§ 51
The egoistic instinct becomes social, even before the intelligence perceives that it may be made subservient to the erotic instinct, quite as soon, indeed, as rivalries, even in childhood, appear for possession and enjoyment. After the child reaches puberty and recognizes the egoistic-social impulse as a possible means of furthering the gratification of erotic desires, it becomes associated with these.
This extension of the egoistic-social interest under the dominance of the erotic is more and more, in modern times, beginning to take on a phase of spiritual growth in distinction to merely material aggrandizement. It is not the best, in any respect, for a man to acquire, for the sake of his wife and children, wealth and social or political or artistic distinction. Indeed, many children are overburdened with the illustrious traditions of their forebears and are even hindered thereby in their own self-development.
A man married and had three children, two daughters and then one son. By the time his son was old enough to desire luxuries the father was wealthy enough to provide them without stint. In doing so, however, he made it plain that the son was expected to follow in his footsteps in the business. The story is common enough where the son becomes simply a wastrel without positive character of any kind.
Not so, however, in this case. The father’s extremely positive and aggressive character produced a different reaction in the son, who had a positiveness of his own. Remaining absolutely unspoiled by the luxuries by which he was surrounded, he continued to disappoint his father by becoming what the elder man thought the most ignominious of all—a teacher, and soon reached the summit of his profession as head of a department in a great university.
To this career, however, the father’s great egoistic-social success in amassing money did not in the least contribute; rather it hindered it. The son’s progress would have been infinitely easier without the rigid egoistic-social atmosphere in which he was brought up. The ill-concealed sneers of the father prevented the son even in his youth from developing a genial open-hearted sociability with which he was by nature endowed, and made his contacts with men and women unnecessarily difficult.