88 The Triunity of Personality [CH. 



and conation in him. He replies that he has permission. 

 Exit the punishment-complex ; but the danger-complex 

 gives rise to a fresh conative impulse, and I decide to 

 tell him to come back. I do so, again influencing his 

 mind, and the result is not merely speech on his part, 

 but action. He comes back. 



Here is a simple illustration of the three parts of my 

 psychic activity as it appears in relation to another 

 person. But we may examine it from a somewhat differ- 

 ent point of view. 



My reason, mediated by my brain, recognises the situa- 

 tion, itself mediated by the sensation of sight. My body, 

 through my voice, mediates my will to alter that situa- 

 tion. My body again, through my ear, mediates a fuller 

 understanding of the situation. And, finally, through 

 my voice it mediates the desired change. Moreover, 

 in relation to my son, the environment has changed. 

 Through the action of my will, a fresh environmental 

 factor has come into being my command overriding 

 the nurse's permission to which he responds by appro- 

 priate action. I have created a fresh environmental 

 factor for him; no doubt awakening all kinds of asso- 

 ciated memories of the effects of disobedience and so on, 

 since he is a person who, like myself, makes judgments 

 of experience. Habit too cpmes in. All these have more 

 or less potency in determining the response of every 

 living organism to environmental stimulus, whether 

 that response be conscious or unconscious. 



Yet again, I know that I willed to create this environ- 

 ment, and that I need not have done so if I had not pre- 

 ferred being over-careful to the boy running risks. I 

 willed to do it freely to allow my anxiety-emotion to 

 have play being conscious that the matter which I in- 

 dwelt my body, and the air would mediate the ful- 

 filment of my desires, because I indwelt it. I did not 

 think of the air as an 'other,' though it undoubtedly is 



