On the other hand, Jung's explanation fails to account for some of the grossly sexual details in the behavior of the fixation child, such as great curiosity directed toward the parent of the opposite sex, at times, even, attempts on the part of a boy to possess the mother in her sleep, etc.
The Neurotic Life Plan. Adler has clearly seen that the Oedipus situation is not the cause, but merely one of the details of the neurotic life plan. A human being adopts that plan because, owing to some inferiority, real or imaginary, (real to him), he feels unable to compete with other human beings on a footing of equality. The neurosis supplies him with a short cut to power along the line of least effort. That short cut is selfish, unsocial and, hence, productive of unpleasant results. The mother-fixation man, the father-fixation woman shirk their biological duties, thereby leading an easier, cheaper, self-centered life which, in the end, vouchsafes them no real positive gratification.
What Adler has left unexplained is how the parent fixation establishes itself in the neurotic.
Imitation. The Oedipus situation is simply one of the consequences of the imitation by the child of the parent of the opposite sex.
Imitation plays a tremendous part in human life and, as far as behavior is concerned, is an infinitely more powerful factor than heredity.
Heredity endows us with a certain set of physical organs, hence with a number of potentialities. But the utilisation of those potentialities is left to the individual's destiny determined by his environment.
If the son of a splendidly developed prize fighter finds himself in an environment which countenances and lauds prize fighting, physical power will probably become his goal early in life. If his environment casts disobliging reflections on ring activities or if those activities have an unpleasant financial connotation for him, (father disabled and poor), the same boy will abstain from athletic training, remain physically undeveloped, perhaps even grow weak and stunted.
The Glands. As we shall see in another chapter, the various glands of our body have a good deal to do with the shaping of our personality but the pressure of the social herd within which we live is also a tremendous factor for it compels us to adopt as models for imitation certain physical and intellectual types which are acceptable to the herd.
The degree of the pressure exerted by the herd varies greatly with social conditions. The pressure is not the same in an Alaska camp and in a New England village. Unnoticeable in an artists' colony, it may become difficult to bear in a large family group including several members of the clergy.