[196] For a most important and illuminating discussion of the psychology of eating and of the other activities of the mouth, see Abraham, "Über die frühesten prägenitalen Entwicklungsstufen der Libido," Imago, 1916, IV.
[197] Robertson Smith, op. cit., 270.
[198] As Freud has pointed out ("Totem and Taboo," 147), there exists a parallelism, on the one hand between the stage of Magic and Animism and the Narcissistic level of individual development, and on the other hand between the stage of Religion and that of the first object-love as directed to the parents. In Magic man attributes omnipotence to himself, while in Religion omnipotence is transferred to the gods, or in so far as it is retained by the individual, can be exercised only through the gods; man no longer finds the satisfaction of his own needs in and through himself, but obtains his desires only through his relations with others whom he loves and venerates.
In religion too however there exist, beside the object-regarding elements, certain elements which are derived from, and give expression to, the Narcissistic impulses. God is to some extent a projection of the primitive mental egocentricity and self-sufficingness which the infant enjoys before it becomes clearly conscious of the distinction between its own organism and the external world—a distinction which necessarily brings with it a gradually increasing realisation of the individual's limitations and dependence. Unwilling to give up the primitive sense of power and importance which a growing insight into reality shows to be unfounded, Man displaces on to his God the desired qualities which he can no longer attribute to himself and deludes himself into believing that he can still attain his wishes, through prayer and similar rites, by merely wishing them aloud to God. This mechanism is clearly seen at work in those persons who (like the late Kaiser Wilhelm II) treat their God as a being whose principal function it is to approve and carry to fulfilment their own ambitions, schemes and undertakings.
The conception of the Devil also is to a very considerable extent derived from the Narcissistic impulses—the individual projecting on to "the author of evil" those aspects of himself of which he disapproves (more particularly perhaps the sexual aspects). In this way he, in a sense, frees his own personality from tabooed wishes of whose operation in himself he would otherwise become unpleasantly aware, and in this way absolves himself from the responsibility for actions committed at the instigation of these wishes.
These self-regarding aspects constitute without doubt a most important factor in the psychology of Religion and serve to remind us once again of the limitation of our psychological treatment. They fall outside our present theme, inasmuch as they take their origin from a mental level phylogenetically and ontogenetically prior to that at which are developed the psychic relations of the individual to his family which constitute our subject in this volume.
[199] Cp. J. C. Flügel, "Freudian Mechanisms as Factors in Moral Development," British Journal of Psychology, 1917, VIII, 477.
[200] Mr. Shand's term, adopted by McDougall, is perhaps (in England at any rate) the most generally used and understood in this connection. The term Constellation is, however, used in the same sense by psycho-analytic writers. A Sentiment (or Constellation) differs from a complex only in that it manifests itself openly in consciousness, whereas the complex is unconscious.
[201] Often, too, unmarried mothers; though in this case, owing to the fact that under existing social conditions children born out of wedlock cause more than the usual amount of anxiety and trouble, love is very liable to be complicated or even replaced by hate.
[202] "Parents and Children."