Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis III 1922 1.djvu/115

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to various races of mankind presents a new aspect and demands new solutions. Leaving the question of historical contact aside, such agree- ments can only be due to the same psychical mechanisms operating on the same inherited and unconscious material, and identity of psychical functions such as is involved in the current theory of the ' Elementar- gedanke ' (Bastian) being insufficient to explain all the agreements. In other words the Unconscious, as we know it, with its central complex (die Oedipus conflict), is older than race, and the age from the pre- human Cyclopean family to the differentiation of races may be called the real prehistoric period of humanity. Thus we should distinguish two permanent and two variable factors the interaction of which gives what we call human progress. The two permanent quantities are the Oedipus complex and the various mechanisms of repression and distor- tion; the two variables are enviromnent and the Reality Principle, that is, the sum-total of readjustments to which the Pleasure Principle is compelled by a variable environment. McDougall classifies as follows: (l) Evolution of innate or racial qualities. (2) Development of civili- sation. (3) Social evolution or the development of social organisation (p. 20s).

In the chapter on the 'Race-making period' (Ch. XV) the chief stumbling-block in our author's path is his rigid adherence to the Neo- Darwinian principle that acquired modifications are not transmitted. His theory is that the new qualities determined by spontaneous variation react on mental evolution by creating a social environment which mod- ifies physical environment and becomes a principal factor in the trend of racial evolution (p. 209). The original social organisation 'among that primitive human stock from which all races have been evolved was probably an organisation in small groups based on the family under the rule and leadership of a patriarch' (p. 208), which looks like a somewhat uncertain adherence to Atkinson's views. He discusses the effects of climate on nascent races, a subject on which many brilliant but uncertain theories have been propagated but hardly any- thing can be said to be established. 'The Arabs and the fiery Sikhs may be held to illustrate the effect of dry heat. The Englishman and the Dutchman seem to show the effects of a moist cool climate, a certain sluggishness embodied with great energy and perseverance' {p. 214). An interesting theory of M. Boutmy according to which a Southern landscape, offering more vivid objects for the eye to rest on, tends to promote an imitation of nature, an objective temperament, whilst the hazy outiines of the North compel man to direct his energy towards his own Self, is quoted with approval (p. 215). The inhabitants of the tropics can get the minimum necessary for life without any special effort or activity on their part, hence the indolent have not been weeded out in this struggle for life and they have not obtained