous
system, brought about by hereditary degeneration.
Another important discovery made by Charcot with
regard to hysterical symptoms was destined to form
the basis of later investigations. In cases of hysterical
paralysis, he observed that he could arbitrarily bring
about paralysis when the patient was in a hypnotic
condition. At that time hypnosis was not a scientifi-
cally established fact, and such practices were despised
as being primarily the methods of spiritualists and
quacks. Charcot attempted to throw clearer light on
the matter, although in the main he did not go much
beyond describing numerous peculiarities of hypnosis
and of the method by which it was induced ; and he
only made use of hypnosis for purposes of experiment,
being unaware of its utility in treatment. A big step
forward was made later on by Liebault and Bernheiin,
who employed hypnosis to influence the symptoms of
hysteria. They considered that since it was possible
to bring about these symptoms during hypnotic sleep,
it ought to be equally possible to remove them in that
condition. Their hypothesis was verified. When hyp-
notised patients were spoken to in the proper manner,
it was found that their symptoms could be influenced
to a considerable degree. This discovery led to the
further theory that, if any idea was impressed upon the
J ' ^ -..I -X, ^^.^^JL^....^...
4
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
mind of^a_hypngtised . Ratjent, it^ wouldLbsu ja.ccep.ted
called suggestion j and the mind of a hysterical patient
was held to be more open to suggestion than that of a
normal person. It further appeared that such sug-
gestions were not only accepted, but that they exer-
cised considerable influence on the entire physical and
mental condition of the patient. To suggest that an
arm was paralysed was enough to make it completely
immovable ; the suggestion of wine induced in the
hypnotised person a condition apparently identical
with drunkenness. It was inferred that both the
symptoms of hysteria, and the paralysed or drunken
condition were brought about in the self-same manner ;
the only difference being that, in the case of the disease,
there was no hypnotist to induce the suggestion. It
was therefore assumed that a similar suggestion could
arise in the patient himself, caused either by a very
powerful impression or by a deeply-stirring event.
This was called auto-suggestion, and the^
condition of the mind of such patients was .
as ' increased suggestibility '. It should be noted that
this conception involves the curious implication that
these suggestions are present in the patient's mind
without his being aware of them in any way.
In France these questions were further examined
very thoroughly and scientifically by Janet, one of
Charcot's pupils. Various experiments, which led
to "a better insight into the psychology of hysteria,
were made by him upon a number of patients, and it
was found possible to establish beyond a doubt the
existence of these unconscious processes of auto-
suggestion. It was discovered that patients in deep
5
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
hypnotic sleep were able to reply to questions, and so
throw light on events in their earlier life, which were
an important cause of their morbid symptoms. Thus
unaccountable fits of dread occurring in a hysterical
patient whenever she saw fire, were caused by a terri-
fying incident during a conflagration of which she
had no conscious remembrance. Under hypnosis,
she was able to relate the event with a wealth of detail.
Another means of enquiring into the contents of the
unconscious mind was afforded by automatic writing,
When hysterical patients were given paper and pencil
and their attention was distracted by random talk,
the hand would often start writing and communicating
facts that had no connection whatever with the subject
of the conversation. If anyone approached the patient
unnoticed from behind and whispered a question into
his ear, it was not unusual for the patient to continue
talking quite naturally, while his hand would write
the reply. Thus even while the patient was not in
a hypnotic trance, information could be elicited from
him concerning details bearing upon his symptoms ;
and the fact was again clearly established that the
unconscious retained these details, which were entirely
inaccessible to the conscious memory. At times it
was as if, behind the diseased personality of the patient,
there was another being, much more fully cognisant
of previous experiences. As a matter of fact, there
have been well-known cases where a second personality
has arisen into consciousness, such as that of the
patient who had lost all recollection of a certain portion
of her life, and whose symptoms obstructed several
of her mental and physical faculties. By means of
hypnosis another personality was evoked which could
6
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
remember the forgotten period, and also possessed
those faculties, but was unable to recollect anything
else. It was even possible at times to conjure up
another more complete personality, uniting in one
whole the experiences and faculties of the two others.
But such cases of double personality are very rare, and
of little importance for our purpose, except in so far as
they show that hysterical symptoms are caused by
unconscious processes which have a more or less inde-
pendent existence. They may best be compared with
the so-called post-hypnotic suggestions, which are made
to a hypnotised patient to be acted upon during waking
hours. When such a suggestion is carried out at a
given moment, the patient is at a loss to understand
how he came to act in so strange a fashion.
But the problem of how such unconscious pro-
cesses arise, is not yet solved. Is there something
exceptional in the suggestion itself which compels it to
remain unconscious, or does it depend entirely on the
peculiar state of mind of the hysterical patient ? And
if so, what are the characteristics of this state ? We
may observe that normal people also are more or less
susceptible to suggestions, but they are far from ac-
cepting all ideas as suggestions. In some psychological
conditions, suggestibility can be greatly increased by
more or less eliminating criticism in the patient. The
personality of the suggestor is an important factor,
and if recognised as an authority, he will have much
more chance of enforcing his ideas without question.
When the individual forms part of a crowd, he will
also be more inclined to accept something on authority.
Usually however in the minds of normal individuals
different ideas are at vjprk at the same time, checking
7
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
and correcting each other. But suggestions made
during hypnosis appear to develop quite independently
in the mind ; they evolve and operate untrammelled
by other ideas, and this occurs to a much greater
extent with hysterical patients than with normal
individuals. Hence Janet's characterisation of the
hysterical state of mind as one in which ideas tend
to subsist in watertight compartments. In his view,
as in Charcot's, this is due to the general condition
of the nervous system, which is the outcome of heredi-
tary degeneration. In such cases it is much more
difficult for one idea to affect another, because the
mind of the degenerate has difficulty in retaining
different ideas at the same time. Memory, according to
Janet, arises from one idea evoking another, and if this
connecting faculty is lacking, it is impossible for one
idea to summon another into the conscious mind, and
the apparent loss of memory of a particular event is
thereby explained. Only under hypnosis can these
dead memories be brought back to life by the hypnotist.
Now an unconscious idea is just as well capable of
influencing the body as conscious ideas do. Indeed an
unconscious idea is even more operative, because it is
not tempered by the workings of other ideas. Thus
the unconscious recollection of a terrible conflagration
may strike terror in the mind of the patient when he
sees a tiny flame. Let us take as another example
(XXI, p. 248) * the curious case of a patient who
would sit down to table with a normal appetite, only
to find that her hunger disappeared after the first
mouthful, and was immediately followed by repug-
* The Roman characters refer to the bibliography at the end of
the book. *
8
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
nance. She could give no reason for this, and only
hypnosis revealed the still living recollection of a
scene with her mother, who during a quarrel had
upbraided her with not being worth the food she
consumed, and said that she deserved to starve.
This isolated unconscious idea rose up whenever she
was about to eat, and affected her physical condition
so violently as to dispel all appetite. By acting upon
the unconscious idea during hypnosis, Janet succeeded
in eliminating the symptom.
Janet's theory, no doubt, explains various char-
acteristics of hysteria, but it leaves a number of ques-
tions unanswered. His patients were for the most part
quite uneducated and mentally deficient women, so it
was natural for him to attribute their psychological
peculiarities to inferiority and degeneration. But
hysterical symptoms very often occur in people who
could certainly not be described as inferior, and do not
make the impression of being able to retain only one
idea at the same time. Janet also fails to make it
clear why some ideas more than others tend to remain
unconscious. It is true that he points to the influence
exercised by strong emotions ; but we shall see that
all strong emotions are not to the same degree the
cause of unconscious processes. One might also
criticise Janet's association theory, according to which
these processes consist of ideas which call each other
forth because they are connected by association.
These objections were further elaborated by Breugr
and Freijd. (VI), who at about the same time were
pursuing the study of hysteria in Vienna. Breuer was a
medical practitioner, who in the course of his practice
met with a curious experience. He was treating a
9
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
hysterical girl who had nursed her father through a
serious illness, during which she developed ever in-
creasing symptoms of mental disease, until in the end,
after her father's death, she became almost constantly
afflicted with a strange disorder. Her right arm was
rigid and insensitive, and although she could still quite
well understand German, her mother tongue, she was
only able to speak English. Breuer observed acci-
dentally that her condition improved for several hours
when, in her dream-like state, she related her harassing
ideas and illusions ; so by way of treatment he made
her talk for some time every evening, while she was in
this state. The illusions which obsessed her were
mostly connected with her father's illness, and memories
of that period came back to her with photographic
distinctness, accompanied by the distress which they
had aroused. He now made the quite unexpected
discovery that a hysterical symptom would disappear
as soon as she had recalled and described, in her som-
nambulistic condition, the first occasion when the
symptom occurred. This was always accompanied
by violent expressions of emotion ; and she usually
had first to relate a series of incidents during which
the symptoms had appeared, before she was able to
tell of the event which had originally provoked it,
which was as follows. One evening she was anxiously
watching over her invalid father, while expecting the
arrival of a consulting surgeon. She was sitting by
the bed, her right arm over the back of her chair.
She began to imagine things very vividly, as she
was wont to, and saw a black snake that was crawling
down the wall towards her father, as if with the inten-
tion of biting him. She wanted to ward off the animal,
10
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
but her right arm which hung over the back of the
chair was numb, insensitive and rigid, and when she
looked at her fingers they changed into small snakes
with death's-heads. Then the serpent hallucination
left her, and in her terror she attempted to pray,
but found no words, except an English nursery rhyme,
and could only think and pray in English. After this
incident these reactions of stiffness in the arm and
speaking in English recurred whenever she was seized
with fear, and finally they became permanent. As
soon as the patient became conscious of what gave rise
to them, the symptoms disappeared for good. Breuer
found that this method succeeded in the case of her
other morbid symptoms too. He communicated these
facts to Freud, who made similar experiments on
various patients. He found that the most varied
forms^ of hysteria could be _made_tp disappear by
inducing_thg_patient to relate the ^j3s^clncal_ moment
which had given rise to^ thern^ J?joyided that the emo-
tions associated with these memories., were. alsa~ade-
quately expressed. It thus became apparent that
patients in their normal consciousness knew nothing
of these past events, that these recollections only
emerged under hypnosis, and then very vividly.
Breuer and Freud inferred that the psychic content
can be at the same time both unconscious and opera
tive, and they agreed with Janet in regarding the
splitting up or dissociation of the mind as a markec
characteristic of hysteria.
So far the investigations of both schools had attained
the same results. But while Janet strove to alleviate
hysterical symptoms by altering or eliminating under
hypnosis the unconscious ideas which were at the basis
ii
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
of them, Breuer and Freud aimed at bringing out and
expressing the emotional incidents which had caused
* *-* "- * * < ..***'9'*<*''*WW**"*>*
these unconscious ideas, in order to render their action
inoperative. They were thus led to examine closely
the circumstances attending the origin of these uncon-
scious morbid ideas. Their attention was soon directed
towards a new phenomenon, which had already ap-
peared in the Breuer case, and became increasingly
noticeable during Freud's subsequent investigations :
the repression at the critical moment of the powerful
emotion which was always connected with^TKese
morbid Jdeas. Breuer's patient had not been able to
express her concern and anxiety in the presence of
her sick father, and so was compelled to conceal her
real feelings. In another case, that of an employee,
hysteria arose after he had been abused and struck in
the street by his employer, a painful situation during
which he had had to repress his feelings. Most of the
examples given by Freud in his first work are too
complicated to be quoted here. Very often morbid
symptoms are not caused by one particular event,
but by the repeated repression of the same emotion.
Such repression indicates that in these cases there is
a conflict between different emotions.
This theory of repression was confirmed by another
experiment. In milder cases of hysteria, Freud found
himself unable to hypnotise his patients for the purpose
of discovering unconscious ideas. He then remem-
bered that there was another method of penetrating
to the unconscious memory. He had witnessed Bern-
heim's success in making a patient remember what
had happened to her under hypnosis, although she
had previously forgotten everything about it, simply by
12
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
impressing upon her that it would come back to her
when he put his hand upon her forehead. Freud's
first experiment was to make the same gesture of the
hand while he told his patient that he would remember
something connected with the first appearance of his
symptoms. When this had been repeated several
times, memories were actually evoked, which gradually
came nearer to the event which Freud was looking for.
But at the same time, it became clear, not only to
Freud but to the patient, that something was resisting
this attempt to draw the recollection into the con-
scious mind, and that it was only by an effort that he
could bring himself to speak of things which awakened
unpleasant feelings. Assistance had ^ to be^avercome.
This resistance also expressed a conflict of emotions.
Freud concluded that the resistance which he had
met with during treatment must have been the original
cause for the disappearance of the past event from
consciousness. Not only the condition of the patient,
but also the reason for the repression, became more
easy to understand. What had characteristically
happened to this hysterical patient, was that a
morbid symptom had taken the place of the emotional
recollection which had been thrust back. Breuer f
and Freud explained this by saying that in place of one
physical expression of emotion, another physical
expression had arisen, a process which they called
the conversion of an emotion into a morbid symptom.
Such conversion of an unexpressed emotion could be
terminated by bringing about its normal expression,
or in technical language, by " allowing the affect to be
worked off."
The following example will make the matter clearer.
13
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
I was treating a seventeen year old girl, who was
suffering from a hiccough which had been tormenting
her continuously for several weeks. She was quite at a
loss to explain how it began, and no physical cause of
the disturbance could be discovered. When I urged
her to confide to me what was occupying her thoughts,
she began describing her home conditions. After her
father's death her mother had opened a boarding-
house, which she was helping to run, and they had so
far succeeded in keeping the household together for her
brothers. When I continued to urge her, she related
the small troubles of her life in the boarding-house and
other matters concerning her brothers, and memories
came back of an earlier time when her father was alive.
After a few days, pauses began to occur in her story ;
she would refuse to go on, and became out of humour
without being able to explain why. In proportion as
it grew more difficult for her to express her thoughts,
she became more restless and depressed, and would
sometimes break out into fits of crying. She began to
resist my questioning, and after a time the resistance
became very marked. She told me with great diffi-
culty about various disagreements with her mother,
and thought she could remember that something of
that kind had preceded the first fit of hiccoughs.
Then at last, after further serious difficulties and more
crying, the conscious recollection arose of the scene
that had taken place just before she became afflicted
with hiccoughs. Her mother had told her that the
boarding-house was becoming too much for her : she
proposed to give it up and to go and live with some
relations. Her daughter was to look out for a situa-
tion. This was a heavy blow tothe girl, who was very
14
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
much attached to the family circle ; and that evening
after hearing of the plan, she gave way to bitter crying,
and her sobs were so violent that they broke out con-
vulsively like hiccoughs. At last she fell asleep.
When she awoke the next morning, she had lost all
recollection of the conversation, and, instead, was
suffering from a continuous hiccough, which was so
loud as to be very troublesome both to herself and to
her family. Thus she had succeeded in thrusting away
a painful memory ; but although it had become uncon-
scious, it now found indirect expression, as a kind of
symbol for the hidden unhappiness. The treatment
consisted in overcoming the resistance ; and as soon
as that was effected, the hiccough disappeared once
and for all, and the girl's unhappiness expressed itself
more normally in bitter tears. I should add for the
sake of completeness, that in this case there was no
reason for assuming the existence of any kind of
hereditary degeneration. The patient was an intelli-
gent, sensible girl, who had previously shown no
symptoms of nervous disease ; so that we may assume
that in this case the troubles were serious enough to
bring about the morbid symptoms.
After his first investigations with Breuer, Freud pur-
sued his enquiries alone, and soon realised* that his
theoretic conceptions needed amplification. If hysteri-
cal symptoms usually occur whenever there has been
repression, one would surely expect them to occur more
frequently. Does not civilisation compel us every day
to repress our emotions, and are they not frequently
of a violent character ? This, then, is not enough to
explain how hysterical symptoms arise. Freud dis-
covered that it was not, always the repression of strong
15
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
emotions that was the cause of morbid symptoms.
Sometimes they would appear with relatively small
occasion. But in such cases he found that there
were always a great many previous experiences of
the same nature, which together constituted a conflict
in the patient's emotional life. For instance, (VI) he
found that mild hysterical symptoms occurred in a
governess in consequence of a scolding from the master
of the house. Further investigation revealed a few
other small matters, which all touched the patient on
one sensitive spot, where her feelings were in conflict.
She had been entrusted with the care of some children,
whose mother was dead ; and certain expressions of
the father had given her the idea that she might some
day become his second wife. But she repressed these
thoughts, and found support for this repression in
some of the father's less friendly utterances. This
is a case where a lingering and chronic conflict
may be considered the cause of mild morbid
symptoms.
While investigating the problem why such conflicts
should have such unusually far-reaching effects,
Freud was led to penetrate more and more into the
life history of his patients. It appeared that no
single event that had at some time or other called
forth a hysterical symptom, was sufficient in itself to
explain this result. In his patients' antecedents there
were always to be found various occurrences, which had
provoked an inner conflict, and created the sensibly e
spot where the later event was to strike home. Thus,
in the hiccough case referred to above, the painful
problem had already arisen earlier in the young girl's
life. Ever since the death of hpr father, she must have
16
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
been always more or less conscious of the threatened
break-up of the family household.
The antecedents of his patients became an increas-
ingly important and fruitful field for Freud's investiga-
tions. But he found that at a certain moment in the
treatment of a patient, his recollections would cease,
and that then he had already reached back to the events
of early childhood. Even at this early stage of emo-
tional life, he would at times find peculiarities which
had developed later on into conflicts of emotion.
It seemed as though certain future characteristics
could be ascribed entirely to some earlier experience
which had powerfully impressed itself upon the mind.
It sometimes also appeared that a conflict of emotions
had existed very early in life, and had led to conceal-
ment and repression. At first Freud considered these
events of early childhood, which had led to conflict and
repression, to be actually the predisposing causes
of mental disease, especially of hysteria. But he
soon abandoned this view, when further investigation
showed that many normal people had had similar
conflicts in early youth, which yet had not resulted in
morbid conditions in later life. Furthermore he
discovered that in a few cases the deeply stirring
event in childhood had not in fact taken place at all,
but only existed in the child's vivid imagination.
The main cause of a morbid disposition should not be
exclusively sought for in the event which had acted as
an outer stimulus to certain emotions in the child.
We must suppose either that there was something
peculiar in the child which made it more susceptible
to the unfavourable influence of certain events, or that
the child had experience^ a conflict of emotions solely
17 B
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
through its imagination. These deviations, which lead
to hysterical symptoms, are not therefore provoked by
circumstance alone, but also by disposition. The
value of Freud's enquiry was certainly not impaired
by this revised conception, for he was able to show how
disposition is developed and influenced by all manner
of circumstances, and how morbid symptoms receive
their specific form and content through the interaction
of disposition and outward events.
Meanwhile Freud was drifting further and further
away from his earlier adherence to association-psy-
chology. We have seen how near he originally was to
Janet, who considered that certain unconscious images
were the active forces which caused such morbid
symptoms. According to this psychological theory,
ideas constitute the essential part of the mind. They
attract and repel each other like atoms in the physical
world, and our judgments and convictions are the
outcome of their interactions. Breuer and Freud
saw at once that these active forces of the mind lay
not so much in the ideas, as in the emotions that were
connected with them and gave them their importance.
If we follow Freud's method and look back into the
past history of a human being, we become more and
more aware that life is flowing on continuously like a
stream, in which the emotions seem to be always
changing, though in essence they remain the same,
however much they may clothe themselves in new
ideas. By thus viewing a man's life as a whole, we can
penetrate deeper and deeper into regions that lie
behind ideas. The emotions give clear evidence of
this deeper background, for they reveal definite currents
which, however mingled andtshifting, are yet an indica-
18
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
tion of certain fixed desires. We jnust finally regard
these underlying desires, which express themselves
in emotions and thoughts, as the ultimate basis of
our mental life. In youth, these impulses express
themselves more simply and vaguely, but later on in a
more involved fashion. They then split up, or unite
together, and tend to become more differentiated, and
at the same time more complicated and more pro-
nounced. But however far back into our lives we
project our memory, we never find any singleness of
aim in our desires. Already in our earliest years we
discover conflicts of emotion, expressing forces which
clash with one another. These conflicts become con-
scious as emotional reactions of many different kinds.
While investigating cases of mental disturbances,
Freud observed the curious fact that the ideas and
emotions which were repressed in hysterical cases, all
belonged to the same extensive category, that of sex.
In the expression of sexual emotions, there was always
some disturbance to be noted. Hysterical symptoms
had taken the place of the normal forms of expression.
We may at first be tempted to connect this view with
the popular conception that hysteria and sexual 1
excitement are one and the same thing. It is an old
theory, as is shown by the name, which is derived
from the Greek word for womb. Hysteria was princi-
pally to be found in women, and its symptoms were
therefore connected with sexual deviations. Freud's
theory confirms this view only in so far as it makes
clear that hysterical symptoms are a substitute for
and a disguised expression of sexual impulses, which
for one reason or another have not been able to express
themselves as such. Now and then hysterical patients
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
show strong sexual desires quite clearly. But just
because the normal expressions of sexual desire have
been involuntarily repressed, there can generally be no
question at all of sexual excitement in the ordinary
sense. On the contrary, such patients are cold and
detached, although there may sometimes be indica-
tions showing that they are capable of sexual emotion.
However that may be, I hope to have shown clearly
that hysteria and sexual excitement are not the same
thing.
On the basis of Freud's authority and experience,
we shall assume that hysterical symptoms often arise
in a complicated manner, which the patient himself
cannot account for, as the result of repressed sexual
emotions, the term sexual being used in a very general
sense. Without entering into detail, it may be well
to delineate the various factors which produce hysteria.
For the sake of convenience, we shall distinguish
between three kinds of hysteria, and consider the
origin of each in turn.
We have seen that both past and present circum-
stances are of importance in bringing about morbid
symptoms. In cases of obvious predisposition, the
emphasis should be placed on previous incidents and
circumstances as having prepared the later morbjd
reactions. In genuine hysterical cases significant
characteristics exist even in early childhood, and, as
Freud has shown, are caused by strong, unconscious
emotions reacting upon the conscious life. At a
very early period, whether owing to circumstance or
disposition, strong erotic emotions find a form of
expression, which is subsequently repressed. But this
repression soon more or less miscarries, so that the
20
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
influence of the unconscious makes itself felt, though in
a concealed manner. This influence especially shows
itself in oyeMension of the emotions, leading to violent
outbursts about trifles, unaccountable terrors and other
morbid feelings, and often taking the form of a demon-
strativeness unusual at that age. Such children are
likely to be unusually sympathetic, sensitive and un-
selfish, but at the same time they show themselves to
be as changeable in their sentiments as adult patients.
In later life unexpected influences constantly inter-
vene and disturb their relations with others, so that
they gain the reputation of being exacting, difficult,
jealous and intolerant. They are also blamed for
attitudinising, for they are so anxious to make an im-
pression on their entourage, that they do not scruple
to mix fact and fiction. It will often be remarked how
different the role they wish to impersonate, is from the
one which they usually express in their actions. This
is due to the emergence of their unconscious processes,
which are much more noticeable to onlookers than
to the patients themselves, who owing to their repres-
sions are not able to become conscious of them. In
fact their attention is only drawn to these processes,
when they assume the form of troublesome hysterical
symptoms. Even then their connection with the other
workings of the mind is generally so little apparent,
that patients will only become convinced of it after
special efforts of introspection. Just as small diffi-
culties and conflicts produced unaccountable and dis-
proportionate emotional reactions, so these reactions
lead to more or less pronounced morbid symptoms,
which may seem equally mysterious in their origin.
In serious cases, these symptoms may dominate the
21
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
whole of the patient's life ; and as they are generally
accompanied by peculiar emotional reactions, he is
likely to become very difficult to deal with.
A careful observer will note a peculiar attitude
in such patients towards the general question of sex
and love. Everything in this sphere that is not ex-
clusively and definitely spiritual, is rejected as inferior.
The patient will behave as if he were far above such
problems and conflicts ; but various details of be-
haviour, his curiosity, and certain unmistakeable
reactions will show that he is very far indeed from
being uninterested in such questions, and that uncon-
sciously he is more interested in them than most other
people. As a result he will often be misunderstood, for
it will not be realised how little his involuntary be-
haviour corresponds to his conscious intention.
So far we have dealt with patients, whose mental
deviations have extended over so long a time, that the
causes must be looked for in congenital disposition or in
events of early childhood. We now come to a second
category, that of patients who become afflicted with
hysteria at a certain moment in their lives, as a result
of some critical difficulty. In cases of this kind it
is easier to discover the causes of the disease, as they
are much more in evidence. It is true that here also
an enquiry into character and disposition would reveal
emotions, which at an earlier period have been thrust
back into the unconscious. But the repression will
have been less comprehensive, and more successful,
and more outlets will have been found for impulses
and feelings, so that the severe tension caused by
bottled-up emotions will never have expressed itself in a
troublesome manner. In si!ch a case the causes of
22
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
morbid symptoms are in general unsatisfied desires
in the emotional life. The symptoms appear when the
emotions are debarred from a satisfactory outlet
It might be objected that the patient might find other
forms of expression ; also that there are plenty of
unsatisfied ^people who show no hysterical symptoms.
But to produce these symptoms, other conditions,
connected with the tendency to repression, must be
present. An unsatisfied desire causes strong mental
tension and compression of emotional energy, and a
number of older, elementary forms of expression crop
up involuntarily. As the water of a dammed-up
river is pressed back and flows into long abandoned
channels, so the emotional tension will try to express
itself in obsolete forms. Old habits, events or fan-
tasies, which were accompanied in the past by strong
emotion, will emerge once more as possible outlets
for the suppressed emotion. This process is called
regression, and occurs also in normal people ; but with
them it is more consciously developed than with
hysterical patients, who not only would never con-
sciously adopt earlier ways of expression, but cannot
even conceive them as a possible outlet.
In many cases normal persons are able to find new
forms of expression, when the old have to be given
up. A girl who is unfortunate in love may find satis-
faction in nursing ; a writer can express his unsatisfied
ideal of love in a novel. Everyone does not possess
to an equal degree this capacity for transferring sex
feeling into channels of greater social value, a process
which Freud calls sublimation. In most people it
soon reaches its limits. In hysterically disposed
individuals, the tendency to repress and the refusal to
23
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
face facts about themselves, make it more difficult
both to discover the trouble and to find a possible
solution through sublimation, and so the unconscious
tension is increased.
Whereas in the first group of hysterical cases the
tendency to repress rouses strong unconscious activities
continuously throughout the patient's life, in the
second series the unconscious only emerges in a trouble-
some manner when a want has to go unsatisfied, so
that a tension arises and seeks an outlet which is
denied. This tension in its turn produces a regression
towards earlier forms of expression ; but they are
unable to penetrate into consciousness, and so the
tension has to find an abnormal outlet.
In a third series of cases, a hysterical symptom will
suddenly appear in connection with an unusually severe
shock, or with some emotion, which has either not
been expressed at all, or only inadequately. In
the war, such cases were very common. Here too
investigation will generally reveal a predisposition to
hysteria ; but it will not be an overwhelming factor,
as in the two previous groups. Such cases are easier
to cure than the others, for it is easier to bring back to
consciousness the disturbing event, and to provoke the
proper expression of the emotion.* Where the ten-
dency to repression has become a settled habit, and
frustrates partly or completely the expression of
important impulses, the treatment presents much
greater difficulty. The patient can no doubt find some
relief by pouring out his innermost feelings to somebody
in whom he places his trust. But if this method were
* Unless the symptom acquires a secondary use which induces
the patient to cling to it later on, e.g. ^ar of the trenches.
24
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
the only one used, it would lead the patient to be too
dependent on his doctor. The repressed emotions
will, it is true, find a different outlet from that provided
by morbid symptoms ; but when the treatment comes
to an end, and this mode of expression is no longer
possible, the patient will probably relapse sooner or
later, and again become subject to the same or other
morbid symptoms.
Thus a double problem confronts the psycho-analyst,
when he has to deal with the more serious forms of
hysteria. In the first place he must discover the seat
of the various repressed emotions, and their connection
with the morbid symptoms. Next, the patient must be
induced to give up the bad habit of repressing his
difficulties, and be taught how to find better outlets
for his emotions by introspection, and by giving
thought to his troubles, and so will learn how to direct
his life in a more conscious manner. Small wonder
that when the symptoms date from far back, or where
individual characteristics are strongly pronounced,
the treatment becomes a lengthy and difficult affair.
It is only when the patient has abandoned the com-
fortable position of refusing to see things as they are,
and has come to face realities within and without,
that he is able to find satisfaction for his emotional
needs. Until then, his utterances of repressed emotions
in the presence of the doctor are only a safety valve
for the tension of his emotional energy ; and so long
as this lasts, the patient remains more or less dependent
on his doctor. But the doctor should always make his
patients realise the nature of their dependence on
him ; and this he can do by making them see that
their unconscious infantile emotions are thus being
'25
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
satisfied. It is obvious that such a treatment must
make severe demands on the analyst. He will have to
retain an objective attitude towards the most varie-
gated emotions of his patient, neither rejecting them,
nor accepting them, and he must reflect all his utter-
ances faithfully like a mirror. Psycho-analytical treat-
ment essentially consists in the attainment by the
patient of fundamental self-knowledge by systematic
and lengthy introspection. Opportunities for investi-
gating inner problems will be furnished not only by
the more or less important morbid symptoms, but
by innumerable forms of expression which have no
apparent connection with our conscious mental life.
In a later chapter, I hope to show how some of these
phenomena occur in normal persons too, and may
give us insight into the unconscious. In psycho-
analytical treatment dreams provide very important
clues for penetrating into the depths of the unconscious.
I do not intend here to make a profound study of
the problems of psycho-pathology. Besides, it would
be difficult to summarise briefly the various processes
by which hysterical symptoms are connected with
earlier incidents and fancies in the patient's life.
But it may be as well to state now emphatically,
what I hope to prove later on, that our mental life
is far more complicated, composite and mysterious
than most of us suppose on the strength of a super-
ficial knowledge of our own conscious processes. We
are ever ready with opinions about ourselves and others,
and with the offer of advice to all and sundry. A
better understanding of the complex structure of the
human mind will make us tread more warily. Psycho-
analysts, who are daily confronted with these problems,
26 '
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
are all well aware of their overwhelming difficulty,
which puts a strain upon all their faculties. Anyone
who undertakes the psycho-analytical treatment of a
patient without adequate preparation, has no right to
ascribe failure simply to the method of treatment.
It should also be clear that this treatment, more than
any other, requires the co-operation of the patient.
Understanding can only be attained if patient and
doctor constantly work hand in hand ; and unless
patients are really anxious to be cured, and are pre-
pared to investigate themselves thoroughly, they are
unsuitable for this kind of treatment.
^We must now consider this further question. A
patient may repress his impulses because they are
unacceptable to him, or because they clash with the
rest of his emotions. He will have to find some service-
able forms of expression for his emotions by becoming
more conscious of his inner life. But is this always
possible ? May it not happen that either his emo-
tional disposition, or his incapacity to create useful
sublimated forms of expression, are of such a kind that
the attempt to make him realise his problems may
merely torture him without solving his difficulties ?
Would it not be better to leave his morbid symptoms
undisturbed, rather than increase the difficulty of
the conflict by making him acutely conscious of it ?
May not repression be a fortunate piece of mechanism ?
We ought to differentiate between the various in-
dividual cases, and consider in each separately whether
the advantages of treatment will outweigh the draw-
backs. Generally the patient will be able to tell by
intuition whether a psycho-analytical treatment will
suit his inner powers } and disposition. No serious
27
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
psycho-analyst will force his treatment upon a patient.
The liberty to break off the treatment at any time,
and to carry on introspection by oneself, is of the first
importance. But although there may at times be
objections to treatment, they should not be over-
rated. Even in cases of an unfavourable disposition, a
clear understanding of the difficulties, and a conscious
effort to overcome them, will afford a much better
chance of a solution than would a mere struggle in
the dark.
I will now briefly summarise the results of our
enquiry into hysteria. Charcot disposed of the con-
ception that hysterical patients are female humbugs,
who want to create an effect. It was left to his pupils
to establish clearly that hysteria is connected with
unconscious mental processes. So long as such pro-
cesses were ascribed to an inferior mental disposition,
the stigma of degeneracy was attached to anyone who
showed hysterical symptoms. A change of view was
brought about by Freud, who pointed out the import-
ance of various influences which modify our emotional
life from childhood onwards. Although hereditary
disposition remains in many cases a factor of im-
portance, in a great many others the emphasis should
be placed on circumstances which have warped the
growth of the emotions. Unconscious ideas and
emotions are no longer considered to be by themselves
the causes of the disease, but are looked upon as
symptoms of repressed impulses, which would have
found a satisfying outlet if other emotions had not
intervened. The origin of hysteria may therefore be
described as a conflict of vitally important impulses,
which results in the repressio^ of one among them.
28
THE ORIGINS OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS
Experience also proves that these repressed impulses
are always connected with sex, this term being used
in its widest sense. Thus the old connection between
hysteria and sex has been re-established, but not in
the sense that hysterical patients must be persons
with strong sexual requirements. On the contrary,
Freud has shown that such requirements are here
repressed. The popular conception is only so far true,
that sex is seen to crop up everywhere in the utterances
of hysterical patients, because these repressed needs,
of which the patient remains entirely unconscious,
are always endeavouring indirectly to push themselves
forward. It would be foolish to attempt the cure of
such patients merely by providing them with direct
sexual satisfaction. Not only would other emotions
oppose this very strenuously, but the whole temper
of their emotional life is too delicate and complex
to find satisfaction in a coarse and elementary manner.
What is needed is that by increasing the sphere of
their consciousness, they should attain a new harmony
of the emotions, which would not simply consist in
rejecting what does not fit in with the whole. The
path that leads to this harmony has been revealed by
Freud's difficult and slow psycho-analytical treatment,
which compels the patient to become conscious of
himself by a careful investigation of the workings of his
mind. The essence of this method is a long and system-
atic introspection, by which we may penetrate not only
into what is generally called the unconscious, but also
into those thoughts and emotions which can only be
made conscious after some inner resistance has been
laboriously overcome. It is only these last processes
which Freud describes as unconscious, while he defines
>2 9
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
as pre-conscious processes such matters as can easily
and without any resistance emerge into consciousness.
Freud's views on hysteria have now been accepted
by many investigators, although there are still a number
of doctors who adhere to the vague conception of
hereditary degeneration without further inquiring into
its causes. Meanwhile the new theories are percol-
ating through, and have given us an entirely novel
view of the nature of insanity, while the inner conflict
between conscious personality and repressed uncon-
scious tendencies plays an important part in general
psycho-pathology. But this is a subject which is too
complex for me to dwell upon in this book. Thus the
study of hysteria and Freud's discovery of the psycho-
analytical method have enabled us to penetrate by
entirely new paths into the dark recesses of the human
mind ; and we have come to realise that it is a very
complicated organism, of which only a small portion
is known to us in the conscious processes of our daily
life.
CHAPTER II
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
WE have seen that the study of neuroses, especially
of hysteria, has led to an increased understanding
of the unconscious processes. Freud has shown that
there are two kinds of unconscious processes : the
pre-conscious, of which one is not aware at any given
moment, but which it is possible, more or less readily,
to recall to consciousness ; and the repressed uncon-
scious, which consciousness resists, because it contains
impulses which would not fit in with the rest of the
personality.
We now come to the question : does the repressed
unconscious play any part in normal people, or must
we look for it only in the abnormal ? We cannot give a
complete answer if we rely merely on what we know
about ourselves, because the very fact that there are
unconscious processes in our mind, implies that we are
not aware of them. But just as in hysterical cases
we were led to admit the existence of unconscious
feelings and thoughts, because of various symptoms
which could not be explained by the conscious person-
ality alone, so we can assume that there are uncon-
scious processes in normal people, because in them also
expressions occur which have no apparent relation to
the conscious mind. Freud was naturally led to
study these expressions, when investigating the psychic
'
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
products of his patients. He found that not only
morbid products could be traced back to unconscious
origins, but also slight disturbances such as we fre-
quently meet with in normal people, which are not
usually classed among morbid symptoms. Instances
of these are : forgetting names and foreign words,
slips of the tongue or of the pen, forgetting what one
meant to do, making slight mistakes and breaking
objects, etc. Furthermore he found that dreams in
particular showed the way to a clearer understanding
of the unconscious, as they are the spontaneous experi-
ence of a mental state, in which conscious criticism
and reflection are almost completely absent. A close
study of all these symptoms, which occur also in normal
people, will teach us a great deal about the content and
significance of the normal unconscious processes.
We must first consider some of the disturbances
of the conscious mind. Formerly these were explained
by the fact that they are much more apt to occur
when the mind is fatigued and distracted than when
it is fresh and wide-awake. Although this is certainly
true, it does not explain why a special disturbance
arises at any given moment. Here Freud's theories
give us a clue. He made his patients concentrate
their attention each on some particular disturbance,
and asked them to tell him all the thoughts that
occurred to them. Freud attaches importance to all
the thoughts that are thus naturally associated with a
given phenomenon, even if the patient himself does not
see any meaning in them. He found that when the
search-light of the patient's attention had been fixed
for some time on the moment of the disturbance, and
various associated ideas had been called forth out of
32 '
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
the dark background, it usually became clear that the
disturbance was related to a conflict between the
conscious thought and an unconscious feeling, which
was not in harmony with it. In some cases this
contrast was superficial and easily recognised, in other
cases a strong resistance had to be overcome on the
part of the patient in order to make him recognise it.
A few instances may serve as illustrations. A
young man is engaged to a young lady of a somewhat
angular character, with whom he is very much in love.
He often calls her his angel, and thus describes her in a
letter to a friend : " My fiancee is a perfect angle/'
V A patient made an unjustified attack upon me
during treatment, and refused to see that she was in
the wrong. When speaking of another doctor, she
said, " I treated him also very badly/' This " also "
led her to recognise that she was in the wrong.
Another patient, to whom the payment of my fee
was probably somewhat of an effort, said to me on
leaving : "I have no money with me to-day to pay
your fee, but I will forget it next time/'
Prof. Bleuler relates the following instance of mis-
reading (IV, p. 121). " Once, while reading, I had the
curious feeling that I had seen my name printed
two lines further down. To my astonishment I only
found the word ' Blutkorperchen ' (blood-corpuscles).
This is the strongest instance of misreading I have
ever met with among the many thousand cases which
I have analysed. If ever I thought I saw my name,
the real word usually resembled it much more strongly,
and in most cases it contained at least all the letters
of my name. However, in this case the relation to
myself which caused the optical illusion was quite
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
clear. I was reading at that moment the conclusion
of a passage containing a criticism of a certain kind of
bad style in scientific work, of which I felt guilty
myself."
Dr Stekel relates the following instance of a slip
of the pen (VIII, p. 66). " Somebody had accused the
editor of a well-known weekly paper of being cor-
ruptible, and an article had to be written in defence of
the editor. This was done with great enthusiasm.
The chief editor of the paper read the article ; the
author of course read it both in manuscript and in
proof, and they all passed it. Finally the proof-
reader's turn comes, and he points out a small mistake
which they have all missed. The sentence ran :
' our readers must admit that we have always repre-
sented the general interest in the most selfish way. 1
Of course the word ' unselfish ' was intended, but the
real thought broke through the eloquent appeal with
irresistible force."
A matron in a hospital had to fill in upon some form
the name of a patient who had just died.' She suddenly
noticed that she was writing the name of another
patient from an adjoining ward. The names began
with the same letter. But this other patient, who was
still alive, was a specially difficult one, and was always
wanting to do forbidden things ; so it was no wonder
that the matron wished to get rid of him.
The following instance came to me from a very reli-
able source. A doctor in hospital had a great dislike
to a certain nurse, because she often severely criticised
some of his actions. On one occasion this nurse
was unwell and he had to prescribe for her. He wrote
out the prescription for a tonic called ferratine, and
34'
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
he was very surprised when the chemist sent the
prescription back with the message that he must have
made a mistake. He had written instead of ferratine
" veratrine " which is such a deadly poison that it
hardly ever occurs in prescriptions. In this case the
doctor would find it hard to admit that his dislike of
the nurse was expressed in such a forcible manner.
But we must remember that the unconscious expresses
itself in a much more narrow and violent form when
its expression is unmodified by the conscious feelings.
Many of us have had the experience of taking a
latchkey out of our pocket when we are passing a
friend's house, and have usually found that it was
a house where we felt thoroughly at home. Again
when we leave an umbrella or walking-stick at some-
body's house, we may assume that it means that we
would like to return there. In order to be absolutely
certain of such an explanation, it would of course be
necessary for us to examine whether there really was
such a motive at the bottom of our feelings. Psycho-
analysis has drawn attention to many of these occur-
rences, and an increasing number of instances are now
known.
The psycho-analyst Dr Sachs relates how he twice
made the same mistake of going up too many flights of
stairs in a building of flats. The first time he found
that he was lost in a day-dream about climbing into a
higher social status. The second time he realised that
he was worrying at the time about some criticism of his
work, in which he had been attacked for going " too
far." His unconscious thoughts had thus been auto-
matically translated into a symbolic action.
An interesting mistake was made by a lady who
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
suffered from a weak digestion, and had to follow a
severe diet. Her husband was carving a delicious
piece of roast meat which she was forbidden to eat,
and asked her to pass the mustard. The lady went to
the sideboard, and got out something which she put
before her husband, without noticing that it was her
medicine (VIII).
Probably many people will have noticed that they
are apt to lose or break a present when they have
quarrelled with the donor. When once we have turned
our attention to these matters, it is often easy to find
such reasons for little disturbances. But sometimes
it is more difficult ; and such trifles may occasionally
be the disguise of serious inner conflicts. It may
even occur that an unexpected awkwardness resulting
in an accident, must be ascribed to unconscious suicidal
thoughts.
We should be on our guard against attaching an
unconscious significance to all disturbances of this
kind in other people, because they may arise from such
a variety of sources, and we may very easily be mis-
taken. The most fruitful method is to study such
symptoms in ourselves, as our material there lies close
to hand. It is only when we know people extremely
well that we can guess what is the background of these
slight mistakes.
The significance of dreams is usually much more
difficult to understand than that of such small dis-
turbances ; though sometimes we meet with very
transparent dreams, of which the following is an
instance. A coquettish good-looking young girl told
how she was sitting in her dream by the edge of some
water in which great fishes were swimming. Her
36*
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
beautiful fair hair was in one long plait, finished off
with a scarlet bow ; she was dangling this in the water,
and fishes kept coming up to bite the plait, and then
disappeared again. At last one was caught and landed,
when to her surprise it turned into a young man of her
acquaintance.
*This kind of dream, which probably everyone will
explain in the same way, is very rare in comparison
with the enigmatical ones ; and hence the conviction
had grown up that dreams are merely deceiving,
fantastical images which arise by chance during sleep.
In former times they were looked upon from a very
different point of view, and the instances of dream
interpretation in the Bible are good illustrations
of the significance ascribed to them by all ancient
peoples. A prince would consult his dreams before
undertaking a hazardous expedition. Dreams were
believed to reveal the cause and cure of illnesses.
They were held to be the inspirations of gods or demons ;
and a special meaning was ascribed to certain signs in
the dream, which could only be interpreted by priests
or " medicine-men, " and were collected later on in
dream books. Nowadays all this is regarded as mere
superstition, and most people will feel reluctant to
begin again ascribing meanings to dreams.
Freud's theory of dreams, however, is very far
removed from these ancient ideas. He does not search
the dream for prophecies or information from outside
the dreamer's own mind, but uses it only as a means of
penetrating into his inner life, by discovering the
relation of the dream to his experiences and recollec-
tions. He does not therefore explain every image in
the dream arbitrarily, but makes the patient think
37
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
of any ideas that may occur to him in connection
with some particular image, and which might explain
why it arose. If for instance a house occurs in a dream,
Freud does not ask, " What do you think is the meaning
of this house ? " but he requests the patient to fix his
whole attention on the image of the house, and to
consider whether he has ever seen it before, or whether
perhaps it reminds him of some other house. In this
way the dreamer will not have to concern himself
with the possible inter-relation of the various images
in the dream ; and it will be found that this is the
way we all naturally set about to look for the origin of
a mental image. We ask ourselves : " how did I get
that image ? Where did I hear or see such a thing
before ? " When we have thus found various ideas,
that are related to the images in the dream, we shall
then have a network of associated ideas which are
usually related to each other at various points of
junction. This inter-relation is of great importance,
and will help to throw light on many -obscurities in the
dream.
In order to understand the meaning of dreams, it
is best to begin with simple ones, such as those of
children, which do not require any deep analysis.
Freud gives some good instances of these (XV, p. 133).
A little boy of two years old was made to offer a basket
of cherries to someone. He probably felt this as a
great sacrifice, and the next morning he told his dream
in the following words : " Hermann eaten up all the
cherries." A little girl of three years old was allowed
to go in a boat on the lake for the first time. She
enjoyed herself so much that she would not leave the
boat, and cried when she was taken out. The next
38
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
morning she said : " Last night I was going on the lake
in a boat."
These children's dreams show clearly how desires,
which have not been satisfied, or only partially, the
day before, may be realised in dream. This also
applies to the dreams of people who are suffering from
physical needs, such as explorers suffering from thirst,
who dream of great stretches of water. Nordenskjold
relates that the men who shared his winter quarters
in the polar regions, were always dreaming of food and
drink (XV, p. 140). Their dreams satisfied other
desires as well, for one of them dreamt that the
postman brought a large mail for them. In the
same way a prisoner will dream about escape or
freedom.
In the next class of dreams come those in which
physical sensations or noises have been woven into the
dream. We often notice that a fairly long dream has
only lasted a very short time. The following dream
for instance was the reaction to the sound of an alarum
clock : (XV, p. 92). The dreamer goes out on a fine
spring morning, and walks through the fields to a
neighbouring village. He sees the villagers going
to church in their Sunday clothes, and decides to join
them ; but first he walks round the churchyard.
While he is reading the inscriptions on the tombstones,
he hears the bell-ringer ascending the tower, and he
looks up at the church-bell which is going to be set in
movement. At last he sees that it begins to move,
and the sounds are so clear and strong that they wake
him, and he finds that it is the sound of the alarum.
It is probable that the mechanical sound, which pre-
cedes the actual ringing of the alarum, warned the
39
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
sleeper, and so caused this dream, in which we see
this expectant attitude reflected.
A Norwegian, Mourly Void, has made a long series of
experiments about this kind of dream, which is caused
by an outside stimulus. One of his experiments
was to pinch the dreamer's neck softly, who would
then dream about a mustard plaster which had been
applied to him as a child, and about the doctor who
treated him at the time. If a drop of water was let
fall on his forehead, he would dream that he was in
Italy, perspiring from the heat.
Freud arrived at the conclusion, based on similar
dreams, that dreams occur when an outer or an inner
sense-stimulus threatens to disturb sleep. If the
stimulus is woven into the dream, then sleep is not dis-
turbed ; but the sleeper will be wakened if the stimulus
is too strong. Freud therefore regards the dream as the
guardian of sleep. He gives the remarkable instance
of a medical student, who is called in the morning,
because he must go to his work at the hospital, but
falls asleep again, and dreams that he is lying in bed
in one of the hospital's wards, and reflects that now he
need not get up as he is already in the hospital (IX,
p. 91).
Not all dreams however contain pleasant images ;
on the contrary they may be full of fear or of other dis-
agreeable ideas, and so cannot all be regarded, like
children's dreams, as the realisation of some wish.
The study of hysteria will throw some light on the
interpretation of these unpleasant or indifferent dreams,
since it has taught us that the human mind is full of
conflicting emotions and desires. Even an apparently
harmonious consciousness may have a background of
40*
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
discordant unconscious processes. Freud found that
these unconscious thoughts and emotions were ex-
pressed much more clearly in dreams than in conscious
life ; but that even in dreams a certain restraining
influence was hardly ever absent, by which these
emotions were changed or disguised so that they could
not be immediately recognised. Freud compared this
process with the work of a censor, whose business it is
to suppress the expression of certain thoughts and
feelings. But one of the various ways of escaping a
censorship, is to express one's thoughts in an indirect,
disguised manner ; and this is what happens in dreams.
When Freud analysed his patients' dreams, and tried
to overcome their resistance, the relation between these
indirect expressions and certain unconscious desires
was constantly brought to light. In connection with
his theory that the dream is the guardian of sleep, he
regarded these disguised dreams as a compromise
between the repressed desires, which are trying to
force a way out, and the repressing censor Therefore
if sleep is disturbed in these cases, it is because the
dreamer's wishes are not realised. It is not surprising
that in cases of sharp mental conflict the rising up
into consciousness of these repressed desires may cause
much disturbance and anxiety to the dreamer.
Dreams of this kind occur in normal as well as
abnormal people, and frequently contain even less
disguise. We all know the dreams that seem to us as
unpleasant because we cannot approve of their con-
tent ; and we are all apt to dream things which we
would rather not relate in public, even though no
psycho-analyst were present.
But there is really no need to be afraid that a psycho-
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
analyst might immediately deduce the most intimate
secrets from a dream which he hears related ; for
he knows only too well by experience that dream-
interpretation is a far too complicated affair, and that
he could say little about a dream's significance without
hearing the dreamer's associated thoughts. The danger
lies more with outsiders, who have browsed a little
in psycho-analytical books, and think they can inter-
pret all dreams which they come across.
It is difficult to give a short yet complete instance
of dream-analysis, because a dream is a complicated
product related to all kinds of things in the dreamer's
past and present life. The doctor will not only use
the associated material for his analysis, but everything
he knows about the patient's character and circum-
stances will help him to arrange this associated material
into a comprehensive whole. Hence any instances
I can give could never be so convincing as they are
to the analyst or to the patient himself, who can always
refer to the complete psychic background. It should
also be remembered that it is very rare for one dream
to be analysed by itself. Psycho-analytical treatment
usually takes many months, during which time many
dreams and other psychic expressions are examined.
Naturally this has some influence on the character of
the patient's dreams and thoughts. Things which are
talked over during treatment may be redigested in a
dream. I do not believe that the intrinsic nature of
the dreams would be altered by thus directing the
patient's attention to them ; but in any case the
whole process becomes much more complicated. In
order to give a complete account of this, we should
have to publish a whole series of dreams with all their
42
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
associated material, and this would soon extend to the
length of a long novel, and would contain many in-
timate details of the patient's life, which would not
be permissible.
Notwithstanding these objections, I will try to
give a few instances of dream-analysis. The first is the
dream of a girl who had been under treatment for
so short a time, that her mind had not yet been pre-
judiced by dream- theories. She dreamt that she
read in the paper that a certain young man of her
acquaintance had failed in his examination. She
told me that the day before she had in fact looked in
the paper to find the result of this examination, but
had been unable to find it. If this young man passed,
he would soon get married to a girl she rather disliked.
She had the impression that his fiancee did not care
for him enough, and did not behave well to him. After
a good deal of further talk the fact emerged that she
herself was much inclined to flirt with young men.
All this helped to make the dream much clearer. It
is probable that the failure in the examination was a
disguise for the wish that the marriage should be
prevented, because she was jealous of the fiancee.
Freud relates the following dream (XV, p. 127).
A young woman, who had been married for several
years, dreams that she is sitting in a theatre with her
husband. One side of the stalls is quite empty.
Her husband tells her that a friend of hers with her
fiancee had also intended to come, but they had only
been able to get very inferior seats, three for 1.50
kronen, and they thought this was not good enough.
She thinks that it would not have been so bad. The
apparent cause of the dream was the fact that her
43
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
husband had told her that this friend of hers had
become engaged. Also the week before she had been
to a theatrical performance for which she had taken
tickets very early, so that she had had to pay more for
them. When she came to the theatre she had noticed
how unnecessary her precaution had been, for one side
of the stalls had been quite empty. Her husband had
laughed at her for her unnecessary hurry. But what
was the origin of the 1.50 kronen ? She remembered
that the day before she had heard that her sister-in-law
had received 1.50 kronen from her husband, and that
she had immediately spent it at a jeweller's. But
why were there three tickets in the dream ? The only
thing that occurred to her in that connection is that
her friend, who is just engaged, is only three months
younger than herself, and she adds, " And yet I have
already been married for ten years/' Nothing further
occurred to her in connection with the dream, but
Freud could already interpret it with a fair amount of
certainty. He was struck by the recurring motive of
" too early " in the associated thoughts. She bought
her tickets too early, and she condemned her sister-
in-law for spending her money so soon. When he
connected this with her saying that her friend had
found a good husband, though she was only three
months younger than herself, Freud suspected that the
hidden feeling behind this dream was : " It was foolish
of me to get married so early. My friend's case shows
me that if I had waited, I could have found just as
good a husband." Here therefore the marrying is
disguised as going to a theatre. Space forbids me
to say more about the symbolism of this dream, which
would lead us into too many details.
44
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
A patient of Freud told a dream in which she had
seen her sister's only son lying dead in his coffin,
just as she had actually seen his elder brother, who had
died a little time before (IX, p. in). She maintained
that this disproved Freud's theory that the dream
expresses an unrealised wish, for she said that it was im-
possible for her to desire such a disaster. However
after some enquiry the meaning of the dream was
proved to be entirely different. She had formerly
lived with this elder sister, and had made at that time
the acquaintance of a professor, w;th whom she fell
in love. Her sister however had prevented any
engagement, and the professor had avoided meeting
them since. But she was still in love with him and
always attended his lectures, and she had meant to
do so upon the day after the dream. When Freud
asked her whether she could remember anything that
happened after the death of her nephew, she said at
once : " Yes, certainly. The professor came to call
after a long interval, and we met again at the little
coffin of my nephew." Inwardly she was resisting
the desire to meet the object of her love, and therefore
it was expressed in this very complicated way. If her
nephew were to die, she might have another oppor-
tunity of meeting him.
Thus the interpretation of a dream aims at finding
the latent content behind the apparent or manifest
content. This latent content is the group of thoughts
and emotions by which the dream is related to the
mental life of the dreamer, and is therefore an integral
part of the dreamer's mind. We discover the latent
content by inducing the dreamer to let his mind dwell
on the images of his dream, and record any impressions
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
or thoughts that occur to him, without allowing any
resistance or self-criticism to interfere. Freud has
lately enlarged this technique considerably, because
he has discovered the curious fact that there were
certain dream-images, to explain which he was unable
to collect any associated ideas, however much the
dreamer might strive to overcome any possible re-
sistance. Freud was led to translate these images in a
new way, which was suggested to him by the symbolic
meaning ascribed to them in popular language, proverbs
and songs, and also in the symbolism of old myths
and legends. His method has thus some resemblance
to that which we find in the old dream-books. I must
point out that Freud realised from the beginning that
this form of interpretation might lead to dangerous
misunderstandings, and repeatedly warned his pupils
not to use this method except in certain special cases,
and then only with the utmost caution. Freud wishes
symbolic interpretation to be applied only to simple
images of general human interest, such as the human
body as a whole, parents, children, brothers and sisters,
birth, death, nakedness and sexuality (XV, p. 164).
The human body as a whole is often represented by a
house, parents by royalties or persons in authority.
Brothers and sisters are often symbolised as small
animals or vermin : falling into water or being rescued
from it, represents birth ; dying is symbolised by
setting out on a journey, or disappearing, nakedness by
its opposite, clothes or uniform. According to Freud,
sexual symbolism is very rich in its variety, and he
gives a great many instances in his book.
At first these dream symbols will give the impression
of being chosen quite arbitrarily ; yet it will be found
46*
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
that they are in close relation to the more individual
symbolism which was revealed to us by the association
method, in which many ordinary images are sometimes
found to be capable of a general symbolic interpretation.
Let us take the instance of a dream about a dog. The
associated ideas will teach us in what light we must
regard this image. The dreamer may remember a
dog he has seen the day before in the street, and this
will give him occasion to talk about the lady who was
walking with the dog, and who plays an important
part in his emotional life, though he refuses to admit it.
In this case the dog is not properly a symbol, but an
indication or a help to memory.
There are other cases in which someone dreaming of a
dog is reminded of a particular dog, but goes no further
than that. For instance, he may recall various char-
acteristic details of a dog, which he used to possess.
He will tell how his dog was in the habit of barking
very loudly at cats and pretending to be very cour-
ageous, yet as soon as a cat began to show anger,
would walk past as if it did not see it. This may lead
the dreamer to realise, however unwillingly, some of
his own character-traits. In this case too the dog
cannot be regarded as a symbol ; but it might be said
that this particular dog was a simile of some special
characteristics.
Lastly, it may happen that the dreamer declares
that no associated ideas occur to him. Sometimes this
is caused by his involuntary repression of unpleasant
associations. But he may also say : " Whatever I
might think about a dog, could not be of any impor-
tance." If all the same we insist, the dreamer may
respond by mentioning some well-known character-
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
istics of dogs, such as faithfulness or watchfulness.
If this idea can be brought into relation with the rest
of the dream, it may very well be found to be con-
sistent with the dream's meaning. In this case the
dog will be used as a symbol, which is fairly widely
accepted.
The above instances of interpretation, however
incomplete, will serve to show how the relation between
dream-images and associated thoughts may vary in
value. When the interpretation of the dream symbols
depends entirely on the dreamer's associated thoughts,
we might talk of individual symbolism as opposed to
general symbolism, in which the images possess some
generally accepted symbolic meaning. In general
symbolism the interpretation or translation may often
seem somewhat strange and far-fetched to the dreamer,
whereas in individual symbolism he will understand
and accept the meaning quite readily. Freud assumes
that general symbols, which need to be translated
nowadays, used to be easily understood by everyone
in the past. He writes (XV, p. 181) : " We seem to
have come upon an ancient form of expression, which,
except for a few fragments here and there, appears
to have vanished from our knowledge/' Thus it
would seem as if traces of this ancient form of expression
of the human mind may be found in dreams, and this
is not to be wondered at when we remember that all
our thoughts and expressions in dreams are on a lower
level than in our waking life. All kinds of curious
combinations of thought, which our critical conscious
mind would not permit, occur quite freely in our
dreams. I have not space to describe fully the peculiar
laws that regulate the unconscious thinking and
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
emotional life ; it is full of a variety of forms of thought
and of feeling which belong mainly to primitive man,
and which the modern mind is supposed to have out-
grown. The study of dreams has opened a wide field
of highly interesting and complicated problems, which
many scientists will have to work at before they can be
completely solved.
I hope that the above somewhat superficial de-
scriptions of dream-symbols will suffice to show how
difficult and lengthy any dream-analysis must neces-
sarily be. It should only be undertaken by those who
have studied the subject profoundly, for amateurishness
may easily cause very serious mistakes. Some modern
writers are apt to give the impression that the analysis
of dreams chiefly consists in guessing intuitively at the
meaning of dream-images. I must earnestly warn the
reader against believing this to be true. No doubt
we can sometimes interpret a dream without the
dreamer providing any associated material ; but we
can only arrive at a successful interpretation if we have
a thorough knowledge of dream-problems in general,
and of the dreamer's character and circumstances in
particular. Even then the dreamer's own introspection
will finally have to decide whether the interpretation
is the right one!
We will now return to our original question : can
we assume the existence of repressed unconscious
processes in a normal person ; and if so, are these of
the same nature as those that are the cause of hysterical
symptoms ? Freud undoubtedly, from his study of
dreams and small disturbances in conscious life, came
to the conclusion that repressed unconscious processes
are at work in a normal individual ; and this seems
49 D
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
plausible enough to anyone who remembers that our
modern culture requires the suppression of much that is
natural. If we were always obliged to deal consciously
with what we must repress, our mental life would be
wholly occupied with this, and so it is a good thing
that we gradually learn to allow our expressions to
flow automatically along certain channels. Some
people succeed so well in suppressing what is useless
to them, that they are never aware of this process ;
and they would reject as incredible the idea that they
too possessed an unconscious emotional background.
Therefore repression in itself is rather a condition of
health than a morbid symptom. The significant
characteristic of abnormal people is that their repression
is not complete, and that these hidden forces are not
kept down sufficiently, but keep cropping up and giving
rise to disturbances. They suffer from having tried
to repress more than they were capable of. This
may be due to one of two causes : either they have had
to deal with unuseable emotions that are more numerous
and strong than with normal people, -or else they may
have aimed at repressing the emotions which the
normal man would naturally express. There are
thus two types of neurotics ; first those who possess a
very difficult and unharmonious disposition, con-
taining many useless and contradictory elements ;
secondly those who possess a more normal disposition,
but make excessive demands upon it, in order to fulfil
which, they have to repress every unsuitable element
in their nature. This naturally leads us to the question
whether the content of the unconscious is the same in
the healthy mind as in the morbid. We saw that
Freud found that the content of the unconscious in
So
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
hysterical patients was based chiefly on sexuality in its
widest sense. Is this also the case with the uncon-
scious of normal people ? After reading Freud we
come to the conclusion that in his opinion, though
sexuality plays an important part in the normal
unconscious life, it must not be supposed to be the
only factor. There are many other tendencies, besides
sexuality, which are often repressed, such as ambition,
cupidity, malice, cruelty ; and we find instances of the
repression of these emotions in the dreams quoted by
Freud. It is all the same unnecessary for me to demon-
strate that there is a great deal of repressed sexuality
in many healthy people, as they are strongly influenced
by the fear of social conventions. If we are accus-
tomed to introspection, and are honest enough to
acknowledge the character of the thoughts and emotions
which we sometimes detect in ourselves, we may dis-
cover many surprising qualities in human nature.
But unfortunately only few people nowadays take
pains to discover the truth about themselves, and this is
probably one of the reasons why Freud's theories about
the unconscious have met with so much opposition.
He is frequently attacked for laying too much stress
on the sexual impulses in the emotional life. This
reproach is probably founded on a misunderstanding
of the term sexuality. He includes under this term all
the feelings and expressions which are related to the
development of the sexual emotions. This is contrary
to ordinary usage and may cause some confusion,
but anyone acquainted with the course of Freud's
studies will easily understand and accept his termino-
logy. I shall try to avoid the use of such terms as
much as possible, as they are often misunderstood by
31
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
those who have hitherto used them in a somewhat
different sense. All the same according to the latest
theories the sexual impulses, in the narrowest sense,
are of great psychological importance. Miss M. K.
Bradby has illustrated, by an interesting comparison,
the general repugnance aroused by Freud's theory that
many psychical manifestations are derivations of the
sexual instinct, though not commonly thought to be
so (V, p. 46).
" Let us suppose that instead of a sexual motive he
had put his finger upon an ' acquisitive ' motive, which
is in fact no less universal. Man is by nature acquisi-
tive, desirous of acquiring and of possessing for himself
every object which takes his fancy or promises to satisfy
his desires. So far we all agree, but our imaginary
Freud would go on to say that in consequence of this
strong and innate instinct of man, we were all thieves
in will if not in deed. He would point to the scrupulo-
sity of strictly honest people as a proof of their hidden
desire to steal, and he would convict us of refraining
from theft, not out of any natural goodness, but because
we were afraid of public opinion, afraid of the concrete
penalties of the human law or of the magical penalties
of the divine. He might work out his theory by analys-
ing the dreams of dishonest people, show exactly how
it was that they came to steal, and classify the various
forms of stealing prevalent, recognised and unrecog-
nised. Now to the average middle-class person, though
he might not be disposed to agree, there would be
nothing especially revolting in all this, because the
accusation does not ' touch him on the raw.' He
would think Freud was one-sided, but he would be
prepared to treat his views with respect and to give
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
him credit for taking a scientific and not a morbid
interest in his special subject. The lady however who
owes her washerwoman, the man who does not pay
his debts, might dislike being convicted of a particu-
larly mean form of stealing, and if deliberately paying
less for a thing than one knew it was worth were in-
cluded under the heading, still more people might
feel indignant at the charge. Very poor people would
be touched more nearly. When you are often hungry
and cold because you are poor, it is difficult not to
feel bitterly envious of less honest people who ' help
themselves ' in safe ways, and difficult not to be
' touchy ' on the point of one's own honesty. How
many people who are honest have thought the subject
out and know just why they are honest, and why they
would urge a poor man to go to the workhouse rather
than to steal ?
" But the case would be different if the struggle to
be honest were an absorbing difficulty in the back-
ground of most people's minds, if secret thieving in
various forms were universal, and if many people's
lives were marred, and to a greater or lesser extent
rendered miserable, because of the extreme or heroic
measures they took to check their own thieving pro-
pensities. To treat the subject then in a cold, calm,
detached and scientific manner would seem an outrage
against humanity. We should all be up in arms
against a theory which assumed us to be as bad as we
really are, and worse, whatever might be the motives
of its adherents. Nevertheless, we should be mis-
taken, because in the long run any light from whatever
quarter thrown upon the origin and nature of dis-
honesty helps men to become honest in will and deed."
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
The above quotation indicates the peculiar position
of the sexual impulse among all our other impulses,
for it is the only one that is systematically repressed
from early youth upwards, without any regard to
possible injury to the whole emotional life. Recent
scientific investigations have clearly proved, what was
known for a long time by all good pedagogues, that
sexual expressions are most intimately connected with
all possible forms of love, so that the total repression
of sexuality may easily give rise to disturbances of the
more delicate emotions, such as a lack of balance or
emotional dishonesty. Repression is then substituted
for self-control. Children are usually taught to dis-
simulate very early, and instead of being given the
right sort of instruction and guidance, are met with
reproof and punishment, which they do not understand.
Very few parents are sufficiently unprejudiced on this
subject to give their children the help they need. The
result is that the child often suffers from inner conflict,
or is led into bad habits, and for a long time may
secretly cling to the wrong forms of emotional expres-
sion. The same difficulty is met with in later life.
It is considered wrong or indecent to talk about sexual
problems and difficulties. One may only hint at them
in a jocular way ; any serious treatment is forbidden.
The fact that a man has found an apparently satis-
factory form of self-expression, such as marriage,
is by no means a guarantee that he has succeeded
in bringing harmony into his emotional expressions.
Imperfections in the early development of the
emotions often vindicate themselves in later life. No
one who is convinced of this will find any difficulty in
accepting Freud's theory that the chief source of a great
5*4
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
many nervous diseases is to be found in disturbances of
the sexual life in all its ramifications, caused by repres-
sion of sexual problems. These delicate and subtle
questions are apt to be treated in a coarse and summary
way in our modern social life, without paying any heed
to the intricacies of emotional development.
A simple-minded or well-balanced nature will suffer
less mental disturbance from this summary and con-
ventional attitude than one more delicate or compli-
cated. The former type will more easily find a way
out, and will in general conform to conventional
ideals only in so far as they do not interfere with the
satisfaction of his desires. But the more complicated
character will take these conventional ideals much
more seriously, because he hopes to find in them the
solution of his inner conflict. People of this kind often
suffer from more or less serious neurotic symptoms
as a result of their failure to live up to ideals which
they have really misunderstood. It is sometimes
said that Freud would advise such persons to allow
unrestrained liberty to all their instincts as a cure ;
but he is evidently far too clever a psychologist ever
to have made such statements. Rather he aims at
bringing these problems into the consciousness of
his patients, so as to enable them to find a new harmony
between their emotions. This advice is by no means
intended to do away with all restraint. Nevertheless
there is a good deal to be said against the ordinary
ideals of our time, to which otherwise these patients
would have conformed.
I must now return to the two determining factors
of a neurosis due to repression, which I described
above as firstly a difficult and unharmonious dis-
55
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
position, and secondly as the tendency to repress
too much. In most cases these two factors will be
found to co-operate, though in various proportions ;
and this is most clearly seen in sexual matters. In the
following chapter we shall describe how, as a result of a
difficult disposition, of unfavourable circumstances,
or of an injudicious education, the sexual emotions
may be led into the wrong channels ; and we shall
also show the bad influence this may have on the other
emotions. The wrong forms of expression which will
then arise, will be all the more readily repressed,
if the patient is governed by high ideals and delicately
developed emotions ; but sometimes these ideals are so
exaggerated that all sexual expression is regarded as
inferior and discreditable, and the patient will then tend
to adopt the same attitude to the greater part of his
other emotions. In such a case we must consider that
the neurotic symptoms are due not to the nature of the
repressed material, but rather to a mistaken ideal,
and the treatment will therefore aim in the first place
at criticising this ideal. Some psychologists, especially
Adler of Vienna, consider this to be the exclusive cause
of most neuroses (I). According to him the nature
of the neurotic disposition is a childish feeling of
inferiority, which causes in the patient a reaction,
which takes the form of an obstinate wish to make his
personality felt, and a desire for power combined with
the pursuit of high and unattainable ideals. Freud
agrees with this ; but his point of view seems to me to
be somewhat wider. He too regards the exaggerated
ego-ideal as the cause of disturbances (XIII, p. 17) ;
but he thinks that these may also arise as the result of
repression of unconscious desires by this ego-ideal,
56*
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
which is as it were the representative of our conscious
personality, and thus assumes the power of repression.
In so far as the morbid symptoms are an expression
of the compromise between the repressed elements
and the repressing power, we are no doubt right in con-
sidering the exaggerated ego-ideal as the cause of these
symptoms ; but it seems to me that Adler's theory is
only justified in those cases where the ego-ideal is entirely
predominant, and that in most other cases Freud's theory
throws a better light on the complicated causes of neuroses.
The question may well be asked whether we must
then reject our former beliefs, and consider it dangerous
to strive after an ideal ? Our answer must be that
on the contrary a high ideal may provide a great
support to the development of an individual, provided
the ideal is in sufficient harmony with his natural
disposition, and is the expression of its potentialities.
But the ego-ideal may be a source of danger if he
loses sight of the distance that divides him from his
ideal, and is inclined to identify himself with it ; he
will then ignore his shortcomings, and satisfy himself
with his good intentions, and he will ascribe virtues
to himself which properly belong to his ideal. As he
will expect his neighbours to recognise and appreciate
these virtues, this will often lead to conflict, and he
will be looked upon as arrogant and conceited. In
such a case it is not necessary to destroy the ideal,
so long as the individual can be made to understand
the wrong use he was making of it.
It is clear that in most cases both the nature of the
ideal, and the way it is used, might be improved,
which implies that the ideal might well be pushed
somewhat into the background, so as to avoid its
57
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
insistent interference at every turn ; thus room will
be made for other expressions, such as affection,
which shed a warmer and kindlier light on human life.
Cases may also occur when the conscious ideal is
free from all strained exaggeration, and the suppression
of an important part of the disposition is not due to the
influence of this ideal, but to special difficulties inherent
in the disposition itself. But if its nature is not
essentially different from that of a normal person,
the way towards sublimation can usually be found,
as soon as a conscious effort is made in that direction
and the suppression is removed.
If we look back upon the various psychological
problems discussed above, it becomes clear that there is
no very marked line separating the normal from the
abnormal mind. The same contrast may be observed
in normal people between the ego-ideal and the diffi-
culties inherent in their character, although their
ideal is usually a less strained conception, and their
disposition more harmonious than is the case with the
abnormal. Normal persons also suffer from unrecog-
nised repressions, though the repression may be less
thorough and recognition more easily attained than in
abnormal cases In normal persons the unconscious
is expressed in a less disturbing manner ; but it may
all the same be the source of some curious character-
istics, of which they themselves are unaware. Almost
every human being has these weak points in his char-
acter, which are sometimes of great and sometimes of
little importance, but are nearly always better known
to his family, friends and servants than to himself.
Usually we learn more about anyone's unconscious
life ly these small' weaknesses, than by his dreams or
5
THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE NORMAL MIND
conscious disturbances. His whole emotional life is
revealed rather by small occurrences and delicate
shades of expression than by violent outbursts. Though
sometimes it may be difficult to prove the existence of
such unconscious qualities of the mind, we shall find
that quite ordinary people usually know very well how
to interpret these small weaknesses which they observe
in someone with whom they have daily intercourse.
The psycho-analytical method by which we search
into the depths of the unconscious is by no means
the only way to attain self-knowledge. Great men,
through all the ages, have succeeded in gaining this
self-knowledge, and developing themselves, by methods
which everyone is free to use, and of which psycho-
analysis is a somewhat more technical and systematic
expansion. We can bring our hidden unconscious
processes to the light of consciousness simply by
observing our expressions, and our relations to other
people, and by studying the way other people react
to these expressions. We shall then begin to under-
stand how our character is gradually modified by
experience and circumstances, and we shall see the
inter-relation between our past and present emotions,
which are the outcome and expression of a similar
impulse, however much they may have changed in the
course of time. The actions and relationships of normal
people depend upon the conditions and emotions of
their childhood, and are chiefly explained by them,
just as the morbid symptoms of a patient are caused by
emotions and circumstances of childhood which pre-
pared the way for the later neurotic reaction. The
study of this problem belongs to the psychology of the
emotions, which I shall treat in the next chapter.
>59
CHAPTER III
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMOTIONS
IN this chapter I intend to give a short survey of
Freud's work on the development of the emotions,
which may be of greater interest to the general reader
than the interpretation of dreams or the origin and
character of neuroses. I shall assume that the methods
which led Freud to formulate his theories are now
sufficiently well known, and shall only be concerned
here with the conclusions he reached after studying
a great number of very intricate case-histories. It
ought not to be demanded of Freud that these con-
clusions should be formulated in one complete system,
because they depend principally upon his observations
of his patients, and are thus continually being amplified.
His theories also reveal their practical origin, by being
mainly concerned with difficulties and disturbances
which occur in various stages of the emotional develop-
ment. Thus the chief conclusion to be drawn from his
observations is that certain special difficulties in the
emotional development may cause special disturbances
in later life ; and, vice versa, it may be inferred that
the development of a certain kind of patient has been
arrested by corresponding disturbances.
We have seen that we must assume a gradual transi-
tion between the normal and the abnormal ; and that
just as in abnormal persons the history of their symp-
60 1
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
toms can be traced to their development, so various
characteristics of normal persons are connected with
former circumstances and conflicts. Thus the diffi-
culties met with in the emotional development may
result according to the nature of their solution either in
morbid symptoms or in mere character traits. This
interesting connection was discovered by others before
Freud. Some neuroses were known to reveal them-
selves as morbid exaggerations of certain types of
character : but Freud has thrown a great deal of new
light on the matter.
Emotional difficulties may appear quite early in
childhood, and one of Freud's most striking discoveries
is that the emotional experiences of childhood exercise
a predominating influence upon later development.
This is in clear contradiction to the prevailing opinion
that human character is chiefly determined by heredity.
But I must add that Freud does not entirely deny the
importance of heredity, though he has severely criticised
those who wish to explain everything by means of it
It is clear that the emotions play an important part
at a much earliei stage than reason. An infant not only
expresses its emotions in an emphatic manner, but also
makes use of such expression to attain satisfaction of
its desires. We are so accustomed to connect these
exhibitions of emotion in ourselves and others with
reasoned conceptions, that some may doubt whether
similar exhibitions in infants can be already termed
emotional. The only satisfactory method of solving
this question would be by introspection. If we could
clearly recall the emotions of our infancy and our
expression of them, we ought to be able to decide
whether we then possessed emotions of the same
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
nature as in later life. As this is impossible, we must
employ another method, which we do in fact use
every day in other cases : we must determine the
character of the emotions from their expression.
We then see that the mother clearly perceives the
feelings expressed by the infant before it can talk
clearly ; and we find that the emotional life of the
infant is closely connected with its physical needs,
such as feeding, sleep, excretory acts and washing.
The infant depends on others for the satisfaction of
its emotional needs ; but it has already discovered
that a strong expression of discontent can bring about
the satisfaction it desires. Thumb-sucking is also one
of the ways by which some infants try to satisfy them-
selves. Probably this replaces the gratification of being
fed. Later on other bodily sensations may come into
play. It is probable that some children enjoy the
sensation of tension caused by the holding back of
stool or urine. They try to prolong this sensation as
much as possible, and obstinately refuse to be trained in
methodical habits which might interfere with these
sensations. At this point the conflict caused by the
suppression and control of natural impulses arises
for the first time. The manner in which the infant
reacts to such training, foreshadows certain important
characteristics of its later life. It is worth while
considering this question somewhat more closely.
Freud discovered early in his investigations that
a relation existed between certain character traits
and irregularities in the control of excretions during
childhood (X, p. 132). These character traits are
orderliness, parsimony and self-will. The sense of
order includes physical neatness, accuracy and reli-
62
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
ability. Parsimony may develop into miserliness,
and self-will easily becomes obstinacy. In consequence
of this discovery he assumed that these traits repre-
sented a later development of an earlier emotional
conflict. Thus neatness and orderliness are a later
reaction against an original childish tendency to
oppose neat and orderly methods, and to find a certain
satisfaction in bed-wetting. Obstinacy is the develop-
ment of the child's tendency not to pay attention
to its elders in such matters. Parsimony illustrates
the connection between the desire to retain faeces
and the desire to retain money, instances of which
constantly occur in common speech and fairy-tales.
It may throw light on this relation between precious
gold and the most despised and disgusting of material
objects, if we remember that the attitude of disgust
towards excrement is not a natural one with most
children. On the contrary they attach great interest
to it, as it is associated with not unpleasant bodily
sensations ; and if not interfered with, they would
often use it for moulding and smearing. Although
parents and others may speedily teach them that it is
objectionable and dirty to occupy themselves with
excrements, yet on the other hand the importance of
these things is thus impressed on their minds. The
child is praised when it has done " its duty/' and called
good and clever. Thus for a long time this function is
associated in its mind with important emotions,
especially if it is accompanied by difficulties. These
difficulties can have two origins : either a natural
sensitiveness of the organs, owing to which the emo-
tions are unduly stimulated by pleasant or unpleasant
sensations ; or else some malady of the organs in
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
childhood which may make them over-sensitive, or
specially direct the child's attention to them. The
experience of children's doctors shows that children
suffering from intestinal disease often grow up into
discontented, irritable and melancholy human beings.
It should now be easy to answer certain questions
which may well occur to students of Freud's theories.
Even if it be agreed that there is this connection
between excretory disturbances and certain character-
traits, is it so certain, it might be asked, that these
traits are caused by the child's taking such pleasure
in retaining the faeces and depositing them accord-
ing to its own choice ? Is it not more likely that
these childish traits reveal the inherited basis of
its later character ? In this case it might be possible
to regard the whole childish episode as something
accidental, without which its character would develop
in just the same trend. It is no doubt true that if
we attempt to trace back any human traits to their
remotest origins, we shall find them expressed at a
very early and simple stage, for the original disposition
is always the same. At the same time when Freud
deduces these psychical traits from some special
physical peculiarity in this case a natural hyper-
sensitiveness of the anal mucous membrane we cer-
tainly ought not to reject this conclusion because it
seems unpleasant or materialistic. Experience must
finally decide in such a case ; and it would be interesting
to investigate whether children, who originally have
not shown any symptoms of this kind of hyper-sensi-
tiveness, are found to develop these special character-
traits after a chronic abdominal illness. Though
Freud's theory that psychical traits are due to physical
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
conditions may be incomplete yet his remarks about
the way these traits change under the influence of
environment, are of great value. The inter-relations
between orderliness, parsimony and self-will, and the
ways in which they express themselves, are no doubt
very various, and depend chiefly on other character-
traits. But this subject is too complicated to be fully
treated here.
The emotions associated with passing water, are
also sometimes of importance, because they may
create other disturbances and peculiarities in the
general emotional development. They are moreover
in close relation to the later sexual emotions, which
is understandable when we remember in what close
proximity the sexual organs are to the organs of
excretion. During strong tension of the bladder
and at its evacuation, many children experience special
sensations, which are akin to the feelings experienced
during discharge of the sexual organs. Such children
will find it difficult to abstain from the satisfaction
of bed-wetting, although they are not clearly conscious
of the reason. It may happen that such difficulties in
childhood will recur again in the form of some dis-
turbance at a later age.
We have seen that the emotional life of the small
child, though it may seem simpler than the adult's,
presents all possible varieties and degrees of emotion,
which are chiefly expressed by the bodily functions.
As the child develops, these functions increase in
number, and so create new sources of emotion. It
begins to move and to walk, and the noises it makes
grow more and more full of meaning. In contrast
with the first infantile period, which was much more
65 E
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
passive and under the influence of the alimentary
functions and everything connected with them, this
second period might be described as the period of
desire for movement, in which activity and passivity
are found in opposition. This desire for movement
leads to many opportunities of experiencing pain-
sensations, which again may lead to emotions of anger
or fear. The desire to possess and control becomes
more and more evident at this stage. The emotions
connected with the excretory functions are growing in
importance, as the struggle to control these functions
is now taking place.
The psychic life of the child is at this time being
gradually co-ordinated. The process is accelerated, if
not caused, by the beginnings of thought ; while
thought in its turn is strongly stimulated by the
beginnings of speech. The result of this co-ordination
is that sensations are experienced much more by the
whole body as a unit, than by the separate organs.
The child's attention is more concentrated upon
its own body, and this contemplation and investiga-
tion is sometimes connected with strong emotions,
which are naturally still much influenced by the organic
sensations that used to be predominant. Here we
see a process that frequently takes place in the emo-
tional life, the gradual growth of new expressions
of emotion from older ones. In this period of co-
ordination the child's own body, and later on its ego,
becomes the centre of the chief emotional satisfactions.
The child not only finds satisfaction in looking at
itself, in practising walking and other movements, and
in performing various tricks, but it likes being looked at
when undressed, or when it is performing its newly
66
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
acquired movements. Sometimes it shows great sensi-
tiveness to praise or blame, which either strengthen or
oppose its emotions. Thus we see that the child's
emotions are not exclusively connected with its bodily
functions. Already some emotional relation exists
with the outer world ; and this relation is gradually
developed in conjunction with the emotions that we
have been describing, though it is only at a later stage
that it becomes a guiding force in the emotional life.
At an early age the child becomes aware that the
sensations caused by certain bodily functions are
connected with a powerful beneficent intervening
influence. The psychic life at the very beginning
is probably too indeterminate for the child to make
even a vague distinction between the ego and the
non-ego, so that probably the mother is more or less
identified with its own body. This will make it all the
easier for the child at a later stage to transfer its
pleasurable emotions to the mother, who seems to be so
closely connected with them. At this early stage the
nature of these emotions is determined entirely by
bodily condition. The child experiences its mother
almost exclusively as the one who gives satisfaction.
Later on too this remains the prevailing point of
view ; but as soon as educational difficulties arise,
the relation to the mother grows much more compli-
cated, as she is often forced to refuse satisfaction.
The child will then learn the importance of reading
on the mother's face whether its emotional desires
have a good or bad chance of being satisfied ; and
as soon as it has learnt that it can change its mother's
face by expressing itself in various ways, it will try
to influence events by these means. We have seen
67,
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
that being taught habits of cleanliness may cause com-
plications in the child's emotional relations with its
surroundings, and may produce a tendency to resist
interference and to react with anger. Up to this
point we have found that the influence of the outside
world upon the child was only of importance in so
far as it stimulated or opposed the emotions connected
with its own body. It is only after its own ego has
been discovered and its limits realised, that it becomes
possible for the child to obtain a clear view of the out-
side world, or to conceive the existence of other egos
besides itself, and understand their emotions and
desires as contrasted with its own. Conversely the
child is prepared for the realisation of its own ego
by attempts to enter into the thoughts and feelings
of other people, for example by imitating them. As
soon as it realises this division between the ego and
the non-ego, innumerable problems and difficulties
arise in the child's life. It is true that it generally
derives great satisfaction from this discovery of the
ego, by which means alone it is able to become
acquainted with the outer world, where it can gratify
its desires. But these advantages go together with
considerable disillusionment ; for it is only now that
the child perceives how much more dependent it is on
external forces than on its own will and desires. No
wonder that it does not reach a clear perception of
this conflict at once, so that it is only after a long
period of internal and external struggle that it can
rightly understand the relation between the ego and
the outer world. No wonder too that in the history of
mankind, numerous more or less successful solutions of
this problem have been formulated by religions and
68
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
philosophies, and that many people in their emotional
life never succeed in satisfactorily solving this con-
flict, which they became aware of for the first time
when they were about three years old.
The most usual result of this inner change in the
child is that it realises more clearly its own depen-
dence upon its surroundings, and so tries to get into
closer touch with them. Hence the child's environ-
ment is apt to have a preponderating influence on the
further development of its emotional life. A child
surrounded by loving care will tend to judge lightly of
the difficulties it meets with when seeking to satisfy
its emotional needs, and will be ready to put its trust
in life. Another child that is treated roughly and
brutally may easily be overpowered by a hopeless sense
of incapacity to satisfy its needs, and will probably
turn its longings towards its early state of ignorance,
which was less painful. These two extremes are
bridged by many transitional stages. Most children,
when difficult demands are made of them, will be
inclined at times to shut their eyes upon the whole
outside world and its complications, and to concen-
trate on their own emotional needs alone, just as they
used to do so much more easily in early days. Here
we find a sharp contrast between the two principles
which govern the psychic life, the " pleasure-principle "
and the " reality-principle " (XII), and here too is the
source of the life of the phantasy, which often begins to
appear at this age, and is strongly influenced, in its
form, by the child's newly acquired mental powers,
though its emotional bias is much more determined
by the previous stage of development. By this
phantasy process the child is again enabled to find
69
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
gratification of various desires ; but whereas in a
former stage this gratification was found more by
purely physical means, the psychic life will now tend
to gain the upper hand. All the same, when diffi-
culties arise in the way of gratifying the emotional
desires, the need of physical gratification may again
come to the fore.
If circumstances are at all favourable, this period
between the third and sixth year is chiefly marked by
the new relationships formed by the child with its
surroundings. And in the first place the relationship
with the parents is of great importance, and may be
of various kinds. At this age children often show a
preference for one of the parents, and it is noteworthy
that the difference of sex often influences their choice.
Not only does the young son feel a strong attraction
towards the mother, but he begins to look upon his
father as a rival. This often finds expression in such
sayings as, " I will marry my mother when I am grown-
up/' or, " Father had better go away on a journey, or
to the war, and then I will look after mother/' The
child has only a vague notion of death. His only idea
about it is that " dying " and " going away " are the
same thing ; and so the child may easily come to say
that the father may as well die, and then he will marry
his mother. Freud has named this the Oedipus-
complex, from the Greek tragedy, in which Oedipus
is driven by the Fates to kill his father and to marry
his mother. Freud's theory that the great impression
made by this tragedy is due to the fact that we have
all felt similar desires at a certain stage of our life,
has created much indignation and anxiety. A con-
fusion has usually been made between two of Freud's
70
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
theories, firstly that this Oedipus-complex may be of
decisive importance in the emotional life of some people,
especially neurotics, and secondly that everyone has
felt similar emotions at some stage of his development.
The possible disastrous results of the Oedipus-complex,
which usually appear only at puberty, I shall deal with
later. At present I will only point out that we should
be misunderstanding Freud, if we applied this theory
too strictly to any normal person. In his last book
(XV, p. 381) he writes as follows : " What does direct
observation of the child, at the time of the selection of
its object, before the latent period, show us concerning
the Oedipus-complex ? One may easily see that the
little man would like to have the mother all to himself,
that he finds the presence of his father disturbing ;
he becomes irritated when the latter permits himself
to show tenderness towards the mother, and expresses
his satisfaction when the father is away or on a journey.
Frequently he expresses his feelings directly in words,
and promises the mother he will marry her. One may
think this is very little in comparison with the deeds of
Oedipus, but it is actually enough, for it is essentially
the same thing. The observation is frequently clouded
by the circumstance that the same child, on other
occasions, gives evidence of great tenderness towards
its father ; this only means that such contradictory, or
rather ambivalent emotional attitudes as would lead to a
conflict in the case of an adult, readily take their place
side by side in a child, just as later on they permanently
exist in the unconscious. Someone might object
that the behaviour of the child springs from egoistic
motives, and does not justify the hypothesis of an
erotic complex. The mother provides for all the neces-
7*
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
sities of the child, and it is therefore to the child's
advantage that she should trouble herself for no one
else. This is true ; but it will soon be clear that in
this, as in similar situations, the egoistic interest
merely offers the opportunity which the erotic impulse
seizes upon. If the child shows the most undisguised
sexual curiosity about his mother, if he wants to sleep
with her at night, and insists upon being present while
she is dressing, or even tries in his childish way to play
the seducer, as the mother can often clearly perceive,
and afterwards laughingly relates, it is undoubtedly
due to the erotic nature of the attachment to his
mother. We must not forget that the mother shows
the same care for her little daughter without producing
the same effect, and that the father often vies with her
in care for the boy without being able to win the same
importance in his eyes as the mother does. In short,
it is clear that the factor of sex preference cannot be
eliminated from the situation by any kind of criticism. 11
It is clear that Freud has used the term Oedipus-
complex more in order to indicate the nature of the
emotions, than to imply the presence of a tragic
conflict. In the case of a little girl, the emotional
relation is somewhat of the same nature. Her ego-
istic motives do not point in the same direction as
her erotic ones, for she sees it is to her interest to
maintain good relations with her mother, as she is
dependent on her care, while the father is mostly
absent. Tenderness and caresses from the mother
will no doubt also bring about greater intimacy between
mother and daughter. Yet it constantly happens,
especially when there are several daughters in the
family, that the attraction between father and daughter
72
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
appears quite early, and often coincides with a certain
jealousy of the mother by the daughter. The parents
themselves often influence this emotional complex,
because they also may unconsciously be affected by
the difference of sex.
We must be on our guard against judging the child's
emotional life according to adult standards, because
the emotions at this early stage have a peculiar char-
acter of their own. Our present knowledge shows
us that our unconscious life is closely related to the
infantile emotions, and this helps us towards a better
understanding of their peculiar character. In a
child contradictory emotions can exist side by side
much more easily than in an adult. A child can show
great affection and tenderness for someone who the
next moment will arouse its fury and rage. Greed
and generosity can alternate very rapidly. Little
children generally exhibit all kinds of primitive emo-
tions. They take great pleasure in breaking things
to pieces and in causing pain, but these emotions are
usually quickly superseded by others. The less kindly
emotions are especially shown towards brothers and
sisters. When a child hears that the stork has brought
another little brother or sister, its feelings will be very
mixed. It will soon perceive that the new arrival
claims most of the parent's interest and care, and that
it will have to be satisfied with less. Jung relates
the instance of a girl of four years, who was going to
have a little brother (XXIII, p. 9). The father
put the child on his knee and asked, " What would
you say if you were to get a little brother to-night ? "
" Then I would kill it," was the immediate answer. Of
course we must not lay too much stress on the word
73
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
" kill," because the child had no clear conception of
what it meant ; all the same it expressed her feelings
clearly enough.
When we realise of what enormous importance
the arrival in the family of a new child can be to
an older one, and how fundamentally it may transform
its emotional life, we shall easily believe that small
children begin quite early to be interested in the
question of where babies come from. We may at
first doubt the intensity of this curiosity, because most
children do not show it except by a few questions, and
seem to be easily satisfied with the ordinary stories
about storks and cabbages. But investigations have
revealed that the parents 1 reticence may often have
far-reaching results of which they have no idea. In
the first place children often notice that they are
given an evasive answer, and the slight embarrassment
of the parent at their questions gives them the feeling
that some secret or other is being hidden from them.
The curious result is that they do not mention the
subject any more because they do not quite trust
the parent's information, or, if they do continue
their questions, they do so in such a roundabout
way that they are often misunderstood. Another
result of the unsatisfying answer may be that the
child's attention is now more drawn to the problem,
which might otherwise have been put aside. The
child often sees and hears much more than the parents
imagine, and so may easily find a starting point for
speculation ; but as some important facts nearly
always remain hidden, the result of all this vague
searching will be quite fantastic. An observant child
may easily deduce the fact that the infant comes out of
74
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
the mother's body, but it is more difficult to find out
exactly how. Judging from experience of its own
body, the child naturally sees a connection with its
excrements, which are also produced from its body.
Thus the idea arises that the infant leaves the body by
the anus. In this way the child may come to imagine
that it can produce an infant itself. A little precocious
boy of three years old had been told by his parents
that a new baby would arrive in a couple of months.
At a children's party he said to his hostess, pointing to
his abdomen, " I have a baby in my tummy. Listen !
you can hear him grumbling. He is coming out to-
morrow/'
This knowledge leads to new questions as to how the
baby gets into the mother's abdomen, and also as to
what part the father plays. As the connection between
food and excretion is known, the idea may arise that
the origin of the baby is to be found in something the
mother has eaten. Or there may be other theories, as
for instance that the baby is produced by means of an
operation ; or else fantastic ideas connected with
death may appear. The following dialogue took place
between a little girl of three years old and her grand-
mother (XXIII, p. 8).
Anna. " Grandmother, why are your eyes so
wrinkled ? "
Grandmother. " Because I am so old/'
Anna. " I know ; but then you will grow young
again/'
Grandmother. " No ; for, you know, I shall grow
older and older until I die."
Anna. " And then ? "
Grandmother. " Then I shall become an Angel/ 1
75
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
Anna. " But then you will be turned into a little
child again ? "
A year later, after the birth of a little brother, this
same child whispered anxiously and mistrustfully into
its mother's ear, " Are you sure you won't die now ? "
These birth theories probably play this important
r61e in the child's life, because they are so closely
connected with the physical images and sensations
which predominate at this period. Sexual feelings may
have something to do with it also, though we must be
on our guard against identifying this kind of sexual
expression with that of later life. The emotions are
still but little differentiated : they are still in a closely-
knit tangle, out of which later on definite shapes will
arise. Two facts which help to emphasise the con-
nection between the excretory functions and vague
sexual sensations, are first the close local connection
between the organs, and secondly the atmosphere of
secrecy and of the forbidden which surrounds them both.
Also disturbances in the excretory organs may cause
a stimulus leading to an early habit of masturbation.
The importance which children attach to their
physical sensations is clearly revealed in their relations
to others. They often show curiosity as to the bodily
functions of parents or equals, and are greatly inter-
ested in watching other people's excretory functions.
If they are left at all free, they will find expression for
these feelings in many of their games, such as playing
at being a doctor, or " keeping house," the details of
which will show the importance to them of physical
intimacy. Even falling in love with a playfellow, or a
brother or sister, may occur in this early stage of
budding erotic sensations.
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
Now that we know how deep is the influence of the
early stages of emotional expression upon later life,
we can easily understand the very great importance
of the child's position in the sequence of his brothers
and sisters. With an only child the relation to the
parents will be preponderant, while in a large family
this may be compensated for by other relations.
Thus the later social feelings of an only child will be
strongly influenced by its feelings towards its parents.
Especially if such a child has been spoilt, it will retain
for a long time the impression that the gratification
of its desires can be easily obtained. It is used to
having everyone at its beck and call and ministering to
its needs. This may grow into such a habit, that the
child will feel it as a great injustice in later life, if
it does not continue to form the centre of its sur-
roundings.
When we consider the relations of the eldest child in
the family, we must not forget that it once occupied the
favoured position of an only child, and hat at a
certain moment it was dispossessed. Of course it is
important to know at what age the successor appeared,
because the effect on the child may be much more
complicated when it is already three or four years old,
than when it is younger. But even where the differ-
ence of age is only slight, the effects of this dispossession
are felt deeply enough to give rise to complicated
reactions. When the older child feels that it receives
less affection and care from the mother, it may seek for
compensation from the father, or from someone else in
its surroundings, who in turn will then become the
centre of the child's emotional life. If it does not
succeed in finding such compensation, an emotional
77
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
regression may occur, and the child will then centre
its emotional life upon itself, just as it used to do
unconsciously at the time of its physical interest
in itself But now more complicated results arise.
The child will appear to attach less importance to
care and affection of which it now feels the lack, and
will pretend to have outgrown those needs. A boy
especially will then make an effort to appear brave and
grown-up ; he will emphasise all the attainments in
which he is superior to his younger brother or sister,
and this feeling of superiority will be a great consola-
tion. An elder sister will tend to become more motherly
with the younger ones. Altogether this change in the
child's life may be a strong stimulus to the intellectual
and phantasy-life, and may also have a far-reaching
influence on the later character. The desire of the
eldest to be independent and to dominate over the
younger, will often arise from this first conflict.
The position of the youngest child has also its
peculiarities. It enjoys the advantage of not being
dispossessed of its rights by a youngfcr successor. On
this point the case is somewhat similar to that of the
only child. It does in fact sometimes get spoilt, but its
joys are not unadulterated. The fate of Joseph, who
was ill-treated by his brothers, and finally sold as a
slave, is an apposite case. The youngest has to defend
the privileges showered on him by the parents against
the attacks of his older brothers and sisters. He will
feel that special favours are due to him, and at the same
time may be in fear of subjection, which may give rise to
angry feelings towards these elders, and to a desire to
pay them out and be their master. In later life this
may result in a feeling of rancour towards equals, side
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
by side with love and respect towards those in high
authority.
It might be thought that the position of the middle
child was of a less definite type, and would have less
far-reaching results. This is certainly not the case
(XIX). One of the strongest influences is the uncer-
tainty of its position. Sometimes it is included with
the elder ones, sometimes with the younger, and it
has less privileges than either the youngest or the eldest.
As soon as it has obtained some privilege, it may have
to be given up to the younger ones. The eldest or
the youngest are often chosen out for a special treat ;
the middle child will always have to share it with
one of the others. The eldest will treat the middle
child as inferior, and the youngest will feel itself its
equal. Hence often a certain bitterness, and a feeling
of enmity both towards older or younger brothers or
sisters. Sometimes it feels out of touch with them, and
then withdraws into its ego, or seeks to find some
satisfying relations outside its own family circle. Very
often this may lead to the child's making its way more
easily later on into society, as it is accustomed to make
less demands than the others. But it may also give
rise to a feeling of uncertainty and of being pushed
into the background. The position of the middle child
is most difficult when it is of the same sex as the older
and younger. A girl coming between two boys may
develop the typical feminine traits of " child wife "
towards the older, and of " little mother " towards
the younger. A boy between two girls will be sure
to come to the front by means of his male character-
istics.
When once the connection between these juvenile
79
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
circumstances and later character-traits has been under-
stood, it is astonishing how constantly we come across
illustrations. There are two reasons why this influence
on the later development is so powerful, (a) because
the influence described above, such as the relations
to parents, brothers and sisters, is spread over a long
period ; and (b) because the child's mind is extremely
sensitive to strong impressions, and is like wax in its
plasticity at this early period. In some cases it is
evident that a single event in childhood has influenced
the whole of later life. The importance of such an
event is due not only to the strong emotion aroused
by it, but to the fact that these emotions are closely
connected with fundamental impulses. We constantly
find that an event during this plastic period has deter-
mined the trend of sexual expression for the rest of
life. With some people sexual gratification is de-
pendent upon unusual circumstances. Such deviations
of the sexual instinct are called perversities. It used to
be generally accepted that such perversities were the
outcome of an inherited bias. Later investigations have
proved that in most cases such abnormality was deter-
mined by some event in early childhood, when the
sexual impulse was prematurely over-stimulated, either
through sexual temptation by adults or older children,
or through a sexual scene which the child may in-
voluntarily have witnessed. I have treated a patient
who as a child had been sexually excited by an adult's
foot, with the result that later in life his sexual feelings
were unusually roused by a special kind of foot. Most
parents consider a child between two and four years
old to be much more innocent than it really is, and
so it often happens that children of that age continue
80
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
to share their parents' bedroom, and thus see and
hear things which they had better not. In this way
feelings are aroused, especially in the case of nervous
or over-sensitive children, which if their development
had been normal, would have remained correlated
with other emotions, until the later stage of normal
and independent expression had been reached. Such
a precociously aroused sexual emotion is not always
easy to recognise as such. In the first place the form
it takes is vague, and so the child is not clearly con-
scious of it, and the emotion often finds an outlet in
anxiety or fear ; also the child feels, often quite early
in life, that it has done something that is forbidden, or
witnessed what it was not meant to know ; and the
consequent emotional conflict forces it to banish such
unpermitted experiences from its consciousness, that is
to say to repress them. Hence inner conflicts, caused
by external events, may produce later on great dis-
turbances in the emotions, neurosis, and even insanity.
The intensity of the early emotional life, though of
great importance, is naturally not the only factor that
determines further development. Freud has never
maintained that all such early conflicts must irrevo-
cably result in insanity, to which a great many more
factors would have to contribute.
One of the most important events which may leave a
lasting impression on the child's life, is the death of a
near relation. The influence of such an event varies
according to whether affection is felt for the deceased,
or whether death removes a rival in the family's
affections, so that a disturbance in emotional
gratification is cleared away. In the first case
the deprivation of affection may lead the child
81 F
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
to seek consolation and compensation from someone
else.
But very often this may not succeed, or only in-
sufficiently ; and then a curious phenomenon may
appear, which we constantly meet with in later dis-
turbances of emotional gratification : I mean regression,
or a return to infantile expression. In the primary
stage of its development, the child obtains expression
for its love-emotions through its own mind or body.
Lack of affection will drive the child back into this
early stage. It will become self-centred ; phantasy
will supply the means to satisfy its needs, and its
attention may again be drawn to various physical sen-
sations which may help to supply some gratification.
A small child generally has a yearning hunger for love,
which is partly due to its sense of weakness and de-
pendence. If it finds no satisfaction for this hunger,
it may retreat into its own little world, and retain the
impression of the callousness and enmity of the outer
world for the rest of its life. Lack of love may also
cause a reaction in the child, who may become sullen
and cruel, as if it wished to prove to itself that all this
need of affection is senseless, and that to be a victim
and to victimise others is merely human destiny. If
such children do not come into timely contact with
people who understand their condition and needs, they
will run great risk of growing up with spoilt and per-
verted emotions.
When a rival in affection is removed by death, the
difficulties are of a very different kind. If the rival
were only thought of as such, the consequences would
be fairly simple. The circumstances that lead to
spoiling, as in the case of an only child, would merely
82
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
become more frequent. But it is not always so simple.
We have seen that a child can experience contradictory
emotions at the same time. Usually it will have also
felt affectionate and friendly feelings towards its
rival. When feelings of hatred and rivalry have been
gratified, the child will not only become more clearly
conscious of its opposite feelings, but it may become
aware of the contradiction for the first time, and
this often arouses a sense of guilt. When they have
been gratified, it will think of its angry feelings as
being bad, and a tragic feeling of remorse may be
combined with grief for the loss of a dead parent or
brother or sister. In this connection we sometimes
find a peculiar characteristic that is more clearly
marked in some children than in others. This is
what Freud has called " the belief in the omnipotence
of thought/' which means that the child believes that
its mere wishes are followed by immediate results in the
external world. We find the same conviction prevail-
ing in savages, who urge their chief to produce the
wished-for rain by mere thinking, or ask the " medicine
man " to bring illness upon their enemy by some
incantation. Such analogies between the psychology
of children and primitive people are constantly to be
met with, and they are the foundation of many fruitful
investigations by Freud and his followers. Space
forbids me to treat them more fully ; but we may
assume that the child ascribes great power to its
thoughts, and thus often feels specially responsible
when the desired result seems to be obtained. The
remorse for its earlier feelings and desires may find
expression in exaggerated grief and display of affec-
tion for the dead rival, and may indeed have a lasting
83
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
influence, which will chiefly take the form of a suspic-
ious attitude towards its own emotions, manifested
by over-anxiety, uncertainty and an exaggerated
conscientiousness. A child often seems to be much
altered by such an event. The desire for affection,
which might be more easily gratified after the removal
of the rival, is now disturbed by the feeling of guilt
with which it remains associated. As with other
emotional conflicts, we find that the problem is made
more difficult, if not impossible, to solve, by its remain-
ing in the regions of the unconscious or half-conscious.
The struggle cannot be fought out, but remains in the
background as a threatening influence affecting and
disturbing all kinds of conscious processes.
Physical illness is of great importance among the
many circumstances which may influence the child's
emotional life. A child that has suffered from a long
illness, is put back as a consequence into an earlier
stage of its development. Everyone pets it and is
at its beck and call ; it is the centre of its surround-
ings, and shut off from the stimuli of the outer world,
while its attention is strongly drawn towards its
own ailing body and its own emotional life. Feelings
of affection are pushed into the background by the
importance of the ego. We find here some resemblance
to the case of the child who has been spoilt, or else
driven back into its own emotional life by lack of affec-
tion. But in the spoilt child the love of its parents
still remains an influential factor ; and the mind of
the child in need of affection will be centred on its
mental functions and activities more than is the case
with the invalid, whose attention will be almost wholly
occupied with the physical and passive side. So we
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
need not wonder that a lengthy illness in this plastic
period of youth should have a far-reaching influence
on the later character. The emotions often retain their
infantile mode of expression, and so their full develop-
ment is hampered.
This primary stage is of great importance from the
point of view of the later emotional life, because the
mental functions, which alone enable the child to adapt
itself to the outer world, are hardly yet developed, and
so the inner impulses will have to find a simpler outlet
of expression, which will be determined by the child's
bodily condition and its surroundings. The conditions
of the body will tend to control the first infantile period,
while the influence of environment will predominate
between the third and sixth year. This first period of
bodily emotions up to the third year, can be divided
into three sub-divisions : (i) when the alimentary
functions are of most importance, (2) when activity
begins, and the struggle to learn habits of cleanliness
takes place, (3) when the various physical emotions
are being co-ordinated, and the consciousness of the
ego and of the individual body is awakening. Freud
combines the two first periods under the name of
auto-erotic period (XI, p. 45), because the emotions
are of a sensual kind and are connected with the body.
He gives the name of Narcissistic period (XIII) to the
time when the body as a whole forms the centre of the
child's interest. This name is borrowed from the youth
Narcissus, who according to Greek mythology fell in
love with himself, and never grew tired of contemplating
his own image mirrored in the water.
The transition from the Narcissistic period to the
period when the emotions are directed outwards and
85
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
grow into the so-called objective emotions (object-
libido), is marked by the discovery of the ego and the
non-ego. The reaction to this discovery creates in
the child a feeling of dependence on the outer world,
and makes him desire to be in closer relationship with
it. We have already seen how strong an influence the
circumstances of the child's life at this age may have
on its emotional development, and how special events
at this period may for ever determine the later
character.
A disturbance, which develops in later life in conse-
quence of abnormal conditions in early childhood,
has been given the name of fixation by Freud. He
wishes to indicate by this term, that a child's desire
for gratification may be so influenced by circumstances,
as to remain fixed in its earliest form of expression.
The cause may be some physical peculiarity, such as
pleasurable sensations during defaecation, or the fact
that the child was spoilt by its parents. Other circum-
stances, such as illness or loss of affection, may have an
indirect influence, by inducing the child to seek satisfac-
tion in its phantasy life. But the result will always be a
fixation of the gratification idea. Such fixation may
hamper the normal development of the emotional life in
two ways, by retardation and by regression. It is an
instance of retardation when a sense of gratification
remains connected with bed-wetting instead of being
transferred to the sexual functions ; or when a boy's
emotions continue to be centred upon his mother
during his whole life. But we should call it regression
when a child, who has been clean for some time, falls
back into old habits, because it has met with punish-
ment or resistance when it was seeking for new forms
86
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
of expression ; or when a man, meeting with diffi-
culties in his married life, re-directs the whole of his
emotional life towards his mother. We find retarda-
tion and regression expressed in many varied forms.
It is an instance of regression when a man comes to
blows with another because he is at a loss for an argu-
ment. The sexual life, in its widest sense, is specially
subject to similar disturbances. We have seen the
importance of early childhood in this connection,
because during that time the emotions are most rapidly
transformed and developed.
After the sixth year the child has passed through
most of its Sturm-und-Drang period. The emotional
life has now become co-ordinated into a group of
expressions, out of which it continues to develop
as best it may, if no further disturbances take place.
As mental power increases, and under the influence
of the outer world in the form of school-life, sensi-
tiveness will decrease. Reason will enable the child
to work off its emotional tension, while at school
it will find it easier freely to select and modify its
relations with others. The difficulties experienced
by the child at this stage are usually a weak reflection
of those belonging to an earlier period. But in the
case of the only child, it is now that it becomes aware
of life's difficulties for the first time. School-life
has also the effect of once more emphasising the
emotions connected with the ego. Praise and punish-
ment will tend to centre the child's attention upon
itself.
Having passed through these years, which Freud
calls the latency-period, the emotional life regains its
predominating influence at puberty (XI). The general
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
equilibrium, hitherto fairly well maintained, will now
be upset, and many years will often elapse before a
satisfactory readjustment is found. What is the real
nature of the process that goes on during this period ?
It has been defined as the birth and development of the
sexual emotions ; but this explanation does not seem
entirely satisfactory. Freud has proved that sexual
emotions are experienced in early childhood, though in
a less definite form, so that it would be a mistake to
say that they appear now for the first time, which
would also conflict with our knowledge that emotions
nearly always arise out of earlier related emotions.
Freud holds that the essence of puberty consists in
these two changes : (i) vague sexual emotions now
begin to centre themselves upon the sexual organs,
and are thus directed towards a more definite object ;
(2) the impulse arises to focus all love and admiration
upon one ideal object, which in return can gratify
all the higher emotions. Both changes have very
different results, and vary much in importance in
different individuals.
The sensations connected with the sexual organs will
tend to make the child more conscious of the difference
of sex, and its attention will be drawn to other bodily
sensations, which had been pushed into the background
during the latency period. The phantasy life may now
become more occupied with the products of an earlier
stage. In any case both the physical and phantasy
life will be increasingly centred round the sexual organs.
The influence of sexual maturity on the psychic life
is manifested in quite a different way. The tendency
to idealise, to find an object of admiration, is in con-
trast to the love-emotions of the former period ; for
88
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
now the object is usually sought for outside the family
circle. This is a new departure, for it implies separa-
tion from the home, which will in the end lead to an
independent position. But the loosening of these
ties is not always easily accomplished. For a long time
the father and mother have been the centre of the
child's predominating emotions ; and this fact often
has an influence on the choice of a new person to
idealise, when this loosening process takes place. The
admiration and love of a boy is often directed towards
a much older woman, and the young girl will often feel
more attracted by older men than by her contem-
poraries.
Much light will be thrown on this matter if we per-
ceive the connection between these two important
changes during the puberty period. The search for
an ideal object of love, and the direction of attention
outside the family circle, are both due to the physical
change which concentrates all erotic emotions upon the
sexual organs. During the latency-period, the control
of the bodily functions and the suppression of dis-
turbing emotions has become fairly complete : the
child has absorbed all sorts of current opinions about
good and bad, about what is allowed and not allowed,
until they have become a second nature. The super-
fluous part of the emotions has been suppressed, and
the remainder is now mainly centred on the parents,
of whom one is sometimes selected as the favourite.
Though these emotions are sometimes of a vaguely
erotic nature, they do not create a disturbing element
among the other emotions with which they are closely
combined. When a child happens to exercise its
fantasy upon sexual matters, it will naturally include
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
its parents in this connection. But when at puberty
the vaguely erotic emotions are condensed into the
sexual, in the narrow sense of the word, they will then
appear to be in sharp contrast with the emotions the
child feels for its parents, and also with everything it
has learnt to regard as good and pure. The internal
conflict which then follows may be solved in three
ways, (i) The emotions may all remain associated
together, yet be gradually detached from the parents,
and directed towards some object, with whom sexual
relations are not forbidden. (2) In some cases, children
will find it very difficult to accomplish this process of
detachment in an easy and gradual way ; consequently
the irreconcilable emotions will be torn asunder, and
the emotional life will become divided on the one side
into high ideals and pure love, without any sexual
element, and on the other into sensual impulses that are
considered reprehensible, and connected with people of
low origin, and are often gratified by masturbation. An
example of such a solution is the young man who,
having a sentimental adoration for his mother, thinks
of woman as a being too sacred to be defiled by mar-
riage, yet who at the same time gratifies his passions
by short and superficial sexual relations. (3) In
the third case the emotions are not detached from
the parents, nor are they torn asunder and partially
directed towards a new object. The difficulty created
by these irreconcilable emotions is hidden away,
and anything to do with sexual or useless emotions is
promptly driven out of the conscious life. This will
often require a strong effort of will, and the result will
be that the problem seems to have disappeared. Such
people appear to lack all sexual emotions, and the
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DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
equilibrium of the latency-period seems to be con-
tinuous. But we have seen that such people are likely
to suffer from hysterical or other morbid symptoms,
because it is impossible to repress or divert these
vitally important impulses without bad results. There
is a fourth possible solution, which often appears in
combination with one of the others. If the child is
able to reach a clear understanding of the various
difficulties, the sublimating process will then be more
consciously and satisfactorily accomplished, and the
emotions will be able to develop to their richest
expression.
This transition stage is likely to be very difficult for
the parents, who often have little knowledge of what
is going on in their children's minds. Many parents
make a dogged attempt to preserve the former rela-
tionship with their children, and so make it doubly
difficult for them to find a new one. When children
continue to feel and show the same affection and
intimacy towards their parents, this behaviour will be
considered as specially amiable and praiseworthy.
Bui later on, at the time of an engagement or a
marriage, all sorts of difficulties arise. The parents
will be taken aback at finding that such a thing could
happen in the case of their meek and yielding daughter,
or of their excellent and affectionate son. It will
probably seem to them extraordinary that other
children, whose relations with their parents may have
been more difficult and unpleasant, now seem to be
able more easily to adapt their new emotional experi-
ences to parental claims. Many parents are apt
to drive out from their consciousness what they prefer
not to see, for they find it an unpleasant experience,
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
when the emotional changes during puberty begin
to lead to the child's independence and detachment
from home ties. Moreover if the natural develop-
ment is hampered, we may meet with the Oedipus-
complex in a more serious form than in cases of small
children, because the conflict has been more completely
driven back into the unconscious, and thus the strongly
suppressed impulses will remain in a state of tension.
Even those parents who are aware of the necessity of
this natural development, will find it a difficult task to
help their children ; for while the child is longing for
liberty to direct his emotions towards the outer world,
he cannot entirely dispense with his old emotional
centre, and needs love and care, although he can no
more give the same undivided love in return. Great
understanding and tact is required by the parents
all through this psychic process ; and so this period of
youthful life often runs a stormy course.
Another danger that belongs to the period of sexual
maturity, is connected with the difficulty of choosing
an object of the affections. At this age intimate
friendships between young people of the same sex are
very common. During this transition period the
sexual tension is such that a physical touch may easily
arouse sexual emotions, which may then be directed
towards the same sex. Where intercourse with children
of the same sex only is the rule at this age, such expres-
sions of the sexual impulses cannot be wondered at.
Homosexual emotions, sometimes psychic, sometimes
combined with sexual acts, are a fairly common
symptom, until a more definite form of expression
can be evolved. Usually the attraction of the other
sex will soon make itself felt, and then the emotions
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DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
felt for the same sex will return to normal channels.
But if these emotional relationships should continue
for a long time, or if they are the result of quite early
experiences in childhood, they may then lead to a
fixation of the emotions, which may prove extremely
difficult to re-adjust. Freud therefore considers neither
this abnormality, nor the other perversities of the
sexual life, as mere symptoms of degeneration, but
looks upon them as disturbances in the normal develop-
ment, usually brought about by circumstances (XI),
By way of recapitulation, I wish to draw the attention
of those responsible for the education of children to the
following three stages of development in the emotional
life.
(1) In the first period contact with the outer world is
as yet very slight, and it is of great importance to
control the physical functions, suppressing what is
useless and eliminating any wrong influences, because
it will then be easier to prevent the emotions from find-
ing a wrong channel of expression.
(2) The second period makes higher demands upon
the educator, because it is now that emotional relations
between the child and its surroundings are formed.
Love has now become the most effective means of
influencing the child, so it is imperative that parents
should retain their children's affection and confidence.
They ought to give an honest answer to any questions
the child may ask, even about sexual matters ; other-
wise the child's confidence might easily be destroyed,
and the influence of the parents would come to an
end.
Experience teaches us that there is nothing to fear
for those children, who have always received rational
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CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
answers to their questions, and have thus been gradu-
ally initiated. If once their curiosity has been satisfied,
they will not think so much about such matters as those
children do who are left to search in the dark. The
difficulty here is often on the side of the parents. Unless
their attitude towards sexual questions is sufficiently
natural and unprejudiced, they will not find it easy to
enlighten their children in a tactful manner. Although
love and confidence are most potent factors in educa-
tion, parents ought to be on their guard against over-
stimulating their children's love by sensual means.
Too much tenderness, exaggerated caresses, frequent
getting into bed with the parents, may all influence
the child's emotions in a wrong direction by emphasising
their sensual expression. Allowing a child to share its
parents' bedroom too long may also have its dangers.
No doubt any bad habit in the child, such as sexual
auto-stimulation, must be discouraged. But what is
most important during this period is that the child's
emotions towards its environment should find new and
better forms of expression.
(3) The third period coincides with puberty, when
the parents are faced with the difficult task of helping
the child to become independent and self-reliant.
Satisfaction of the emotions must now be gradually
transferred from the family circle to wider social
relations.
We must not expect that these psychological dis-
coveries of Freud will revolutionise education in the
near future and shake it out of its usual routine. We
can only hope to see great changes brought about
when these new ideas have been more generally
accepted. Our knowledge on this subject is con-
94
DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONS
stantly growing more exact as our data are amplified.
Many details may have to be elaborated and revised ;
but the chief points, as indicated in this chapter, will
probably remain the same. I hope that notwith-
standing this short and somewhat superficial treatment
of the subject, I may have convinced my readers
how important these theories are, and how useful it
must be to gain a clear understanding of these intricate
problems.
95
CHAPTER IV
THE ANALYTIC AND THE SYNTHETIC POINTS OF VIEW
BEFORE drawing attention to certain objections to
Freud's psychology, I wish to recapitulate briefly the
chief points of his theories.
According to Freud, all psychological phenomena, in
their rich variety, are caused by instinctive impulses.
The general trend of these impulses may be determined
by heredity, but, within those limits, they are expressed
in a great variety of ways. Those impulses which
organise their forms of expression under the influence
of the desires of the conscious self, may be said to
constitute the conscious individuality, which is thus
able to suppress the expression of other impulses
that are inconsistent with it. These useless forces,
whose expression has been suppressed, constitute the
unconscious mental life ; and if they are few in number
compared with those that constitute the conscious
individuality, then they will probably cause no trouble,
though they may give rise to some slight disturbances
which find expression in dreams and in various char-
acter-traits. But if the suppressed element is
important, it will manifest itself in morbid symptoms.
The nature of these symptoms will depend upon all the
various useless impulses whose expression was sup-
pressed at a former stage. When an earlier form of
expression has become " fixed, 11 it will very likely
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
be an important factor in causing morbid symptoms
by means of regression.
It cannot be denied that these views on psychology
often create an unpleasant impression. Freud was
continually experiencing, at first much to his surprise,
that the publication of his ideas had the effect of
estranging the public and leaving him in isolation.
Others have had the same experience. Discussions
about Psycho-analysis, though arousing much interest,
often produce an atmosphere of coldness and hostility.
We must now try to discover why these theories create
this unpleasant impression.
Freud's followers maintain that the resistance, which
all of us feel to any exploration of our hidden impulses,
must be the chief reason for our opposition to his views.
I believe that this is true where the intensity of the
hostile attitude clearly reveals its emotional basis.
Some inner conflict is probably then touched on the
raw by the theories of Psycho-analysis, as often be-
comes evident upon close investigation. So far, the
explanation given by Freud and his followers appears
to me to be right. All the same I consider certain
objective criticisms to be reasonable. I can well under-
stand that strong opposition has been aroused by
Freud's terminology, by his wide use of the word
sex, and by the careless manner in which his theories
have been applied to insufficiently explored material.
I have therefore avoided, as much as possible, the use
of terms which might lead to misunderstanding :
they are not essential to the new theories, and may
well be altered and improved in the future. Such
criticisms of Freud's work are justifiable, though they
do not detract from the real value of his discoveries.
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CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
But there is a further important reason why many
people oppose his theories. They cannot always define
it clearly, and can only express their repugnance.
This resistance would seem to be due to unconscious
complexes : and yet this is not entirely the case The
true reason is a difference of general outlook upon
life. The character of Freud's theories clearly shows
a pathological basis. It is true that he has also studied
the unconscious life of normal persons as manifested
in dreams and psychic disturbances ; but this has
formed only a small fraction of his material, and he has
been apt to treat normal and pathological cases from the
same point of view. There are many degrees of transi-
tion between the normal and the abnormal. Many
abnormal conditions and traits are exaggerations of
normal ones, magnified as by a microscope, In this
way no doubt psycho-pathology throws a great deal
of light upon normal psychology, and on various
transitional stages between the healthy and the morbid.
A neurologist does not usually meet with hostility
when he confines himself to describing these transi-
tional stages ; but it is otherwise when he uses transi-
tional symptoms as a means of judging normal persons,
who are unpleasantly affected when they find such
symptoms regarded as faults and frailties, in fact
as signs of degeneracy. It is true that, if they are
candid, they will admit these shortcomings ; but they
object to being judged and classified by means of them.
They are right when they maintain that pathological
psychology and normal psychology should be studied
from different points of view. The function of a
doctor, as of a policeman, is based on the assumption
that there is something wrong in the world : his work
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
only begins when some disturbance arises. Thus he is
apt to judge everything from the point of view of the
disturbance, or of the degeneracy of his patient, and his
scientific training will urge him to trace these back to
their origins. But the normal man approaches the
problem from a different point of view. He is more
concerned with what is right and successful than with
what is wrong and a failure, and the idea of an ultimate
goal is of more interest to him than a chain of causes
and effects, The student of natural science only values
the future in so far as he is able to find its causal
connection with the past, and so to establish his
causal laws. But scientific laws, and the past, only
interest the normal practical man in so far as they
help him to shape the future according to his desires ;
so he may well think that all this analysing and search-
ing for the origins of weaknesses, is only of secondary
importance, unless it shows how to build up a better
future. Freud does not give us direct advice on this
matter ; he only throws light on the causal laws of
morbid symptoms, and reveals the unconscious to
the conscious mind, leaving his patients to find for
themselves the guidance they require by looking into
their inner mental life.
Freud realises that it is desirable to find new and more
suitable fields of interest, to which the unconscious
and repressed energies may be transferred. He calls
this process of transference sublimation. But he
leaves it to the patients to find their own way of
sublimation, because he is convinced that any guidance
by the doctor would be impossible without his obtruding
his own views of life and his own manner of sublimation
upon the patient. Freud confines himself to clearing
99
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
away every obstacle to sublimation. Sometimes this
method makes an unpleasant impression both on the
public and on the patients, who are thus left to work out
their own salvation. It is the process of sublimation
which chiefly interests the normal person, and about
which he desires to be enlightened. He does not ask,
what is the cause of ill-health, but how he can keep
healthy, or become healthy, and what are the best
ways of development. Freud would say that the
answers would be different in every individual case,
and that everyone must find them for himself ; other-
wise he will become a copy of some general type and
thereby lose his individual character. He would
further expatiate on the difficulties inherent in the
development of character, and so explain how certain
traits and deficiencies are connected with earlier circum-
stances. To many people such theories seem dis-
couraging, because they emphasise what is impossible
rather than what is possible in human life.
Freud has given us a broader and deeper under-
standing of the human soul. Formerly its nature was
conceived as being completely stable, and characterised
by certain traits or attributes. Later on association-
psychology taught us that all psychic events were caused
by the interchange of atomistic-intellectualistic ideas.
But Freud tends more and more to conceive the psychic
life as the expression of various opposed forces which are
continually being replenished from the unconscious
background, and he has minutely described the develop-
ment and inter-relations of these forces as they are
manifested in the human emotions. Only in his last
book (XVII, p. 34-4i) has he treated the problem
of the real meaning of life, and the forces that cause
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ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
development. His answer is characteristic of his
special point of view. He thinks that every instinc-
tive impulse aims exclusively at reconstituting a
former condition. Thus the desire for repetition
would be the most fundamental power in living beings./
The fact that changes have occurred in nature, is
due exclusively, according to Freud, to external
influences, and to the development of our earth and its
relation to the sun. It is true he is objective enough
to recognise that this view is purely speculative, and
cannot be deduced from experience. He writes, " It
is impossible to prove the existence of an evolutionary
impulse in animals and plants, though it is also impos-
sible to find arguments against supposing such a
tendency/' A little further on he adds, " But I do not
believe in such an impulse, and I see no possibility of
preserving this satisfying illusion/ 1 Whoever shares
these views, will have to follow Freud to the logical
conclusion he draws from them. If life has sprung
from lifeless matter, and if all life's impulses are
directed in the last resort towards reconstituting former
conditions, then death, which is the return to the most
primary condition, must be the real aim of life. If
we agree with Freud in interpreting life merely as an
adaptation to outward circumstances, we shall easily be
convinced that the real significance of life lies in
this last and most definite adaptation.
Freud considers that environment is the chief
formative influence in the growth of the human mind.
Thus, if the standards of civilised society did not early
in life put a check upon the inherited impulses, they
would create for themselves far wider fields of expres-
sion. It is true that he recognises that such checks
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
and inhibitions as shame, repugnance or pity, may be
in part inborn ; but to him they are just as much blind
impulses as the other inherited instincts. It will
depend on the child's milieu how far he will learn to
harmonise these opposed forces. All the same, some of
his inherited characteristics may modify this process.
Thus a complicated temperament may cause special
difficulties or unusual developments. The capacity
for sublimation in each individual must largely depend
on his physical and mental condition. All this is
certainly one of the most practical and helpful of Freud's
theories, for it is based on fact, and formulated accord-
ingly, without wandering off into speculations which
often prove misleading to students. Yet it seems to me
somewhat onesided. I can best illustrate this by
describing a similar problem in natural science. Dar-
win held that the complicated development of the
various forms of life was due to environment, and
to the struggle for life ; he tried to show the relation
between every detail of the circumstances and of the
corresponding development, and he' rejected the idea
that the development might be due to an inherent life-
force which is always pushing on towards further
expansion and evolution. Later scientists have proved
the incompleteness of some of Darwin's theories, and
further research has gradually convinced most men of
science that, although the influence of environment
must still be regarded as an important factor, it can
no longer be considered as the only cause of evolution.
Thus we are led to believe that life possesses some
inherent force, which notwithstanding all the varying
influences of surrounding circumstances, follows its
own principle of development, and makes use of
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ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
circumstances only in so far as they can be made to
agree with this principle. This may explain the fact
that an organ, such as the eye, arises in a similar
manner in different animals, at different stages in
their development, and under entirely different circum-
stances (II, p. 67). Bergson describes this life-force
as a powerful vital impulse, the " elan vital/' which is
working throughout nature, and continually creating
new forms in which to express itself.
The same problem of evolution can be found again in
the microcosm of the soul. Here also new variations of
form and expression are constantly arising, and though
it is evident that past and present environment has a
strong influence, yet it is doubtful whether these
variations are in all circumstances exclusively due
to environment.* I do not mean that a new variation
might suddenly spring up independently of all sur-
rounding influences, but that a guiding force may some-
times compel these various influences to work together
in one direction. The question could be stated thus :
does our desire for inner harmony belong intrinsically
to the nature of the human soul, or is it caused by
external influences alone ? To put the question in a
more psychological form : is the desire for sublimation
a natural part of the human mind, or only the result of
education ? It is no doubt impossible to give an
absolute answer to these questions. It depends
upon our individual character, experience and general
philosophy of life, whether we believe that all natural
phenomena are subject to fixed laws, or that an inde-
* If one considers the inherited temperament as being a result of
the influences of environment in former generations, we are again
faced with the general problem of evolution.
IO3
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
pendent creative force may intervene. The relative
value of these two beliefs cannot be measured by the
intellect alone. Pure reason will never prove whether
a mechanical determinist, or a creative indeterminist
philosophy is the better (VII).
A believer in determinism holds that all the future
is contained in the present, and will develop from
the present according to fixed laws. In psychology
this means that all psychic events have been com-
pletely predetermined by past and present circum-
stances which have influenced the soul. On the other
hand, a believer in the free creative principle holds
that, even if we could have full knowledge of all that
the present contains, the future is largely uncertain
and incalculable because, besides the mechanical laws,
there exists in nature a creative principle of life, which,
within limits prescribed by circumstances, is free to
choose and create new forms. In psychology this would
mean that in psychic events a human being can have
a certain freedom of choice, and so may exercise a ;
decisive influence on his mental development.
Scientists, in general, will feel inclined to hold the
determinist theory, because they are occupied in
finding causal laws for all natural phenomena, and
therefore deny the possibility of freedom of choice.
Even when investigating a process of evolution
which never repeats itself, such as history, they are
apt to apply their causal laws ; but they never com-
pletely succeed in explaining the process according
to these laws. They express what Jung calls nur das
Nach-Wissen (merely after-knowledge).
In opposition to the scientist's point of view, the
practical man believes that within certain limits
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ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
he is free to choose how he will direct his life. He
recognises that his mental life is a process which never
repeats itself in exactly the same way, and although
ready to admit that he is bound by certain regular
laws, he can never consider his free will to be a pure
illusion. He feels within himself an independent
impulse towards expansion, and if he is given to
speculation, he will divine the presence of this spon-
taneous impulse in other forms of life. Several
philosophers of our day (Bergson, Driesch, Vaihinger)
do not accept the purely determinist point of view.
The reader must turn to philosophical literature for a
fuller treatment of this subject. I only wish to draw
attention to these two divergent views of life.
The fact that Freud and his followers are apt to
ignore this creative impulse, has caused a reaction in
several psycho-analysts, who, both in their theory
and in their practice, pay special attention to the
sublimating process, and under the leadership of
Jung and Maeder have founded the so-called " Zurich
school of Psycho-analysis/' This name is somewhat
misleading, for the main point of their theory is syn-
thesis rather than analysis. With them introspection
does not merely serve to trace the origin and explain the
meaning of mysterious desires and thoughts, but is
used as a means to discover inner impulses of growth,
which may be synthesised into a harmonious person-
ality. It is true that this latter process is also recog-
nised in Freud's psycho-analysis ; but with him it is
rather an indirect result of the treatment, and not
the chief object. By attaining to a better understand-
ing of themselves, his patients are naturally led to
improve their mental organisation and to feel their
105
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
way gradually towards better conditions.* The Zurich
psychologists, on the other hand, concentrate upon'
this inner searching, and maintain that this can be
done without endangering the objective nature of
the treatment. Though they recognise the objections
which have prevented Freud from working in this
direction, they do not consider them insurmountable.
They think that, although no general rules can be laid
down as to how particular desires and emotions are
to be sublimated, there are nevertheless various ways
in which the human mind solves its difficulties, and
that a clear understanding of these processes will
help towards finding the best solution. The chief
task of the synthetic method is therefore to explain
to the patient the way in which, partly in his con-
scious and partly in his unconscious mind, this sublim-
ating process is continually developing. It is evident
that a satisfactory explanation of this kind can only
be given after thorough introspection, as there would
otherwise be a danger that the doctor might involun-
tarily impose his own opinions and theories on his
patient. Intuitive guessing at the meaning of psycho-
logical phenomena would be as much out of place
here, as when a doctor is trying to discover their
origin in the patient's life-history. The way in which
a dream is analysed, must depend upon the spon-
taneous association of ideas with the dream by the
patient. In some cases these associated ideas will
refer to the past, so that its connection with the dream
will then be evident ; in others they will refer to the
* Dr Ernest Jones, a follower of Freud, has written about the
significance of the process of sublimation in education and in
psycho-analytical treatment, but he has confined himself to indicat-
ing certain special points of view of general interest.
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ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
present in relation to various hopes and plans, upon
which the dream may throw new and valuable light.
In other cases again the association method may show
that both past and present are referred to.|i
A few examples will illustrate the way in which
the introspective material is made use of. Let us first
take a simple case of forgetting. Someone has for-
gotten to post a letter, and now tries to discover the
meaning of this forgetfulness. Suppose he remembers
that the letter contains a promise of financial assistance
to a relation, he will then realise that an unconscious
avaricious motive prevented him from sending off
the letter. Or it may have contained violent reproaches
addressed to a friend, which on further consideration
prove to be exaggerated or baseless, in which case
the writer of the letter will be only too thankful that
his unconscious feelings prevented him from sending
it off. Thus in addition to many disturbing influences
arising from the unconscious into the conscious,
there are a number that are very valuable. Some
people are easily susceptible to such influences, which
may have an important effect upon their lives. We
find this special influence of the unconscious mind
not only in the inspiration of artists or scientific men
of genius, but often in more ordinary lives. The
publications of the Society of Psychical Research will
provide any reader who is interested in this subject,
with many striking examples. There he will find
descriptions of dreams which revealed the place where
a lost object could be found, or of cases when persons
were warned of an approaching danger by premonitory
feelings.
My next example will be a dream in which the
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CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
working out of an unsolved problem was continued.
One evening a student had been reading a book about
Einstein's Theory of Relativity, without completely
understanding it. He had however grasped the idea
that Newton's laws were upset by Einstein ; so he
made up his mind to study the elementary side of
the problem more thoroughly. At night he dreamt
that he went into a cellar where an Englishman, called
Newton, whom he had once met on a journey, was
occupied in soldering together two metal pipes, but
was doing it in the wrong way. The dreamer felt
anxious on Newton's account, lest his work should be
criticised. As he turned to go away, he suddenly
noticed various wires stretched from the pipes to the
wall behind, and surrounding him in such a way that
he had to cut them through before he could extricate
himself. The shape of these wires was peculiar
in being round at one end and square at the
other.
When the dream was examined, the associated
ideas soon made it clear that the acquaintance called
Newton represented the great scientist, who, according
to Einstein, had not done his work properly. The
soldering of the pipes reminded him of a system of
speaking tubes which he had seen somewhere, and
which were going to be extended ; this had seemed
to him a stupid job, because he thought that a private
telephone would have been a much more effective and
up-to-date arrangement. Here we find the contrast
between the old and the new system, just as with
Newton and Einstein. The anxious sympathy he
felt for Newton should be noticed, as it shows that
the dreamer evidently felt more at ease with him than
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ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
with Einstein. The necessity of breaking through
the wires evidently arose from his having seen similar
wires the day before in a workshop, where they served
to connect some electrical apparatus (called " elements "
in Dutch), and so might very well symbolise the ele-
mentary principles of Newton which imprisoned his
mind. Thus the dream emphasised the necessity of
breaking through this network before he could face the
problem freely.
Here we see how an intellectual problem can be
expressed by a dream, and how the search for its
solution may be continued during sleep. In this
case the dream did not really help to solve the problem ;
yet this does sometimes happen, as I once experienced
myself, when I was busy preparing a lecture but
could not find a satisfactory way of treating my
subject. After I had been puzzling over it, I dreamt
that I was copying an etching, but that I felt I must
emphasise more strongly the contrasts of light and
shade. When I thought over this dream, it struck
me that, a little while before, I had read a short abstract
of the subject of my lecture, which at the time had
seemed to me too flat and impersonal. The dream
now revealed to me that I might use this article as a
scheme for my lecture, only I should have to fill out
and enrich the exposition.
It is such cases, which are concerned with intel-
lectual problems, that reveal most clearly the creative
and inspiring influence of the unconscious. But the
unconscious may attempt to find a solution of emo-
tional problems too, and it then often resembles a
moral force working upon the human character. A
curious instance of this is described by Peter Rosegger
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CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
in his book called Waldheimat (IX, p. 317 and XXVII,
p. 668).
" I usually sleep soundly ; yet I have missed many
a good night's rest, owing to my being haunted for
many years during my simple life as a student and
author, by the shadow of a tailor's life. It was not
because I was always thinking about my past during
the day ; a thorough revolutionary like myself, who
has cast aside his Philistine garb, can use his time
more profitably. Probably I did not pay much
attention to my dreams in my gay youthful years ;
it was only later in life, when I had acquired a habit
of reflecting about everything, and when perhaps my
Philistine side was re-awakening, that I began to
notice that whenever I dreamt, I always imagined
that I was a tailor's apprentice, and had been working
for a long time in my employer's shop without receiving
any wages. While I sat next to him busy with my
sewing, I was conscious of not being in my proper sur-
roundings, and I felt that I ought to be doing other
things ; but somehow an arrangement was always
made by which I spent my holidays doing extra work
for my employer. I often felt very uncomfortable
about this, and regretted the waste of time. Besides
I had to submit to scoldings and listen to reproaches,
when my work was not satisfactorily finished. My
wages were never mentioned. While sitting with
bent back in that dark workshop, I often made up my
mind to give up the job and go away. Once I actually
gave notice, but my master paid no attention to it,
and I went on working for him. How happy I used
to feel when I waked after so many tedious hours !
I used to make up my mind that if this persistent
no
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
dream should recur, I would call out, ' It is only
fancy. I am lying in bed, and I wish to sleep ' And
yet the next night I would again be sitting in the
tailor's shop.
" This went on with uncanny regularity for many
years, until one night I dreamt that both my employer
and myself were working at Alpelhofer's, the place
where I had begun my apprenticeship, and that my
employer was particularly dissatisfied with my work.
He looked at me angrily and said, ' I wonder where
your thoughts are wandering/ I thought that the
moment had now come for me to get up and explain
to him that I was only working for him out of kindness,
and then to run away. But I could not do it. I did
not resist when the employer took on another appren-
tice, and ordered me to make room for him on the
bench. I moved into the corner and went on with my
sewing. The same day another fellow was taken
on. , . . There was no room for him to sit down ;
and when I looked up inquiringly at my employer, he
said, ' You have no talent for tailoring. I dismiss
you : you can go.' The shock of this remark was so
great that I awoke.
" The morning light shone through the bright
windows into my comfortable room. Treasures of
art and luxury surrounded me on every side. ... In
the next room, I heard the cheerful voices of my children
romping with their mother. It was delightful to re-
discover this idyllic and peaceful life, so full of poetry
and spiritual harmony ; and yet I felt annoyed that
I had allowed my employer to dismiss me, instead of
giving him notice myself. The curious result was that
from the night of my dismissal I enjoyed peace, and
ill
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
have never since been troubled by those apprenticeship-
dreams about imaginary youthful years, which had
cast such a dark shadow over my later life. My real
youth had in fact been quite a cheerful and careless
period."
These dreams of Rosegger presented a somewhat
difficult problem to Freud. It was obvious that sup-
pressed desires were not here seeking for gratification,
for they were being gratified during the conscious life,
and the dreams only recalled a life of humiliation and
drudgery. Freud at first thought that their only
significance lay in their relation to the past, and he
compared them to his own dreams about working as a
student in the chemical laboratory, which he used to re-
gard as a particularly tedious occupation. For a long
time he was in doubt whether to consider them as
dreams of punishment for pride in a man who had been
successful in life, or as the expression of a strong
desire to be young again. He was at first inclined to
hold the latter view (IX, p. 320), which however was
strongly attacked by Maeder (XXXVII), who pointed
out that it is difficult to find a satisfactory explanation
of the feeling of relief which Rosegger always experi-
enced when waking up, if his early life had been so
attractive. Nor is it easy to understand the liberating
effect of the last dream, unless we assume that Roseg-
ger's fame and worldly success had tended to make him
feel proud and vain. These weaknesses, though
threatening to poison his mind, created at the same
time a reaction in the depths of his delicate poetical
soul, which resulted in a continuous striving to conquer
such evil tendencies. This was expressed by the
sense of humiliation felt by him in his dreams. The
112
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
dismissal, and the consequent feeling of liberation,
would mean that he had conquered his snobbish pride
and vanity. If we consider the dream from this aspect,
we shall find that it symbolises a fragment of the poet's
moral development, like other similar dreams that
symbolise the soul's strivings after inner harmony.
After rejecting this theory for a long time, Freud
has lately declared his acceptance of it, but with
one reservation : he does not believe that such dreams
originate from repressed unconscious backgrounds of
the mind, but from what he calls the " preconscious "
mind.* We must however be careful not to confuse
such processes with those other preconscious pro-
cesses which can easily be transferred into the conscious
mind. With many people this kind of psychic process
never becomes conscious, f We owe a debt of gratitude
to Jung and Maeder for drawing attention to this
matter. The right understanding of these uncon-
scious processes is most important both from a theo-
retical and a practical point of view, although Freud
and his followers do not attach much importance to
this side of psychology. Here again they have been
influenced by their attitude towards pathological
* Freud's paper on " Erganzungen zur Traumlehre " at the
Sixth International Psycho-Analytical Congress at the Hague,
September njzo.
| I am glad to find that Tansley (XXXIII, p. 53-56) has also
noted that Freud's extinction between the preconscious and
unconscious is in this case unsatisfactory. Tansley considers the
unconscious does not consist merely of repressed unconscious pro-
cesses, but is chiefly composed of what he calls, the primary
unconscious. According to him, '* the primary unconscious is to
be regarded as the basis of the entire rnind, as the centre or core of
the psychic organism. The mental elements corresponding with the
great primitive instincts are originally seated in this region, and
from it the psychic-energy which activates the complexes of the
forcconscious is continually welling up."
113 H
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
psychology. They aim first of all at eliminating
morbid symptoms in their patients by discovering
their origin through the historical-analytical method ;
and so the history of such symptoms is more important
to them than the meaning. When the patient's
symptoms reveal some intention, this is often merely
the intention to be ill, and so escape from some difficult
problem the so-called " escape into illness/' No
doubt such intentions may not give us much informa-
tion about the nature of the illness itself ; all the
same we are not therefore justified in considering all
expressions of the unconscious merely from this point
of view.
Every process in a living organism can be looked
at either from the historical and causal side, which
will reveal its connection with the past, or from the
actual side, which will throw light upon its future
development. When we explain a machine or a
scientific theory, we describe how it is used and for
what purpose, and we may leave out the historical
origins as of little importance to our explanation.
But if we wish to explain the meaning of the Nelson
Monument, or of the coronation of a king, the historical
side will necessarily be emphasised, while the use made
of them will be unimportant. Freud and his followers,
being chiefly interested in the historical side, are in
danger of misunderstanding those psychic processes in
which the other side is the more important. During
the actual treatment of patients this danger may be
small ; but even then it is important to discover what
are the real aims of the patient, and what their possible
value may be as a factor in his particular phase of
development. But the narrowness of Freud's theory
114
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
is most apparent when the historical-analytical method
is applied to the normal and healthy mind, which is
constructive and synthetic in character. (Symbols
in art and religion should in Freud's view be reduced
to nothing but expressions of suppressed emotions,
chiefly of a sexual nature. We admit that further
enquiry into the history of the human mind may
prove that the sexual impulse has been a great factor
in the development of religion and art ; and there
are many facts that point that way. All the same it
cannot be maintained that mere analysis and reduc-
tion will lead us to a full understanding either of art or
religion, We may be thoroughly acquainted with the
history of religious symbols or of art, and yet be very
different from the religious man or the artist, who daily
use these symbols as the formative elements of their
lives. There is a constructive force in human inter-
course, in art and in religion. They educate man
towards clearer and more beautiful forms of self-
expression. In order to make use of these forms, it
is more necessary to gain an insight into their meaning
than to understand their historical origins. Even
if we assume that the sexual instinct has contributed
towards developing these symbols, the wonder is that
the sexual impulse, instead of retaining its most
primitive form, has gradually developed such very
different modes of expression. Interesting as the
history of this development may be, it will teach us
less about the real nature of these symbols, than the
actual experience of them in our present life can do.
The dreams of Rosegger suggested to us that the
constructive interpretation of dream-symbols might
be of great importance. We saw that lately Freud
"5
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
has been inclined to accept this point of view, though
hesitatingly and with reservations. On the whole
he seems to consider these constructive dreams to be
very exceptional. Not long before he wrote very
decidedly (XV, p. 61) : " A dream does not want to
tell anyone anything : it is no vehicle of communica-
tion ; on the contrary, it is constructed so as not
to be understood. For this reason we must not be
surprised or misled, if we find that a number of the
ambiguities and vagaries of a dream do not permit of
determination/ 1 Thus Freud regards dreams merely as
a kind of safety-valve for suppressed tension, of which
the immediate and undisguised expression could not
be accepted by the conscious personality. Jung and
Maeder on the other hand consider that in both normal
and abnormal cases the constructive analysis of dream-
symbols is of great value, as it reveals the dreamer's
endeavour to solve his difficulties, and that this ought
never to be overlooked. All the same, while a mere
historical interpretation will often lead to erroneous
conclusions, we must be on our guard against seeking
for a constructive meaning in every dream. Maeder
distinguishes between dreams which act as an outlet
for suppressed tension, and those which search after
some solution (XXVII, p. 673), but holds that the
condition of the soul is symbolised in all Works of
art may also symbolise both the relaxation of tension
and the search for new forms of expression.
This double meaning of symbolism has been clearly
explained by the Viennese psycho-analyst Silberer
(XXXI, p. 665). He points out that a symbol can only
be regarded as such, if we try to discover a further
meaning behind it, which is usually more complicated
116
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
than the symbolic image. Before we can say that a
mental image A is really a symbol of the thoughts B,
C and D, the mental image A must have been further
analysed and differentiated.* Now there are two
occasions when A may be regarded as A and nothing
more. First, when the more detailed interpretation
leading to B, C and D might be painful or unpleasant.
In this case the symbol A has been selected for reasons
of sentiment. This happens in repression. Secondly,
when someone is too unintelligent to express a compli-
cated mental concept, his want of intelligence will
then make him choose the symbol A, which in his
case is the only form of expression suited to his stage
of development. The human mind is only capable of
grasping a certain proportion of truth at each stage
of its development, and will resist any higher demands.
Thus we find in the old alchemy-lore an intricate
mixture of chemical and psychological knowledge,
that later on became differentiated into chemical and
* Silberer says that a symbol A may be used to express an idea B.
This may lead to misunderstanding, for it seems to me that a symbol
is always trying to express something of a complex nature. Ernest
Jones in his article on " The Theory of Symbolism " (XXII, p. 129)
indicates that a symbol is chiefly a substitutive representation of a
definite unconscious image. This view seems to me to result from
his somewhat narrow theory, which only attaches value to the
historical side of a symbol. By using this arbitrary restriction, the
solution of the problem given by Jones is deceptive. Though he
agrees with Silberer that symbols may occasionally be a factor
in a sublimating process, he is chiefly interested in those symbols
which do not succeed in this process, but appear as substitutes for
the sublimation aimed at. In my opinion he does not sufficiently
emphasise the important rAle of symbolism in the history of
humanity as a bridge between old and new forms of expression. He
expresses his disbelief in all creative evolution (p. 173), and there-
fore concludes that the explanation of symbolism as expressing
a development or striving towards new forms, is wholly unscientific
(P- 179).
117
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
psychological-philosophic theories, which diverged ever
further and further, until each acquired a complete
terminology of its own (XXXII). Another instance
is the idea of re-birth, which, when we look into it
closely, is found to be a symbol of intricate psychic
processes. We often cling to old symbols, because
of historical tradition, or because our sentiments
are thus gratified, or owing to a suspicion that there
may be more in those symbols, than has yet been ex-
plained. Thus the alchemist parables may possibly
contain some spiritual lore, which the new psychology
has not yet unravelled.
If we admit that the mind is in a state of modified,
or rather diminished consciousness while dreaming,
it seems reasonable to suppose that, apart from any
repression, the same thoughts, which appeared in
a clearly defined form by day, may appear as symbols
in dreams. These symbols will arise because the
dreamer lacks control over his thoughts during sleep.
I may here remind the reader of the dream about
Einstein's theory which I referred to above.
Freud has admitted that the choice of symbols by
the unconscious may be due to its peculiar way of
expressing itself, and not merely to repression. Yet it
seems to me that his attitude towards symbolism is
influenced by his theory that the choice of symbols is
determined by sexual repression, otherwise he would
surely have been able to find a greater variety of mean-
ings in fairy tales, myths and popular sayings. For
instance, the symbol of sacrifice is common throughout
the world, and expresses the necessity of giving some-
thing up in order to attain to something higher. The
profoundest interpretation of this general law of
118
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
life is not found in the domain of sex, but is clearly
manifested in religious symbols. Throughout history
we meet with symbols of a general nature, which,
far from having a merely sexual significance, have
continually assisted the human mind in its search for
new forms of expression. Symbols are the chief means
by which the human mind expresses, not so much those
ideas which it has outgrown, or wishes to conceal, but
those which it has not yet mastered.
Thus every symbol has a twofold aspect. It may
express a regression, a backward movement, which
leads us away from a clear conception. This happens
either under the influence of a strong affect, such as
occurs in neurotic repression, or else in a state of
diminished consciousness, such as is produced by
fatigue or sleep. Both cases present a condition of
collapse and diminished potentiality. We find the
same phenomenon in social psychology. During
periods of collapse the human mind falls back upon
symbols, which are apt to be made concrete and so
lead to dogmatism and convention. But new ideas
also tend to clothe themselves in symbolism. Every
idea and every synthetic emotion which is not yet
clearly defined, needs a symbol for its preliminary
expression. Instances of such symbols are the com-
munist state, the superman, the " elan vital/' Here
the symbol will be a sign of progress, as when at
the call of some watchword, a man throws himself
into some vague project, which may be of a religious,
social, artistic, or mystical nature. The influence
of such symbols is specially felt at a certain period
of youth ; and we find their clearest expression in
the ecstasy of poetry and religion. Nietzsche ex-
119
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
pressed this in striking words : " My brethren, take
note of the hour when your spirit wants to speak in
parables ; that will be the beginning of your virtue."
Such symbolism is a sign of exaltation and ardent
vitality.
We now have two keys for the interpretation of
symbolism : historical reduction or causality, and the
discovery of the intention or finality. If we take
the view that the symbol is only in appearance an
attempt to express something definite, but is really
nothing but the outlet of uncontrolled impulses, and is
therefore merely " something primitive/' the danger
will be that by thus reducing the symbolic material to
its simplest form, we may overlook its more interesting
side. On the other hand, if we try to discover in the
symbol some mystical, elusive meaning which cannot be
more clearly defined, and which we feel bound to treat
with the respect we owe to all hidden sources of life,
we may make the dangerous mistake of attaching some
deep and valuable meaning to symbolic material, the
importance of which is merely historical, and so fail to
realise that this meaning is not inherent in the symbol,
but is put into it by ourselves.
Both these dangers are met with in the interpretation
of dream-symbols. The followers of Jung and Freud
are as usual the extremists in this matter. Some
followers of Freud hold that all symbols are a dis-
guised expression of repressed sexual tendencies. It
must be admitted that Freud himself is partly respon-
sible for this opinion, as he has always concentrated the
whole of his attention upon the analytical side of both
dream-symbols and general symbols, and is chiefly in-
terested in tracing their origins from primitive instincts.
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ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
He admits that there is room for the other point of view,
but considers that it is superficial, that it will fail to
teach the patient anything new, and may often give
rise to fancies which will hinder him from finding a
genuine solution of his difficulties. Freud may well
be right about this in the actual treatment of many
cases ; but he is not justified in his general condemna-
tion of the synthetic method of interpretation, and it is
quite possible that the adoption of his view may lead
to serious misunderstanding of the dreams of some
patients.
Jung and Maeder on the other hand consider that
both dreams and general symbolism may reveal new
ideas and new aspects, though expressed only in vague
symbolic form. They agree with Freud that it is
impossible to interpret the whole of dream-symbolism
by means of the association-method, and so they regard
the dream as a primitive form of expression of the
human mind. But they adopt a wider point of view
than Freud, when they relate the significance of these
symbols to the history of civilisation. Thus they
sometimes discover a similarity between the problems
that occur in the development both of individuals and
of the human race (XXIV, XXVIII, XXXII). There
is some danger that this method of interpretation
also may be applied too narrowly, for every psychical
phenomenon has a history, but not everything that
has a history is necessarily capable of development.
Enthusiasts of this school may be too ready to find
a profound meaning in every dream-symbol, and
the analysis of dreams might thus easily degenerate info
washy mysticism or superficial moralising, and lay
itself open to ridicule and contempt.
121
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
It will need great circumspection to avoid these
dangers in actual practice, pur standpoint, when
we are interpreting a dream, ought to depend both
upon the associated material provided by the dreamer,
and upon his general condition. When we are treating
such complicated material as the human mind, it is
always dangerous to work according to a set scheme.
A dream, like every other psychic product, is con-
nected with the rest of the mind by innumerable
threads, and these connections can never be satis-
factorily expressed in a simple formula. This com-
plication also makes it difficult to give satisfactory
illustrations of dream-symbolism, for the interpretation
of a patient's dream is only a small fragment of the
psycho-analyst's vast field of observation. It is
almost impossible to select and define any part of the
intricate and coherent structure of ideas and images
which are provided by the patient in connection with
the dream, without destroying the greater part of
this cohesion. When we relate an analysis of a dream,
we are like a traveller, who wishes to describe to his
friends a country which is completely unknown to
them. However exact his descriptions may be,
he will never succeed in giving a perfectly clear
picture./
All the same I will try to give illustrations of these
two standpoints of interpretation. My first instance
is the dream of a patient who at the time seemed much
inclined to give up my treatment, and to seek a cure
in work for which she was making somewhat extrava-
gant plans. She was also much exhausted by anxieties
and difficulties. One night she dreamt that she was
lying in a cavern under a hill, in which she was im-
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ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
prisoned, and from which she could find no way of
escape. She felt too weak to search, and had the
feeling that she had been lying there for a long time.
She felt her strength was slowly ebbing away, and
thought that she would probably die of exhaustion.
Then she suddenly noticed an opening in the roof of
the cavern, through which someone, whom she recog-
nised to be myself, was looking at her. She thought
that the opening would be too small to let me through,
but though constantly overcome by a feeling of faint-
ness and exhaustion, she noticed that I was succeeding
in reaching her. She could not exactly tell how, but
I managed to draw her through the narrow opening,
and when she looked around, she found herself in
my house, lying on a bed, naked. I was searching
in a cupboard to find her some clothes, but could not
find anything that would fit her. She felt somewhat
stronger and thought that she had better not stay
any longer ; but as no clothes could be found, she
had to go out naked.
In my opinion the real value of this dream cannot
be discovered by the association-method, and no
associated ideas were given me by the patient in this
case. In order to avoid undue elaboration, I will
interpret these images without attempting to justify
each interpretation. We can take this dream to
symbolise the idea of birth. The dark cavern which
contains the weak and helpless dreamer, the small
opening through which she emerges with difficulty, and
the curious fact of her being naked at that moment,
will then all become clear. According to Freud, the
dream would be the regression to a childish fantasy,
which probably had its origin when the child was
123
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
discontented with its lot and imagined itself returned
to the mother's womb in order to be re-born under
more favourable circumstances. For the dreamer,
these circumstances would be connected with her
treatment in the doctor's house to which she comes
after re-birth.
It is doubtful whether this interpretation takes
into account all the important aspects of the dream.
In the first place it does not explain why the dreamer
should have the dream at this exact moment ; nor are
the other points, such as the impossibility of finding
clothes and the necessity of returning home, made
much clearer. It may help us if we compare this
birth-fantasy with similar symbols in history. The
idea of birth as symbolising a re-birth, and as indicating
an inner spiritual change, has played an important
part in the religious creeds of nations of very different
kinds. My patient was undergoing a similar spiritual
change at the time of her dream, and this would explain
the reason of its occurrence just then. If we consider
the dream in this way, we are struck by the fact
that her unconscious attitude towards the treatment
is very different from her conscious attitude. In
the dream she is excluded from the influences of the
outer world, from which she is consciously expecting
a solution ; and the doctor's influence, which she con-
sciously resists, is all the same of assistance to her
in her difficult re-birth. A possible explanation of
her being unable to make use of the doctor's clothes,
might be that these new clothes symbolise a new
relationship to the outer world, so that the
dream would express her feeling that she cannot
simply adopt this new relationship directly from
124
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
the doctor, as then it would not fit her particular
needs.*
The other dream which I have chosen, also contains
some symbolic images that cannot be interpreted
by the association of thoughts and recollections,
although the dream was related to an occurrence
of the previous evening. The dreamer is a musician
who suffers from the fact that he loses the mastery of
his instrument when playing alone in public. Conse-
quently he has never attained as much success as his
talents would lead one to expect. He is well-read and
intelligent, but has led a somewhat solitary life owing
to various circumstances during his youth. He seldom
expresses his feelings, but when he does so he is usually
very vehement. He has always been inclined to take a
sceptical view about ideals, and professes to admire
science alone. After a discussion on religion in which
he took a strongly anti-religious line, I lent him two
books on Hindu philosophy. These interested him
very much, and he read them till late in the evening.
That night he dreamt that he came into my consulting
room, and told me that a sentence in one of the books
had seemed to him entirely unintelligible. It ran as
follows : " When the murderer believes that he has
killed a man, or when the murdered man believes
that he has been killed, both ignore the fact that the
soul cannot murder or be murdered." Then he
dreamt that I laughed and said I would try to explain
it to him. The room then changed ; everything
remained in its place but became transparent like
crystal. He was able to look far away through the
* I must add that I had never talked with the patient about
re-birth or any similar subjects.
125
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
walls, and seemed to be surrounded by space. It
was very beautiful and impressive. He looked around,
but could not find me, and then he realised that I
also had become transparent. He now saw that he
would not be able to reach me, and awoke with a
mixed feeling of anxiety and admiration.
The patient could only add that he had really read
that sentence in the book, and had found it difficult
to understand. The obvious interpretation is that the
dreamer's unconscious mind was working at the difficult
sentence, and that his dream symbolised this search
for an explanation, which he felt to be beyond his
grasp. It is also clear that the sentence was specially
difficult to him, because it assumed the possibility of an
independent spiritual existence, an idea entirely alien
to his sceptical materialistic attitude. His attempt to
approach this conception was symbolised in the dream
by the way in which the material world became trans-
parent, for spirit is popularly conceived as transparent
matter. It was natural that he should think of this
in my consulting room, because he wanted to question
me about it, and also because it was the place where
he had gained some understanding of his own spiritual
independence. In this way we can regard the dream as
a continuation of a rational process in a psychic domain,
where thoughts are more naturally clothed in images.
But some points in the dream remain untouched
by this explanation. It is not clear why the dreamer
hit upon that particular sentence about murder, as
there were many other references to the spiritual life
in the book. Nor is it clear why I should disappear,
and why he should feel anxious. We should have ex-
pected that he would discover me in these new spiritual
126
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
surroundings, and that this would have given him satis-
faction. It is a curious fact that these points are
related to two dreams which he dreamt a short time
before. We know by experience that successive
dreams are sometimes connected, if the mind, in
between, has not been influenced by some disturbing
event. So I will point out the connection between
this dream and the two earlier ones, though it would
lead me too far to give a full account of them. In
the earlier dreams also someone had laughed, but in
both cases this had so infuriated the dreamer that he
had killed the person who laughed. Here we find the
problem of murder which is the starting-point of the
third dream. The later part of my treatment had
revealed that the patient was more dominated by these
passionate feelings of hatred and rage than he would
admit, and that they probably had a strong effect on
his relation with his audience, when he appeared in
public. The mere idea that anyone should laugh at
him was enough to arouse these passionate feelings.
After the dream had been interpreted, several memories
arose which showed what an important part these
feelings had played in his early youth. In the dream
the laughter is not followed by murder as before, but
by matter becoming transparent and by my disappear-
ance. We know that Freud considers disappearing
to be the symbol of death ; and if we accept his view,
it is clear that in the last dream the images of laughter
followed by disappearance or death have the same
murderous significance as in the former dreams ;
but this was not expressed, because here it would clash
with too many of the patient's feelings, and so was
only expressed by the sentence about the possibility
127
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
of murder. His anxiety about my disappearance
would thus mean his reaction against his passionate
feelings of hatred. This interpretation may seem some-
what far-fetched, but we must remember that a man
who has an exaggerated fear of being laughed at or
despised, has usually a strong sense of his own import-
ance. While he is giving a truthful and detailed
account of his life, he may easily imagine that the
doctor is laughing at him, and may feel hurt and re-
sentful. Other feelings towards the doctor may
repress his resentment ; but it may all the same find
expression in his dreams, though usually in a disguised
form.
By these illustrations I have attempted to show
that there are two entirely different methods of inter-
preting dreams. How can we decide which is the
right one ? They seem to represent two entirely
different points of view, two opposed outlooks on
life. The answer should be that both are right, but
that neither of them can contain the whole truth,
and that they cannot be brought into harmony with
each other, because each points in a different direction.
It is like two men on a road, one always looking for-
ward, the other backward. Each sees a different
landscape, and their description of the road will be
true in either case, yet entirely different. The attitude
of each patient towards his own problems must deter-
mine whether we should interpret his symbolism
chiefly from a prospective or from a retrospective
point of view. Any ideas associated with the dream-
symbols will also naturally influence our interpretation,
and this association-method will often reveal a ten-
dency in the dreamer to compensate for the narrowness
128
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
of his conscious views of life. But the psycho-analyst
who relies entirely on the purely scientific point of
view, and is only concerned with the retrospective
side of dream-symbolism, is in great danger of mis-
interpreting the meaning of a dream in which pro-
spective symbolism predominates.
In my last instance the dream was the first sign
that the relations between the patient and his fellow-
men were undergoing a radical change. The feelings
of hatred, the fear of being laughed at or of being badly
treated, are expressed, as well as the attempt to find
more satisfactory relations. It is remarkable that this
change of attitude during treatment is often specially
noticeable in the patient's relations with his doctor.
He is the object on whom the patient can practise his
feelings. Thus the real significance of the dream is
that it does not so much reveal the prospective or
retrospective point of view in the dreamer's mind,
as the inner change within him, which is an attempt
to harmonise these two aspects. The old wild feelings
of resentment tried to force an outlet for themselves,
just as they did in the earlier dreams. But some-
thing now intervened. The meaning of the sentence
in the book was, " You cannot kill : that is an illusion."
But why ? It was I, who in his dream, showed him
the reason ; and it was here in my room that his
outlook on the world was widened. It was both
crystallised and grew more spiritual, and consequently
the motives of his resentment and hatred towards
me gradually disappeared. This illustrates the way
in which the two sides of dream-symbolism can
be brought into harmony, and only by means of
such a harmony can we find an interpretation of
129 I
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
dreams of this kind, which does full justice to their
content.
j Freud in all his investigations applies his causal-
historical theory, so he naturally emphasises the
past influences which unconsciously govern the present
psychic event. The actual form in which these influ-
ences are expressed interests him less than their origin,
and their expression appears to him merely as a
camouflage of unconscious desires. Jung, on the other
hand, lays special stress on the importance of this
expression of desires. This appears to Freud and his
followers as a return to the old theory, according to
which dreams and morbid symptoms are the simple
automatic expressions of actual psychic processes.
But they do not perceive that Jung is able to in-
corporate Freud's historical method into his own inter-
pretation, while his attention remains chiefly directed
towards the dreamer's actual conflict and its solution
I must repeat that it is a mistake to try to discover
such deep meanings in all dreams. Many dreams, if
not most, are simply outlets of various kinds of
tensions, which are caused by repressed emotions.
But when these special dreams occur, which symbolise
the solution of the dreamer's difficulties, a true and
clear understanding of their meaning will considerably
advance the solution of many other psychic problems,
which their misinterpretation will tend to retard.
Later on I hope to consider how far the theory
of the unconscious, and of its relation to the conscious
mind, is affected by our recognition of this impulse
towards sublimation, and by knowledge of the various
ways which lead to it. Here I only wish to trace
the influence of these new conceptions upon psycho-
130
ANALYSIS AND SYNTHESIS
analytical treatment. We have seen that psychic
products such as fantasies and dreams sometimes
possess a constructive meaning, which indicates a
possibility of psychological development. They thus
show some resemblance to the inspiration of artists and
inventors, which reveals a creative function in the
unconscious mind. This wider outlook brings new
light, but also a new danger. The theory may be
exaggerated in practice, and so lead to endless arbitrary
interpretations. JThe great advantages of psycho-
analytical methods can only be realised, when the
doctor takes a purely objective attitude and abstains
from any form of suggestion. This is difficult enough
when he is tracing back the psychic content of dreams
to its origins ; but it is much more so when he tries
to discover in his patients the constructive and sub-
limating impulses, which constitute their process of
growth. The temptation to use suggestion is always
strongest in connection with one's ideals and views on
psychological development. Suggestion and direct
teaching may of course often be useful ; but they must
not be confused with strictly psycho-analytical methods
of investigation, which are meant to be helpful by an
objective statement of the truth. To deal properly
with synthetic psychology, we must first be thoroughly
acquainted with analytic psychology and the construc-
tion of the mind. Even then there is a danger that we
may be tempted to lose our objective point of view and
wander away into the morass of dilettantism and
quackery. What is needed is that the new synthetic
psychology should be based upon a sufficiently scientific
and comprehensive theory of psychic development,
The next chapter contains some account of the results
of the latest medico-psychological experiences.
CHAPTER V
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
NEW methods of education are now being explored
in all countries. The old system has not been entirely
abandoned, but its weakness is so evident that even
those who still cling to the old school, recognise that
a thorough reform is needed. Many principles, which
used to be regarded as infallible, are now being given
up. In old days the child's mind was considered to
be plastic like wax, so that it could provide a suitable
material upon which the educator could exercise his
talents. Nowadays we pay more attention to the rights
of the child's nature. We try to discover his own
particular line of development, and to eliminate any
disturbing influences, such as social pressure, which
might interfere with his freedom of growth. But we
must not confuse such freedom with aristocratic indi-
vidualism. The ideal of freedom, whether in education
or in social life, often comes into conflict with the ideal
of equality that forces the individual to surrender his
own rights in favour of the rights of the community.
Freedom for one often means lack of freedom for an-
other, and so causes inequality ; while equality
necessitates some sort of constraint. A just com-
promise between both principles is the only solution,
but it is rarely met with. The educational ideal which
emerges from this conflict, attempts to satisfy both
132
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
the need for freedom and the need for equality. Its
realisation will mean that all children would have equal
opportunities of development ; but at the same time
education will have to adapt itself so much to the in-
dividual needs of the children, that no special or
exceptional line of development need be suppressed.
Even should economic conditions allow such ideals to
be put into practice, there would still be the question
whether the demands made upon the teacher would not
prove to be too great. He will not only need a thorough
knowledge of all the various claims of society, so that
he can gradually prepare the children to adapt them-
selves to their life in the community, but he will also
need a delicate understanding of the children's various
temperaments and the difficulties connected with each.
He will need special tact besides, if he is to apply his
knowledge in the best way, so that the children may
develop along independent lines without undue pressure
from the teacher. Only thus can the combined ideal
of general and individual education be realised. The
educator will have to shape the child's surroundings
in such a way that the child may find in them what he
requires in each stage of his development. Thus the
educator will have to become himself a part of these
surroundings, rather than the sculptor who desires to
model the child according to a design of his own.
Freedom is the means, not the aim. The aim must
always be development, which implies the idea that
the child should learn to adapt himself to the lack of
freedom that exists in the world. It is therefore of
the utmost importance that the educator should thor-
oughly understand and sympathise with the inner life
of his pupil, so that he may have a clear vision of the
133
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
child's tendencies and struggles. Only under such
conditions will the teacher be able to develop the child's
conscience and self-confidence, while allowing his
special talents to attain their full growth.
Although there are many practical difficulties in the
way, it is probable that an increasing number of people
will devote their best powers to the service of such
ideals. Perhaps the most serious difficulty is due to
the differences between human beings, and the narrow-
ness of human character. It is surely due to differences
of temperament, that people so often misunderstand
and torture each other with the very best intentions
and principles. If all these disagreeable mistakes
could be avoided, the world would become a much
pleasanter place to live in. This not only applies to
adults, but more particularly to children, who often
become the victims of unsuitable education. The
knowledge of these mistakes and injustices sometimes
induces educators to throw all principles overboard ;
but this will not improve matters, and will only lead
to chaos. The real solution would be that instead of
formulating the principles of education in easy ignor-
ance, we should remodel them with a view to special
forms of character. For this purpose there is great
need nowadays of a true understanding of types of
character and of their individual needs. Anyone
seeking enlightenment on this subject from official
psychology, is likely to be bitterly disappointed.
Hitherto psychology has been chiefly concerned with
the investigation of the intellectual and perceptive
processes of the mind, with the object of laying down
as many generally valid laws as possible, in imitation of
natural science and its exact laws, where great results
134
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
have been obtained by starting with simple processes
which can be repeatedly observed and tested. Now
the intellectual and perceptive processes, because they
are less directly influenced by the whole personality,
are more easily isolated for the purpose of investiga-
tion than the emotional processes, which are more
complicated and differ more from one another. The
result has been that comparatively little attention
has been paid to the emotional life, which is never-
theless of the greatest importance for the study of
character types. Freud, though he has added so much
to the psychology of the emotions, has concerned
himself very little with the problem of classifying
character types, but, led by his practical experience,
has been chiefly interested in the origin of various
mental disturbances. His medical point of view has
emphasised problems and difficulties rather than their
possible solution, and so his psychology is of little use
for a classification of character. All the same human
character is constituted by such solutions and sublima-
tions far more than by its failures and difficulties. It
is true that suppressed tendencies and emotions may
give a certain colour to the character ; yet it would be
an exaggeration to say that the whole character is
dependent upon them. We have seen how Jung and
Maeder, in their treatment, draw special attention to
sublimations and their origins and inter-relations, and
how Freud has objected to this on account of the danger
of suggestion. This objection may be valid and useful
in practical treatment ; but in theory such one-sidedness
cannot be justified.
However great may be the importance of recognising
the individual type, and allowing it to develop in its
135
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
own characteristic way, no one can deny the possibility
of establishing the general validity of certain definite
principles of psychological development, and of certain
practical rules for dealing with it. The whole science
of education is based upon this possibility. Otherwise
all educative influences would have to be imposed upon
children from without, regardless of the way their
minds are constituted. To take another instance,
an important side of religion aims at assisting our
inner strivings ; and if these strivings were utterly
different in each individual case, the influence of
religion, which only aims at a general solution, would
then merely have a spoiling and distorting effect.
Freud and his followers are apt to make a bugbear of
" the schoolmaster " and " the parson/' This fear
is not wholly unwarranted, and is shared by many
other people. Both pedagogy and religion have,
too often relied upon dogmatic claims, and thus have
done violence to the growth of the mind. All con-
structive psychologists must be on their guard against
a similar error. The Zurich psychologists who are
consciously aiming at a synthetic psychology, are
aware of this danger, which they try to avoid by closely
examining the actual and potential characteristics
of each individual, in order to collect sufficient material
to build a general theory as to the aims and possi-
bilities of development. In this they clearly differ
from the theologians and pedagogues. But of course
the individual solutions at which they aim have a close
relation to the more general solutions ; and thus the
two schools of thought influence each other, in a way
which may prove of great benefit to psychology,
pedagogy and religion alike.
136
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
In defence of his synthetic psychology Jung has
pointed to other sciences, such as synthetic chemistry,
which tries to construct new combinations of matter,
in contrast to analytical chemistry, which aims at
reducing composite matter by the shortest possible
method to its component elements, and deduces the
qualities of composite matter from its elements, and
from the laws according to which its elements are
combined. Synthetic chemistry, on the other hand,
though it too is based on these elements and these
general laws, aims at applying and combining them in
new ways, so that attention is specially directed to
the difference between the various ways of forming
new composite matter, and to its new specific qualities.
To continue the comparison, a synthetic chemistry that
is not founded on the laws of analytical chemistry
would be an impossibility Anyone who tried to
work at synthetic chemistry without a thorough know-
ledge of analytical laws, would resemble the muddle-
headed alchemists of the middle-ages. Psychological
synthesis without analytical knowledge would be
equally dangerous. The comparison fails in one
point : the psychological process is not so much a
construction as a growth ; and intuition may make it
possible for us to enter imaginatively into this process
of growth without thoroughly understanding it, whereas
such intuitive methods would be utterly impossible
with any chemical process. All the same, if psychology
is to help us to a truly scientific understanding of our
needs, it must be based on analytical knowledge, and
not merely on intuition. A synthetic psychology can
only be formulated after analysis has furnished us
with extensive knowledge of spiritual development.
137
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
The most important part of Jung's work is his
classification of certain psychological types. In con-
trast with Freud's typical forms of failure, he is more
concerned with typical ways of sublimation. We must
begin by distinguishing between the original dis-
position of a human being, and his special character,
which is the product of his development. A character
is always a complex whole : it appears as an organised
entity, which is not yet revealed in the original dis-
position. The organisation and unity of the developed
mind is not merely the result of the repression of
what does not fit in with the whole ; for when we
compare its psychic content with that of a child or
savage, we find that the difference does not consist
merely in the repressed parts. The conscious develop-
ment of an individual is the process of differentiating
his original forms of expression when he is forced to
find new adaptations. This process will bring into
harmony various contrasts which at first appeared
irreconcilable. For instance, when a child or a savage
insists on realising all his desires, there will be an
impassable gulf between his selfishness and the general
interest. This selfishness may become circumscribed
and differentiated by the force of circumstances. He
may come to insist upon some only of his thoughts,
feelings and purposes. In so far as he does this, some
of his own interests will then be merged in the interests
of the community, and this will lead to a solution of
the conflict. To take another instance : a man may
have a very quarrelsome nature, and at the same
time feel a great need of affectionate relations with
other people. These two sides of his nature will con-
stantly give rise to inner struggles and conflict with his
138
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
surroundings, until he has found a wider and more
general interest, for which he can work in union with
others. A similar synthetic development may be
observed when someone is endeavouring to find a more
stable outlet for his sexual needs.
In the course of his investigations Jung was struck by
the fact that the individual adaptation, which leads
to differentiation, varies greatly in different people.
He was thus led to distinguish two groups, which he
named the introvert and extravert types. Introverts
are those persons who have an inwardly directed mind,
and whose life is governed by their inner needs. We
must not however identify this with selfishness, for the
inner nature is not merely selfish ; it often calls for
sacrifices, and it desires love and friendship, forces
which impel men to live for others. People of the
introvert type are not exclusively governed by their
own needs, because they are forced to take the circum-
stances of their environment into account. But when
different possibilities of action present themselves, they
will choose rather to be led by their own feelings and
opinions. Of the two worlds, the outer and the inner,
with which the psychic life is concerned, it is the inner
world which will be of most importance to the introvert.
The laws of the inner world may be seen most clearly
in certain psychic processes, such as fantasy or a logical
train of thought, although they may contain some
factors borrowed from the outer world.
Persons of the extravert type are primarily con-
cerned with adapting themselves to their surroundings.
They cannot of course entirely ignore their own dis-
position, but they specially develop that part of it
which is considered useful and desirable by the sur-
139
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
rounding world, without taking into account the
satisfaction of the most important needs of their own
nature. Their attitude of mind is turned chiefly
towards the outer world, and their psychic life is
governed more by their sense-perceptions, than by
inner needs and laws.
Both modes of adaptation are indispensable to every
living being. A person who only takes into account
his own instinctive needs, without adapting himself
to the claims of the outer world, would be incapable
of satisfying those very needs, and would die of starva-
tion. On the other hand, one who completely adapts
himself to his surroundings, without making any
attempt at selection, would submerge his own indivi-
duality and waste all his energy in being tactful.
In the unconscious or partially conscious condition of
the animal mind, the balance between these two adapta-
tions is naturally maintained ; for nature takes into
account the necessity of both. In man, this balance
is often upset by the conscious mental life. If once
our attention has been drawn to this distinction, we
shall easily notice the more pronounced instances of
either type. It will be found that most people belong
rather more to one type than to the other, governing
their life either with a view to their surroundings or
to their inner needs.
After Jung's practical experience as a neurologist had
led him to distinguish between these two mental
attitudes, his attention was drawn to another important
factor, the predominant mental function, which to-
gether with the predominant mental attitude are the
two chief influences that determine the form of adapta-
tion. Further investigation led Jung to distinguish
140
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
four primary functions, which he could not differentiate
any further. These functions, which co-exist in the
mind of every individual, Thinking, Feeling, Intuition
and Sensation, have long been recognised and distin-
guished by psychologists ; but Jung was the first to
point out that their effect will vary enormously accord-
ing to whether one or another is predominant. For
instance, if a person is chiefly guided by his feelings
when trying to adapt himself to daily life, his thoughts
and sensations, and also his actions, will be strongly
influenced by his feelings. This would apply also to
the predominance of any other function.
In order to understand the relations between the
functions, we must first consider the psychic life of
primitive man, and conceive the content of his mind as
centred round the unconscious instincts which are the
supreme governing force of his psychic life Con-
sciousness at this stage appears rather as a by-product
than as a dynamic factor. There is as yet no will, no
conscious striving, no sense of responsibility. The
fragmentary psychic events are governed by Sensation
and Intuition, in the form of impressions and impulses.
The unity and logic of the conscious civilised man is
still lacking ; and the primitive mind allows many
conflicting elements to exist in it side by side, which
would not be possible at a later stage of development.
Besides the instincts, the primitive mind contains
some vague knowledge about the object of its instinc-
tive activity, and it will also be vaguely aware of its
subjective attitude towards this object. These ele-
mentary functions however will be still mingled in
an indistinguishable whole, nor will they always be
found in equal proportions. If at any moment some
141
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
obstacle prevents or delays the instinctive activity,
then the thinking and feeling functions will get an
opportunity for being developed ; activity will then
be turned either into Thinking or Feeling, Thus we
see that the primitive mind, though mainly governed
by chance impulses, also contains some rudimentary
forms of Thinking and Feeling. This leads us to
consider the relations of these functions to Sensation
and Intuition. It is a mistake to regard these latter as
the immediate symptoms of instinctive life. Between
the instincts, as we find them manifested in animal
life, and Sensation and Intuition, lies the borderland
of the unconscious psychic life. This borderland of
unconscious processes is a development of the original
instincts, which conditions Sensation and Intuition.
Sensation does not mean a merely passive receptivity
to all impressions ; it also contains an unconscious
choice, which is determined by the general character
of the individual. In Intuition, the influence of the
unconscious is still more clearly seen ; intuitive action
or perception is still more obviously determined by the
unconscious process of discovering a certain meaning
or connection behind a given fact, and of moulding and
adapting this fact to personal needs. The uncon-
scious processes of choosing, discovering and com-
bining in Sensation and Intuition, lead to an immediate
experience of conviction ; but it is seldom possible to
discover the grounds on which this conviction is based.
If we try to penetrate into these unconscious origins
by a difficult and elaborate introspection, we may meet
with some curious psychic processes which are very
different indeed from conscious rational processes.
This has led Jung to adopt the term irrational or
142
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
empirical functions for Sensation and Intuition, as
contrasted with Thinking and Feeling which he calls
the rational functions.
Both Thinking and Feeling are functions concerned
with sorting and organising the conscious material of
the mind. Their activity presupposes the existence
of Sensation and Intuition, which provide the material
of the psychic event ; but this material is systematised
and classified by Thinking and Feeling, each using its
own method and its own standard of values. Hence
the name rational, which is given them by Jung. He
writes (XXXIV, p. 659) : " Rational means the reason-
able, or that which corresponds to reason. By reason
I understand an attitude of mind, the essence of which
is to shape thought, feeling and action according to
objective values, These objective values are estab-
lished by the average experience of facts both of the
outer world and of the inner life. . . . The rational
attitude which enables us to recognise the validity of
these objective values, is not the product of a single
individual's mind, but of the whole history of mankind.
Most objective values, and also reason itself, are firmly
welded complexes of conceptions which have come down
to us from remote ages, and have gradually been organ-
ised through countless thousands of years with the
same inevitableness with which a living organism
reacts to the average constantly recurring conditions
of its environment, confronting them with the corre-
sponding function-complexes, such as the eye which
completely corresponds with the nature of light. . . .
Reason therefore is the expression of man's adaptation
to the average event, and this adaptation has been
gradually developed into closely-organised complexes
143
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
of conceptions, which determine the objective
values."
Thought and Feeling differ greatly in their ways of
organising the conscious material. Thought is con-
cerned with sorting and classifying sensations and
impulses, so as to form a general survey of both the
inner and the outer world. It finds it necessary for
this purpose to restrain spontaneous and immediate
reactions, and replace them by the psychic process
of systematising actions and sensations. Feeling, on
the other hand, organises both sensations and impulses
under the influence of some psychic attitude, while
at the same time this psychic attitude is expressed
and worked out through the organising process.
Whereas Thought aims at defining and sorting its
material, and then organising it into one objective
system, Feeling combines and develops its material
into a synthesis. Thought consists of surveying
various possibilities of action, while Feeling leads to
one complex action, which unites in itself these various
possibilities. If an unpleasant remark is addressed to
a thinking type, he will usually, before he answers,
consider various possible ways of reacting. He
may either reply with a retort, or he may point
out the rudeness of the remark, or else he may try,
by turning the other cheek, to persuade the other that
he was in the wrong. In a similar case the feeling
type may react by combining all the above possibilities
into one expression.*
* Readers of Jung's book may notice that my views upon
certain theoretical matters are somewhat different from his. Accord-
ing to Jung, the function of Feeling is essentially one of valuation.
This definition seems to me insufficient, since other functions are
equally capable of assigning values, which may be either accepted
or rejected by the individual.
144
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
These various forms of psychic activity seem to be
always competing with one another ; they are never
equally powerful in the same mind. Each of these
functions is capable of independent growth and develop-
ment, that is to say they are able to loosen the bonds
which originally held them together and become
differentiated. O their functions will be suppressed
only in so far as they interfere with the leading func-
tions. I will now describe the nature of these differ-
entiated functions.
Sensation is the psychic function that draws the
perceptions into the conscious mind, both those which
we obtain from the outer world through our senses,
and those which arise from our inner physical condition
or its changes. Sensation is an element in the mental
image, since it supplies it with the perception of its
object. Sensation is also an element in Feeling,
because the quality of Feeling is largely determined
by the bodily and mental condition. In its original
form Sensation is always mixed up with images, feel-
ings and thoughts, and may then be spoken of as
concrete Sensation. It may also become differentiated
as pure and abstract Sensation, in which case it will
control the other psychic functions and suppress those
that might interfere with it. It may also control
the conscious will, which may then be said to become
subject to an aesthetic mental attitude. To the artist
especially this abstract Sensation is of great importance ;
and susceptibility to such impressions and emotions
is one of the most precious possessions of the human
mind. In those cases where Sensation is overshadowed
by Intuition, Feeling, or Thought, sensations will
very often fail to reach the consciousness ; while
145 K
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
those with whom Sensation is predominant, will
assimilate into consciousness as many impressions and
emotions as possible.
There is a great difference between extravert and
introvert Sensation, In the extravert type, Sensation
is dominated chiefly by impressions received through
the senses, while in the introvert type, it is the inner
sensations caused by these impressions that are pre-
dominant. We must be very careful not to confuse
these inner sensations with feelings They are not
the feelings themselves, but an original element in
them. The feelings are a product of conscious activity,
as we shall see later on, when we treat this question
more fully.
To persons who are primarily of an extravert sen-
sation type, the sensuous impressions of the outer world
are of predominant importance. It is what can be
seen, heard or touched that is of value to them, and
influences their actions. They are easily susceptible
to pleasure and grief, and they have great power of
aesthetic discrimination. On the other hand they are
very dependent on their surroundings, and so their
activity is chiefly reactive.
If Sensation is introvert, the mind is chiefly in-
fluenced by the inner sensations. An instance of this
type is the artist who approaches his work exclusively
from the subjective point of view. The more our
sensations are differentiated, the more clearly shall
we be able to appreciate what has eternal value for
humanity. Man possesses a certain inherited need
of Sensation, and the more he gives his sensations
free play, the better will he be able to distinguish those
which respond to his inmost nature. In these cases of
146
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
passive receptivity, all that happens is that the inner
sensations are differentiated and clarified but not
further developed. This inner mental activity usually
remains hidden from the outer world, and only those
impressions which touch the inmost being, can bring
about a reaction. The value of this function in its
developed form, may be said to consist in a sensitive-
ness to what has eternal significance, arising from
the profound needs of human nature. When this
type of mind is very pronounced, its onesidedness
will become evident ; such persons are too passive,
too much aloof from the world, and find a special
difficulty in self-expression. In consequence they
often give the impression of not having found a satis-
factory way of sublimation or adaptation.
Intuition is the spontaneous active expression of
the instincts, and of that part of the unconscious psychic
life which is most closely related to them.* Intuition
may mean a certain manner of perceiving or formu-
lating ideas ; but it may also manifest itself in feeling
or action. Intuition itself is not actually either
Thought or Feeling, but it is, as it were, a primitive
psychic function, which contains elements of Thought
and Feeling. It presents a complete psychic content,
the origin of which cannot be derived from other con-
scious contents. It brings with it its own immediate
conviction of certainty. In their primitive forms,
Intuition and Sensation are difficult to distinguish.
The distinction is one between spontaneous impulse
as opposed to susceptibility to impressions. But
* The name is derived from intueri, to contemplate. As names
for new ideas are generally chosen by men of intellect, it is not
surprising that the intellectual side of the function is emphasised in
the word Intuition.
147
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
impulse is always stimulated by impressions, while sus-
ceptibility is nearly always combined with a tendency
to react to these impressions in a certain manner.
When Intuition is differentiated, it becomes more
abstract. The psychic life will then grow to be further
removed from Sensation, while Feeling and Thought
will be only permitted so long as they do not disturb
spontaneous expression. The mind then consciously
attaches great value to spontaneous insight and
inspiration, and aims at being led by sudden impulses,
which it is always ready to accept. On the other hand
susceptibility to impressions is much diminished.
If Intuition is combined with an extravert attitude,
then the individual will form intuitive judgments of
what goes on in the outer world, and will be apt sud-
denly to discover connections between things, without
being able to explain them. Such judgments, and the
actions and expressions of feeling resulting from them,
are sometimes surprisingly justified later on by events,
or by a roundabout process of reasoning. While
Sensation is chiefly concerned with the actuality of
things, Intuition sees what is of personal importance.
It is specially gifted in discovering all the various
possibilities of individual development and activity.
Even in cases where Intuition is not the leading func-
tion, it is often capable of finding a solution where
no other function could succeed. Jung writes (XXXIV,
p. 527) : " If Intuition predominates, all the ordinary
circumstances of life seem to be enclosures, out of
which Intuition must find a way. It is always seeking
for new paths and new developments of life in an
outward direction. All circumstances soon appear to
the intuitive mind as a prison, or as an oppression,
148
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
which causes a longing for liberation. Things in the
outer world seem at times to acquire an exaggerated
value, when they can be made use of for the purpose
of a solution, or a liberation, or the discovery of new
possibilities. But as soon as they have served as a
bridge or ladder, they seem to have lost all value, and
are cast aside as unnecessary lumber. A fact is only
valued in so far as it may contain new potentialities,
which may outgrow the original fact and serve in turn
to liberate the individual. Possibilities, that arise
suddenly, become compelling motives to the intuitive
mind, and it will sacrifice for them everything else/'
In contrast with the advantages of this rich variety
of possible activities, we find the disadvantages of such
qualities as changeableness, fickleness and lack of
harmony.
While extravert Intuition deals with possibilities
of the outer world, introvert Intuition sums up psychic
events in images, which have a subjective value and
significance, and express inner possibilities. These
images appear as spontaneously as the judgments of
extravert Intuition, so that sometimes the images and
convictions are not recognised as having their origin
in the individual's own mind. This applies not only
to the hallucinations of the insane, but. also to the
inspiration of artists, prophets and saints. Nietzsche,
for example, is said to have felt as if his Zarathustra
had been dictated to him by someone else. But as
men's minds are nowadays chiefly directed towards
the outer world, we usually meet only with inferior
expressions of this function. The value of such
inspirations is more likely to be appreciated by artists
or by persons with deep religious feelings. The fact
149
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
that our instinctive disposition is made up out of the
deposit of the experience of innumerable preceding
generations, makes it seem possible that such products
of Intuition are of great value. If the intuitive func-
tion predominates, inspiration will be looked upon as
the most valuable psychic process. Sometimes this
inward contemplation is looked upon as an aim in
itself ; but it can only be called a form of sublimation
if the object of contemplation has some general or
personal significance, which will probably be of an
artistic, moral or religious kind. The disadvantage of
this intuitive function is the vagueness which it fre-
quently shows. Its predominance in the individual
will often lead to muddle-headed mysticism and over-
confidence in the subjective point of view.
We have described Feeling as the development of a
psychic attitude or reaction. This can be applied to
both the sensational and the intuitive side of Feeling.
Both in Sensation and Intuition there is a relation
between subject and object, which can be described
as an attitude of the individual towards his perceptions.
This attitude may be shortlived, variable and super-
ficial ; or else it may be durable, unvarying and
intense. It is only in the latter case that real Feeling
arises. All prolonged or intense sensations and intui-
tions are accompanied by Feeling, although it need not
necessarily be conscious or clearly marked. If the
feeling is a durable one, or if it is very intense, the
contents of the personality are more and more drawn
into its sphere and assist its development. In intense
sensations and intuitions we see this effect as emotion.
The influence is then felt throughout the body and
mind ; the heart-beat is accelerated, breathing be-
150
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
comes irregular, the colour comes and goes, and the
limbs sometimes relax or contract spasmodically.
Even memory, thought, judgment and will, in fact the
whole imaginative life, may thus be influenced. If
Intuition and Sensation are spread over a long period,
the result will be a mood This kind of Feeling can
be described as a grouping together and a becoming con-
scious of all the various processes of which it is com-
posed. Thus Feeling in its primitive form is never
unalloyed. Only where Feeling is the leading function,
will it become differentiated and pure, and will then
gradually dominate the whole psychic life. The
individual will feel an imperative need to have a stock
of these developed feelings ready to meet all emer-
gencies, and he will attach an absolute value to these
feelings. He will tend to link up his experiences into a
harmonious and synthetic whole, which will be strongly
coloured by Feeling. He will value and assimilate
everything that is consistent with his feelings, and
reject everything else. These feelings, as they become
independent of Sensation, Intuition and Thought,
will tend to dominate the whole psychic life, and will
be spun out to an infinite variety, which may be
expressed with great subtlety and plasticity.
In the extravert type, Feeling depends chiefly upon
the outer world, and the individual will feel a wide
range of contact between himself and his surroundings.
His life will be influenced, not so much by overpowering
emotions and moods, which are the expressions of non-
differentiated Feeling, but by the desire to bring his
perceptions, thoughts and actions into satisfactory
relation with the outer world. He will readily express
his feelings, and so endeavour to create a harmonious
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
atmosphere of which he stands in urgent need. His
expression of feeling will arouse similar feelings and
moods in others, and he will often show great skill in
this process of suggestion. His own complexity and
delicacy of feeling will enable him to understand the
feelings of others, even when they are imperfectly
expressed. This understanding may not always be
conscious, but it will appear in his reactions ; and all
these various qualities will help him to get into touch
more easily with others. The danger will be, that in
order to obtain a pleasant relationship, he may unduly
suppress other valuable sensations and intuitions,
and sometimes allow the objective truth to be obscured,
so that his Feeling comes to be satisfied with the
mere semblance of things.
The introvert feeling type is more interested in his
inner harmony. His deep emotions and moods are
often hidden from the outer world, except in the case
of an artist, who may reveal himself in delicately
sensitive expressions and actions. The feeling intro-
vert, like the sensation introvert, is inclined to shield
himself from the influences of the outer world, and
allows only what satisfies his inner needs to act upon his
mind But his sensations and moods will be much
more highly organised and developed, than would be
the case if Sensation alone predominated. His inner
life will be more individual and coherent. His attitude
towards the problems of life will determine which
sensations and impulses he will accept or reject. The
rich complexity of his feelings will enable him to find
certain ways of sublimation, but he will adapt himself
almost exclusively to his inner life. This adaptation
is of no immediate social use, unless he expresses him-
152
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
self in art or in religion. The unhappy fate of being
misunderstood is often the result of this lack of outward
expression.
Thinking aims at rejecting the personal influence, and
tries to formulate an objective system in which it can
classify the products of Sensation and Intuition.
Both Sensation and Intuition contain an element of
knowing, as well as an element of Feeling. This
element of knowing is abstracted by Thought, when
Thinking becomes the leading function : otherwise it
remains more or less mixed up with the other functions.
Our knowledge is made comprehensible by being
grouped into a system of ideas. While Feeling rejects
or accepts according to its psychic attitude, Thought
does so in accordance with the facts which it has recog-
nised and systematised. Undeveloped Thought is
Thought that is still intimately mixed up with Sensa-
tion and Intuition. Only gradually does Thought
become differentiated by rejecting what does not belong
to pure Thinking. It does not merely deal with facts,
but also aims at classifying impulses and feelings
according to their general usefulness, or in obedience to
an intuitive appreciation of their comparative values.
It is always endeavouring to formulate a system of
objective impersonal values. Ethics too is one of its
main products.
Although both extra vert and introvert Thinking are
thus concerned with fixing values, we find that their
different attitudes will produce very different results.
The thinking extravert classifies his sensations, accord-
ing to the opinions and ideas of the outer world, and of
his social surroundings. He also systematises by
Thought the life of the impulses, valuating it according
153
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
to principles borrowed from his surroundings. He
tends to neglect the claims of his inner disposition for
the sake of his experiences of the outer world. Material
facts are what chiefly govern his mind, and when his
Thought groups these facts into an objective system,
the result will often be a materialistic view of life. As
this system is obviously not the direct product of his
own inner needs, it will usually not be a very living
one, but of a somewhat formal nature. A man of
this type unconsciously makes the mistake of trans-
ferring the immediacy of his external sensations to his
method of dealing with his experiences. If his extra-
vert attitude is strongly marked, he will tend to neglect
more and more the assimilation and development of
experience, so that the final result will be a confused
and overwhelming mass of disconnected facts. We
find striking instances of this in the present state of
many sciences. It is natural that the thinking extra-
vert should be in danger of becoming dogmatic, when
he attempts to group his impulses according to popu-
larly accepted standards of value. When he is treating
facts alone, he may attain very valuable results ;
but when dealing with sensations and impulses, he has
to assimilate the opinions and principles of many
different people, in order to attain a sufficiently wide
point of view of his own. Thought alone can be of
little help to him here, for he must rely on principles
borrowed from his surroundings, and thus the only
valuable result is the systematising of these principles.
The thinking introvert will deal chiefly with the
actualities of his inner nature, and try to fix laws and
principles for his actions. All the same he can deal
with external sensations, just as th^xtravert thinker
154
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
can deal with mental experience obtained by intro-
spection. But just as in such a case the thinking
extravert confines his interest in the main to outward
symptoms and to what he hears from others, so the
thinking introvert will be more influenced b'y sub-
jective feelings and convictions when he is dealing with
external sensations. He will accept the objective
truth of his perceptions only in so far as they agree
with his theories and with his system of grouping his
perceptions. Accordingly his method of dealing with
external experience has less objective value than the
method of the thinking extravert. On the other hand
it has two advantages. Firstly the introvert's system
of grouping experiences will be more alive and creative,
because more light is thrown on the subjective element
by a deeper analysis, and the thinking introvert
always feels himself at home in abstractions. Secondly,
for the purpose of establishing objective values, the
introvert will derive more help from his own intro-
spection than the extravert, who tends to rely on
outward symptoms and the information of others.
All the same there is a danger that the introvert may
over-estimate the general validity of his own specially
systematised experience, and so may form wrong
judgments about the experiences of others, and fail
to take advantage of their corrective influence.
When dealing with intuitions, which appear in the
form of impulses and feelings, the thinking introvert
will aim at a kind of subjective economy rather than
at discovering universally valid principles. He is
more conscious of the subjective nature of his judg-
ments than a thinking extravert, and will admit almost
too readily that is judgments have only an individual
155
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
value. He bases them upon self-knowledge, carefully
measuring and balancing every impulse and feeling.
This over-cautious method may sometimes destroy
his activity and spontaneity. Thus there is a danger
both of his becoming sterile, and too obstinate and
theoretic in his opinions, because he spends too
much thought upon the search for a right line of
conduct.
Before I describe the psychological types resulting
from the predominance of the differentiated functions,
I must draw attention to their inter-relations. In the
first place we must remember that there is no clear line
of demarcation between the several types. These
functions are all present in every human being, and
it is often more difficult to distinguish them in imper-
fectly developed persons, or children, although even
then a distinct superiority of one function or of another
is often to be found. We must also remember that
when one function predominates, all the other func-
tions are not suppressed to the same degree, because
they do not all present such a contrast to each other
as Thought does to Feeling, or as Sensation does to
Intuition. It usually happens that there is a secondary,
less developed compensating function, which helps the
personality to adapt itself in a different direction, so
that when the predominant function is extravert, the
secondary function is introvert, and vice versa. But
as the secondary function is always the weaker, the
chief function is often made use of, even where it is
out of place. Certain functions are more useful for
156
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
some adaptations than for others. For instance,
Thought is particularly effective at testing various
facts and possibilities by means of experience, so that
theoretical and practical science is the special domain
of Thought. Feeling is useful in order to establish
harmonious relations in the outer and the inner world.
Extravert Feeling, which develops both sympathy
with others, and the expression of personal feeling,
is of great value in all human relations, and also in the
interpretative arts. Introvert Feeling, on the other
hand, enables men to enjoy the rich variety of their
inner nature. Intuition plays an important part,
when mere experience is of no help toward establishing
sympathetic relations with others. It is the function
that discovers new ground, as for instance in creative
art, or in commercial affairs. Sensation is of great
importance to the artist, and we owe to it the power of
enjoyment in general.
It sometimes happens, as I have said above, that the
success of the leading function tempts us to use it for
purposes for which it is less appropriate. When this
proves a failure, we either have recourse to some less
developed function, or else imitate other people's
expression of the appropriate function, which usually
means that we adopt a conventional behaviour.
A man of the thinking type, whose wife wishes to go
to a party, to which he does not want to go himself,
will first try to persuade her by reasoned arguments
that it is better for her not to go. He may next use
various conventional expressions of feeling to support
his case ; and finally he may lose his temper in order to
convince her. This all happens because he has been
unable satisfactorily to express his feeling that he
157
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
wants her to stay with him, in such a way that he can
influence her feelings.
A lady of the feeling type falls ill. She refuses to
send for the doctor, which would have been the obvious
thing to do, but persuades her husband to stay at home
and neglect his duties. She then dismisses a servant
because she has been so unfeeling as to break one of
the best plates. The next thing that happens is that
she sends for some medicine which had done so much
good to the mother of a friend in an illness that was
rather like her own. Finally, she will perhaps go to a
quack, in order that he may cure her by the old method
of laying on of hands. Such behaviour is mistaken,
because nothing that she chose to do could have led
to any useful result. Feeling was first called upon
to effect an adaptation, and when that proved in-
adequate, recourse was had to primitive or conventional
behaviour.
Sensation and Intuition, being less complicated func-
tions, are not in such marked contrast with each other.
Neither of them conveys to the mind the elaborately
developed conviction which is given us by Thought and
Feeling. If either Sensation or Intuition be the leading
function, it may happen that a slavish subjection to
the other less developed function will serve as com-
pensation. For instance, a merchant, who shows
extraordinary intuition in conducting his business, and
understanding the characters of his colleagues and
assistants, will sometimes become the blind slave of a
beautiful woman who is entirely unsuited to him. He
may also throw up some important plan, merely because
he feels out of sorts for the moment ; and both in his
business affairs and in his sexual life, he may be scrupu-
158
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
lously bound by convention, while completely neglecting
it in other matters. In this case subjection to certain
elementary sensations and to conventional ideas acts
as a compensation. Another instance is the man of
artistic feeling, who wishes to enjoy life in peace, and
yet may suddenly give way to an impulse, which will
force all sorts of unpleasant duties upon him. He
will feel bound to observe some religious or social
discipline which will interfere with his enjoyment of
life ; or he may suddenly disturb the pleasant atmos-
phere around him by some unexpected impulsive
outburst. His excessive receptivity will thus be
disturbed by some conventional idea, or else by an
intuitive impulse.
The predominance of one function at the expense of
the others, may not only hamper development by giving
rise to primitive or conventional forms of expression,
but it may also be the cause of more serious symptoms
such as neurosis. Jung has shown that such neurosis
often arises when the tension of the predominant
function becomes too great, because it is being used in a
case where some other fully developed function could
alone have brought about a satisfactory solution,
whereas now this secondary function in an undeveloped
form is forced to express itself unconsciously, thus
disturbing the conscious mental activity. This view
is so far in agreement with that of Freud, who also
recognises this onesided type of development, though
his work is more concerned with the problem of what
factors and processes have interfered with the expres-
sion of the unsublimated feelings and desires. Jung,
on the other hand, is more interested in the compen-
sating activity of this undeveloped part of the person-
159
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
ality, and tries to trace its attempts at development.
He considers that not only such manifestations of
the unconscious as dreams and psychic disturbances,
but also certain morbid symptoms, are all expressions
of a desire to get rid of a conscious onesidedness. He
quotes Nietzsche to prove that nervous symptoms
can be of great use to a man, because they may force
him into some kind of life, where he will find fuller
opportunities for developing what is valuable in him,
and will not be tempted to waste his powers in unpro-
ductive by-ways of activity. Jung writes (XXV,
p. 296) : " There are people the meaning of whose life
whose real significance lies in the unconscious ; in
consciousness lies only all that is vain and delusive.
With others the reverse is the case, and for them the
neurosis has another significance. An extended reduc-
tion * is appropriate to the one, but emphatically
unsuited to the other." For people of this kind, Jung
advises a synthetic treatment, which aims at bringing
the meaning of such unconscious processes into con-
sciousness and so developing their possibilities, rather
than an analytical treatment, which checks these
processes by tracing them back to the originating
desires and circumstances. I shall deal with the
relation between these conscious and unconscious
processes in a later chapter.
I will now describe in somewhat greater detail the
characteristics of the various types, and will begin with
their most pronounced forms.
* i.e. of the morbid symptoms.
160
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
A person of the extravert feeling type is dominated
by feelings, which are aroused by the outer world.
Probably this type is most pronounced among women.
The centre of their psychic life lies in their emotional
relations with other persons. They realise imagin-
atively their circumstances and feelings, and are able
to put themselves completely into their place. It was
this type in fact, which Jung originally regarded as the
real extravert type. They feel that their emotions
possess an objective value, and they find support for
this feeling in the fact that others are affected by
similar emotions, and that the world generally ascribes
certain values to them. They experience an over-
whelming need to test their emotions by those of others,
and to find agreement if possible. They are very
unhappy when they are out of touch with their sur-
roundings, and show great ingenuity in finding new
ways of getting into touch with them. If they cannot
find sympathy, they prefer strife to mere indifference,
They are specially adapted to life in a community, and
feel at home in any form of society where they can
find personal contacts and maintain elaborate emo-
tional relations. Though a difficult situation may
sometimes make them feel awkward, yet they do not
suffer from shyness, for they are too sure of being
able to adapt their emotions to circumstances. Since
more varied opportunities for such adaptations are
offered by intercourse with human beings than by
lifeless nature or animals, they will avoid solitude and
prefer such enjoyments and sports as can be shared
with others.
The feeling extravert has a special gift for expressing
the most varied shades of emotion, so that others may
161 L
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
be able to share his feelings. Accordingly we find that
the most famous preachers and orators, and the most
talented actors belong to this type. When our atten-
tion is drawn to a woman of this type, it is not so much
by the emphasis with which she expresses her feelings,
as by the delicacy with which the expression is adapted
to the occasion. She will never say or do anything
that might disturb a harmonious atmosphere ; on the
contrary she will help to create and maintain it in all
sorts of little ways. Feeling extraverts can never
remain mere spectators when anything happens which
touches their feelings, but will take part in creating
the emotional environment by their active sympathy.
Thus the French, who have developed the expression
of feeling to such a high degree, translate the verb
' ' to be present " at a ceremony by " assister " (XXIX,
p. 141). Persons of this type also show their desire
to share in the lives of others by continually making
engagements and seeking new acquaintances.
They have moreover a gift for expressing their
thoughts as well as their feelings, and so they often show
a decided talent for teaching. Some writers have
maintained that all thinking is done in words ; and
though I do not believe this to be always true, yet it
seems to be so in the case of the extravert feeling
type. They think in a dramatic form, as if they
were addressing an audience. Their thoughts and
emotions do not come into existence until they are
expressed, but arise through and during the process of
expression, which consequently often seems lengthy
and clumsy to a rapid abstract thinker. Their thoughts
well up and flow onwards while they are addressing
their hearers, a faculty which is of great advantage to
162
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
orators and lecturers, since it makes their speech more
living. But it is difficult for them to be brief and
businesslike in their communications. The fact that
Thinking is dominated by Feeling tends to blur their
thoughts, although they may often be expressed in
beautiful images and rich oratory, which will appeal
to the heart and imagination of the audience. The
thoughts of persons of this type will not carry so much
conviction as their feelings. Although they suppress
Thought when it comes into conflict with Feeling, yet
they cannot be said to be unreasonable people. They
often show much practical intelligence, because they
can vividly realise other persons and circumstances,
and know what they are aiming at themselves.
Their activities also are much influenced by Feeling.
Their outward appearance will often reveal the nature
of the feelings that dominate them, as may be seen in a
well-bred lady or a clergyman, as well as in demi-
mondaines and degenerate aristocrats of this type.
Their actions become more and more influenced by
their predominant feelings, which they have a growing
desire that other people should share. They wish to
prove to everyone that their feelings are the right ones,
all the more if there is some doubt as to whether general
opinion is on their side. When driven by powerful
feeling, they are able to exercise a great influence on
their environment, especially if they meet with sym-
pathy and support among those around them. But
usually their feelings are not so much expressed in
striking actions, as in the creation of a harmonious
emotional atmosphere.
They see themselves and their own lives only as they
are reflected in their relations with others, and in the
163
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
opinions of others about themselves ; and so they are
very sensitive to praise and criticism. Encouragement
will greatly strengthen and develop their emotional
reactions, while contradiction, or criticism that is
difficult to answer, often has a most depressing effect
upon them. Owing to their extra vert tendency, they
possess no inner certainty and conviction. Super-
ficially they often give the impression of only caring for
outward appearances. But we must remember that
they have no other means of knowing or of changing
themselves, than by observing the attitude of their
neighbours and trying to harmonise their own desires
with their environment. Thus it is through an out-
ward harmony that they will find the way to an inner
harmony. But there is a danger that they may
cleverly manage to bring about this outward harmony,
without really changing themselves as much as ought
to be necessary for the purpose. It is quite possible
for a feeling extravert to be an extreme socialist or
communist, and yet at the same time to be living in
idleness and luxury.
While the characteristics of this type may be of great
value in practical life, this is sometimes counterbalanced
in pronounced cases by certain disadvantages. For
instance they find it difficult to form businesslike judg-
ments, a failing which is usually considered to be
characteristic of the female sex. The personal side
of their emotions is very important, all the more that
they are not conscious of their subjective attitude,
but are convinced that their judgment is objective
and of general value. As this personal side is uncon-
scious it may lead to all kinds of conflicts which are
quite incomprehensible to them, and make them look
164
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
for the cause in other people instead of in their own
character. Another set of difficulties is caused by
the various feelings becoming markedly differentiated,
so that they may feel drawn in various directions.
They are always living on their outer selves, on their
points of contact with other people ; and they fail to
concentrate on their inner selves, where they might
compare and readjust their divergent feelings. Morbid
symptoms may arise, especially where the conflict
between acts and feelings is in strong contrast with the
desire for harmony. Here they will unconsciously
try to satisfy this desire for harmony by ignoring
their spiritual needs ; and the thoughts, sensations
and feelings, which were suppressed in order to pre-
serve harmony, will find a disguised outlet in morbid
symptoms. Hysterical patients, such as those de-
scribed in the first chapter, belong mostly to this type.
I agree with Freud that these expressions of the
unconscious contain everything that was thrust away
as useless from childhood upwards. But we should
also admit Jung's view that the impulse of the un-
conscious towards expression and consciousness indi-
cates an incipient desire for compensation. This
means that the feeling function, which tried to repress
everything for the sake of harmony, is thwarted so as
to make room, though very imperfectly, for some other
function. Inner harmony may be found by Thought ;
and Jung interprets some of the dreams of hysterical
patients, and their desire for solitude, as an incipient
attempt to find a solution by means of a hitherto
unused function. In order to find such a compensat-
ing function, a systematic introspection, which aims at
making everything conscious, will be of the greatest use.
165
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
Persons of the introvert feeling type find support
and direction in life by developing the subjective side of
their feelings. This type also is chiefly found among
women. They resemble the other introvert types by
the fact that their outward appearance and conduct
reveal very little of their inner life, so that introvert
types are much more difficult to distinguish than
extravert. The way in which they resist outside
influences is often more characteristic than their
positive expressions. The mask behind which they
hide, is a simple, gentle attitude, childlike or sometimes
melancholy, which may give the impression of coldness
or indifference. Superficially, one would never con-
sider these people to belong to the feeling type ; for
when moved by feeling they become quiet and absorbed,
and if ever they express themselves, they do so only
after they have worked out their emotion within them-
selves. Thus they are very often misunderstood by
their neighbours. They carefully hide their emo-
tional life from others, and only express it by secret
piety, or else in poetry, which they are very unwilling
that anyone should see. Usually they feel a secret
desire that some day the Tightness and excellence of
their own feelings should be acknowledged by others.
In some cases they tend unduly to assert their own
feelings by indirect means, not so much by communi-
cating and suggesting them to others, as by obstinately
resisting anything that might interfere with them.
They may be justified in this resistance, because it
is founded on a delicate emotional motive ; but their
166
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
manner of expressing it is not adapted to the outside
world, and for this reason proves unsatisfactory.
In the lives of such persons we constantly meet
with this inconsistency between motives and their
expression. Thus when they express their feeling in a
poem, they will weigh their words very carefully ; on
the other hand they will often neglect the ordinary
forms of politeness, which have no meaning for them,
or else they will hide behind some simple conventional
form of expression. Sometimes indeed their delicate
feelings will appear, and create an impression of
intimate contact, which however may be suddenly
broken off.
The feeling introvert is not affected by the opinions
of others about himself ; he judges and values his
feelings according to a subjective standard of intuitive
convictions. The warmth and confidence, which the
extravert feeling type can impart to everyone around
him, remains enclosed in the inner mind of the intro-
vert, providing him with a refuge in case of difficult
or unpleasant experiences. Such persons seldom give
the impression of great activity ; for circumstances will
not often offer them the right opportunity for actual-
ising their inwardly elaborated feelings, and they hardly
ever succeed in creating circumstances for themselves
They accept the fact that they must remain misunder-
stood.
They do not see the world as it really is. The
feeling extravert adopts only a certain part of the
outer world, and disregards all the rest : but the
attention of the feeling introvert is concentrated on
whatever comes into contact with his inner emotional
needs ; and as he is acutely conscious of this conflict,
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
he seldom ventures to show his feelings, which he
imagines no one could ever appreciate. A feeling
extravert, when he is lacking in adaptation in any
direction, is never conscious of it ; whereas a feeling
introvert will be very much aware of the fact that his
own feelings often do not correspond with their expres-
sion. Yet although he takes a sufficiently critical
view of himself and others, the result will not be a
better adaptation, but rather the undermining of his
self-confidence. He will assume that others are as
critical as himself, and he may grow to regard the outer
world as malignantly hostile ; while the consciousness
that his life is passing by joylessly, may lead to fear and
melancholy. Both in this case and in the case of the
thinking introvert, close acquaintance will bring to
light the curious contrast between inner assurance and
a hesitating and somewhat suspicious attitude towards
the outer world.
A person of the extravert thinking type directs his
life according to the facts of the outer world, and to the
principles of the community in which he lives. This
type is most often found among men. It will make
a great difference whether, in addition to their think-
ing function, persons of this type make most use of
Sensation or of Intuition, that is to say, whether their
Thinking is chiefly occupied with sorting perceptions
or impulses. In the first case, their Thinking will be
of a businesslike character. Among the scientific men
of our day we find many instances of the valuable
work performed by this function in discovering and
168
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
grouping new facts. But if it is Intuition that comes
second in importance, Thinking will occupy itself
more with sorting the potential ideas and motives of
conduct which are or have been current in the life of
the community. We find an instance in those philo-
sophers whose work is chiefly concerned with the history
of philosophy, and with co-ordinating the views of
various thinkers, a process in which creative work
may to some extent be achieved.
If the thinking function is of a less remarkable
quality, and lacks such creative power, the disadvantage
of its being the predominant function will be more
apparent. The businesslike quality may often degen-
erate into dry dullness : the generally accepted prin-
ciples and systems may become mere strait- jackets,
and so be a hindrance to many valuable possibilities
of development. The feelings especially will be
repressed, so that expression will lack all liveliness and
individuality. Nor will expression occur immediately ;
for the first impulse or reaction is held back until it
has been tested by the systematised experience. Good
and evil, right and wrong are judged according to
whether they fit into this system, which has an absolute
validity in the eyes of the thinking type. For them
it is the purest expression of the laws of the universe.
This applies to their scientific systems as well as to
their ethics. Whatever does not fit into them, they
regard as untrue, or as an exceptional chance. They
are convinced that after due consideration, such facts
can be made to agree with their system ; and if they
find something in their own nature, which cannot be
reconciled with their ethics, they regard it as a chance
imperfection, which they are sure some day to get rid
169
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
of. They are also ready to reject as abnormal or
morbid everything that does not fit in with their
ideas. Yet if their point of view is wide enough, such
persons often have a purifying and co-ordinating
influence on contemporary thought. But if they
have a narrow personality, they are apt to become
niggling cranks. Their activity is most fruitful in an
outward direction, and when they are giving shape to
new material. Their systematising will then produce
new ideas and clearness of vision. But if, on the other
hand, they find everything already fixed into a system,
they will aim merely at maintaining the status quo,
and resist every innovation in the most conservative
manner. They often cause all spontaneity to dry up
both in their own domestic circle and in their inner
nature.
If they do not entirely suppress their feelings,
they allow only a small amount to be expressed through
carefully regulated channels and according to definite
principles. As these principles depend a great deal
upon the outer world, it is evident that their emotions
will often appear very conventional. But sometimes
suppressed feelings may suddenly and unexpectedly
arise out of the unconscious, and their expression
will then seem quite inconsistent with conventional
principles and emotions. Such inconsistency will
appear in a sudden fit of violent temper, or in a case
where altruism, founded upon principles, is perverted
or destroyed by selfish motives. It may also happen
that they are driven by their feelings to use means to
attain their object which are not in accordance with
their principles. There is yet another inconsistency be-
tween their involuntary feelings and their conscious
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PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
attitude. This conscious attitude is more or less
impersonal, and sets aside personal interests if they
clash with propriety and convention ; whereas the
unconscious feelings are very sensitive on the personal
side, and if they find that someone does not agree with
them, they are apt to be annoyed, and this annoyance
may sometimes take the form of exaggerated sen-
sitiveness, or be expressed by involuntary insults.
Thus scientific discussions may easily become un-
necessarily heated. In daily life too, we often see that
quarrels about matters of principle give rise to anti-
pathy. Though the thinking extravert lacks the
conscious desire of the feeling type to bring together
all shades of opinion into one harmonious whole, this
desire may all the same be active in his unconscious
mind. He will then feel compelled to group together
a variety of experiences and co-ordinate them into one
theory or principle, which he will apply and defend on
all occasions with the enthusiasm of a fanatic. In-
stances of this are the Darwinian, who because of his
improved version of the story of the Creation, considers
that there is no value whatever in the Bible, and the
enthusiastic Freudian, who when he has realised the
powerful influence of infantile sexuality, relates all,
or nearly all, later psychic activity to this early in-
fluence. They both fall victims to their tendency to
stretch too far a theory which is only valid up to a
certain point.
The activities of thinking extraverts are directed
towards the outer world, from which they receive their
chief impulses and motives. But their contact with
others is not so extensive and intimate as in the case
of the extravert feeling type. The systematised
171
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
experience by which they test everything, interferes
with their relations with the world, and so they give
the impression of being cold and impersonal. Their
facial expression will at once reveal this to anyone of the
feeling type. Their emotional relationships often
present difficulties, because conventional expressions
prove inadequate, and unconscious feelings may cause
disturbances. Yet these thinking extraverts are usu-
ally well adapted to their surroundings, especially in
practical matters. Here they are continually stimu-
lated by their environment, and owing to their adapt-
ability they are usually successful in their activities,
which are often regular and on a large scale. Thought,
because it hinders impulsive actions, is an obstacle to
the development of great energy. But on the other
hand thinkers usually have their will-power well
developed. I agree with Jung that the will is the
expression of the consciously organised desires,
although, especially in the intuitive type, energy may
arise from an unconscious impulse, independently of
will-power.
Thought also tends to make activity of a permanent
character, so that persons of this type usually possess
great persistence. They are particularly suited to
scientific investigation, and to all the professions
which demand in the first place a sense of order,
accuracy and thoroughness. They are often better
able to deal with material things than with human
beings, for they are apt to be hampered by strait-laced
opinions and forms of expression. As belonging to
the thinking type, they lack the personal touch ;
and as extraverts, they lack understanding of the sub-
jective side. As we have already said, their uncon-
172
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
scious feelings may sometimes have a disturbing
influence, which may give rise to morbid symptoms,
such as doubt, suspicion and fear. In this case too the
treatment required for restoring a better balance will
consist in drawing the unconscious emotions into the
consciousness and developing them.
People of the introvert thinking type are also guided
by their systematised experience ; but in their case it
is chiefly the experience of their inner life. Their
system is based upon facts collected by introspection,
rather than by the senses, and is built up out of im-
pressions and impulses. Although their system is a
product of their own creative thought, they also make
use of the thoughts and ideas of others, if they are
suitable. They use their sensuous experiences as a
test for their opinions ; but these experiences have
not such a decisive influence as with the extravert
thinking type : they serve more as illustrations of
laws which Thought has already been forced to accept
on the ground of other experiences. Thus the dis-
advantage, as compared with the extravert thinking
type, is that the point of view of the thinking introvert
is not so exclusively -based on facts. Yet this dis-
advantage seems to be compensated by a more delicate
power of abstract thought and a deeper introspective
insight. Such persons have a great deal of self-
knowledge. The moral principles according to which
they sort and classify their impulses, are at the same
time an attempt at balancing their contradictory
intuitions ; but they usually do not consider these
173
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
principles to be general laws applicable to everyone.
They assume that other people also are subject to some
inner moral law ; but they are not so ready as the
thinking extra vert to take an objective interest in its
content.
Thinking introverts also are chiefly to be found
among the male sex. We have seen that Thought
tends in any case to interpose its system of sensations
and reactions between the individual and his sur-
roundings ; and the thinking introvert will be at an
even greater distance from the outer world than the
thinking extravert. Originally Jung considered this
type to be the true introvert type. Like all other
introverts, they strike one, even in their youth, by a
certain reserve. A child of an introvert type is apt
to be shy, quiet and timid, as though it did not feel
at home in the world. Chance expressions and un-
expected original remarks will from time to time show
that the child observes and reflects a great deal.
Introverts in general present a very different appear-
ance among strangers from what they do among inti-
mates, but even among intimates only a small part
of their inner life will be revealed. Thus thinking
introverts will always most carefully consider and
select their forms of expression. It is only under
violent emotion that their reasoned self-control is
broken through, and reactions appear which do not
seem to fit in at all with their usual attitude of reserve.
When they are pronouncing an opinion, they strike
one as somewhat cold, obstinate and arbitrary. One
feels as if they thought : " that is my opinion, which
shall not be altered, whether you agree with it or not."
No doubt they avoid conflict as much as possible, for
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PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
every introvert intensely dislikes being forced to
expose himself to the outside world ; they will there-
fore maintain a certain distance by means of a stiff
or polite attitude or even of apparent friendliness.
But in most cases this attitude is not very convincing :
it is easily felt to be a mask ; and one is aware that
they do not believe in it themselves, as thinking extra-
verts, for instance, believe in their conventional atti-
tude. Thinking introverts are thus likely to be
unsuccessful in their conventions (usually much to
their regret, for they would be only too glad to mask
themselves skilfully), and so their original emotions
come to light sooner than in the case of the extravert
thinking type. In their own small circle they may
be looked upon as witty and original, though some-
times also as difficult and hot-tempered. Sometimes
again a stiff and reserved person may show a very
gentle and sensitive side to his immediate neighbours.
Or else they may combine all these various qualities ;
for their emotional side is undeveloped, and contains a
mass of unsolved contradictions. In questions of
feeling, they are often very helpless and dependent
upon others, and so are easily exploited.
Great freedom of growth and many delicate shades
exist in the inner domain of their ideas and principles.
But their special difficulty is that they do not know
how or where to adapt their ideas to the world. They
find it incomprehensible that what seems so clear to
them is not always clear to others. So they take but
little pains to express themselves lucidly. Jung
writes about them (XXVI, p. 551) : " Even if they get
so far as to give their thoughts to the world, they do
not deal with them as a careful mother does with her
175
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
children, but expose them as foundlings, though they
will be much annoyed if their ideas fail to make their
way/' A thinking extravert will be hampered in
literary work by his wish to include in it the views of
other writers by means of endless quotations and notes ;
whereas the thinking introvert will be held up by all
kinds of reflections, limitations and additions, which
make his progress slow and his work clumsy and
unreadable. Kant is a good instance of the introvert,
and Darwin of the extravert type.
The lack of assurance in persons of the introvert
thinking type is shown by their attitude towards their
surroundings and by their manners, which are often
very awkward, being either exaggeratedly correct, or
childishly negligent. Since all emotional problems
present them with insoluble difficulties, they will
avoid them if possible ; but if they are unavoidable,
they will try to find salvation either by clinging on
principle to conventional forms, or else, equally on
principle, by venting their feelings in undifferentiated
forms of expression. Thus there is in reality a close
connection between the idealists, who talk enthu-
siastically about pure love, and condemn and loathe
all sexuality, and those who defend general lawlessness,
because they think that no restraint should be put
upon nature. A man of this kind, when he is in love,
will always feel awkward, uncertain and ridiculous.
He will try to escape from his difficulty of expression
by attempting to persuade himself that it is merely
a transient affection, or that the girl is not so attractive
after all. If he does not succeed in this, he will try
to express himself, and then it is often remarkable
what exaggerated importance he attaches to minutiae
176
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
of expression. His emotions will urge him to hold
forth at length about unimportant details, in order to
persuade himself that the state of things is such as
he would like it to be in reality. This tendency may
also be present in the unconscious, when the emotions
have been entirely repressed, and will then be some-
times revealed in an unpleasant manner. My experi-
ence with patients makes me think it probable that
most of those suffering from persecution mania belong
to this type.
Most thinking introverts are painfully conscious of
their lack of adaptability, and this often causes them to
feel inferior. They may hide this from the outer world
by pride or apparent conceit ; but inwardly they will
always feel themselves to be in the wrong. This
sense of inferiority is also connected with the way they
classify and organise their impulses. They build up
an ideal about themselves, to which their desires and
actions are meant to correspond. This happens with
introverts of other kinds ; but in the case of the think-
ing introvert, his ideal is formed in accordance with his
thought-system. As the feelings and desires which
this system deals with, are not restrained by the natural
limitations of reality, the ideal will often be affected
and unnatural in character, and quite unlike what would
be possible in reality. For the feeling introvert, such
an ideal is a practical matter, in so far as he desires
to see himself idealised in the opinions of other people
whose judgment he respects, or wishes to imitate some-
one who embodies this ideal for him. But the ideal
of the thinking introvert is far more a product of his
fantasy. The further it is removed from reality, the
more will he feel himself to be inferior. Such an ideal
177 M
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
may be connected with ambitions or erotic fantasies,
which have almost no basis ; and the fact that, al-
though they cannot be realised, they yet provide a
large amount of facile satisfaction, may sometimes
create a deep and dangerous chasm between his real
and his phantasy life.
I will use as an illustration the dream of a patient
who began to grow conscious of this condition during
treatment. He had been absorbed for a long time in
ambitious fantasies, in one of which he figured as a
general. He now dreamt that he was in command
of a besieged fortress. First of all he saw the outside
of the castle, and was struck by its curious shape.
Its foundations sloped inwards towards the bottom, so
that it seemed as if it rested on a relatively small
base. He immediately reflected that the fortress
would be difficult to defend, as that point might be
easily sawn through. After that he found himself
inside the castle, which then appeared to be a house in
which he had formerly lived. He was walking round,
dressed as a knight and holding -a sword in his hand,
giving orders to retreat into one part of the fortress,
as it could not be defended any longer. He was going
along a passage, when suddenly he found himself in
one of the main streets of Amsterdam, and felt some-
what awkward to be walking among ordinary people
dressed as a knight with a naked sword in his hand.
At first he could not at all understand the meaning of
this dream ; and yet there may be found in it a re-
markably plastic image of his mental condition.
The castle which is built on too small a foundation
and is therefore indefensible, represents the world
of his ambitious fantasies, which the treatment was
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
dealing with. And when he becomes aware of the
impossibility of realising these fantasies, he sees him-
self in the ordinary world, dressed up as if for the
stage, with a sword in his hand, which even in the
dream strikes him as strange and ridiculous.
The plasticity of such a dream seems almost too
obvious to be probable, and is a rare occurrence. It
shows clearly the tendency of the introvert to with-
draw from life into a fortified position. If this tendency
is not so strongly marked, it may lead him to think
out all his plans beforehand in the greatest detail,
so as to be prepared for every eventuality. The
thinking introvert who has been able to overcome his
weakness and fear of action, may develop into an
energetic and enterprising leader, who is not easily
turned aside from his purpose. But if the type is
markedly narrow, then he is in some danger of losing
himself in theories which recede further and further
from the facts of life, and of seeking satisfaction for
his emotional needs in fantasies. Contact with other
people may help to restore the balance.
The extravert intuitive type is more difficult to describe
than the feeling or thinking types, because one of its
chief characteristics is its instability and its great power
of adapting itself. The unconscious mental processes
of persons of this type make them aware of special
possibilities, which will then influence all their actions,
feelings and thoughts. Peaceful, well-balanced rela-
tions with their surroundings give them a sense of
discomfort. They express themselves more immedi-
179
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
ately than the other types both in actions and in words,
without taking thought beforehand, and without
necessarily expressing much of their personality.
They are always striving to realise the fulness of
life by realising their own being in its various mani-
festations. At one moment they will attach enormous
importance to certain human beings or problems,
which will be forgotten or thrust aside as soon as they
have served their purpose. Jung writes (XXXVI,
p. 528) : " They give the impression, which they seem
to share themselves, that they have just reached the
most definite crisis in their lives, and that henceforward
they will be incapable of acting or thinking in any
different way. . . . And yet the day will come when
this same condition, which now appears to them as a
deliverance, will seem to them to be a prison, and they
will feel compelled to act accordingly, notwithstanding
all possible arguments to the contrary, and although
it would be much more reasonable and practical not
to upset the balance/'
These intuitive people are apt to have lively, keen
minds, and to express themselves easily and abun-
dantly. They are less in contact with their fellow-
beings than the extravert feeling type, because they
are less able to elaborate their expression, and adapt
it to others. They have also less inner unity than the
thinking types, and their various forms of expression
are less co-ordinated. They only consider others to
be of importance in so far as they can assist or prevent
the realisation of their own potentialities of develop-
ment, as revealed to them by intuition ; and they are
apt to judge thoughts and principles, and the ethical
significance of their impulses, according to this one
180
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
practical point of view, and not according to generally
accepted standards. The only law which they re-
cognise is the inner power which is urging them
forward. Persons of a different type are often aston-
ished at the assurance of the intuitions by which they
are guided ; but if their self-confidence forsakes them
for a moment, they are completely at a loss. This
dependence upon impulses is apt to make them some-
what fickle. A dream of a markedly intuitive patient
gave me an interesting instance of this. He saw in
his dream a large motor-lorry, which had just broken
down, and he heard the bystanders protesting loudly
against the wild way the chauffeur had been driving
He defended him on the ground that such chauffeurs
were constantly obliged to drive different cars, so
that they never had a chance of growing familiar
with one type of machine. The analysis showed that
this dream symbolised an apology for his own mis-
takes caused by impetuosity. He had great diffi-
culty in controlling himself, as he was continually
being swayed by new impulses and emotions.
Such intuitive persons are often very active, because
they involuntarily tend to apply all their energy to
whatever may arise at the moment ; but they are
usually impatient for results, and have a great need of
variety. They display more impulsive energy than
concentrated will-power. They are especially at home
in those circumstances, where quick decision and ready
action are required, as in business, in surgery, or in
difficult military operations : but they often lack the
capacity to carry on the work systematically, and
bring it to a successful conclusion. This type is
probably found as often among women as among men ;
181
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
but women tend to use their intuition more in social
life, and for the purpose of attaining some definite
object If their personality is not too narrow, in-
tuitive extraverts may be of great use in the world as
discoverers and propagators of new ideas. Their
judgments are founded on immediate conviction,
rather than on elaborate thought ; and they often
provide a ready solution to some problem, while reason
lags behind, entangled in long arguments. Of course
their intuition may sometimes be wrong, and then
they will make profound mistakes, because they have
no means of controlling themselves. But if they
become aware of their mistakes, they usually know
how to hide or disguise them with great skill. The
difficulties that other people have to struggle with,
seem to leave them unaffected, for they are extremely
clever at escaping from tight corners. In spite of
their usual spontaneity and cheerful energy, they are
subject to moods of depression and uncertainty,
which they will always try to hide as much as possible.
Intuition strongly influences- both feelings and
thoughts in this type, with the result that they are
lively and often original, yet at the same time self-
centred. They express their feelings even more than
the feeling type ; and though the form of their expres-
sion is less elaborated, it is always spontaneous and
often very original. Many wits and artists belong to
this type. Their feelings are rarely permanent, and
they do not feel the need of arousing similar feelings
in others. They only seek to satisfy their own need of
expression. It therefore often happens that such
people can carry on long conversations without paying
any attention to the answers and remarks of the person
182
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
they are talking to. When they try to arouse a reaction
in other people, it is only with a special object, and not
because they wish to get into closer contact with
them. Indeed they rather fight shy of this, as they
are anxious not to lose their freedom of intuitive
action. They frequently have a great number of
acquaintances and friendly relations with people, but
no really intimate friends. Their contact with others
is very restricted, and as though limited almost to
a single point ; but as this is a very mobile point,
it seems much greater than it is, and its mobility
prevents adhesion or intimacy. This tendency to keep
people at a distance depends upon a hardly conscious
inner feeling of uncertainty, which is disguised by their
apparent decisiveness. As long as they can deal
with immediate events, their intuition will give them
assurance ; but when they have to meet the assurance
of others, especially if it is based on sound arguments
and fully developed thoughts and feelings, the implied
criticism of their own assurance is so painful to them
that they try to avoid it. They usually dislike de-
fining their thoughts or feelings too precisely, because
this would deprive them of spontaneity, which they
value above everything else.
We must regard their ego-centric quality rather as a
peculiar psychic form of reaction, than as an expression
of egoism. Both Thinking and Feeling aim at the
discovery of some common human ground as a basis
for adaptation. With the feeling type, this basis
will be found in the elaborated feelings that are common
to everyone : with the thinking type it will consist
in some common system of thought : while in the
intuitive type adaptation will be based upon the indi-
183
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
vidual expression of the instincts. Now surrounding
influences may very easily confuse and disturb this
expression, so it is an absolute necessity to the intuitive
extravert not to allow these influences to affect him
too much. Of course, there may be real egoists among
this type : but they are also found among the feeling
and thinking types ; and it is just as likely that im-
pulsive actions may be under the influence of non-
egoistic intuitions. All the same we may assume that
the development of the feeling and thinking type,
especially of extraverts, usually leads away from the
self towards more common human ground, while the
development of the extravert intuitive type is ego-
centric and aims rather at the realisation of the self.
Therefore the danger of egoism is greater with them
than with other extraverts, and it will chiefly depend
upon the nature of their aims whether their expressions
are of value to the community, or only to themselves.
There are fewer conflicts in the emotional life of the
intuitive than of the feeling type. It is true their
feelings are more full of contradictions ; but these do
not have such a disturbing effect, because the feelings
are less developed, and contact with the outer world is
more mobile and varied. Their ego-centric tendency
is shown by the fact that usually they only display
enthusiasm for a cause when they are able to play an
important part in it themselves ; and the rare occasions
when they show enthusiasm for other people depend
upon the amount of appreciation which they receive
from them. A person of the feeling type is equally
sensitive to the opinions of others about himself ; but
his reaction is more elaborated : he will weigh the
criticism very seriously and may even worry for days
184
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
about some unpleasant critical remark ; whereas the
intuitive type will show his childish vanity by trying to
avoid any criticism, or by assuming a hostile attitude
towards it.
In intellectual matters, persons of the intuitive type
show the same lively originality, combined with an ego-
centric tendency. They can argue with great intelli-
gence and are often considered authorities on various
questions. They use their thought exclusively in
order to obtain some definite result, never as an end in
itself, as with the thinking type. At school, these
types are often the despair of their teachers, because
though obviously intelligent, they refuse to exert and
develop their mental powers, unless they clearly see
some immediate advantage in doing so. Since they
do not rely upon Thought as the most important
function, they often do without it, and the result is
that their knowledge is often somewhat fragmentary
and their theories may be quite illogical. Thus in-
tellectually they resemble the feeling type ; yet they
may be of value to science, because their mental energy
will lead to discussion and research. In matters of
the intellect as well as of feeling, the intuitive will
avoid being too closely bound by fixed formulas and
laws, and he will try to avoid joining any special party,
either in science or in politics. He seldom expresses
his thoughts in a very definite form, and always seems
to keep some of them in reserve. This may give an
impression of insincerity or even of dishonesty ; but
the true reason is his desire for freedom of intuition.
The many-sidedness and versatility of intuitive extra-
verts will often make them excellent go-betweens.
But in spite of their apparent freedom of mind, they
185
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
are often bound by conventional opinions and ideas
borrowed from other people, and thus satisfy their
need to find a counterpoise to their own instability.
The great variety and fruitfulness of an intuitive
extra vert may be so exaggerated as to lead to sterility.
Other persons who are patient and persistent enough
to work out his ideas, may then reap the benefit of
them, and the superficiality of the originator's mind
will thus become evident. In such a case peculiar
reactions from the unconscious may come to the
surface in the form of pathological symptoms, the
effect of which is to prevent him from living intui-
tively. It is evident that the treatment here necessary
should aim at developing the compensating functions.
Introvert Intuition values inspiration above every-
thing else, because it opens the way to new possibilities
of development, which may not have much practical
value, yet may be of great artistic, moral or religious
value to humanity. The significance of such inspira-
tion is often at first difficult to understand, because it
is so vaguely expressed. This type includes mystical
dreamers, prophets, and persons of fantastic imagina-
tion. William Blake seems to me a good example
of an artist of this type. When such persons are not
able to express their originality in art, they appear to
be " possessed." As Jung says, they are suitable
characters for psychological novels. They are always
discovering in themselves wonderful thoughts and
feelings, images and impulses, to which they often
sacrifice their outward adaptation, and so may become
extremely wayward in their behaviour. If they
186
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
attempt to turn their intuition onto moral problems,
they will aim at making their own life a realisation of
their intuitive point of view, and will tend to find
symbolic meanings in everything. As prophets they
do not meet with much recognition, since their expres-
sion is so little adapted to their surroundings.
Though their beautiful, somewhat vague theories and
visions seem to lift them above ordinary human beings,
yet, to the critical observer, they often appear to be
unconsciously bound by various material concerns.
This, according to Jung, is the compensating extravert
sensation function, which, in its unconscious and unde-
veloped state, binds them to simple, instinctive impulses
and sensations. If too little attention is paid to this
compensating tendency, neurosis may result.
Persons of the extravert sensation type are governed
by their impressions, to which they react under the
influence of their instinctive desires, Facts, as per-
ceived by the senses, are to them the only reality. They
do not concern themselves with speculation or prin-
ciples : they are realists to an extreme degree. They
do not feel the need of formulating their experiences
into a system, but their reactions are continually
urging them forward from one sensation to another.
Their attitude is not entirely passive, for they show a
certain degree of psychic activity in the way they are
affected by external impressions. But this activity
is chiefly unconscious, and much less marked than in
the intuitive type. It would not be true to say that
they are entirely without principle, or that their life
is unrestrained. Sensual pleasure is their chief object
187
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
in life ; but they require restraint, discipline, and a
certain amount of self-sacrifice and public spirit in
order to get the most out of life, just as much as do the
other types when developing their special functions
to the highest degree. Thus their life is not without
order, which is based, not on personal principles or
feelings, but on traditions and customs, upon which
humanity has relied throughout the ages. We must
be careful not to underestimate the importance of such
tradition, since the whole organisation and stability of
human society depends upon it. Persons of the extra-
vert sensation type, more than any others, will find how
dangerous it is to forsake the old paths which have
stood the test of time.
A great many so-called ordinary people belong to this
class. Their only striking quality may be that they are
masters in the art of living. They are pleasant people,
good comrades and gay companions. They often have
great powers of observation, and so make excellent
doctors and engineers. Their tendency to collect and
classify large numbers of facts, is akin to the love they
sometimes show of collecting objects of aesthetic or
scientific interest. Persons with good taste and an
aesthetic appreciation of the higher pleasures in life,
belong to this type, although they would often regard
themselves as belonging to the feeling type because of
their great sensitiveness. They are often clever at
arguing about the problems and theories of life, but
they do so more for the sake of conversation than of
the problems themselves. In order to experience
certain sensations, they will launch forth into all
kinds of subjects to which they are usually quite
indifferent. They seek strong and special sensations,
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PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
not merely pleasant ones. They try to bring the out-
ward appearance of their life into harmony with their
ideals. They dress well, live in comfortable sur-
roundings, and have good manners and the necessary
variety in their conversation and way of living. They
often have a great knowledge and love of nature, but
are very little concerned with the inner side of their
life. Any expression of this inner life which might
upset their happiness, is thrust aside as morbid. They
are apt to make the mistake of considering the feelings
and thoughts of others as akin to their own sensations.
Their activity chiefly lies in reacting, and in making
the necessary effort in order to obtain their sensations.
In some cases, such as coarse, sensual natures, or
selfish aesthetes, the search for sensations is very
strained. The other functions will then appear as
the expressions of the unconscious : but I have no
space here fully to describe the nature of such pheno-
mena, because I should then have to deal at some length
with primitive psychology and pathological questions.
The treatment of persons of this type is always very
difficult, as they do not find it easy to get to know
themselves, or to develop their undeveloped functions
into useful mental instruments. They often obstin-
ately persist in ascribing their symptoms solely to
physical causes, and find great support for this view in
contemporary medical science.
Persons of the introvert sensation type are governed
by their inner sensations, and like the other types that
are governed by irrational or empirical functions, they
189
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
are dependent upon the chance event. What is
important to them is not the cause or objective strength
of any given sensation, but the degree of their sus-
ceptibility to it, which might be called the subjective
side of sensation. Such sensitiveness to sensation
may on occasions predominate in everyone ; but in
this type it is the outcome of the inherited disposition
and early experiences combined, and so predominates
over all other functions, and the whole mental life is
adapted to it. If outward circumstances have no
disturbing influence, this adaptation may satisfy
all inner needs. As in most cases this inner satisfac-
tion does not reveal itself to the outer world, such
persons often appear to be very unhappy and will
receive much undeserved sympathy. They usually
give the impression of being reserved, quiet and passive.
The special quality of their sensations only appears in
exceptional cases, for instance if they are artists :
otherwise any original characteristics they may possess
will remain almost completely hidden, though the
outsider may be vaguely aware that there is something
remarkable about them. This habit of keeping their
inner life entirely to themselves without taking any
pains to express it, may be attractive to some people,
but is likely to be irritating to most.
Persons of this type generally suppress the spon-
taneous and impulsive side of their nature, because it
would interfere with their receptivity. As their
reserve prevents them from receiving much outside
stimulus, they are not usually very active. Their
lives lack a conscious direction and they have little
concentration of will-power. Their outward circum-
stances are often out of harmony with their desires,
190
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
and they may react to this in two different
ways.
a. They may try to adapt themselves to the claims of
the outer world, and will tend to regard their own
sensations as morbid when they differ from those of
others. Consequently they will suffer from a sense of
inferiority.
b. They may turn away still further from the outer
world, and withdraw entirely into themselves. Any
adaptation to others will seem to them mere hypocrisy ;
and they sometimes show great cleverness in belittling
other people's motives and ideals. All this is an in-
ferior outlet for repressed intuition ; and when such
intuition becomes obsessive, a more serious conflict
will arise. The lack of inner satisfaction will then
cause a state of apathy and depression, with occasional
unexpected intuitive outbursts in the form of over-
excitement or aggressiveness.
It is of great importance that such persons .should
counteract their passiveness and dependence upon
chance events by regular work and discipline ; also that
Thinking and Feeling should help them to find some sort
of contact with the rest of the world. They will then
gradually discover new and valuable forms of self-
expression, and they will avoid the disturbing influence
of their unconscious impulses.
To conclude this resume, I will call attention to a
few points which I have not yet dealt with. It should
be understood that there are no clear lines of demarca-
tion between these types. They are all developed out
191
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
of a more primitive type of man, in whom these func-
tions, guided by instinctive needs, co-operated in a
more unconscious way. Any onesidedness in the
development of these functions will in the long run
give rise to some compensation ; and if this way of
development is understood and followed, the various
divergent types will be gradually brought nearer to
each other. One function rarely predominates to
such an extreme degree as to exclude all others ; as a
rule other functions are used as well, so that there is a
continuous gradation from one type to another.
Accordingly this classification, like all classifications of
character, may well appear to be somewhat arbitrary.
Jung himself does not deny that other methods of
classification are possible, or that other fundamental
functions might be discovered. Nevertheless it seems
to me that Jung's method of differentiating the types
by means of their various forms of adaptation is one
of his most fruitful ideas, and that the way he applies
it to his practical work is as important as the insight
which Freud has given us into the origin of various
psychic products.
Jung's book on this subject deals with many points
which I have only been able to treat in a summary way.
It includes a comparison between other methods of
classification and his own, showing that they are often
very similar, though they do not cover so much ground.
He also gives numerous details of the history of human-
ity, dealing with them from the point of view of con-
trasted types, and tracing various efforts that have
been made to solve these contrasts. He proposes to
deal in a future volume with the technique of his treat-
ment. Jung's theory about types is only the beginning
192
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
of the work that will have to be done upon this subject,
and a vast amount of material will have to be tested
and worked over, before we can attain to any scientific
certainty. Freud and his followers have been able to
collect a larger amount of material in support of their
theories than Jung has yet done for his ; and more
time is required before their validity can be finally
tested.
I cannot agree with the opinion of many of Freud's
followers that Jung's theories are superficial and un-
important as compared with Psycho-analysis proper,
or that he has contributed very little that is of value.
The followers of Freud, thrilled by the new possi-
bilities of understanding their patients, which their
discovery of the unconscious has given them, have
directed their minds chiefly to that side of psychology,
and emphasised the contrast between the conscious
and the unconscious. It seems to me that Jung has
made an important advance by drawing attention
to the possibilities of co-operation between the con-
scious and the unconscious, and by maintaining that the
conscious psyche is the organised and sublimated part
of the mind. In my opinion this in no way detracts
from the genius of Freud, but it makes psychology a
more complicated and difficult subject.
Freud's teaching has given us information about
certain characteristic disturbances and difficulties ;
while in addition we have learnt from Jung the solu-
tion of these difficulties, and the various typical possi-
bilities of development. Whereas Freud's psychology
shows us clearly the faults and failures of others,
Jung's theory of types helps us to appreciate their
different ways of adaptation, and to understand their
193 N
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
success. It will also throw light on the contrasts and
misunderstandings between the types, which are such
frequent obstacles to co-operation and sympathy
among human beings. I will now give a short descrip-
tion of these contrasts.
It would seem that the widest contrast is that be-
tween extreme cases of extra vert and introvert. The
extravert impresses the introvert as superficial and
satisfied with mere appearances. The introvert finds
it difficult to distinguish between his own conventional
adaptation and the extravert's personal adaptation.
On the other hand, the extravert looks upon the intro-
vert as a self-satisfied, eccentric and incalculable human
being, because he believes him to be entirely dominated
by the same strange impulses which he himself has
experienced on rare occasions.
The difference between rational and empirical persons
is no less marked. Any event can be regarded either as
dependent upon law or upon chance ; that is to say
we regard it as dependent upon law if it fits in with our
systematised thoughts or feelings, and upon chance if
it does not do so. In so far as an event depends upon
law, reason can deal with it. The empirical types do
not rely on these systems ; at any rate they do so
much less than the rational types ; and thus it is that
they accept the element of chance much more readily
than the thinking and feeling types. They are not so
much irrational as empirical. Their rational side is a
secondary function, and their dependence upon chance
events makes them seem to the rational types to be
opportunists and deficient in character. Conversely,
the empirical mind finds it very difficult to conceive
that anyone can value rational principles and ideals
194
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
above the realities of life. If he imagines at all what
they are like, he looks upon them as unpractical or
theoretical fanatics, who would be more suitable for
the profession of clergymen or university dons than for
ordinary practical life.
The contrast between the thinking and feeling types
is again quite different. Here too we see that one indi-
vidual can judge another only by comparing him with
himself. The result will be that a narrow thinking
type will consider the feelings of the opposite type
to be just as undeveloped, inferior and conventional
as his own ; while the feeling type will not take into
account the thoughts and principles of the thinking
type, because he expects them to be of as little value
as he feels his own to be. Again, from the point of
view of the thinking type with its fixed laws, the feeling
type will seem to be as variable and fickle as the sen-
sational or the intuitive type. But to the feeling type,
the thinking type will appear to be always making use
of circumstances in a cold, hard and calculating manner.
This is somewhat the same impression as is produced
upon him by the businesslike adaptation of the in-
tuitive or the sensation type.
The sensation and the intuitive types are also
opposed. The quiet adaptation to facts and to emo-
tional needs, and the desire not to depart from historical
tradition, which characterise the sensation type are
very different from the active, restless search for possi-
bilities and change which we find in the intuitive type.
Here again each type will judge the predominating
function of the other by comparing it to his own
undeveloped function. The intuitions of the sensation
type disturb the enjoyment he is seeking ; but if the
195
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
contrast between his functions is not too great, these
intuitions will provide him with agreeable and varied
experiences. Thus he will regard the intuitive in one
way as a fickle and restless being, who fails to enjoy
life because of sudden impulses and fancies, while in
another way he will look upon the originality of the
intuitive as a valuable addition to the sensations to be
got out of life. Again, the freedom of the intuitive is
sometimes unpleasantly restricted by sensations arising
from the unconscious, and he will infer that similar
restrictions exist in the sensation type, although the
latter may give an impression of calm assurance.
All these contrasts may be still further complicated
in various ways. Thus a thinking introvert will find
it very difficult to understand a feeling extravert, and
in a different way he will feel at a loss with an intuitive
or sensational extravert. When we consider all these
opportunities for misunderstanding, we may well
wonder that human beings have all the same discovered
so many useful forms of contact. But in the first
place we must remember that such misunderstandings
are the cause not only of unjustified contempt and
repulsion, but also of unexpected appreciation and
attraction. Thus it may happen that someone, who
is aware of his own shortcomings, may for that very
reason appreciate in others the special adaptations
which he himself lacks. This appreciation is some-
times exaggerated at moments of psychic crisis.
Introverts in particular often suffer from such exag-
geration : and this gives them a sense of inferiority.
Conscious agreement in their judgments may cause an
involuntary bond between the thinking and feeling
types, just as a common experience of chance events
196
PSYCHOLOGICAL TYPES
may be a bond between the empirical types. But such
relations may also be due to unconscious causes. We
often find that strongly opposed types, who do not in
the least understand each other, nevertheless attract
one another as if by magic. We can partly explain
this by the fact that for practical purposes they com-
plete each other, as often happens in marriage or in
business associations. But this does not explain the
process by which they discovered one another. More-
over these relations often exist without any practical
object or result. We must therefore assume that some
unconscious undeveloped function is urging one of
them to discover in the other that more developed
form of the same function, of which he is in such need
for his own development. Although in some cases
part of this process may be conscious, yet such relations
do not really admit of a conscious examination, for
then the contrasts would be brought to light and
would cause mutual disparagement, because what is
of most value in one mind is just what is inferior in the
other.
This attraction between contrasted types is certainly
not the only, nor the chief bond in which the uncon-
scious plays an important part. The undeveloped,
unconscious function of one person may be attracted
by a similar undeveloped but conscious function in
another, as when a girl, who has been very strictly
brought up, is fascinated by a libertine and rejects
all parental advice, or as when an honest business man
feels bound, against his better judgment, to place
himself in the power of a man of bad reputation.
Freud has given many illustrations of similar uncon-
scious attractions in his psychological writings.
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CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
Thus we see that sympathy, as well as antipathy,
may give rise to numerous misunderstandings. Hence
there is great need of a psychology which may help us
to understand the differences between the various
types. Such a psychology should also throw light on
the contrasts between nationalities. It is of course
absurd to judge a whole nation as if it were a single
individual ; yet we see that a nation will cling to certain
definite ideals, which are those of its average indi-
vidual, and will impose them through the medium of
education. Hence the culture of one nationality
often shows the characteristics of a special type. It
is much easier to explain the contrast between French
and German mentality, if we realise the importance of
Feeling to the Frenchman, and the predominance of
Thinking in the German ; and a similar method should
help us to understand the impulsive intuitive American,
and the Englishman with his differentiated sensations
and his respect for tradition.
198
CHAPTER VI
THE RELATION BETWEEN THE CONSCIOUS
AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
INVESTIGATIONS into the unconscious processes have
very largely modified and extended our conception of
the unconscious mind. Formerly only certain strictly
limited psychic processes were conceived of as uncon-
scious, and it was thought that these could at times be
made conscious, though not without difficulty. These
unconscious processes suggested a hypothetical explana-
tion of many mysterious symptoms. This view is held
by Freud in regard to a great part of these processes.
He also considers that extensive introspection, helped
by the study of dreams and fantasies, can bring to light
many unconscious processes. But besides these, he
assumes the existence of active unconscious processes
which cannot be made conscious, and whose existence
can only be proved by observing their influence on the
conscious mind. Here also the unconscious is the
hypothetical explanation of various conscious distur-
bances ; but it is more difficult to produce immediate
proofs to support it. However such hypotheses are
always allowed in science, on condition that they are
continually being tested by facts. We find numerous
instances in natural science (XVIII, p. 29) such as
the theory of atoms and molecules, which no one
has ever directly perceived, yet to which we ascribe
199
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
powerful energies. We could extend this comparison
by saying that just as all material events are based upon
atoms and molecules, so all perceivable psychic events
are based on unconscious psychic processes. Freud
gradually reached this conclusion through the theory
that instinctive desires are the basis of the entire psychic
life. This theory has really carried him beyond psy-
chology, the task of which consists in tracing the laws
of the psychic life without troubling to discover upon
what it is based. Freud is aware of this, and therefore
talks of meta-psychological theories (XIV, p. 200) on
the analogy of metaphysics, which aim at discovering
the basis of physical phenomena. But in so far as
certain definite unconscious processes are examined
from the point of view of their relation to some con-
sciously experienced result, this study should certainly
form part of pure psychology.
Freud has drawn special attention to the fact that
repression may be the cause why a desire, with all its
related feelings and images, fails to rise into conscious-
ness. Thus the unconscious would consist of the
repressed or useless part of the mind. But this seems
to me a somewhat narrow view, even according to
Freud's own theories ; for if we agree with him that
conscious life is based on these unconscious forces,
we should also admit the possibility that there may be
some part of the unconscious which owing to various
causes, quite apart from repression, has not been
developed into consciousness.* Jung and Maeder
have extended Freud's theories, by suggesting that
this unconscious part of the mind is its undeveloped
* This would be called the " Primary Unconscious " according
to Tansley (See Note, p. 113).
200
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
rather than its repressed side. They therefore look
upon the unconscious as a source of development,
instances of which we saw in dreams and in the in-
spirations of artists and inventors, as I described in a
former chapter. We also saw that these expressions
of the unconscious are sometimes the compensations
of a one-sided development. We occasionally find
entirely new material among these expressions, as in
the remarkable experiences of telepathy and dreams,
which the Society of Psychical Research has collected.
Some forms of insanity also present us with quite new
expressions of the unconscious. We often find delu-
sions which cannot be traced back to the early life of the
patients, and show a remarkable resemblance to the con-
tents of the mind of primitive man. I may also mention
the experiences of mystics, who hear voices or see
visions when they are in a special state of mind. All
these mental products depend upon the unconscious ;
and it is probable that, besides many regressive ele-
ments, they also contain some new creative elements.
It is difficult to base a comprehensive understanding
of the unconscious upon the above theories alone.
Freud's theory, which emphasises repression, seems
unsatisfactory, because he does not sufficiently take
into account the development of new possibilities out
of unconscious impulses. Jung, on the other hand,
regards the unconscious more as the inherited dis-
position, and he sees a remarkable connection between
expressions of insanity, certain dreams, forms of art
or scientific views on the one hand, and the forms of
expression of our primitive ancestors on the other.
He gives the name of " the collective unconscious "
to that part of the mind which in the course of ages
201
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
has been determined by the inherited form of brain-
structure, and which we find expressed in the disposi-
tion common to all mankind. The various psychic
products which we find in the history of human culture
throughout the ages, such as ancient religions, mytho-
logies and superstitions, often reveal striking similari-
ties. These have convinced some scientists that the
various ancient races must have had some means of
contact, of which there is no record ; but Jung ascribes
the similarity to a common psychical structure of the
unconscious mind. If we accept this theory, we shall
find that these psychical products of the race are an
excellent means by which to investigate the structure
of the collective unconscious. The curious ideas
which primitive man connects with natural phenomena,
must then be regarded as the projected content of his
own unconscious psyche. Freud and some of his
pupils have also to some extent accepted this view
(XVI), but they trace the origin of these psychic
phenomena to the influence of environment, while Jung
tries to discover in them a -tentative and groping
process of evolution Here again it seems to me that
these two theories do not so much oppose as complete
and correct one another.
The followers of both schools however agree that the
various influences of the unconscious form a connecting
link between the conscious life of modern man and
the impulses, thoughts and feelings of another lower
mental sphere, which bears some resemblance to the
spiritual life of our primitive ancestors. But Freud,
as we have seen, emphasises the importance of the
experiences of early childhood in their influence upon
development, whereas Jung tends to lay more stress
202
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
on inherited disposition, which he explains by his
theory of the collective unconscious.
Anyone who undertakes a serious study of the ex-
pressions of his unconscious psyche, will experience a
considerable extension of his conscious personality,
since he will not only penetrate into earlier stages of his
development and perceive the threads which bind his
present life to his past, but he will also discover powers
of a vague and remote nature which link him to the
experiences and potentialities of his race. This exten-
sion of his inner experience is not without danger,
because the conscious content of his mind is apt to grow
vague and chaotic, and so may seriously threaten his
organised spiritual life and lead to insanity. It is
therefore desirable that the investigation of the uncon-
scious should be made under the systematic guidance of
an experienced doctor, in order that the newly dis-
covered material may be immediately organised. It is
most inadvisable to treat Psycho-analysis as an amusing
game or pastime Self-analysis should only be under-
taken by those who are aware of its serious character
and of its dangers, and who are in real need of it. This
may explain and justify the objections which many
healthy people entertain against this stirring up of the
unconscious. They usually feel completely remote
from such things and are content to remain so.
So far, the synthetic method of introspection has
been used to advantage chiefly in the case of patients
who wished to get rid of disturbing symptoms. But it
may very well prove that a general application of this
method will be of great assistance to the development
both of the normal man and of the human race in
general. It is clear that persons who are not much
203
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
troubled by symptoms arising from the unconscious,
will derive more benefit from a synthetic than from
an analytic treatment ; their aim will be to collect
material for their further development, rather than
to get rid of troublesome mental products Hence a
genuine Freudian psycho-analysis rarely finds in
healthy people any urgent motive for penetrating into
their repressed spheres. Even where there are slight
morbid symptoms with no particularly disturbing
results, there does not seem to be sufficient reason for
the analytic method. But the synthetic method,
which aims at discovering all possibilities of develop-
ment, by means of the expression of the unconscious,
resembles much more closely the conscious strivings of
many human beings ; and this resemblance will help
to overcome the resistance, which may occur in the
course of introspection. Thus synthetic analysis is in
close connection with conscious self-knowledge. Freud
would probably regard this method merely as the
process of bringing the pre-conscious into full con-
sciousness ; but this seems to me too simple an ex-
planation.
, We must now consider a question which is occupying
the minds of many psychologists of our day : what is
the relative importance of conscious and of unconscious
strivings in the development of the mind ; and will
a systematised investigation of the unconscious always
lead to greater clearness and harmony in the individual's
psychic development ? We must first explain more
exactly what we mean by psychic development. All
living organisms develop through the interaction of
outer circumstances and inner disposition, so that they
are continually finding ever better adaptations to the
204
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
demands of both. The growth of a tree adapts itself
to the quality of the soil and the prevalent winds, while
.at the same time it realises more and more completely
the inborn nature of the tree. Psychic development
also contains these two aspects. The influence of the
outer world is too evident to need explanation. Freud
has increased our knowledge of it in many respects.
But two opinions are possible as to the importance of
the inborn disposition. We may either regard the
conscious personality as being the genuine expression
of the disposition, and attach little importance to
the unconscious processes ; or else we may consider
that the inborn disposition is manifested chiefly in the
unconscious processes, whereas the consciously organ-
ised part of the mind represents a more or less arbitrary
expression of the disposition. Our opinion as to the
value of introspection will depend upon which of these
two views we hold.
If we turn our attention to the psychic event in
ourselves, we find that this event is both complex and
simple at the same time. For everything that we
experience is experienced by our Ego, and is, as it
were, assimilated by it. The fact that it is I, who have
heard or seen, thought, felt or done something, creates
a link between these various activities, and unifies them
in our experience. When once we have become con-
scious of our Ego, we never again lose this con-
sciousness ; and yet we are never able to form a
definite conception of our Ego. It is the power in
us that thinks and acts and feels, and that compre-
hends the whole psychic activity (XXX, p. 225).
We cannot perceive the Ego, any more than we can
stand behind ourselves and watch our actions. We can
205
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
come nearest to a conception of it in its aspect as a
unity. It is a point without dimension ; and if we
were to attempt to extend this point, we should come
to certain conditions or functions of the Ego, such as
feelings or thoughts. But this is no longer the Ego ;
it is the Self or personality. The Ego is an entity
enthroned above the Self, the contents of which it
surveys. It is necessary to distinguish clearly between
these two.
We seldom succeed in concentrating our attention
upon the entity of our Ego, and we are just as seldom
conscious of the fact that our present life is based on
the whole of our past life, and that all our experiences
may influence the present. This influence of the past
usually works in our unconscious, and we are uncon-
scious of the fact that past and present experiences
become unified in our mind. We can however con-
sciously differentiate between the two by means of
introspection. If we turn our attention to the past,
we shall see that our psychic life is much more complex
than we had first thought ; what seemed to us a simple
impulse, then proves to be the product of an uncon-
scious assimilation of a former experience. A feeling
of sympathy can thus be explained as the result of old
remembrances, which were called forth by a superficial
likeness to someone we were fond of in our youth.
The more conscious we become of this complicated
process, the more clearly shall we perceive that all our
experience constantly accompanies us and remains
active. At the same time, we shall realise that we can
never obtain a comprehensive view of those influences
of the past in their entirety. This is partly the result of
repression, as Freud has made clear, and partly because
206
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
the complexity is too great for our consciousness to
grasp it as a whole.
I should like to use, in a modified form, an image
borrowed from Bergson (III, p. 165), and illustrate by
a diagram the influence exerted on our psychic life by
these two poles, the ego and the unconscious experience.
He uses the image of a cone which contains the whole
psychic event.
Consciou:
personality
\,; Unconscious content
InsTmclTvte disposition
The apex represents the active Ego, while the basis
contains the whole of the past experiences. Both
poles together govern all psychic activity. If we also
take into account Freud's theories, we must add that a
part of this past experience is less immediately influ-
ential, because of the repressing activity of the censor.
Under the influence of the conscious Ego, the con-
stantly recurring contents of the mind are organised
into selected groups of psychic experiences, which are
of greater importance to us than any others. It is
this organised Self that affects repression. This may
explain what is meant by saying that " we were not
quite ourselves." We mean that we went outside
207
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
the narrow region which constitutes the Self, and our
expressions were unlike those which we are accustomed
to, and which are in harmony with our conscious
organisation.
It is not my intention to go further into the philo-
sophical side of these problems I only wished to
point out that psychic events and qualities are not all
related in the same degree to the conscious self or per-
sonality. The repressed unconscious processes are
those that are furthest removed ; but other unconscious
or preconscious processes can also be reckoned as
belonging to the outer region of the Self. The inter-
action between the Ego and the preconscious and
unconscious processes is quite constant and con-
tinuous. There is less interaction between the Ego
and the repressed part of the unconscious, but even
there it is never entirely absent. The unconscious
gives variety to the psychic event, the Ego gives
stability and harmony to it. By bringing the uncon-
scious part of the psychic event into consciousness, we
shall discover the desires which underlie the psychic
event, and be able to analyse the psyche into its
various elements. On the other hand a synthesis of
the psyche may be arrived at by grouping together
the various thoughts, feelings, sensations and intuitions
under the control of the Ego. Consciousness is most
intense where contradictions and difficulties are being
solved by means of a unifying synthesis ; whereas
one-sidedness, automatism and disconnectedness are
characteristic of the unconscious. When unconscious
desires and feelings are drawn into the consciousness,
they tend to enrich and develop the psyche, while
the activity of the conscious mind is directed towards
208
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
grouping and organising its material.* Thus though
the unconscious may be helpful in enriching and com-
pleting the mind, it is not suited to be the governing
force because of its instability.
We have now arrived somewhat nearer to the answer
to our question, which we can reformulate thus :
which is of more importance to the development of the
psyche, the organised unity provided by the conscious-
ness, or the variety of possibilities arising from the
unconscious ? Evidently both are necessary to de-
velopment, and we begin to perceive that their relative
importance depends chiefly upon individual circum-
stances. Let us take as instances the extreme con-
trasts of A, whose mind is stiffened and stereotyped
by his conscious principles, and B, who constantly
lets himself go in answer to any chance sensation or
inspiration. For A, the way to a new and richer life
will be opened by raising to the conscious plane the
unconscious, insufficiently organised side of his per-
sonality ; while in B's case this same process would
either increase the chaos or leave it untouched. A
will quite naturally set about bringing the newly
discovered facts into harmony with the rest of his
personality ; while this harmonising process is one
which B will have to learn with an effort. The differ-
ence between A's point of view and B's, is much the
same as the difference between Jung's rational and
irrational types.
* In cases of psychic disturbance the unconscious is organised
to a certain extent ; and next to the nucleus of the personality we
find what might be called a contranucleus. In obsessional neuroses
this organisation is not very marked, but it appears clearly in cases of
automatic writing or of dual personality in hysteria (p. 8-9), and
it may also be observed in mediums or in the insane.
209 o
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
In the last chapter I attempted to describe the
various ways in which the conscious Self may develop,
and its various relations to the unconscious ; but this
very variety made it difficult to explain what qualities
these developing processes have in common. William
James has treated this question extensively in his
Varieties of Religious Experience (XX). He re-
stricts the problem to a certain kind of change in the
Self, namely to religious conversion ; but this makes
it all the easier to obtain a clear view of the matter,
for religious development is closely connected with the
general development of character. James describes
conversion as a change in the nucleus of the personality,
or as a new synthesis. He shows by a great many
examples that this change may be brought about
in a variety of ways. In cases of one kind, the process
is chiefly conscious, though powerfully influenced by
unconscious desires which are the cause of conflict and
unrest. But there are other cases of an opposite kind,
where the new nucleus arises and develops in the uncon-
scious, so that the conversion takes place as a complete
and sudden revolution. In such cases it would seem as
though at the critical moment two beings were
struggling to gain possession of the soul. This kind
of conversion mostly occurs in people whose conscious
mind is but little developed, and such striking regener-
ative changes often suggest the symbol of re-birth.
If the change is more gradual, the conscious life will
play a greater part in it, and it will merely appear to
be a crisis in the psychic development. But in both
cases the result will be a widening and unification of
the personality. We have seen that this takes place
in all psychic development ; but the difference is
210
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
that in a conversion, the contrast between the old
and the 'new condition is much more marked than in
a process which develops gradually. Sometimes,
especially in intuitive persons, a less important change
of the Self may suddenly arise out of the unconscious.
But this kind of synthesis may simply be the revela-
tion of a new undiscovered part of the disposition,
and cannot be interpreted as a general reorganisation
of the psyche.
In my opinion the word re-birth, if it is to be used
at all in psychology, ought to be confined to those
cases in which the new synthesis is a truer image of the
disposition than the earlier one, and in which the
nucleus of the Self has become more central after the
change than it was before. It is only in those cases
that the change will lead to a decrease of inner con-
flict, and an increase of strength and assurance, which
will enable the individual to develop more in accord-
ance with his inmost nature. We may illustrate this
process by slightly altering our former diagram.
Old Self
\
InsTTncfiVc disposition
Some special circumstances in a person's life may some-
times awaken a new part (x-y) of the instinctive dis-
position. This may give rise to new unconscious
processes, which may in part succeed in passing the
211
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
censor, and may thus grow into a more or less inde-
pendently organised group of psychic processes, which
with its own apex A will be found in opposition to the
conscious organisation. This will lead to an in-
creasingly conscious solution, and to a more compre-
hensive standpoint of the Ego, which, from the apex
B, will then embrace a new and wider organisation.
It is evident that the extension of the organisation may
be produced either by the growth of A or of the Ego.
Although this is only an incomplete description of
the process of re-birth, it is sufficient to show the
similarity between re-birth and the development at
which psychological treatment aims Here also the
relative importance of the part played by conscious
and unconscious processes may be very different.
One person will look upon his unconscious as the source
of all creative power ; while another, whose gradual
development is governed by conscious tendencies,
will look upon his conscious ideals as the guiding
force in his life. Each of them mistakenly identifies
his own method of obtaining unity and harmony
with the resulting development itself, and this may give
rise to considerable misunderstanding.
Psychic development can only be really understood
by those who have first experienced it, and afterwards
studied it introspectively. To them it appears as a
process which is regulated by its own laws and prin-
ciples, and which gives them an inner conviction and
assurance. Religious experience moreover gives rise
to the conviction that this special form of development
not only takes place in the individual, but is common
to the whole of humanity as a creative principle. Thus
the idea of religious re-birth will gain a metaphysical
212
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
significance, in so far as it is held to imply a unifica-
tion of ourselves with that deepest basis of our being
which contains some of the cosmic energy operating
in the universe outside the individual.
Whatever may be the religious or metaphysical
opinions of the psychological practitioner, he must be
careful to distinguish them from his views on psy-
chology, and psychological treatment, otherwise psy-
chology will become the battlefield of beliefs of every
kind, instead of a science based on experience, and the
psychological basis of the unconscious will become
confused with a metaphysical conception of the
unconscious, such as von Hartmann considers to be
the basis of all psychic and material events. Accord-
ing to that view the creative energy which is found in
all vital processes, would only belong to the uncon-
scious ; whereas in point of fact it is also found in
conscious processes and in organic life.
It may be useful to restate clearly what constitutes
the similarity and the difference between a psycho-
logical treatment and a religious development. They
are similar in so far as both deal with an inner conflict
that arises when new regions and qualities of the
psyche, opposed to the former unity of the conscious
personality, begin to show themselves. In both cases
the solution of this conflict is found in a new synthesis,
which is at the same time a widening and a unification
of the mind. In psychological treatment the success
of the synthesis is measured by the patient's symptoms,
which will reveal whether the inner conflict is solved.
It is of secondary importance how far unity of organisa-
tion has been obtained, or the consciousness of an inner
creative principle, which may lead to religious experi-
213
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
ence. But in a conversion or religious development,
what is first aimed at is this consciousness of unity
with the divine spirit ; and this may subsequently
lead to a solution of the inner conflict, and bring about
a synthesis. Thus the ideal which is aimed at is very
similar in both cases, but the road by which it is reached
may be very different. As religions usually aim at a
special kind of synthesis, it would be dangerous if
psychology were to fall under their influence, for it
might then lose some of its scientific objectivity. I
hope that I have now shown that the latest psychology
does not regard religion as a relic of primitive ages,
which may be of historic interest, but can be of no use
to a modern human being. Jung and Maeder especially
have laid stress on the importance to mankind in general
of this desire for harmony, both within the Self and in
relation to the universe, which has been expressed by
all religions throughout the ages ; and with this
opinion I am in complete agreement. It also seems
to me that psychology can be of great help to us in
deepening our understanding of religious processes, so
long as it strictly confines itself to its own point of
view.
We will now try to answer the practical question,
whether systematic introspection leading to a dis-
covery of the unconscious, is useful and desirable for
the development of a human being. In the first place
we must remember that the vital principle which
organises the inner and outer experiences of the mind,
does not work exclusively either in the conscious or in
the unconscious. In most cases the development
will proceed most satisfactorily when there is inter-
action between conscious and unconscious processes.
214
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
We shall usually find that in normal persons this
interaction occurs naturally, without any special
effort. The greatest men of all ages, when looking
backwards on their lives, have often felt as though they
had been urged forward in their development by some
unknown power outside their own conscious will, and
as though their surrender to this power had helped
them more than any strained effort of will-power could
have done. Thus it seems to me that a systematic
hunting for products of the unconscious is by no means
a necessity for development, and should certainly
not be put forward as an ideal. In a normal develop-
ment the necessary factors will naturally come forward
when they are required.
If we consider someone in a state of moral or reli-
gious conflict, we find that his attention is continually
being drawn to certain thoughts and feelings arising
from the unconscious, and that a conscious assimila-
tion of these may help towards a solution. Although
a similar predominance of products of the unconscious
occurs in cases of mental illness, no unaided conscious
assimilation is there possible ; but psycho-analysis
may bring a solution by providing insight into these
unconscious processes by a method which only differs
from the natural unaided solution of such conflicts by
being more technical. In these morbid cases, a system-
atic assimilation of the products of the unconscious will
help towards a solution, because in such mental dis-
turbances the natural co-operation between the con-
scious and the unconscious is lacking.
It may also happen that the natural process of
development has been disturbed, although there is no
definite conflict between conscious and unconscious
215
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
processes. The consciously organised mind may have
grown so rigid that it is no longer capable of receiving
new impulses and impressions. If in these cases we
succeed in drawing the attention to the unconscious,
the whole mental life may be intensified. This is also
true of the life of the community, where the desire to
escape from old rigid forms is shown by the appearance
of various new forms of religion, art and politics, and
also by a general interest in the more remarkable
products of the unconscious. But where the develop-
ment, both in the case of individuals and of com-
munities, is not so much a natural growth arising from
inner needs, as a conscious effort directed by the desire
for development, there will be a danger that a condi-
tion of barbaric one-sidedness and discord will result.
It therefore seems to me most important that, in spite
of the excellent results of conscious treatment, we
should never lose sight of the ideal development,
which takes place according to its own natural laws
and rhythm. A systematic method, which does not
keep step with that inner rhythm, may do more harm
than good. Freud has given excellent advice to
practitioners on that subject, and has recommended
certain precautions against arbitrary interference,
which we should do well to follow in any treatment of
the unconscious.
The increased understanding of the origin and
solution of psychic conflicts will also be of special
value to those persons who are consciously aiming at
self-development, unaided by any treatment. By
gaining insight into their problems, they will
acquire the necessary patience and perseverance
to allow the natural development to take its
216
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
course, without disturbing it by strained efforts and
experiments.
If a doctor is to guide a process of development, he
must in the first place respect the law of development
peculiar to his patient. He will only be capable of
doing this, if he accepts and follows such a principle in
his own life. Even then his task will be anything but
easy, because this principle of development manifests
itself in so many various ways, and because it is always
extremely difficult to penetrate thoroughly into the
psychology of others.
I venture to think that synthetic psychology will
be of great help to human development in the future.
It will lead to a greater respect for the freedom of
individual growth, and it will also remove many sources
of misunderstanding. We shall come to realise that
our conflicts about ideas and principles are often no
more than disguised attempts to domineer and to
suppress the opinions of others, who after all have as
much right to their own ideas as we have. This point
of view may shock those people who consider their
own judgments to be the only right ones. But we
hope that they may console themselves by the thought
that the objective recognition of various possible
theories will lead naturally to a new and more com-
prehensive point of view in psychology.
The future of this new psychology seems so vast and
so fiill of possibilities, that it may well appear to some
people as a mere speculative fantasy. In my opinion
we are only at the beginning of this development, and
it will require the efforts of many scientists through
several generations to bring the work to perfection.
In this book I have only been able to give the main
217
CHARACTER AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
outline of the new psychology, which attracts so many
people who had sought in vain for help and enlighten-
ment in the old academic psychology. Instead of
looking upon the human mind as an engine, which we
examine by taking it to pieces wheel by wheel, we now
realise the unity of the psychic organism, and try to
understand it in its coherent activity. In the course
of this study we shall constantly meet with impene-
trable mysteries, but the new psychology teaches us to
recognise our shortcomings, and frankly to confess our
ignorance. All our knowledge ends in realising that
the basis of our life is mystery. A science which leads
us to face this truth, brings us into contact with the
deepest problems of our being.
218
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. ALFR. ADLER, Ueber den nervftsen Character. 1912.
II. W. F. HENRI BERGSON, L evolution cr&atrice. 146 dd.
III. Matiere et memoir e. ice ^d.
IV. E. BLEULER, Affectivitiit^ Suggestibilitdt^ Paranoia.
1906.
V. M. K. BRAD BY, Psycho-analysis and its place in life.
1919.
VI. Jos. BREUER und Sigm. Freud, Studien iiber Hysteric.
2e Aufl.
VII. HANS DRIESCH, Das Problem der Freiheit. 2e Aufl.
VIII. SIGM. FREUD, Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens.
3e Aufl,
IX. Die Traumdeutung. 3e Aufl.
X. Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neuro-
senlehre. 2e Folge.
XL Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie.
3e Aufl.
XII. FormulierungenuberdiezweiPrinzipien
des psychischen Geschehens. Jahrb. f.
Ps.An.F. 6.3. H. i.
XIII. Zur Einfuhrung des Narcismus. Jahrb.
f.Ps.An.F. B.6.
XIV. Das Unbewuszte. Intern. Zeitschr. F.
Ps. An. 3e Jahrg.
XV. Vorlesungen zur Einfuhrung in die
Psychoanalyse. 1916.
XVI. Totem und Tabu. 1913.
XVII. Jenseits des Lustprinzips. 2 e Aufl.
XVIII. J. H. VAN DER HOOP, Ueber die kausalen und verstdnd-
lichen Zusammenhdnge nach Jaspers.
Zeitschr. / d. ges. Neur. u. Ps.
B. 68.
XIX. HERMINE HUG HELLMUTH, Vom "mittleren" Kinde.
Imago. B. 7. H. i.
XX. WILLIAM JAMES, The Varieties of Religious Experience.
28th impr.
219
BIBLIOGRAPHY
XXI. PIERRE JANET, Letat mental des hysteriques. 2e &L
XXII. ERNEST JONES, Papers on Psycho- Analysis. 1918.
XXIII. C. G. JUNG, Ueber Konflikte der kindlichen Seele. 2e
Aufl.
XXIV. Wandlungen und Symbols der Libido.
XXV. Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology
(transl. C. E. Long).
XXVI. Psychologische Typen. 1921.
XXVII. ALPHONSE MAEDER, Ueber das Traumproblem. Jahrb.
f. Ps. An. F. B. 5.
XXVIII. Heilung und Entwicklung im Seel-
enleben.
XXIX. MAURICE NICOLL, Dream Psychology. 1917.
XXX. KONSTANTIN OESTERREICH, Die Phcinomenologie des
Ich. 1910.
XXXI. HERBERT SILBERER, Ueber die Symbolbildung Jahrb.
f. Ps. An. F. B. 3. H. 2.
XXXII. Probleme der Mystik und ihrer
Symbolik. 1914.
XXXIII. A. G. TANSLEY, The New Psychology and its Relation
to Life. 6th impr.
2 2O
INDEX
Adler, 56-57
Analytic method, 114-115, 131, 204
Association method in dream interpre-
tation, 37-38, 42, 47, 106, 121,
128
,, -psychology, 9, 18
Auto-erotic period, 85
Bed -wetting, 63, 65, 86
Belief in omnipotence of thought, 83
Bergson, 103, 105, 207
Birth, phantasies about, 74'?6
'Bradby, Miss M. K., 52
Breuer, 9-11
Censor, 41, 207, 211
Charcot, 2-5, 8, 28
Childhood, curiosity in, 76, 93-94
,, education, 132-136
,, growing independence, 89, 92
,, hysteria in, 20-21
,, infancy, 61-62
influence of death on, 81-83
,, influence of illness on, 84
influence of, on later life, 61, 80
periods of, 65-66, 85-88, 93-94
puberty, 88, 90, 94
,, repression in, 54
,, sexual emotions in, 88
Child's relation to parents, 70, 77
,, during puberty,
.
to brothers and sisters, 73
to the family, 77-79
Conversion, 13
Darwin, 102, 176
Dependence on doctor, 25
Determinist theory, 104
Disturbances, forgetting, 35, 107
misreading, 33
,, slight, due to unconscious, 32-36
slips of the pen, 33-35
tongue, 33
Dreams, analysis of, 36-49, 106-107,
112-113, 116, 120-122, 124,
126-131
instances of, 36, 38-40, 43-45,
108-109, 122, 125, 178
,, latent content in, 45
,, manifest content in, 45
symbolism in, 48-49, 118, 120-122
,, various kinds of, 39-4!) 108-109
Education, 93-94, 132-136
Ego, child's concentration on, 66-67
,, discovery of, 85-86
-ideal, 56-58
,, its relation to outer world, 67-68,
,, theory about, 205-208, 21 1-21 2
Emotions, conflict of, 16-17, ! 9
, , connected with excretory acts, 63
,, contradictory, 73
,, co-ordination of, 85, 87
,, development of, by movement,
65-66
,, growth of expression of, 61, 66
,, homosexual, 92
,, influence of early, 80-8 1
,, of anger, 66, 68
,, over tension, 21, 24
,, sexual, in childhood, 88
,, in puberty, 88-90
Excretory functions, connection with
character, 62-63
,, ,, connection with sexual
organs, 65 76
Fixation, 86, 93
Freud, 9, 81, 83, 88, 93-94
,, analysis of dreams, 41, 43-46,
112-113, Ii6
,, contrasted with Jung, 105-106,
114-116, 121, 130, 135, 159,
165, I93> 200-202, 204
,, development of emotions, 60-64
,, fixation, 86
,, Oedipus-complex, 70-72
221
INDEX
Freud, opposition to, 97-99
,, periods of childhood, 85, 87
,, repression, 49, 56-57, 200-201
,, sublimation, 99, 100
,, symbolism in dreams, 46-47, 118,
120-121, 127
,, theories about dreams, 37-38,
40-41
,, ,, about evolution, 101
,, ,, about heredity, 61
,, ,, about hysteria, 11-13, *5-
20, 28-30, 50
about sex, 51, 54-55, 97
,, ,, about unconscious, 29, 31,
50-51, 199-202
Functions, adaptation of, 157-158
feeling, 150-153, 195
,, four primary, 141
,, intuition, 147-150, 196
,, leading and compensating, 156-
160
,, rational and irrational, 143-144,
194
,, relations between four primary,
141-145
,, sensation, i45- r 47, 195
thinking, 153-156, 195
Homosexuality, 92
Hypnosis used by Charcot and others,
4-8
Hysteria caused by disposition, 18, 20,
22
,, caused by repression, 12, 15, 16
,, caused by shock, 24
,, connected with sex, 19-20, 22
,, psycho-analytic treatment of, 25-
26, 29
,, studied by Charcot, Janet, Freud
and Breuer, 3-13, 28
,, various kinds of, 20-24
Introspection, 51
,, in treatment, 26, 29
James, William, 210
Janet, 5, 8, 9, 11, 18
{ones, Ernest, 117
ung, 73, I05 113, 121, 136, 138, 139,
143, 144, 159, 160, 175, 180, 192,
193, 200-202, 214
Latency-period, 87
Maeder, 105, 112, 116, 121, 200, 214
Masturbation, 90
Narcissistic period, 85
Oedipus-complex, 7o-7 2 9 2
Personality, double, 6-7
Perversities, 80, 93
Phantasy about birth, 74-76
,, in children, 69, 88
Pre-conscious, 30-31, 113
Psychic development, 204-205, 209,
212-218
Psychical Research, Society of, 107,
201
Psycho-analysis and dream interpreta-
tion, 41-42
co-operation of patients in, 27-28
dangers of, 203
not always necessary, 59
of hysterical patients, 24-26
opposition to theories of, 97-99
Puberty, 87-90, 94
Regression, 23-24, 86-87
,, in children, 82
Religious development, 210, 213-214
Repression, 12-16, 19-20, 22-25, 27-28,
41,49-50, 54-56, 58, H7, 200
Resistance, 13, 15, 29
Retardation, 86
Rosegger, dreams of, 110-112, 115
Self, changes in the, 210-212
,, theory about the, 206-208
Sex, curiosity in children, 76, 93-94
emotions, 19
,, in children, 88
impulses, 51-52, 54, 115
,, repression of, 54-56
in hysteria, 22, 29
Silberer, 116
Sublimation, 23-24, 99-100, 102-103,
105-106, 138
Suggestion, 5, 7, 8, 131
auto-, 5
Symbols, general, 48
,, in art, 115, 119
,, individual, 48
,, in dreams, 46-49, 113, 118, 123,
129
222
INDEX
Category Archives: Bøger
Star Wars Episode VIII Leaked Script
Film is called Echoes of the Dark Side.
The film is similar to The Godfather 2, in the respect that there are several flash back sequences.
Act I
Finn is on a mission to undercover a secret plot that the first order has been planning, he is on his way to meet some mobsters on an underworld type of planet.
Leia is attending a memorial for the people killed on Hosnian Prime, including the leader of the Republic.
There is much controversy over whom should take over as the Leader, the public is divided on Leia. Especially since it is well known that her father was Darth Vader.
Poe is in attendance and in charge of her protection.
Luke is hesitant to train Rey. He speaks with Anakin/Obi Wan/Yoda as force ghosts whom try and convince him to train her.
Act II
Finn upon discovering that the First Order are planning a massive assassination of all the Republic leaders(including Leia), tries to warn the Resistance but is stopped short by Captain Phasma, whom is playing much more of a Boba Fett styled role in the film.
The First Order/Kylo & The Knights of Ren strike against the leaders at the memorial, killing all except Leia(whom is heavily injured and placed in a coma).
The Resistance led by Poe Dameron barely escape, and they retreat to a Resistance Base which is actually a Ship.
The Galaxy is in complete chaos, after essentially all planets losing their leaders and the Republic being destroyed in an instant.
Laura Dern’s character takes over as the Resistance leader, but her tactics are controversial.
Luke sensing what happened to Leia finally agrees to leave the planet with Rey.
In order to find the rebel base they must find Finn, whom knows the location.
They arrive at the underworld planet to rescue him from Captain Phasma.
Act III
Kylo Ren senses his mother in a coma and it starts to make him heavily question his actions, it seems that Leia in her coma is able to speak to him directly and it is nearly driving him into madness.
Snoke belives Kylo can’t handle killing his own mother, so he decides to have Benico Del Toro’s character hunt for the rebels. Del Toro is a ruthless mercenary commander hired by the First Order. He is referred to as The Hunter.
Kylo is assigned to capture Rey and bring her to Snoke.
Luke and Rey are split up, Luke eventually rescues Finn.
Rey battles Kylo and again almost kills him until he destracts her with a reveal. He cuts off her arm. “No, Luke is your father”. Luke had told her he wasn’t up until this point, and just said her parents were dead.
Act IV
Laura Dern’s character decides to attack the First Order in full force, which proves to be a trap setup by them to find their coordinates, she is killed.
The Resitance Base is ambushed by Benico’s team and Poe and the remainding pilots must try and defend the Ship, some of the pilots even sacrificing themselves infront of blasts to protect their last stand.
Finn fights Captain Phasma, and narrowly escapes.
Kylo is about to leave with Rey when he hears Luke.
Kylo and the Knights of Ren attempt to battle Luke, but they can’t come close to his power. There is no question about how powerful Luke is.
Luke has a line referencing his “fallen padawans”.
Finn steals shield codes from one of the local gangs and has BB* hack Del Toro’s ship.
Kylo is about to escape with Rey, but leaves her.
Finn rescues Luke/Rey but sacrifices himself and is caught by the local mob.
They eventually escape the Planet on the Falcon, which has Lando piloting.
Lando whom knows the underworld well, had heard rumors of Skywalker returning.
Final
The Resistance hold off Del Toro, but barely escape.
Once the shields are disabled the remainding Resistance literally fly their Ships in his to kill him. It is a very tragic scene.
Leia awakens, and finally sees Luke and speaks with him in a brief but emotional conversation.
She dies.
Poe is now the official leader of what is left of the Resistance.
Luke decides he must train his daughter, and bring Kylo back to the light to defeat Snoke.
Snoke feels that Kylo wouldn’t bring back Rey, he is angered and Hux reports to him that Ren has not returned.
The flash backs show an incredibly creepy scene of Snoke as a young man speaking to Kylo.
Rey’s mother is not revealed.
She was whom left Rey on Jakku. She mind wiped Rey but she was killed and hunted.
The Knights are the former apprentices of Skywalker.
Part of Luke’s isolation has been because he feels the darkness in him after the betrayl, he really hesitates to use his powers. He thought his daughter was dead. But once he realizes she is alive, he can’t admit it to her.
Note
Lando also could have shot down Ren as he escapes, but Chewie stops him.
MAJOR TWIST
Once Kylo reveals that Luke is her father, she is shocked why he wouldn’t admit it to her. Kylo then reveals that’s because it was in fact both Rey & Kylo who betrayed him She was never a young girl on Jakku. She was left there to never become a Jedi.
This is why Luke is so hesitant to train her, and doesn’t want to reveal he is her father.
Her mind was wiped to think she had been there since she was a young girl.
ORIGINALISM: THE LESSER EVIL by Antonin Scalia
By Antonin Scalia**
I refer to the Chief Justice’s opinion for the Court in Myers v. United States,8 which declared unconstitutional congressional attempts to restrict presidential removal of executive officers….
What attracts my attention about the Myers opinion is not its substance but its process. It is a prime example of what, in current scholarly discourse, is known as the “originalist” approach to constitutional interpretation. The objective of the Chief Justice’s lengthy opinion was to establish the meaning of the Constitution, in 1789, regarding the presidential removal power. He sought to do so by examining various evidence, including not only, of course, the text of the Constitution and its overall structure, but also the contemporaneous understanding of the President’s removal power (particularly the understanding of the First Congress and of the leading participants in the Constitutional Convention), the background understanding of what “executive power” consisted of under the English constitution, and the nature of the executive’s removal power under the various state constitutions in existence when the Constitution was adopted….
It may surprise the layman, but it will surely not surprise the lawyers here, to learn that the originalism is not, and had perhaps never been, the sole method of constitutional exegesis. It would be hard to count…the opinions that have in fact been rendered not on the basis of what the Constitution originally meant, but on the basis of what the judges currently thought it desirable for it to mean. That is, I suppose, the sort of behavior Chief Justice Hughes was referring to when he said the Constitution is what the judges say it is. But in the past, nonoriginalist opinions have almost always had the decency to lie, or at least to dissemble, about what they were doing–either ignoring strong evidence of original intent congenial to the court’s desires, or else not discussing original intent at all, speaking in terms of broad constitutional generalities with no pretense of historical support….13
The principal theoretical defect of nonoriginalism, in my view, is its incompatibility with the very principle that legitimizes judicial review of constitutionality. Nothing in the text of the Constitution confers upon the courts the power to inquire into, rather than passively assume, the constitutionality of federal statutes. That power is, however, reasonably implicit because, as Marshall said in Marbury v. Madison, (1) “[I]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is,” (2) “[I]f two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each,” and (3) “the constitution is to be considered, in court, as a paramount law.”24 Central to that analysis, it seems to me, is the perception that the Constitution, though it has an effect superior to other laws, is in its nature the sort of “law” that is the business of the courts – an enactment that has a fixed meaning ascertainable through the usual devices familiar to those learned in the law. If the Constitution were not that sort of a “law,” but a novel invitation to apply current societal values, what reason would there be to believe that the invitation was addressed to the courts rather than to the legislature? …Quite to the contrary, the legislature would seem a much more appropriate expositor of societal values, and its determination that a statute is compatible with the Constitution should, as in England, prevail.
…If the law is to make any attempt at consistency and predictability, surely there must be general agreement not only that judges reject one exegetical approach (originalism), but that they adopt another. And it is hard to discern any emerging consensus among the nonoriginalists as to what this might be. Are the “fundamental values” that replace original meaning to be derived from the philosophy of Plato, or of Locke, or Mills, or Rawls, or perhaps from the latest Gallop poll? This is not to say that originalists are in entire agreement as to what the nature of their methodology is; as I shall mention shortly, there are some significant differences. But as its name suggests, it by and large represents a coherent approach, or at least an agreed-upon point of departure. . . .
Finally, I want to mention what is not a defect of nonoriginalism, but one of its supposed benefits that seems to me illusory. A bit earlier I quoted one of the most prominent nonoriginalists, Professor Tribe, to the effect that the Constitution “invites us, and our judges, to expand on the . . . freedoms that are uniquely our heritage.”25. I think it fair to say that that is a common theme of nonoriginalists in general. But why, one may reasonably ask–once the original import of the Constitution is cast awide to be replaced by the “fundamental values” of the current society–why are we invited only to “expand on” freedoms, and not to contract them as well? Last Term we decided a case, Coy v. Iowa,26 in which, at the trial of a man accused of taking indecent liberties with two young girls, the girls were permitted to testify separated from the defendant by a screen which prevented them from seeing him. We held that, at least absent a specific finding that these particular witnesses needed such protection, this procedure violated that provision of the Sixth Amendment that assures a criminal defendant the right “to be confronted with the witnesses against him.”27 Let us hypothesize, however (a hypothesis that may well be true), that modern American society is much more conscious of, and averse to, the effects of “emotional trauma” than was the society of 1791, and that it is, in addition, much more concerned about the emotional frailty of children and the sensitivity of young women regarding sexual abuse. If that is so, and if the nonoriginalists are right, would it not have been possible for the Court to hold that, even though in 1791 the confrontation clause clearly would not have permitted a blanket exception for such testimony, it does so today? Such a holding, of course, could hardly be characterized as an “expansion upon” preexisting freedoms….
Let me turn next to originalism, which is also not without its warts. Its greatest defect, in my view, is the difficulty of applying it correctly….But what is true is that it is often exceedingly difficult to plumb the original understanding of an ancient text. Properly done, the task requires the consideration of an enormous mass of material–in the case of the Constitution and its Amendments, for example, to mention only one element, the records of the ratifying debates in all the states. Even beyond that, it requires an evaluation of the reliability of that material–many of the reports of the ratifying debates, for example, are thought to be quite unreliable. And further still, it requires immersing oneself in the political and intellectual atmosphere of the time–somehow placing out of mind knowledge that we have which an earlier age did not, and putting on beliefs, attitudes, philosophies, prejudices and loyalties that are not those of our day. It is, in short, a task sometimes better suited to the historian than the lawyer….
Research conducted years later by Professor William Winslow Crosskey would have been helpful to Taft. Referring to the royal prerogatives as described in William Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, which had been published in Philadelphia in the early 1770s, Crosskey noted that many–indeed, almost half–of Congress’ enumerated powers had been considered royal prerogatives under the law of England at the time of our Constitution’s adoption.42 For example, Blackstone wrote that the king had “the sole power of raising and regulating fleets and armies,”43 whereas, of course, these powers under our Constitution reside in Congress by virtue of article I, section 8, clauses 12 through 14. The Constitution also expressly confides in the President certain traditional royal prerogatives subject to limitations not known in the English constitution. Thus, for example, the king’s absolute veto of legislation became a qualified veto subject to override by a two-thirds vote of Congress,44 and the king’s ability to conclude treaties became a presidential power to negotiate treaties with a two-thirds vote of the Senate needed for ratification.45
It is apparent from all this that the traditional English understanding of executive power, or, to be more precise, royal prerogatives, was fairly well known to the founding generation, since they appear repeatedly in the text of the Constitution in formulations very similar to those found in Blackstone. It can further be argued that when those prerogatives were to be reallocated in whole or part to other branches of government, or were to be limited in some other way, the Constitution generally did so expressly. One could reasonably infer, therefore, that what was not expressly reassigned would–at least absent patent incompatibility with republican principles–remain with the executive….
…Taft’s opinion contains nothing to support that point, except the unsubstantiated assertion that “[I]n the British system, the Crown . . . had the power of appointment and removal of executive officers. . . .” That is probably so, but the nature of the relationship between the Crown and the government in England during the relevant period was a sufficiently complicated and changing one, that something more than an ipse dixit was called for.48
….Nowadays, of course, the Supreme Court does not give itself as much time to decide cases as was customary in Taft’s time. Except in those very rare instances in which a case is set for reargument, the case will be decided in the same Term in which it is first argued–allowing at best the period between the beginning of October and the end of June, and at worst the period between the end of April and the end of June. . . . Do you have any doubt that this system does not present the ideal environment for entirely accurate historical inquiry? Nor, speaking for myself at least, does it employ the ideal personnel.
I can be much more brief in describing what seems to me the second most serious objection to originalism: In its undiluted form, at least, it is medicine that seems to strong to swallow. Thus, almost every originalist would adulterate it with the doctrine of stare decisis–so that Marbury v. Madison would stand even if Professor Raoul Berger should demonstrate unassailably that it got the meaning of the Constitution wrong. . . . What if some state should enact a new law providing public lashing, or branding of the right hand, as punishment for certain criminal offenses? Even if it could be demonstrated unequivocally that these were not cruel and unusual measures in 1791, and even though no prior Supreme Court decision has specifically disapproved them, I doubt whether any federal judge–even among the many who consider themselves originalists–would sustain them against an eighth amendment challenge. It may well be, as Professor Henry Monaghan persuasively argues, that this cannot legitimately be reconciled with originalist philosophy–that it represents the unrealistic view of the Constitution as a document intended to create a perfect society for all ages to come, whereas in fact it was a political compromise that did not pretend to create a perfect society even for its own age (as its toleration of slavery, which a majority of the founding generation recognized as an evil, well enough demonstrates).50 Even so, I am confident that public flogging and handbranding would not be sustained by our courts, and any espousal of originalism as a practical theory of exegesis must somehow come to terms with that reality.
One way of doing so, of course, would be to say that it was originally intended that the cruel and unusual punishment clause would have an evolving content–that “cruel and unusual” originally meant “cruel and unusual for the age in question” and not “cruel and unusual in 1791.” But to be faithful to originalist philosophy, one must not only say this but demonstrate it to be so on the basis of some textual or historical evidence. Perhaps the mere words “cruel and unusual” suggest an evolutionary intent more than other provisions of the Constitution, but that is far from clear; and I know of no historical evidence for that meaning. And if the faint-hearted originalist is willing simply to posit such an intent for the “cruel and unusual punishment” clause, why not for the due process clause, etc.? . . .
Having described what I consider the principal difficulties with the originalist and nonoriginalist approaches, I suppose I owe it to the listener to say which of the two evils I prefer. It is originalism. I take the need for theoretical legitimacy seriously, and even if one assumes (as many nonoriginalists do not even bother to do) that the Constitution was originally meant to expound evolving rather than permanent values, as I discussed earlier I see no basis for believing that supervision of the evolution would have been committed to the courts. At an even more general theoretical level, originalism seems to me more compatible with the nature and purpose of a Constitution in a democratic system. A democratic society does not, by and large, need constitutional guarantees to insure that its laws will reflect “current values.” Elections take care of that quite well. The purpose of constitutional guarantees of individual rights that are at the center of this controversy–is precisely to prevent the law from reflecting certain changes in original values that the society adopting the Constitution thinks fundamentally undesirable. Or, more precisely, to require the society to devote to the subject the long and hard consideration required for a constitutional amendment before those particular values can be cast aside.
I also think the central practical defect of nonoriginalism is fundamental and irreparable: the impossibility of achieving any consensus on what, precisely, is to replace original meaning, once that is abandoned. The practical defects of originalism, on the other hand, while genuine enough, seem to me less severe. While it may indeed be unrealistic to have substantial confidence that judges and lawyers will find the correct historical answer to such refined questions of original intent as the precise content of “the executive Power,” for the vast majority of questions the answer is clear. The death penalty, for example, was not cruel and unusual punishment because it is referred to in the Constitution itself; and the right of confrontation by its plain language meant, at least, being face-to-face with the person testifying against one at trial. For the nonoriginalist, even these are open questions. . . .
Now the main danger in judicial interpretation of the Constitution–or, for that matter, in judicial interpretations of any law–is that the judges will mistake their own predilections for the law. Avoiding this error is the hardest part of being a conscientious judge; perhaps no conscientious judge ever succeeds entirely. Nonoriginalism, which under one or another formulation invokes “fundamental values” as the touchstone of constitutionality, plays precisely to this weakness. It is very difficult for a person to discern a difference between those political values that he personally thinks most important, and those political values that are “fundamental to our society.” Thus, by the adoption of such a criterion judicial personalization of the law is enormously facilitated. . . .
Originalism does not aggravate the principal weakness of the system, for it establishes a historical criterion that is conceptually quite separate from the preferences of the judge himself. And the principal defect of that approach–that historical research is always difficult and sometimes inconclusive – will, unlike nonoriginalism, lead to a more moderate rather than a more extreme result. The inevitable tendency of judges to think that the law is what they would like it to be will, I have no doubt, cause most errors in judicial historiography to be made in the direction of projecting upon the age of 1789 current, modern values–so that as applied, even as applied in the best of faith, originalism will (as the historical record shows) end up as something of a compromise. Perhaps not a bad characteristic for a constitutional theory. . . .
The vast majority of my dissents from nonoriginalist thinking (and I hope at least some of those dissents will be majorities) will, I am sure, be able to be framed in the terms that, even if the provision in question has an evolutionary content, there is inadequate indication that any evolution in social attitudes has occurred.51 That–to conclude this largely theoretical talk on a note of reality–is the real dispute that appears in the case: not between nonoriginalists on the one hand and pure originalists on the other, concerning the validity of looking at all to current values; but rather between, on the one hand, nonoriginalists . . . and pure-originalists-accepting for the sake-of-argument-evolutionary-content, and, on the other hand, other adherents of the same. . . approaches, concerning the nature and degree of evidence necessary to demonstrate that constitutional evolution has occurred.
© 1989 by Antonin Scalia. All rights reserved.
* This address was delivered on September 16, 1988 at the University of Cincinnati as the William Howard Taft Constitutional Law Lecture.
** Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court.
8 272 U.S. 52 (1926).
13 Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602, 628 (1935).
24 5 U.S. (1 Cranch.) 137,177 (1803).
- I..TRIBE, supra note 15, at 45.
26 108 S. Ca. 2798 (1988).
27 Id. At 2800.
42 See I.W. CROSSKEY, POLITICS AND THE CONSTITUTION 428 (1953); see also U.S. CONST. Art. 1 § 8.
43 2.W.BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND 262 n. 33 (Tucker ed. 1803).
44 Compare 2 W. BLACKSTONE, id. At 260,260-62 n. 30, with U.S. CONST. art, II, § 2,cl. 2.
45 Compare 2 W. BLACKSTONE id. At 257, 257 n. 21, with U.S. CONST. art. II, § 2, cl. 2.
48 See F. MAITLAND, THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND 387-400 (1908).
50 See Monaghan, Our Perfect Constitution, 56 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 353 (1981).
51 See e.g., Thompson v. Oklahoma, 108 S. Ct. 2687, 2711 (1988) (Scalia, J., dissenting).
Rawls vs. Nozick på dansk
En af det tyvende århundredes væsentligste filosofiske skærmydsler var striden mellem de to Harvard-filosoffer John Rawls (1921–2002) og Robert Nozick (1938–2002). Konflikten udfoldede sig især på baggrund af bøgerne A Theory of Justice (Rawls 1971) og Anarchy, State and Utopia (Nozick 1974).
1970’ernes USA var en tid præget af intellektuelt og politisk vemod. Den lange og opslidende Vietnam-krig (1955–1975) havde svært ved at mønstre folkelig opbakning, og Watergate-skandalen (1972) havde kastet smuds på præsidentembedet og fået den amerikanske præsident Nixon til at trække sig i vanære. Folk nærede mistillid til den bestående orden og ledte efter nye politiske løsninger.
Det var her, Rawls og Nozick meldte sig med to skelsættende bøger om politisk filosofi. Rawls bød ind med en socialliberal vision, hvor individuel frihed forenes med et mål om økonomisk lighed, mens Nozick slog til lyd for en libertariansk samfundsindretning, hvor økonomisk omfordeling opfattes som en krænkelse af den personlige frihed. Dog skriver de begge i en liberal politisk tradition, hvor individet kommer før fællesskabet, og hvor individuel frihed opfattes som det højeste politiske gode.
Selvom Rawls og Nozick ligger i hver deres ende af det liberalistiske spektrum, så tackler de begge spørgsmål om retfærdighed, fordelingspolitik og hvordan det perfekte samfund bør se ud. Det gør striden mellem dem til en frugtbar debat.
Piketty’s Critique of Capitalism
Thomas Piketty has caused a stir with his predictions about increasing inequality and private and inherited wealth growing at higher rates than incomes. This essay discusses the assumptions behind Piketty’s projections, which are far less certain than Piketty often implies. As this essay will show, even if private fortunes should continue to grow as predicted, Piketty is still unable to substantiate his “grand narrative” about the postulated threats to democracy. Furthermore, this essay will show that Piketty’s calls for steep increases in taxes on income and capital would have adverse economic effects – not only for savers, but wage earners as well. Like Piketty’s “Capital in the 21st Century,” this essay aims to be accessible to the general public.
Cambriaheim: Mordheim Retro Rulebook
Cambriaheim free Mordheim rules mod:
Postmodernisme som marginalfilosofi
Ved at nærme os diskussionen via Nietzsche har vi allerede afdækket visse af postmodernismens mest iøjenfaldende skødesynder: Uvidenhed, nihilisme/relativsme, radikalisme og anti-fornuft (anti-oplysningstid), samt at der simpelthen er tale om en dårlig videnskabelig metode.
Vi har allerede optegnet en kontrast mellem Popper’sk videnskab og så den mere litterære tilgang som mange postmodernister benytter sig af. Vi har også set hvordan Popper’sk videnskab som udgangspunkt kræver et større overblik end den litterære postmoderne metode hvor den enkelte tænker kan dekonstruere sig ind i en subjektiv sandhed ved at se bort fra essentielle fakta (således næppe tilfældigt at postmodernismen repræsenterer et opgør med ”essentialisme”). Det er min påstand, at mange af postmodernismens tænkere ikke demonstrerede det overblik indenfor deres respektive felter som man ideelt set kunne forvente. Og kigger vi på disse postmodernister egne udtalelser viser det sig også, at de aktivt søger at marginalisere og radikalisere sig selv i forhold til deres videnskabelige udgangspunkt. Således ser vi Bourdieu karakterisere sig selv som ”nytilkommen” i universitetsverdenen,[i] Derrida sige, at hans skriverier bevæger sig rundt i ”filosofiens marginaler”,[ii] Foucaults beskrivelse af sit filosofiske projekt som værende at ”udnytte de talrige marginer der er opstået ved applikationen af normer som går imod ideen om modernismens rationalitet”.[iii] Endvidere kan vi se postmodernismens franske tænkere fjerne sig fra det videnskabelige ideal i f.eks. Althusser der beskriver postmodernismen som ”i opposition til le petit-bourgoise”[iv], og Foucault som beskriver genstanden for sine studier som ”opposed to bourgoise work morality”.[v] – Man forstår her, (især på Althussers videre argumentation i On the Relation of Marx to Hegel [1968]) at grundlæggende overblik over de traditioner man beskæftiger sig med i postmodernismens optik er en forventning og en norm som det borgerlige samfund har opfundet, og at et sådant overblik derfor frit kan fravælges som et led i det radikale dekonstruktionsprojekt. – Denne fravælgelse af ”den borgerlige arbejdsmoral” kan ud over et skjul for uvidenhed også ses som et led i postmodernismens dekonstruktion af sandheden til det punkt hvor der ”ikke findes sandhed” (Heidegger/ Derrida), og den derpå følgende relativisme hvor alle værdier er lige gode og der ikke findes facts, kun fortolkninger og sprogspil (Nietzsche/ Foucault/ Lyotard). Vi har tidligere i dette essay udforsket postmodernismens antipati mod rationalistisk og gradvist destilleret videnskab. Men denne antipati gælder alle som vil rationalisere viden, det gælder sågar Sokrates, som Foucault arbejdede på at dekonstruere kort før sin død, men for det tyvende århundredes universitets-diskurser gælder det især Habermas og hans (rationelt) diskuterende offentlighed. Om denne siger Lyotard: ”Konsensus opnået gennem diskussion som Habermas definerer det […] ville forbryde sig mod sprogspillenes heterogenitet.”.[vi]
Anti-ego: Rationalitet som den menneskelige naturs nemesis
Anti-Ødipus (1972) siger: ”[Vi skal nå] ikke blot dertil hvor man ikke længere siger ’jeg’ men dertil hvor det ikke længere betyder noget om vi siger ’jeg’ eller ej. – Vi er ikke længere os selv.”[vii]
Epikur siger, at mennesket finder lykke ved at forstå den materielle verden, såsom jordskælv, planeter og døden rationelt. Rationalitet er ikke den menneskelige naturs nemesis, men kan være en ven og en hjælper.
Dertil kommer, at epikureanismen var i anvendt filosofi i lighed med mange af PMs offentligt erklærede ambitioner om at sætte individet frit ved at afdække de skjulte kræfter der styrede det (eksempelvis Foucaults magt/ viden eller subjektificeringskritikker). Men hvor Foucault og andre postmodernister løber ind i et epistemologisk problem ved at dekonstruere subjektet (”hvis vi ikke kan spørge subjektet hvorledes det føles sig violated af videns-kategorier, hvordan ved vi så at subjektet violates?”) snakker epikureanismen om videnskategorier som en måde at frigøre subjektet på:
”[…] just as there is no use in medical expertise if it does not give therapy for bodily diseases, so too there is no use in philosophy if it does not expel the suffering of the soul.”[viii]
Epikureanismens mål er ataraxia – ubekymrethed hvilket svarer omtrent til Foucaults transgression. Forskellen er imidlertid at ataraxia opnås gennem rationel kontemplation af livets vilkår, mens transgression opnås ved ekstreme oplevelser såsom kriminalitet, narkotika, samt seksuel og politisk vold. Således siger Foucault:
”Those middle-range pleasure that make up everyday life […] are nothing. […] A Pleasure must be something incredibly intense. […] Some drugs are really important […] because they are the mediation to those incredibly intense joys.”[ix]
Eller som det slet og ret hedder I Discipline and Punish (1975):
”Sjælen [dvs. den reflekterende cogito] er kroppens fængsel.”[x]
Eller tesen i Madness and Civilization: Vesten har videnskabeliggjort madness og frygter derfor ikke længere dens evne til at overtage os alle sammen. Som en følge heraf er vesten blevet fattig. – Man aner her en parallel til Nietzsches Birth of Tragedy og Afgudernes Ragnarok hvor det appoloniske uden det dionysiske indvarsler grækernes ”dekadence” munder ud i den forkerte Sokratres der undertrykker viljen til magt.
Epikureanismen at den største blokering for det ataraxia er irrationel tro og irrationel frygt. Denne bekæmpes bedst ved en indsigt i materiel fysik (”himmellegemerne er ikke guder med samlinger af atomer og verdener ligesom denne”) og en forståelse af logik. For Epikur fører en sådan filosofi til et liv ikke til det forknudrede kartesianske liv i isolation, sådan som postmodernister ville forvente det, men ifølge epikur til et liv ”in accordance with nature.”[xi] Epikur:
“[…] what produces the pleasant life if not continuous drinking and parties of pederasty or womanizing or the enjoyment of fish and other dishes of an expensive table, but sober reasoning which […] banishes the opinion that beset souls with the greatest confusion.”[xii]
Anti-oplysning: Postmodernismen som radikalt politisk projekt
PM kritiserer humanismen fordi humanismen startede med metafysikken, oprindeligt gud, siden Descartes cogito og Kants trancendentale subejkt. At genskabe humanismen uden metafysisk idegods er sådan et reelt filosofisk og politisk problem og en opgave som det ville have stor værdi at løse til fulde. Derfor er det sådan set fornugtigt nok af postmodernismen at udfordre den metafysiske humanisme. Men når postmodernisterne fuldstændig ønsker at begrave humanismens og gå over i det umiddelbares antihumanisme begår de en non sequiteur; at dele af individet er styret af ukendte kræfter betyder ikke, at individet er magtesløst. Foucaults ”Death of Man”-projekt fra Ordene og Tingene (1966) skal ses i netop dette lys.[xiii]
PM Ønsker at bevise, at fordi individet styres af drivkræfter ukendte for det selv Epistemologier Foucault – Underbevidsthed Lacan – Symbolisme Barthes – Dialektisk Materialisme Bordieu, så er den rationelt inspirerede humanisme forkert og/eller metafysisk. – Men det er i sig selv en fejlslutning som beror på den betragtning at individet styres fuldstændigt af disse faktorer hvilket med sikkerhed kan vises at være forkert. I et glimrende post scriptum til sin bog Galen’s Prophecy – Temperament in Human Nature (1995) har Dr. Jerome Kagan fra Harvard vist hvorfor eksempelvis hjernesvulster som trækker i retning af aggression nok har en effekt på patienters eventuelle kriminalitet, men at deres bevidste vilje i langt større grad.
Dertil kommer, at PMs dekonstruktion af humanismen hvor man går fra Kants trancendentale subjekt til et udelukkende hermeneutisk subjekt, så havner man blot i psykologiseringer som udgangspunkt for sine analyser. Hvis vi eksempelvis tager Foucault, så kan alle epistemer kan ikke have virket hele tiden, hvorfor det der er tilbage i en sådan verden er det pure psykologiske stadie (eftersom sandhed ikke findes og individet ikke kan styre sig selv). Dertil melder der sig to kritikker: (1) At psykologiseringer er ufalsificerbare, og derfor dårlig videnskab (2) At psykologiseringer i sig selv er en fortyndet form for metafysik.
”Lad være med at kræve at politikken skal genoprette individets ’rettigheder’, sådan som filosofien har defineret dem. Individet er et produkt af magten.”[xiv]
PM skuffet over oplysningstiden tilsyneladende ikke blev til andet end consumerism[xv] hvorfor man også ser Deleuze og Guattari i deres Anti-Ødipus (1972) omtale moderne menneske som ”begærsmaskinen” (Det er i øvrigt ironisk hvordan en bevægelse som ønsker at dekonstruere rationalitet og refleksion til fordel for det umiddelbare tager afstand fra forbrugersamfundet.)
I Discipline and Punish (1975) ser vi Foucault gøre sig til talsmand for det poststrukturalistiske verdenssyn beskrevet ovenfor: Foucault erkender, at den vestlige verdens avancerede kapitalisme har taget et ”economic and political take-off”[xvi], men han nægter at kæde dette take-off sammen med en øget rationalitet i den vestlige epistemologi. Efter pure rationalistisk-utilitaristisk forbillede er den simpleste forklaring på Vestens take-off at: At øget rationalitet (eks. via videnskaben) øger en given handlings effektivitet væsentligt. Det er egentlig ironisk, for Foucault skriver i samme værk, at ”modern super-power” nu er så total at den står i modsætning til den feudalistiske magt: Hvor den feudalistiske magt blev nødt til at være iøjnefaldende (eks. krone og hermelinkåbe) og voldsomt (eks. henrettelser) in persona for at kompensere for sine begrænsninger i rækkevidde, kan det moderne kapitalistiske samfund undvære det iøjnefaldende, da det kan være til stede overalt (eks. overvågningskameraer) og tillade sig at agere mildt (eks. behandlingsdomme) da den enkelte agent er en del af et større maskineri (eks. embedsapparatet). – Denne betragtning til trods fastholder Foucault alligevel, at forestillingen om en stadigt mere rationel videnskab er en illusion da rationalitet efter Foucaults mening er prædetermineret af kognitive dispositoner, som igen er formet af en given historisk periodes episteme. Som han skriver:
”Power produces knowledge […] not simply by encouraging it because it serves power or by applying it because it is useful.”[xvii]
Som vi har set findes der et videnskabeligt ”råderum” hvor dannelsen af koncepter og kategorier indenfor videnskaberne er underlagt sociale og institutionelle kræfter. Men at dette råderum findes udelukker ikke muligheden for, at viden besidder sin egen immanente rationalitet som kommer til udtryk ved eksempelvis den vestlige verdens ekstreme økonomiske produktivitet, hvilket Foucault som sagt benægter a la Nietzsches ”Reason is speech metaphysics.”. I dette henseende er Foucaults standpunkt igen en non sequiteur af samme slags som poststrukturalismen generelt har begået i dens anti-humanisme, som beskrevet tidligere i dette afsnit. I begge tilfælde ser vi den poststrukturalistiske tendens til at drage dybt radikaliserende konklusioner af indsigter der i bedste fald kan betegnes som ”delvise”. (Hvilket igen er samme princip som tillader både Foucault og Derrida at tage såvel Nietzsche som Descartes på alt andet end ordet i deres tekstuelle analyser.
Som et led i striden mod, at viden skulle besidde sin egen immanente rationalitet er det altså nødvendigt for Foucault at operere ud fra en betragtning om, at viden udelukkende former sig efter historiske, sociale og institutionelle forhold, og ikke efter objektivt givne forhold som f.eks. kalklaget i den Devonshire’ske undergrund som set i The Great Devonian Controversy (1985). Hvis viden er uafhængig af en objektiv sandhed, hvis ”sandheden ikke findes”, så er alle identitets-konstituerende former for viden (ung – gammel/ rig – fattig/ hetero – homo) en form for dominans af individet da det så at sige binder individet til arbitrære identiteter som det ikke har. Som det hedder hos Foucault: ”[Ideen om] individet er et produkt af magten.”[xviii]
I denne agtelse af identitet som noget særligt, udefinérbart og hinsides sprog minder ikke bare Foucault, men også Lacan og Derrida, meget om den romantiske skønånd og dens natur-genus. Det kan virke ejendommeligt eftersom poststrukturalismen yder at se sig selv som en bevægelse der gør op med det modernistisk-videnskabelige projekts ”metafysiske rationalitet”. Endvidere minder de to retninger om hinanden i deres radikalisme, i deres æstetisering af kognition, og i den centralitet de tillægger stærke oplevelser: Sammenlign eksempelvis med Foucaults transgressions-begreb. Eller sammenlign Foucaults forsvar for galskab og sympati for Raymond Roussel med den Byron’ske helt som er ”mad, bad and dangerous to know”.[xix] Denne forbindelse til romantikken er naturligvis uheldig for en retning som vil byde ind på en rationalistisk epistemologisk metode. Den er ydermere uheldig overfor Lyotard, med fleres, påstand om, at poststrukturalismen er kvalitativt ny. Når Baudelaire f.eks. siger: ”Romanticism is precisely situated neither in choice of subject nor exact truth.”[xx] synes han allerede at have redegjort for poststrukturalismens tendens til at abstrahere fra det analyserede objekt (eksempelvis Descartes-meditationen), såvel som poststrukturalismens tendens drage radikaliserende konklusioner på baggrund af delvise observationer (”…nor exact truth.”). Når jeg endvidere har argumenteret for, at postmodernismen af og til karakteriseres af en vis uvidenhed er det ydermere et interessant spørgsmål hvorvidt og hvor meget Foucault og andre var sig bevidst om Nietzsches og Hegels tilhørsforhold til romantikken.
Netop hvad angår Hegel. Hvordan ved Hegel at verden bevæger sig fremad mod ”den absolutte idé” gennem stadig større sublationer, ”Aufheben”? – Det kan ikke demonstreres, og derfor er Hegels system blev henlagt til metafysikkens rodebunke. Hvad angår den historisk-genealogiske metode kunne vi ligeledes spørge: Hvordan ved Foucault, at viden tager form efter præ-kognitive dispositioner, og ikke efter immanent rationalitet? I al min læsning af Foucault er jeg ikke stødt på en demonstration af denne implicitte forudsætning for hans arbejde, og mig bekendt er en sådan filosofisk/videnskabelig demonstration heller ikke mulig. Foucaults faktiske argumentation for sine epistemer begrænser sig således til confirmation bias, hvilket fundamentalt set gør dem uegnede som videnskab. Hertil ville Foucault, Lyotard, med følge, og forgængere før ham, utvivlsomt indvende, at historien udelukkende består af partikulariteter som ikke kan gentages, og derfor ikke falsificeres.[xxi] Denne holdning ligger i fin forlængelse af postmodernismens anti-oplysningstidstendens hvor man gør op med det universelle. Det er som nævnt en holdning der går tilbage til Gorgias, Thrasymakos og øvrige antikke nihilister, og kan kaldes Konceptualisme idet dens (forkerte) konklusion er, at det universelle kun eksisterer i det subjektive domæne, og derfor kun som mentale koncepter. Som Platons Thrasymakos siger, med stor Nietzsecheansk klang: ”Justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger.”[xxii] Denne konklusion udspringer fra det falske præmis, at verden nødvendigvis må være enten objektiv, eller subjektiv, og ikke begge dele. Hvilket allerede Platon/Sokrates forsøgte at modbevise på sin egen rudimentære måde. Sidenhen er der kommet bedre refutationer til i form af hhv. Kants ’transcendentale subjekt’ (Kant, en tænker der ganske sigende ”Had been out of fashion in France for 50 years.”[xxiii]) og ’ontologiske usikkerhed’. En position videreudviklet gennem Poppers forfatterskab hvori han argumenterer for, der findes universelle klasser af viden, men at ikke alle klasser afspejler objektivt universelle forekomster (dvs. er sande).[xxiv] I en Popper’sk epistemologi er et givent objekt altid en funktion af såvel det universelle som de specifikke. Eksempelvis er det et udtryk for det universelle, at mennesker føder mennesker, og ikke geder eller heste, mens det er et udtryk for det specifikke, at ikke alle mennesker har rødt hår osv.. Postmodernismens fejlslutning er at sammenblande del og helhed, råderum og absolut, og den havner derved akkurat det samme sted som nihilisten Gorgias og talrige vulgærrelativister før ham.
Konklusion
2 Givet postmodernismen for lidt anerkendelse for det krydsforhør at den filosofiske og videnskabelige fornuft som dekonstruktionsprojektet trods alt lagde for dagen. Jeg anerkender, at der er en vis nødvendighed i til stadighed at kritisere metoder der er så centrale for den vestlige verdens epistemologi – og at der ligeledes er en værdi i at gøre forsøget – også selvom man ikke vinder slaget. Når jeg alligevel kritiserer postmodernismen så hårdt som jeg gør er det fordi den efter min mening ikke udviklede de antirationalistiske positioner meget længere end antikke nominalister som Gorgias og Thrasymakos allerede havde gjort det.
3 Popper’sk epistemologi var ukendt i 1960’ernes Frankring Sprogbarrierer er virkelig og findes, men hertil kan man alligevel bemærke, at mens det anglo-amerikanske etablissement har været imødekommende og oversat samtlige hovedværker til engelsk, samt udbudt undervisning og i øvrigt har forholdt sig imødekommende overfor den franske kritkik, så har franskmændende ikke oversat anglo-amerikansk forskning i tilnærmelsesvis samme tempo, end ikke, mistænker jeg, når man korrigerer for størrelsen af de respektive sproggrupper. Deriudover kan man indvende, at idet franskmændene har været så ivrige efter at kritisere derivater af anglo-amerikansk kultur, så påhviler der dem også et særligt ansvar for at bekendtgøre sig med dennes hovedværker. Endelig kan man, med et glimt i øjet indvende, at såfremt man tror på at viden besidder sin egen immanente rationalitet, som Popper f.eks. gør, så ville det være muligt for franskmændene at tænke sig frem til falsifikationskriteriet uden forudgående kendskab til Popper.
Essayets noget polemiserende tone opfatter jeg derimod ikke som en svaghed idet poststrukturalismens radikaliserende natur og ufalsificerbare betragtninger lægger op til ekstreme polariseringer på begge sider af det epistemologiske skisma. – I en poststrukturalistisk epistemologi hvor det er legitimt at abstrahere fra det analyserede objekts egenskaber bliver det at have delvist ret hurtigt til det samme som det at have helt ret, som demonstreret afsnittene om henholdsvis Foucaults og Derridas læsning af Descartes og om post-strukturalismens dekonstruktion af ego’et. Således er det næppe heller noget tilfælde a poststrukturalismen blev født ud af en polemisering imod forsimplede karrikaturer af Sartres og Merelau-Pontys fænomenologier.
og således kom vi ud og så igen stjernerne…
[i] Ferry & Renaut: French Philosophy of the Sixties s. 14
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Ibid.
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Cambridge Companion to Foucault s. 55
[vi] Ferry & Renaut: French Philosophy of the Sixties s. 229
[vii] Deleuze & Guattari, Rhizome Ed. de Minuit s. 7
[viii] Porphyry’s To Marcella 31
[ix] Foucault, Michel: An Interview by Stephen Riggins, EW I, s. 129
[x] Foucault, Michel: Surveiller et Punir (Paris 1975) s. 39
[xi] Gottlieb, Anthony: The Dream of Reason s. 286
[xii] Epikur: Letter to Menoeceus, 131
[xiii] Hvordan Foucaults “Death of Man” project og dets påstand om, at forestillingen om at ’menneskeheden’ først kom til i slutningen af det nittende århundrede modstår Thomas Paines Rights of Man (1791) er i øvrigt ukendt.
[xiv] Foucault, Michel: Preface to Deleuze & Guattari: Anti-Oedipus s. XIV
[xv] Ferry & Renaut: French Philosophy of the Sixties s. 36
[xvi] Foucault, Michel: Surveiller et Punir s. 249
[xvii] Ibid. S. 27
[xviii] Foucault, Michel: Preface to Deleuze & Guattari: Anti-Oedipus s. XIV
[xix] Jonathan D. Gross: Byron – The Erotic Liberal (2000) s. 148
[xx] Baudelaire, Charles: Curiosotés esthétiques – Salon de 1846, II ”Qu’est-ce que le romantisme?”
[xxi] Se Post Scriptum til dette essay.
[xxii] Plato: The Republic I, 388c
[xxiii]
[xxiv] Ydermere er det vigtigt at notere sig, at disse klasser kan ændre sig via. eks evolution.
Et svar på Poppers ”Poverty of Historicism”
Det kan synes mærkeligt at jeg har argumenteret for en anvendelse af falsifikationslignende metoder indenfor historiefaget eftersom netop historiefaget udpeges som uegnet for falsifikation i Poppers egen Poverty of Historicism (1957). Jeg mener imidlertid ikke, at der er nogen større modsætning mellem den brug af falsifikation i historiefaget som jeg har advokeret i dette essay og så Poppers tese i Poverty of Hisoricism. Poppers kritik af historicismen tager sig primært ud som en kritik af Hegel og Marxs historiske determinisme der opererer ud fra betragtningen om, at historien bevæger sig mod et mål. Det er rigtigt, at selve historicismen ikke kan determineres og falsificeres. Men det er heller ikke det jeg har argumenteret for i dette essay. Jeg har argumenteret for, at historikeren kan falsificere forskellige bestanddele af sit arbejde, og at man skal bruge falsifikation hvor man kan. Poppers tese er altså, at historisk kausalitet ikke kan falsificeres. Min argumentation er, at hjælpemidler såsom korrelationer, indicier og enkelte kildetekster kan falsificeres og bør falsificeres. Eller sagt meget sloganistisk, så har jeg i dette essay argumenteret for, at historikeren skal bruge falsifikation hvornår end han kan, vel vidende at historikerens konklusioner vdr. historisk kausalitet ikke er falsificerbare.
Så vidt jeg kan se er dette standpunkt kun i strid med Poppers præmis II fra afsnittet Common Inconsistencies in the Arguments of Historicists: Historicists are bad at imagining conditions under which an identified trend ceases.[i] Hertil vil jeg indvende (1) at hvis viden besidder sin egen immanente rationalitet, så vil effekterne af i sig selv vil være underkastet effekterne af falsifikation (2) at alle er sårbare overfor confirmation bias, hvilket blot gør applikationen af falsifikation hvornår end det er muligt den endnu mere nødvendig.
Popper her overså en af styrkerne ved sin egen epistemologi, nemlig hans videreudvikling af den Sokratiske metode stadige forfining af uperfekte fortolkninger.
Når jeg alligevel går på tværs af Popper i denne sag er det fordi hans analyse efter min mening er unødvendigt finalistisk: Jeg er enig i Poppers kritik af Platon-Hegel-Marxes historicisme i den forstand at historisk determinisme for nuværende må afvises på det kraftigste. Jeg er også enig med Popper i, at historiefaget for nuværende må benytte sig af en ”pragmatisk historicisme” afledt af observérbare korrelationer. Men hvor Popper mener, at historisk determinisme er umuligt, ”there is a barrier to what we can know about what we will know in the future” mener jeg, at vi endnu ikke ved om det er muligt at determinere fremtiden ud fra tilstrækkeligt komplekse studier af fortiden.
Jeg mener også, at Poverty of Historicism trækker linierne for hårdt op: Her er det vigtigt, at etablere, at der er forskel på determinisme og sandsynlighed via korrelation. Popper argumenterer for, at man bør introducere en ”pragmatisk historicisme” når determinismen er uopnåelig. Der mener jeg, at Popper skelner for hårdt mellem videnskab og ikke-videnskab: Selv hårde videnskaber som Fysik løber ind i problemer der ligner historikerens: Man observerer korellationer og ser mønstre gentage sig, men kan kun gisne om disses kausalitet. Historiefaget kan med andre ord kun komme et stykke ned af den Popper’ske epistemologis vej.
[i] Popper, Karl: The Poverty of Historicism section 28