The Science of the Mind 555 



healthy mind, in this sense, is very rare; we usually find that sev- 

 eral of a man's complexes are incompatible with one another, and 

 on those occasions when more than one are aroused there is con- 

 flict between them. Thus it may often happen that a man's 

 "selfish" desires, those springing perhaps from his ego-complex 

 or his sex-complex, conflict with the moral code of the com- 

 munity, a code which has great weight with him because it is 

 associated with his herd-complex. Such conflicts are favourite 

 themes for novelists: the father torn between patriotism and 

 his love for his son; the intending monk torn between his 

 religion and his love of his family; the man torn between 

 an illicit love passion and his sense of morality. Conflict 

 plays a prominent part in the psychic life of most people, 

 and it leads to very important consequences. For the con- 

 flict must be settled, and there are two very important ways 

 of settling it. There is the method of rationalisation. One of the 

 conflicting complexes is allowed to triumph, but not consciously. 

 Reasons are invented for the resultant action which have nothing 

 to do with its psychic causes, but which prevent the man from 

 feeling "ashamed" as we say. Thus a primitive brutal desire for 

 revenge may be disguised as justice. An exhibition of ruthless 

 greed as in some unscrupulous business deal, for instance will 

 be explained by pointing out that it is for the good of the com- 

 munity that its most efficient citizens should come to the top, and 

 so with other conflicts. 



Another very important method of settling a painful con- 

 flict is by repression of one of its factors. It is this method which 

 has been chiefly studied by Freud, and he has succeeded in show- 

 ing how very great its importance is. A man decides completely 

 to ignore one of the conflicting complexes he puts it out of his 

 mind. But, as Freud has shown, the ignored complex is not 

 thereby destroyed. It is repressed into the unconscious, but it is 

 still energetic and may manifest its existence in a number of ways, 

 ranging from certain phenomena of forgetfulness down to 



