INDIVIDUALITY AND WORLD 645 



attribute to his psychical individuality the character of uniqueness to a much 

 higher degree than it actually possesses. As we have stated, also the psychical 

 individuality (personality) is a mosaic in which the constituents were acquired 

 from various sources, partly as inheritance of peculiarities in the structure 

 and function of certain organs from the ancestors of the individual, partly 

 through suggestions and thoughts taken over from other individuals with 

 whom he has been in contact. Very little, as a rule, has he himself contributed 

 to this mosaic. What distinguishes an individual is the way in which these 

 various constituents are combined and accentuated. The uniqueness of the 

 psychical individuality is furthermore due to the uniqueness of individual 

 experiences. And here again, the individual experiences are not really unique, 

 but the series as a whole, the order in which they are joined together and 

 the relative significance of each one of these experiences for the individual may 

 be unique. The psychical individuality represents, thus, a biological-historical 

 system, in which environmental factors play a very important role. It is the 

 selection and chronological order as well as the intensity of the influences and 

 experiences which have acted on the individual, especially in the course of 

 his most formative, impressionable period of life — but also later — which help 

 to determine his psychical character and his uniqueness. But even these 

 historical factors are not usually entirely unique. Other individuals have 

 experiences, if not identical, at least somewhat similar, and the scientific 

 analysis of the effects of these series of experiences on the nature of the 

 psychical individuality seems feasible. In contrast to the psychical individual- 

 ity which thus represents a biological-historical system, the other two types 

 of individualities, one of them based on the character of the various tissues 

 and organs and of their combinations, of which in certain respects the psy- 

 chical individuality really represents merely a part, and the other based on the 

 character of the individuality differential, are purely biological, and much 

 more independent of more or less accidental environmental factors and more 

 fixed and determined in their nature. This genetic fixity and relative inde- 

 pendence of accidental conditions characterizes especially the individuality 

 differentials, but almost equally as much the tissue and organ differentials. 



3. The permanence of our individuality. W r e are involved in a struggle with 

 nature, which we learn to dominate only within a very limited range. Our 

 organism ages, becomes sick and dies. This natural struggle invariably ends 

 in defeat. But the directing, apparently self-determining agent in our individu- 

 ality, that which seems really characteristic of us, we conceive as imperishable, 

 eternal. We have built thought structures expressing and justifying this 

 interpretation. But even if we do not accept these views, still we live essen- 

 tially in the world of our thoughts, emotions and wishes, which are "we," 

 and these thoughts we feel are free, not limited by the realities of life and 

 nature. And in this thought-world we apparently continue to act quite inde- 

 pendently of the changes which actually take place in us, of our real fate. 

 Thus we see ourselves as continuing to live after our death in the world 

 of our thoughts. We want to transmit to the world our thoughts and attitudes 

 and change the world into one more suited to our needs, into a better world, 



