•INDIVIDUALITY AND WORLD 643 



tendencies, principles; between such incompatibilities he is constantly balanc- 

 ing, at one time one, and at another time another of these factors predominat- 

 ing. Our feeling of freedom and self-determination depends upon this finely 

 balanced system of thoughts with which we adjust ourselves to conditions in 

 an ever-changing environment. It depends, too, upon a certain continuity in 

 thought; the thoughts of one moment must be remembered in the following 

 period and must manifest a certain degree of consistency. We may lose the 

 feeling of freedom in the case of ourselves and of others as soon as this finely 

 balanced, connected system of thoughts and emotions is interfered with, 

 owing to abnormalities in the functioning of the organism. 



Thus, although the lack of freedom and the automatic character of human 

 behavior may be evident to us under certain conditions, for the most part, we 

 largely ignore the factors determining our reactions, and they are indeed 

 mostly unknown to us. We live, think and act in accordance with the require- 

 ments of the situations which we meet. The interactions between the situations 

 and our organism and our responses remain largely unanalyzed. Even if we 

 should be aware of them, as a rule we abstract from this knowledge in the 

 process of living. Here we feel we are free. 



2. Continuity and consistency in individuality. We need not only the feel- 

 ing of inner freedom and self-determination, we also need a feeling of 

 continuity and self-consistency. These needs are intimately connected with 

 each other and they both depend upon the interlocking of thoughts, the un- 

 interruptedness of memory which joins the experience of one time-unit with 

 those of the following, which creates a connected texture cf remembered 

 sensations, feelings, thoughts and wills. 



In our changing environment, amidst the varying conditions under which 

 we live, we have principles which as such remain fixed, in contrast with the 

 shifting manifestations and expressions of these principles. We have conscious 

 thoughts which direct us in our aims and we have memories of ourselves. 

 When we become aware of abnormal, irrational reactions within us, we try 

 to make them accord with our directing thoughts and principles. These latter 

 attempt to co-ordinate all our thoughts into one consistent whole, which 

 centers around the "I." Our individuality is conceived of as being more than 

 merely a peculiarly constituted mosaic of factors, all of which may exist also 

 in others, although in different arrangements and with different degrees of 

 intensity; the picture of ourselves as a coordinated, rational personality be- 

 comes fixed in our mind, notwithstanding the changes which take place in 

 our body and in our thoughts continually. Thus we live in a world of illusion, 

 since in reality we are subject to a continuous change. Furthermore our dis- 

 tinctions as to what is our own and derived from the inside and what is derived 

 from our environment are quite generally erroneous. We attribute to things 

 within us, to our individuality, what is really of external origin, such as the 

 suggestions which have acted on us and influenced our behavior. Quite com- 

 monly we believe that reflex actions, having their beginning outside of us, 

 originate within us if the afferent parts of the reflex arc remain hidden from 

 us. Thus we may hold ourselves responsible for actions of an automatic char- 



