Evening star., 1940-09-12
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.


Nearly a decade peculiar to human
beings has been welded into life, by some
strange trick Of evolution, to make man.
This thesis is advanced by Sigmund
Freud. great Austrian psychiatrist who
died in exile in London a year ago, to
explain part of the great divergence Of
the race from the animal kingdom of
which 1t forms part-a divergence
chiefly in the direction of moral concepts
and ability to think.
Mans closest relatives are the apes.
These reach complete maturity in about
five years after birth, Freud explains in
his last testament written just before
his death and now published in the
International Journal of Psychoanalysis,
an English publication for specialists In
this field Of medicine. Probing back into
the minds Of children, Freud says, it
becomes apparent that the child and
the animal have roughly a parallel de-
velopment during this first half decade.
Then the animal is through. He is, to
all intents and purposes, an adult
With the child, however at about the
end of the fifth year a complete cessa-
ton of development towards adult life
sets in. This may continue for as long
as 10 years-at least until the thirteenth
or fourteenth year. This period is given
over largely to building up in the mind
the peculiarly human qualities of ration
alizing and moral standards A Child
hood amnesia" that lasts throughout life
sets in. Practically everything that has
happened in the first five years is wiped
out of the memory. Then the former
development sets in again and continues
to the dawn of adult life.
This indicates, he says, that at some
time some extraordinary external in
f1uence, the nature Of which cannot
even be surmised, was brought to bear
on a group of mammals which inter-
rupted the straight line of development
to which they ordinarily would have
been subjected, and the beginning of the
human race was the result.
All this animal development of in
fancy, Freud says, is pushed back into
the unconscious during the long latent
period. There it remains, just under the
surface of memory, as a potent cause Of
many insanities in after life. 1t might
be compared with the appendix, which
| also Is relic of animal ancestry.
AT about this time, says Freud, comes
the dawn Of conscience, a seemingly
inborn recognition of right and wrong
| which usually is attributed only to human
| beings. Actually, he asserts, there can
be little doubt that most of the higher
animals have a conscience of a sort
which has lacked an opportunity for de-
velopment during the long latent period
In developing this idea, the Austrian
| psychiatrist goes back to his fundamental
thesis regarding. the nature of mans
mind. Basically there is the Id, common
to all life. mixture of blind instincts.
| There is developed out Of the Id an Ego
whose function is to stand between the
blind instincts and the outside world
and prevent them from destroying the
| individual.
Now, says Freud, during the first five
years OF animal development, the JOB of
protecting the individual is taken over
largely by the parents The child is
almost totally dependent on them The
great anxiety Of the Ego, or protecting
cortex of the mind, is that in some way
the parents will be estranged and leave
the organism helpless against the de-
structive forces both in the environ
ment and from within itself.
1t gets around this difficulty he ex-
plains, by setting apart a small portion
OF itself which is transformed into a
surrogate of the parents-somethin
which will remain present throughout
life regardless of what happens to the
actual parents and will give the same
commands for dealing with the forces
Of evil as they would have given. This,
says Freud, is the Superego or con-
science. 1t could not have been avoided,
he says, in any animal having an in
fancy-a period during which it is de-
pendent on the care of the parents.
Says Freud Conscience begins at
| about five. At about that time an i'm
portant change has taken place. A por-
ton of the external world has, at least
partially, been given up as an object
and instead, by means of Identification,
has been taken into the Ego and become
an integral part 81 the external world.
1t observes the Ego, gives it orders,
corrects 1t and threatens it with punish
ment exactly like the parents whose
place it has taken. We are aware of it,
in its judicial function, as our conscience.
ut is remarkable thing that the
Superego often develops a severity for
which no example has been provided by
the real parents. Furthermore, it calls
the Ego t. task not only on account of
its deeds but just as much on account
of its thoughts and unexecuted actions
of which it seems to have knowledge.
"TormentS caused by reproaches of
conscience correspond precisely to a
child's dread of losing its parents love.
During the whole of mans later life
it represents the influence of his child
hood. In all this, what is operating is
not only the personal quality of those
parents but also of everything that pro-
duced a determining effect upon them,
the tastes and standards of the social
class in which they live and the char
acteristics and traditions of the race
from which they spring. The Superego
| represents the cultural past which the