Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/79

 THE ANAL-EROTIC FACTOR IN HINDU RELIGION 333

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been pursued with passionate zeal by Hindus from very early times, and in their products whether in brass, bronze or stone- ^^' the impulse to manipulate has been carried to lengths hardly to

be met with in similar creations of other nations. The impression that nearly all Hindu manipulative art, as opposed to pictorial, leaves on the mind of the European is one of oppressive confusion of ornament with an insensate distortion of the human figure which is nearly always represented in attitudes of violent contortion.

We have already dealt at some length with the varieties of reaction-formations built up by the Hindu against the material emitted or symbols thereof. In fact it is this aspect of the anal- erotic functioning of the mind that the Hindu transcends any other race or class of people in the whole history of the world.

Further, the Hindus display conspiciously a trait which is pecuHar to persons In whom there exists this type of reaction- formation, namely, an astonishing indiffarence to their surroundings to their furniture, clothes and so on. To the ordinary run ol European, whose reaction-formations tend more towards a passion for cleanliness, hardly anything occasions more surprise in the character of the wealthy Hindu than his contentment with shabby, patched clothing, his rather mean househould equipment, frequently in obvious need of repair or replacement Such a saying as 'a stitch in time saves nine' is to a Hindu merely an impertinence!

In Hindu custom it would appear that we are confronted with the obverse of 'the theory of the pure man' i as exemplified in the in- sistence on the marriage of girls before puberty as well as in the horror they experience over the idea of a widow marrying again.

The exuberant manifestations of the flatus-complex which we meet at every turn in studying Hindu beliefs and practices has already been considered. We may therefore conclude our survey of the subject with a few general observations on the effect that these character-traits of the Hindus have on their past, present and future relations to the rest of mankind.

It is not unhkely that the strange antipathy that is felt for the Hindus by most, if indeed not all, the races of the world, is nothing more than an expression of an unconscious feeling of antagonism brought about by some of the peculiarities of the manifestations of anal erotism as met with among the Hindus. It is certainly a fact that wherever the Hindu may go, no matter • Ernest Jones: op. cit. . »