SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— J, K. 379 



Tuesday, September 6. 



Joint Discussion with Section F on Innate Differences and Social Status. 

 Dr. M. Ginsberg, Prof. Godfrey H. Thomson, and Mr. F. C. 

 Bartlett. 



Dr. W. K. D. Fairbairn. — Religion and Fantasy. 



The researches of the psycho-analytic school have led to the theory that religious 

 phenomena are symbolic expressions of primitive instinctual forces to which overt 

 expression has been denied for social and cultural reasons. These primitive forces 

 remain active at unconscious levels, and reach consciousness usually in disguised 

 and sublimated forms, of which the most important are the religious and the artistic. 

 Two main conclusions have been reached regarding the origin of the religious urge in 

 its psychological bearings : — 



1. The religious attitude is the sublimated expression in the adult of an infantile 

 attitude toward the parents, who appear to the child as omnipotent. 



2. Religious practice is directed towards the removal of a sense of guilt, which 

 has its ultimate origin in the (Edipus Complex, i.e. the childish desire to possess the 

 Mother at the expense of the Father. 



A study of religious fantasies in the neurotic and insane provides evidence in 

 favour of these theories. 



Acceptance of these theories regarding the origin of the religious urge does not 

 involve the discrediting of religious values, for the nature of Truth is a separate 

 question from that of its origins. Further, these theories enhance rather than detract 

 from the importance of the role played by religion in the transmutation of man's 

 primitive instinctual forces into higher cultural forms of activity. 



Prof. C. W. Valentine. — The Comparative Reliability of Intuitive Judg- 

 ments of Men and Women. 



Dr. H. K. de Silva. — Experimental Control of Introspection. 



Mr. G. G. Campion. — The Organic Growth of the Concept as one of the 

 Factors in Intelligence. 



SECTION K.— BOTANY. 



(For references to the publication elsewhere of communications entered in the 

 following list of transactions, see p. 434.) 



Thursday, September 1. 



Presidential Address by Prof. F. E. Fritsch on Some Aspects of the 

 Present-day Investigations of Protophyta. (See p. 176.^ 



Prof. J. Lloyd Williams.— Some Parasites of the Phoeophycece. (Com- 

 municated in title only.) 



Miss E. M. PiEES. — Observations on the Structure and Reproduction of 

 Bifurcaria tuberculata, StarcM. 



The genus Bifurcaria includes three species, all of very restricted range ; of these 

 B. tuberculata only is British. 



The distribution, habitat and habit of B. tuberculata are described, and reference is 

 made to the remaining two species, B. brassica'formis and B. hvigata, both of which 

 are South African. 



