THE GENESIS OF PERSONAL TRAITS 157 



the beholder think not of the present reality, but of its unseen comple- 

 ment. The sensualist of the wooded mountains divides the real into 

 its parts, gets beauty out of the contrasted zones and is satisfied. The 

 idealist blends the real into one unit and creates for liimself a comple- 

 ment out of the unseen. Beauty is thus a relation between the seen, 

 contrasting element with element, or it is the force that drives the 

 beholder from the seen to the hidden background. 



When I came into contact with conventional art, it took me a long 

 time to see what made it attractive. I disliked the contrasted surfaces 

 and the obtrusiveness of its sex and safety associations. New pictures 

 gave me pleasure, because they evoked in me a realization of the beyond. 

 Sculpture was even more satisfying, because the absence of a back- 

 ground forces the artist to rely for his effect wholly on lines, instead of 

 on contrasted surfaces. 



Furniture also has its motor and sensory effects. A chair elaborately 

 designed makes one think of the pleasure of sitting in it; a chair with 

 lines arouses the thought of some one you would like to have in it. 

 A table with surfaces makes the beholder think of gorging the richly- 

 colored food that should be on it. A table in which lines dominate 

 arouses the thought of company and serious conversation. Lines bring 

 in the absent. Surfaces eject from their folds a rich content. The 

 bareness of the one and the completeness of the other give beauty. 



The essence of my position is the conflict of the motor powers with 

 the earlier formed sex and sensory centers. Adjustment at adolescence 

 is motor; disadjustment is sexual and sensory. The normal child fights 

 its way into motor dominance and by the struggle makes its character. 

 The abnormal remain under sex and sensory control. This would be 

 readily admitted in cases where the abnormalities are so marked as to 

 unbalance the mind. The milder cases, where sex and sensory impres- 

 sions exert a disjustive pressure, are viewed as natural traits. Those 

 who exhibit them are often regarded as superior to those with complete 

 motor control. The real test of a natural trait is its tendency to 

 strengthen the personality of its possessor. Evolution creates unity of 

 coEtrol. Mechanisms for expression are organic: mechanisms for 

 repression are due to the association of ideas, and hence postnatal in 

 origin. There are no organic repressions. They all have a social origin. 



In the case of a child all repression is bad. Conscious morality 

 should begin with maturit}', and then should be a relative pressure, not 

 an absolute prohibition. The child should be protected by an environ- 

 ment that prevents the formation of premature sensory associations. 

 A man with a strong personality would result. With the change 

 would come a simpler language and a morality that evokes character. 

 The longer childhood and the delayed education bring compensation in 

 a longer working period and in new forms of social activity from which 

 would come a better art, a higher morality and a purer religion. 



