B. THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE HUMAN MIND. "The key to the knowledge of the essence of the conscious life of the soul is to be found in the region of Unconsciousness."-C. G. CARUS. I. INSTINCT IN THE HUMAN MIND. IMPOSSIBLE as it is to draw a strict line of demarcation between body and mind, no less impossible is it to discuss apart the instincts relating to our physical and to our psychical needs. Thus we have already in the preceding section alluded to several instincts of the human mind, as the capricious appetites of the sick or the pregnant, and the curative instincts of children or somnambules. A few others border on the bodily instincts, e.g., the fear of falling on the part of young animals and children, who, e.g., are quiet when carried upstairs, but become restless when carried downstairs; the greater caution and circumspection of the movements of pregnant horses and women; the instinct of mothers to place the new-born at the breast, of children to suck; the peculiar talent of children to distinguish genuine from feigned friendship; the instinctive shyness in the presence of certain strangers which is wont to be manifested especially by pure, inexperienced girls; the good and bad presentiments, with their great motive power to commit and omit actions, especially in the female sex, &c.-We shall consider in the present chapter those human instincts which are more connected with the bodily life, and to which, therefore, the name instinct is willingly accorded, whereas an empty sentiment of human dignity dictates the refusal of the term to all manifestations of the unconscious more remote from the bodily life, but otherwise perfectly analogous, on account of its animal associations. In the first place, we have to consider some instincts of aversion, ie, such as do not compel to actions, but to omissions, or merely to those actions whereby the object of aversion is got rid of or avoided. The most important is the fear of death; this is only a particular form of the instinct of self-preservation, other forms of which we already know as the vis medicatrix, plastic energy, migratory impulse, reflex protective movements, &c. It is not the fear of the last judgment or other metaphysical hypotheses, not Hamlet's doubt of what will come hereafter, not Egmont's simple delight in being and doing, which restrains the hand of the suicide, but instinct does it with its mysterious shudder, with its wild heart-beats chasing the blood madly through the veins. A second instinct of repulsion is Shame; it has such exclusive reference to the generative region that these bodily parts are even named after it. It appertains in an especial degree to the female sex, and excites in them a characteristic defensive attitude, and is determinative of the whole life of man, of savage and civilised alike. The milder form of heat due to non-periodicity1 and shame are the two foundations which allow of the elevation of the sexual relations of man into a higher sphere than that of the animals. Shame is something so little due to consciousness that we already find it among savage tribes; certainly in their case limited to the main point, whereas eivilisation draws within its sphere whatever has any sort of connection with sexual relations. An analogous instinct of aversion is Disgust. It relates to food as shame to sex, and serves to put us on our guard against those food-ingredients which are easily mixed with dirt and impurity, i.e., organic excretions and organic matter in a state of semi-decomposition. Its senses are 1 Beaumarchais rated this factor so highly that he jestingly said: Boir sans soif, et faire l'amour en tout temps, c'est ce qui distingue l'homme de la bête. A much better statement of specific difference, at all events, than "thought;" for the rest, not quite true, since the anthropoid apes have the non-periodicity of heat in common with man, taste and smell, and it is scarcely correct when Lessing regards it as possible for other senses. At the same time it is of course not necessary that the idea of eating the things for which one feels disgust should have been already entertained; one is often previously so disgusted as to prevent the thought of eating arising. There is, moreover, another much deeper disgust which has reference to purity of the skin, in order that perspiration may not be suppressed through the stopping-up of the pores. Here, at any rate, the sense of sight may be directly concerned.-Man. can by habit more or less repress these, as all other instincts, just because with him consciousness has become a power which, in most things, except those of supreme importance, is able to oppose the Unconscious, and habitual action truly belongs indeed also to the sphere of consciousness. But the Unconscious can also be repressed when that which would have been done instinctively without consciousness and habit is done with consciousness and from habit; then the repugnance which one feels towards the contrary is rather a repugnance to the unusual than an instinctive repulsion. Look at a young girl and boy: the one neat and smart, elegant and mannerly, graceful as a kitten; the other with trousers torn in a recent shindy, awkward and clumsy as a young bear. She is fond of dress and of showing herself off, tenderly dandles her doll, and plays at cooking and washing and ironing; while he builds a house in the corner, plays robber and soldier, rides on every staff, sees a sabre or a gun in every stick, and is especially pleased with the manifestation of his own energy, which of course consists, for the most part, in useless destruction. What a delightful anticipation of the future vocation, which is often to be observed in the most charming details! If much of it is imitation of adults, still a presaging instinct is unmistakable, which guides children, even in their sports, to the exercises which they will require in the future, and makes them capable |