Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/106

 unfortunate fellowman and the pleasure which this power brings is reinforced by the admission of the Duke that Shylock's demand, cruel and blood-thirsty as it may seem, is a just one and within the law.

The conclusion to be drawn from this short analysis of Shylock's character is that all men in whom there are highly developed anal-erotic character traits, particularly those referring to money, power, hate, would have reacted, under the same circumstances of social repression, in much the same way that Shylock reacted. We may assume, therefore, from the data as revealed by the distinguishing traits of anal erotism, that Shylock's character was not of a particular racial type, but that such character traits can be found in all individuals where these traits are so little repressed and so highly developed as profoundly to modify their relations to their fellow men. The same unconscious impulses and motivations under the same conditions which reacted on Shylock would be able to produce identical tendencies to power and revenge.

Received June 13, 1921.