156 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



happened. It has not, however, been general to attribute 

 good rather than evil, health rather than disease, to such 

 unconscious memories. But kindly, or thoughtful, or 

 unselfish acts may leave their mark in the same way, 

 and a sound early education is, perhaps, no more than 

 the excitation of such useful complexes. More is 

 definitely known, however, of the evil effects of painful 

 forgotten incidents which often yield to psycho-analysis. 

 By a skilful use of morbid symptoms, shown in myriad 

 forms, the operator may link up the past with the present, 

 and demonstrate to the patient the trifling origin of his 

 ills. To do so seems to be the drainage of what we may 

 call figuratively a mental abscess. I am not aware that 

 any one has suggested that the human brain or mind, 

 the depository of the racial subconsciousness of man, 

 must show in its very constitution similar phenomena. 

 There must be human deep-seated hidden complexes 

 determining thought and action, and showing, if we could 

 read them aright, through what avenues our ancestors 

 have passed. When some hidden complex, which might 

 have worked morbid results, has been sublimated, as the 

 psycho-analysts call the process, the hidden repressed 

 energy makes a healthy path for itself in the brain, and 

 lifts up such things as repressed sex feelings into devo- 

 tion, altruism, and even self-sacrifice. Such must have 

 been part of the method by which the racial type of brain 

 has been developed, and so certain do I regard this that 

 I think it might have been possible to deduce from racial 

 history, folk-lore, and even written history, the very theory 

 of psycho-analysis itself. Myth and legend often enough 

 are sublimations, but in the deep melancholy, or unmiti- 

 gated brutality of some races, may be detected ancient 

 influences not so fortunate in their issue. Reversion to 



