INDIVIDUALITY AND WORLD 633 



thoughts, are sources of our pleasure and pain, and we treat thoughts as we 

 do complex sensations ; we divide them into parts, eliminate some of these 

 and synthesize others, and again the process of creating these abstractions 

 gives us the impression of free will ; it appears to us as individual, as an 

 action carried out in accordance with "our" wishes, in contrast with the 

 rigidity of a direct sense impression -» motor reaction chain — where the reflex 

 mechanism is much more evident. Our ability to combine series of thoughts 

 into into one associated texture, with which process is joined the memory of 

 thoughts and their subsequent realization in actions and the connection of 

 these thought textures and actions with the "I" are functions which represent 

 the highest degree of consciousness. 



What we experience, then, above all, as our freedom and as the expression 

 of our individuality, is this ready formation of picture and thought textures 

 of a coordinated and of a superordinated kind, the latter representing a 

 more comprehensive abstraction and synthesis of thoughts. 



But observation and analysis reveal to us that there are many limitations 

 to our apparent freedom. There are, above all, suggestions which limit the 

 free association of our thoughts, limit thereby our freedom, the expression 

 of our individuality; however, this lack of freedom is not always conscious, 

 it is recognized by means of superordinated thoughts only under certain 

 conditions, more especially if the suggestion takes the form of a command 

 imposed upon us and thus conflicts with the spontaneous trend of our 

 thoughts. Also, fashion, ritual, tradition, which are systematized suggestions 

 often functioning as habits, and the suggestions given us in childhood may 

 limit the freedom of our actions, the expression of our rational activity ; but 

 these inhibitions and limitations even more commonly may not become 

 conscious in us, because as habits they do not usually lead to inner friction 

 and conflict, but rather give us mild and pleasant emotions, and function as 

 normal constituents of our psychical life. It is only those suggestions which 

 strongly disturb our systems of thoughts and wills, which become conscious in 

 us as outside interferences, against which we react. Other suggestions, on 

 the contrary, may give us emotions of a very satisfactory kind; they may 

 sustain and justify our thoughts and wills and support us under adverse 

 conditions. We justify and uphold then such suggestions and we react 

 emotionally against thoughts or conditions which tend to oppose them and 

 to prevent their realization. 



However, even suggestions which are accepted as a part of our own 

 thought-system and which act unconsciously may restrict the freedom of our 

 thoughts and actions and have far-reaching effects, inasmuch as they may 

 limit our contact and our relations with the social and non-social environ- 

 ment, the growth of our individuality, and our ability to discover things and 

 to exert rational self-control. They may interfere with the processes from 

 which result recognition of new elements in our environment and a more 

 adequate adaptation to the environment. They may thus tend to diminish the 

 horizon and content of our world. In particular, they may restrict the 

 deeper understanding of the social struggle and the corresponding develop- 



