Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 2.djvu/36

 192 AUGUST STARCKE

well-developed breasts or feelings of neglect on this basis? The [ answer is, that this difference does not exist at an earlier age,

and it is only at that time that the experiences have such after- ■ effects.

I If we adopt von Uexkiill'si idea and separate "outer world"

I from "environment", we can say that the child, and particularly

i the infant at the breast, has quite a different ouier world from the

i adult, although the environment of the child and adults is the same.

Thereby I consider the objections raised are settled, and we can pass on to formulate our ideas regarding the influence which the sucking erotism must have had upon the formation of the castra- tion complex.

I am firmly convinced that the wish phantasies of the uncon- sciou,s are ultimately repetitions of real situations; these phantasies

Biologische Weltanschauung. MQnchen, 1913.
 * J. von Uexktill: Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere. Berlin 1909. Idem:

"!For example, it is not the form of the chair, the cart, the horse, that the word expresses, but what it performs for us.

"The meaning of the object for our existence is in what it performs for us. It is this that the coach-builder has in his mind, the architect who designs the plan of the house, the butcher who icills the ox, the author who writes the book, and the watch-maker who makes the watch. Everything that surrounds us in the town has only sense and meaning through its relation to us human beings" (Biologische Weltanschauung, S. 78.)

"Thus it appears that in the midst of the daily increasing multitude of human productions thousands of people live who treat these things as the only reality.

"And yet we need only take a dog with us on our walk through the town in order to be taught differently. The dog hurries past the tailor's shop. The clothes have a meaning for him only after his master has worn them and bestowed on them the odour of his body; then they become important attributes in the dog's life. Our clocks and books do not represent particular objects to the dog. The unimportant confusion of colours and forms leaves it quite indifferent. Only the butcher's shop absorbs its whole interest. The smell of the raw flesh and cooked sausages stimulates its appetite, while the odour of putrifying fish produces the desire to roll itself in it.

"Tlie curbstone, which we carelessly pass by, is quite as important to the dog as the butcher's shop, because every dog leaves behind on it its redolent visiting card. The dog runs up the stairs as it would run up any hill. The balustrade has no meaning to it. It uses only the upholstered chairs. It rests best in the place where the shadows of the trees do not. disturb it. The flower bed only attracts its attention when a little mouse appears.

"Nobody would willingly assert that the dog had passed through the town in a manner similar to ourselves" i^hid, 79—80).