TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 699 



4. 11 ar and Sublimation. By Ernest Jonks, M.D. 



In the conduct of war, and implicit in the very conception of war, various 

 impulses come to expression of a kind that are apparently non-existent, or at 

 all events latent, in the same people during peace; they include, among others, 

 such disapproved-of tendencies as cruelty, deceit, ruthless egotism, looting, and 

 savagery of various kinds. These impulses are part of the inherited charac- 

 teristics of mankind and are readily to be detected, though their significance 

 is here greatly underestimated, in the mental life of the infant. In the course 

 of individual development they are replaced by other tendencies of an opposite 

 kind, such as consideration for others, honesty, altruism, and horror of 

 cruelty. It is vulgarly believed that the primitive set disappears owing to the 

 implantation or development of the more civilised kind, but psycho-analytical 

 investigation shows that the process is more subtle and complex than this. 

 The primitive tendencies never disappear from existence, they only vanish from 

 view by being ' repressed ' and buried in the unconscious mind. From here 

 they exert a far more considerable influence on consciousness than might be 

 imagined, and may also appear in an almost naked form in dream life when 

 the possibility of external manifestation is excluded. 



The main agent leading to the transformation in question is the pressure 

 of education in the widest sense as exerted first by the parents and later on by 

 the whole cultural environment as well, though no doubt the child is born with 

 a susceptibility to this influence in the form of a 'predisposition.' The effects 

 of this pressure comprise several distinct processes, the corresponding social 

 significance of which is very different. In the first place may be mentioned 

 'sublimation,' i.e., the replacement of iui originally sexual aim by a more per- 

 missible, social, non-sexual one with the deflection of interest and energy from 

 the former to the latter. Similar to this is the process whereby egotistic 

 impulses become invested with erotic feeling (the word erotic is here used to 

 cover all varieties of love) and in this way subordinated to the mutual interests 

 of the individual and his environment. In both these cases we may speak of 

 a ' refinement ' of the primitive impulses, their very nature becoming profoundly 

 affected. In contrast to this stand other effects of repression, which, although 

 they may equally result in ' good ' behaviour, do so merely through exercising 

 an external pressure, there being no change whatever in the nature of the 

 impulses. There are many varieties of this, compensations, character reactions, 

 neurotic symptoms, &c., but they may all be grouped under the term 'pseudo- 

 sublimation.' When the external cultural pressure is relaxed — as it officially 

 is in time of war, for instance — there is a tendency to reversion in the direction 

 of the primitive impulses, but this happens far more with the second group 

 considered than with the first. The distinction between the two is essential 

 to the understanding of various social phenomena, including war. 



5. Observation and Formal Training. By E. Gleaves. 



SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. 

 The following Papers were read : — 



1. The Neuro-Psychoscs of Adolescence. 

 By G. E. Shuttleworth, B.A., M.D. 



Aduhsceuce (roughly from 15 to 35) opens a new chapter in life, sex differ- 

 ences being evolved and accentuated. 



Influences of heredity in development, especially as regards latent tendencies. 

 Emotional characters : risk of perversion. Neurotic accompaniments,, e.f/., 

 hysteria and epilepsy. Asocial peculiarities, cr/., irritability of temper, family 

 aversions, suspicions, religiosity, &c. 



Deuelopmental mental stress. The risks of competitive examinations. 

 Fancied talent. Disappointment and its results. 



