TABOO AND GENETICS 211 



formation of conditioned reflexes takes place 

 in all fields of animal and human activity. 



Watson has recently stated that a similar 

 substitution of one stimulus for another occurs 

 in the case of an emotional reaction as well as 

 at the level of the simple ph^^siological reflex 

 response. (8). This means that when an 

 emotionally exciting object stimulates the sub- 

 ject simultaneously with one not emotionally 

 exciting, the latter may in time (or even after 

 one joint stimulation) arouse the same emotional 

 response as the former. Kempf considers this 

 capacity of the emotion to become thus con- 

 ditioned to other than the original stimuli " of 

 the utmost importance in determining the 

 selections and aversions throughout life, such as 

 mating, habitat, friends, enemies, vocations, 

 professions, rehgious and political preferences, 

 etc." (5). 



Just as Pavlov and his followers found that 

 almost anything could become a food sign, so 

 the study of neurotics has shown that the 

 sexual emotion can be fixed upon almost any 

 love object. For example, a single character- 

 istic of a beloved person (e.g., — eye colour, smile 

 posture, gestures) can become itself a stimulus 

 to evoke the emotional response originally 

 associated only with that person. Then it 

 happens that the affection may centre upon any- 

 one possessing similar traits. In most psy- 



