[46] We are very well aware that we have not exhausted the nature of identification with these samples taken from pathology, and that we have consequently left part of the riddle of group formations untouched. A far more fundamental and comprehensive psychological analysis would have to intervene at this point. A path leads from identification by way of imitation to empathy, that is, to the comprehension of the mechanism by means of which we are enabled to take up any attitude at all towards another mental life. Moreover there is still much to be explained in the manifestations of existing identifications. These result among other things in a person limiting his aggressiveness towards those with whom he has identified himself, and in his sparing them and giving them help. The study of such identifications, like those, for instance, which lie at the root of clan feeling, led Robertson Smith to the surprising result that they rest upon the recognition of a common substance (Kinship and Marriage, 1885), and may even therefore be brought about by a meal eaten in common. This feature makes it possible to connect this kind of identification with the early history of the human family which I constructed in Totem und Tabu.
[47] Cf. Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, l.c.
[48] 'Über die allgemeinste Erniedrigung des Liebeslebens.' Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge, 1918.
[49] Cf. 'Metapsychologische Ergänzung zur Traumlehre.' Kleine Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, Vierte Folge, 1918.
[50] W. Trotter: Instincts of the Herd in Peace and War. Fisher Unwin, 1916.
[51] See my essay Jenseits des Lustprinzips.
[52] See the remarks upon Dread in Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse. XXV.
[53] Totem und Tabu.
[54] What we have just described in our general characterisation of mankind must apply especially to the primal horde. The will of the individual was too weak; he did not venture upon action. No impulses whatever came into play except collective ones; there was only a common will, there were no single ones. An idea did not dare to turn itself into a volition unless it felt itself reinforced by a perception of its general diffusion. This weakness of the idea is to be explained by the strength of the emotional tie which is shared by all the members of the horde; but the similarity in the circumstances of their life and the absence of any private property assist in determining the uniformity of their individual mental acts. As we may observe with children and soldiers, common activity is not excluded even in the excremental functions. The one great exception is provided by the sexual act, in which a third person is at the best superfluous and in the extreme case is condemned to a state of painful expectancy. As to the reaction of the sexual need (for genital gratification) towards gregariousness, see below.
[55] It may perhaps also be assumed that the sons, when they were driven out and separated from their father, advanced from identification with one another to homosexual object love, and in this way won freedom to kill their father.