EVOLUTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 69 



and physical elements, the close co-operation existing, for 

 instance, between body and mind, which work together for a 

 common purpose, precisely as though they were symbiotic partners 

 and had in the past been jointly under the direction of one and 

 the same principle of evolution. Quite recently a book was 

 reviewed in " Nature " on Man an adaptive mechanism, 

 in which its author, Professor G. W. Crile, comes to the following 

 conclusion : 



In the web of behaviour, what we call mental and what we call bodily 

 are inextricably interwoven. More than that, the whole bodily life is 

 correlated with a subtlety which can scarcely be exaggerated, verifying 

 St. Paul's remark that the various members of the body work as if they 

 had a common concern for one another. 



I would suggest that the most fitting scientific explanation 

 is to say that the parts of the body, physical and mental, work 

 together in internal or domestic Symbiosis correlated in turn, 

 and in an important manner, with the wider, i.e., biological 

 form of Symbiosis. Professor Crile favours a mechanistic, 

 interpretation of mind " 1'Homme machine." His views 

 however, cannot be said in any way to nullify the bio-economic 

 explanation. What he would leave to the brain as " the 

 initiator of response " and to " the activation of the brain by the 

 inner and outer environment," really covers the most important 

 part of the theory of mind. The brain draws not only mechanical 

 activation but also inspiration from the environment. And it 

 does so in virtue of a happy correspondence, a harmonious 

 relation of the organism with some of the essential factors of the 

 environment. The relation of the brain with the " inner and 

 outer environment " corresponds to the organism's relation of 

 inner and outer Symbiosis. The brain is merely an instrument 

 in facilitating such relations and in capitalising their results. 

 According to the reviewer, Professor Crile : 



Gives a very vivid account of the physiological linkage concerned 

 with the transformation of potential into kinetic energy. In this " kinetic 

 system " the brain is the initiator of response, being activated by the 

 environment within or without the body ; acting like a storage battery, 

 it contributes the initial spark and impulse which drives the mechanism. 



Although kinetics are, of course, involved, it is yet fairly 

 obvious that theirs is only a subordinate part in the business of 

 life. Organisms, high or low, merely make use of various 

 kinetic systems, such as suit their purposes in life and are possible 

 or commensurate with their economic achievements. The 



