224 TABOO AND GENETICS 



the ruling motive of the conduct becomes the 

 desire to release the personality from this 

 torturing sense of inability by a constant 

 demonstration of the power to control circum- 

 stances or to dominate associates. 



This abnormal will to power finds expression 

 in the marital relationship in the desire for 

 supremacy over the mate. The domineering 

 husband is a familiar figure in daily Hfe. The 

 wife who finds it more difficult to rule her 

 husband by sheer mastery achieves the same 

 ends by developing a fit of hysterical weeping 

 or having a nervous headache when denied her 

 own way in family affairs. 



By far the easiest way for the woman to 

 satisfy her craving for power is the development 

 of an interesting illness which makes her the 

 centre of attention. The history of nervous 

 disease furnishes many cases of neurosis where 

 this uncontrollable longing for domination is 

 the chief factor in the etiology of the illness. 

 It is not at all unusual to meet wives who hold 

 their husbands subservient to every whim 

 because of " delicate nervous organizations " 

 which are upset at the slightest thwarting of 

 their wishes so that they develop nervous head- 

 aches, nervous indigestion, and many other 

 kinds of sickness unless their preferences meet 

 with the utmost consideration. This tendency 

 often becomes a chronic invalidism, which, at 



