(9) Westermarck, as we saw above (3), in endeavouring to account for the origin of incest horror, drew attention to the aversion to sexual intercourse between those who had lived together from early youth (a class of persons which usually, of course, includes the closer blood relatives). While we must disagree with Westermarck in his implicit denial of the underlying attraction between these persons—an attraction which makes the aversion in question to a large extent nothing more than a reaction against the desire for intercourse between them—it is nevertheless possible that the study of this wider aversion may throw a few rays of fresh light upon the narrower incest aversion with which we are concerned.
Westermarck would regard the objection to intercourse Among those who live together sexual reactions are inhibited by non-sexual between those living together from youth as due to the biological causes discussed above (3). Without denying the truth of this view, we may venture to suggest that there perhaps exist psychological causes, which tend to bring about the same result. Those who live much together must necessarily react in and to each other's presence in a great variety of ways, involving a very considerable number of instinctive and habitual mechanisms, the majority of which are not—or at most are only quite indirectly—sexual in nature, being concerned for the most part with life preserving activities (e. g. obtaining and preparing food, eating, washing, dressing, acquiring or practising various branches of skill or knowledge, the carrying on of professional activities, etc.). During the greater part of their time together, the sexual instincts of the persons concerned are therefore held in check in order that the other mental trends involved in these various necessary functions may enjoy full play; in fact the reaction to each other's presence along the lines of these other trends becomes much more habitual than does reaction along the lines of sexual feeling. The very constant inhibition of this latter feeling occasioned by the almost continual preoccupation with everyday affairs, in which those who live together are equally concerned, is apt to make it difficult for the inhibition to be entirely removed and for the sexual trends to have free play, even when opportunity offers; and is therefore calculated to make a union between those whose lives have long been intimately connected appear unsuitable or unattractive, quite apart from the operation of any definite taboo or prohibition; whereas with strangers inhibitions of the kind just described are far less operative and the sexual impulses can therefore work without impediment.
A further factor which may reinforce the foregoing is and especially by hostile tendencies connected with the actual hostility (conscious or repressed) that so frequently exists between those whose lives and interests are connected. As we have already had occasion to see, the competition that exists between members of the same family is almost bound to engender some degree of hostility; and this hostility (even if in later life it be quite indiscernible to consciousness) will add its weight to any force which tends to inhibit love of the person towards whom hostility is felt.
Here then we have two factors, which, though not peculiar to incestuous relationships, nevertheless very probably contribute a certain share of influence to the sum total of the forces productive of the aversion to incest[263].
(10) The incestuous tendencies with which we are here The incest tendencies are also affected by the general sexual inhibitions concerned are, as we have amply seen, among the earliest manifestations of sexuality (in the wide sense of this term commonly employed by psycho-analysts) and, like most other manifestations of this aspect of human nature, suffer from the general repression to which sexuality in all its more direct expressions is habitually subject. It is no doubt true that the incestuous direction of the youthful sexual impulse itself contributes in very appreciable measure to the conditions which bring about this general repression, and that this repression is therefore to some extent an effect rather than a cause of the incest inhibition. Nevertheless it would seem at least equally certain that incest inhibition is far from being responsible for the whole of sexual repression and that the latter does react powerfully in certain respects upon the former, so that the existence of a general tendency to the repression of all manifestations of the sexual instinct may be regarded as constituting an additional factor in the inhibition of incestuous affection for which we have been trying to account[264].
We have now studied some of the principal factors which, Thus the circumstances of human life are responsible for the mental conflicts that centre round the incest tendencies it seems, may have had some influence in producing the tremendous conflicts in the human mind which centre round the family. In so far as we have been correct in our analysis of these factors, it would appear that there are strong influences, both in the individual and in the race, which work both positively and negatively in regard to those aspects of love and hate which constitute the Œdipus complex. The existence of the mental struggles which this complex inevitably brings in its train may therefore, on a wider view, appear less startling than on a first approach. Both the human individual and the human race are subject to conditions, some of which favour one mode of response, some of which are best reacted to by a contrary or at least an antagonistic type of behaviour. Owing to the inherent limitations of the human mind at the unconscious and primitive levels—its difficulty in overcoming habits that have once been formed, its tendency to give expression simultaneously to incompatible impulses, its relatively small power of creating distinctions and differentiations—it is inevitable that the different tendencies which are thus created and aroused should frequently come into conflict. It would seem to be more especially the function of consciousness however to produce a clear distinction between different situations and thus to facilitate nicer adaptations of conduct than would otherwise be possible. By understanding his own impulses and the true nature of the situations which have called them forth and to which they are adapted, man becomes to some extent master of his own fate and can rise above the blind level of instinctive behaviour, inasmuch as his own motives become co-ordinated and integrated and subject to the best that is in him; while his conduct becomes more delicately adapted to his environment and more nearly productive of the ends that he desires. It is as contributions, be they ever so slight, towards this wider understanding and control of man's nature, that, from the practical and ethical point of view, studies like the present acquire such value as they may possess.