Having said this, however, we must return to our proviso - when the influence of the parent is good. Unhappily it is not always good, even when well-intentioned. There is reason to believe that irritability and violent temper in the parent may have lasting ill-effects on some children. Within my own limited experience I have come across instances which suggest that the parent complex, even the influence of those who would be reckoned good fathers and mothers, may, in some minor matters, be excessive. In one case that came under my notice, a man experienced, occasionally, under circumstances in which a slight conflict threatened between himself and others (as, for example, in business affairs), a feeling of anxiety like that of an accusing conscience, even when the strictest examination showed not the slightest grounds for it. This subject showed the influence of the father complex most clearly in the word association test; several long reactions, which he found it impossible to explain, led back suddenly to the fear of the father, especially in reference to certain events in which the youth had been quite innocent. The fear of the father at this period had not been entirely forgotten, but so far as he knew it had not been thought of for many years. I may add that this discovery was made before I had heard of, or read of, the theory as to the father complex, so that suggestion on my part seems to be ruled out. Within a few weeks of the discovery anxieties of the kind mentioned ceased to trouble the man.

This same individual seemed to reveal the influence of the father complex in another and rather amusing way. He had an absurd irrita-bilitywhen teased about his unusual fondness for certain delicacies. I have seen him become very angry about it. The man himself, in calmer moments, would seek to justify it. I set him thinking along Freudian lines, and his interest was intense when he recalled that his father, who had been a severe and dominating parent, had frequently criticised him, even when a young man, for wanting these particular delicacies, which the father himself did not happen to like. After this explanation the teasing was not resented in the slightest, but only caused mild amusement.

Possibly excessive sensitiveness to criticism may in some cases be due chiefly to earlier criticism by the parent, which the child felt to be unjust. A child has to repress even his righteous indigna-nation, and so a sensitive centre may be set up, which is only too liable to be roused by circumstances resembling its original cause. Or, through being constantly snubbed, a permanent conviction of his own marked inferiority may be established in a child, which may cling to him when its cause is forgotten.

With due allowance for the abnormality of many cases given in evidence, we do seem to have in the doctrine of the father complex an additional factor which must be taken into account in balancing the gains and losses of strict discipline; and at least we have a further reason for giving as much freedom as possible to strong youthful impulses, which are innocent and harmless, though they may be disturbing to the comfort and quiet of older folk.

Both Freudians and some neo-Freudians hold that excessive petting, as well as excessive severity, may set up an undue dominance of the father or mother over the child's personality; so that we may have a characteristic "mother-complex."* Devotion towards the mother, even when her influence is no longer recognised as such, may conflict with the widening claims of life as the youth grows to manhood. Or the continued reliance on or craving for the mother's affection may be a source of weakness in facing realities. According to this view, when the neurotic complains that the world does not understand or appreciate him he is really crying for his mother. The full carrying out of life's demands, or the realisation of the highest self, may need the abandonment of a too dominant parental influence; which throws a new light upon the words, "If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, he cannot be mydisciple."

The Mother-Complex.

* Cf. Jung, Analytic Psychology, p. 131, and Crichton Miller's chapter on "The Mother Complex," in Functional Nerve Disease.

One of the most suggestive parts of Jung's work is his psychological exposition of the view-already a familiar theme in literature - that the shirking of a great choice, or the absence of a dominant aim in life, may be the source of mental as well as of moral weakness. We have not to go to abnormal examples to find cases in which the abandonment of the ideals of youth has been followed by mental as well as moral lassitude.

Jung writes: "We do not help the neurotic patient by freeing him from the demand made by civilisation; we can only help him by inducing him to take an active part in the strenuous task of carrying on the development of civilisation. The suffering which he undergoes in performing this duty takes the place of his neurosis. But, whereas the neurosis and the complaints that accompany it are never followed by the delicious feeling of good work well done, of duty fearlessly performed, the suffering that comes from useful work, and from victory over real difficulties, brings with it those moments of peace and satisfaction which give the human being the priceless feeling that he has really lived his life."*

Note on the Word "Normal."

Occasionally in this book I use the phrase 'normal individuals," especially in emphasising the fact that inferences based on the study of neurotics cannot be assumed to hold for every one.

It seems a convenient phrase to indicate - in discussions of this kind - persons who are not suffering from evident nervous disease, or from a decided tendency to hysteria in the milder sense, or even from unusual "nervousness."

I fully realise, however, that the term normal is an indefinite one, and after careful observation, in the light of the new psychology, of supposedly normal individuals, one leans towards the view that, if the unconscious influence of repressions is a sign of mental abnormality (though perhaps mild), there are probably far fewer normals in this respect than we have supposed; in fact, that "normal" denotes not the majority but only a minority. It has been said that "we are all a little hysterical," and a distinguished physician, in commenting on the distinction between normal and abnormal, once remarked to me that the best work in the world is done by neurasthenics, +

* Jung, Analytical Psychology, p. 224.

+ Compare the assertion of William James in his Varieties of Religious Experiences, that if high intellectual capacity is combined with a neuropathic disposition, the result is genius.