* Quoted by E. Jones, Papers on Psycho-Analysis, p. 43.

Probably the extreme revolt of some adolescents against their parents' religious beliefs, in which they have been strictly brought up, may be due in part to the influence of a repressed father-complex. In everyday life I think we can often note how A's antipathy to B makes him tend to take up the opposite point of view to B's on any very debatable question: so that a good deal of intellectual dishonesty may be attributable to the influence of what is temporarily unconscious.

Belief and Unconscious Desire.

The psychology of the unconscious may also, it seems to me, throw some light upon a curious fact in reference to some religious people. It is at times observable that a man who is very confident and dogmatic in his assertion of belief, seems to show less influence of these beliefs in his life than do some other men of cautious and even sceptical nature, whose hold on religious beliefs is much fainter. The latter seem to accomplish more on a smaller supply of driving power.

It seems to me not impossible that this difference may be explicable by reference to the unconscious influence of doubt. The dogmatic man is often one who, on principle, represses all beginnings of doubt, like a fellow-student I once knew, who left the room when sceptical arguments were being advanced by one of our friends, because, as he said, they were so unsettling. The doubts thus repressed may, however, continue to influence conscious life by weakening action, finding a by-way out into consciousness when the natural one is forbidden them, as seems so typical of the unconscious.

Doubt and the Unconscious.

In the case of him who faces doubt, however, doubts have their full play in the more purely intellectual sphere. They are not repressed: they profoundly modify belief. But what belief remains can have its full influence on conscious action, without the hampering drag of hidden doubt; so that it was doubting Thomas, who, of all the disciples, would do the bravest deed - "Let us also go that we may die with Him."

Probably the whole force of a man s personality can be thrown behind his actions or speech only when inhibiting counter impulses, whether conscious or not, are absent. A good actor is one in whom "no ingrained wishes work against his part."*

Sometimes, says Freud, we falter because in the unsconscious there are repressed feelings which would oppose our action. And the fact that our actions are sometimes decided by these, and so seem irrational and accidental, is one of the causes of minor superstitions. The stumble of William of Normandy as he landed on English soil, was superstitiously feared by some of his companions Freud would probably say it may have indicated a hidden hesitation or doubt as to his forward movement, in which case the superstition is simply "psychology projected into the outer world."*

* Holt, The Freudian Wish.

There are still other aspects of human life on which the psychology of the unconscious may throw some suggestive light. For example, in the understanding of one's fellows,the lesser physical movements and mannerisms may sometimes express to us a deeper part of a man's personality, and may be interpreted unconsciously by others, "instinctively," as we say, and so a favourable or other impression formed, for which rational grounds cannot be given. Along these lines the new psychology of the unconscious may possibly give new life to the discredited faculty popularly called "intuition." Again, the apparent stupidity which annoys us so unreasonably in an opponent's arguments, may move our ire largely because, our unconscious self interpreting his unconscious betrayal, we feel that this lack of understanding is really a lack of sympathy with us, an unconscious wish not to understand. "Ein Nichtverstehen," as Freud puts it, "ist oft ein Nichtverstehenwollen."

In conclusion, we may admit that the main tenets of this new psychology of the unconscious Intuition.

* As Professor Laird remarks, however, William may have been sea-sick have not yet been proved, so far as normal individuals are concerned. Absolute proof (or disproof) is, indeed, scarcely possible in such cases. But we are faced with a growing accumulation of evidence from several different sources that at least there is a large element of truth in some of its most important doctrines. It suggests very forcibly, and in many cases it makes it quite clear, that the unconscious plays a greater part in our thoughts, our feelings and our actions, than orthodox psychology has supposed. If its doctrines can be more firmly established, especially in reference to the more permanent effect of repression in later childhood and adolescence, they will have a great effect on the psychology of education.

Nor would they be without significance for everyday life. Attempts to understand others merely through outward indications of the unconscious are no doubt full of danger and liabilities to error. It is, however, quite different as regards self-examination, or where we have the willing co-operation of another who seeks our help. The time may not be far distant when the confessional will be supplemented by psycho-analysis. The value of bringing to clear consciousness one's inner conflicts, even at times of obtaninig the help of a friend in so doing, is undoubtedly great. A patient often feels better when he has told the doctor even concerning physical ailments; and a little child often cannot stand the misery of concealment. Certainly, as regards ourselves, we should have to regard the knowledge merely of conscious motives, which come first into consciousness, as incomplete in judging our own actions; and an inquiry into the unconscious seems to be foreshadowed as a necessary means of fulfilling the Greek adage, "Know thyself."

The Understanding of Self.

A word may be added as to the ethical aspects of the new psychology. In so far as we are led to believe, as in the case of juvenile delinquents, that wrong desires are prompted by impulses and ideas dependent for their strength upon buried complexes, we should have to modify our judgment on such individuals, except in so far as they may be held to be responsible for the building up of such buried complexes. And the transition from the class of morally responsible to that of the incom-completely rational, and, finally, to the insane individual, may be made more obviously gradual. Yet this is only one aspect of the ethical significance of the new psychology. A fuller knowledge of the subconscious and the unconscious means a more complete knowledge of the whole self. And with these wider vistas of the self open to our inspection the area of conscious control would be increased and the sphere of moral responsibility, so far from being reduced by the exploring of the unconscious, as some seem to fear, would be indefinitely widened.