Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 3-4.djvu/98

 3S2 JAMES S. VAN TESLAAR

V

For the first time since Darwin announced his discoveries, an important corollary of the theory of evohition — recapitulation — is thus proven to hold good of the psyche. It happens that the onto- genetic account of the mind is of greatest practical significance because in no other field is an appreciation of the workings of recapitulation so important. Thus it is interesting to know that the appendix, for instance, is a vestigial organ representing a phase of existence during which man's dietary habits were what we call today 'vegetarian'. It is interesting to know that certain sets of muscles around our ears prove that at one stage in his long past man had the ability to move his ears in all directions with the agility displayed to-day by animals depending for safety upon acute hearing more than man does. Such remnants are tell-tale signs of man's previous history, as much as the findings exhibited in our museums of natural history. They testify as to man's past habits and ways of living. But when the appendix becomes inflamed it is no longer a matter of 'museum interest' for the person con- cerned. And if all the vestigial, embryonic organs and structures were to persist and flare up into activity, a difficult and serious situation would arise.

That is precisely what often happens upon the mental sphere. Phases of our past, in the widest sense of the term, tend to per- petuate themselves 'in their original image', as it were.

An occasional strong flaring up and more commonly, a con- tinuous functional persistance of the mental equipment character- istic of our early stages of existence is the rule rather than the exception. This is precisely what makes an understanding of the processes of psychic recapitulation a matter of such capital impor- tance in the study of human behavior.

In spite of the refinements of civilization, in spite of the in- fluence of education, religion, precept or preachment, our mental equipment still persists in its primordial forms. Eventually most of the cravings of the human race, our raw instincts, undergo transformations and refinements. But for a long time these cravings continue to manifest themselves very much 'in the raw'. We recog- nise this fact when we remark that 'the child is a savage' or that 'youth is callous and cruelly selfish'. As youth passes into man- hood and womanhood respectively it learns to abide by the more