The psycho-analytic study of the family

EDITED BY ERNEST JONES No. 3
J. C. FLÜGEL B. A.
Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Psychology, University College, London. Sometime John Locke Scholar in Mental Philosophy in the University of Oxford. Honorary Secretary of the International Psycho-Analytical Association.
THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHO-ANALYTICAL PRESS LONDON VIENNA NEW YORK 1921
COPYRIGHT 1921 PRINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR GRAPHIC INDUSTRY VIENNA III
I refer to those appetites which bestir themselves in sleep; when, during the slumbers of that other part of the soul, which is rational and tamed and master of the former, the wild animal part, sated with meat and drink, becomes rampant, and pushing sleep away, endeavours to set out after the gratification of its own proper character. You know that in such moments there is nothing that it dares not do, released and delivered as it is from any sense of shame and reflection. It does not shrink from attempting in fancy unholy intercourse with a mother, or with any man or deity or animal whatever; and it does not hesitate to commit the foulest murder, or to indulge itself in the most defiling meats. In one word, there is no limit either to its folly or its audacity.
PLATO, Republic, Book IX.
Man, forsooth, prides himself on his consciousness! We boast that we differ from the winds and waves and falling stones and plants, which grow they know not why, and from the wandering creatures which go up and down after their prey, as we are pleased to say without the help of reason. We know so well what we are doing ourselves and why we do it, do we not? I fancy that there is some truth in the view which is being put forward nowadays, that it is our less conscious thoughts and our less conscious actions, which mainly mould our lives and the lives of those who spring from us.
SAMUEL BUTLER, The Way of All Flesh, Chapter III.

The circumstances that have led to the production of this little book are, I think, sufficiently explained in the introductory chapter; there is, therefore, no need to dwell upon them here. It is only necessary perhaps to warn the reader that he will find in what follows but little that is original. With the exception of small contributions and suggestions upon special points, in the last few chapters alone does there exist anything that has not already found a place in the literature dealing with the subject; and probably it will be the earlier rather than the later portions of the book that will most often be consulted. Nevertheless, a work of compilation, such as the present for the most part aims at being, may have its justification and a certain sphere of usefulness; especially so perhaps in the present case, since a certain proportion of the original papers to which reference is here made is contained in books and periodicals that have at no time been readily accessible to the English-speaking public and were for some years practically unobtainable.