Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 2.djvu/22

 178 G- R<>HEIM

"Hell" belffw us, for the cranium the seat of the intellectual func- tions and the repressive forces is actually aiove the orgctns of reproduction. It is equally evident how the universal existence of the concept of a "Father Sky" and a "Mother Earth" as progeni- tors of mankind is. conditioned by the fact that in cohabitation the male is normally above his female partner. This same fact reminds us of another general tendency of the primitive male; in the repression of the sex impulse he will turn away from woman and project his ideal into his fellow-males as duplicates of his own Ego.i Thus is society partly based upon the surplus energy which is drawn away from its original, direct-sexual function, and turned into new channels, and this is why we find that the Heavenly Father is sometimes brought into contrast to an Earth Mother who is regarded as the principle of evil.'' And it is thus that, in the answer given by Faust to Mephistopheles regard- ing the obligations he is about to incur for the world which lies beyond this one, we find an endopsychic recognition of the rela- tivity and the anthropic origin of our space concepts.

Das Driiben kann mich wenig kiimmem; Schlagst du erst diese Welt in Trummem, Die andre mag darnach entstehen. Aus dieser Erde quillen meine Freuden, Und diese Sonne scheinet meinen Leiden; Kann ich mich erst von ihnen scheiden, Dann mag, was will und kann, geschehen. Davon will ich nichts weiter horen, Ob man auch kunftig haft und liebty Und ob es auch in jenen Spharen Ein Oben oder Unten gibt.

Certainly not: for environment, space, above and below, as we conceive them, are naught but the gigantic shadows of our Self.

• Cf. Schurtz: Altersklassen und MannerbUnde, 1902. » E, B. Tylor: Primitive Culture 1903, II, 271; R. F, Johston: Lion and Dragon in Northern China, 1910, 262.

Manuscript received June 4, 1921.