COMPLEXES
Every man likes to think that his creed, religious, political, or
social, is founded upon reason; but let the reader consider the beliefs
of his acquaintances and he will soon realise that they depend far more
upon early training, social position, and the general influence of
surroundings than upon any reasoning process. After this exercise let
him turn his critical powers upon his own beliefs and examine closely
how far they are dependent upon reason or upon influences which he has
not recognised before.
Who can say that, in the days when Home-Rulers and anti-Home-Rulers
abounded, the average voter was swayed by a reasoned knowledge of the
subject? Yet he was quite sure that his side was right and the other
wrong, and found it hard to understand how any sane man could own the
opinions the other fellows held. Let us picture two neighbours of
opposite political beliefs:--if they are both keen gardeners they may
exchange views about methods and manures, and in case of difference of
opinion one will possibly convince the other by argument. On other
matters, too, they will mutually be open to conviction. If one favours
Ilfracombe for a holiday and the other swears by Torquay, the latter may
decide to try Ilfracombe for a change. But let them discuss Home Rule
till the crack of doom and neither will convince the other by any
process of reasoning; yet each will believe firmly that his opinions are
the results of reason, finding an infinity of argument to support them.
Or let anyone start a discussion on a so-called moral question, such as
polygamy. He will arouse the warmest expressions of opinion that
polygamy is sinful, absurd, and unworkable, and may point in vain to
such countries as China, where it apparently works with no more trouble
than occurs with our system. Reasons will be showered on him, but
scarcely anyone will admit that he objects to polygamy because he has
been taught to regard monogamy as the only proper state of marriage.
A man, honestly believing that he is always actuated by certain moral
principles, may do things which others regard as opposed to those
principles, and if approached on the subject will be greatly annoyed and
produce a chain of argument to justify his actions.
Scarcely any of us are free from these failings; certain beliefs we keep
stored away, allowing nothing to interfere with them. They are placed in
logic-tight compartments and carefully guarded by a pseudo-reasoning
which satisfies our desire for logical explanation.
To this pseudo-reasoning is given the name of 'rationalisation', and,
lest anyone may be offended by finding the same term applied to the
process by which lunatics defend their delusions, I will add that there
is no dividing line between health and disease, and the modes of thought
of the insane are not so very different from those of the ordinary man.
To return now to the subject of 'logic-tight compartments'. Each
contains a collection of ideas which are treated by the owner in a
special way, cherished and guarded carefully from those forces which may
cause modification. At the same time he will probably refuse to admit
that they influence his consideration of certain questions related to
them. The more logic-tight the compartment is, the more warmly does its
owner defend it; but where plain reasoning is concerned few men can be
roused to enthusiasm. Even though there may be people who regard the
reasonings of Euclid as purely appeals to the emotions, what
mathematician could grow excited about a man who denied the truth of the
Fifth Proposition? But to run counter to a man's political or social
beliefs is a sure way to raise the controversial temperature.
As will be easily seen, rationalisation is of everyday occurrence with
all of us, and the man who rationalises always believes he is reasoning.
Consider now the business rogue who makes a success of his roguery and
then launches out as a philanthropist, still continuing his roguery as a
permanent side-line. Such cases are not unknown, and the man seems able
to carry on without any sense of conflict between his two activities.
Or consider those not uncommon instances where a man prominent in
religious work is detected in some financial crime; it is usual to
regard him as a hypocrite who has used religion as a cloak, but it is
equally probable that he was honestly religious, that his earliest steps
into crime were reconciled to his principles by rationalisations, and,
as he advanced, a logic-tight compartment was built up to prevent
conflict between his wrong-doing and his self-respect.
In these examples we have a part of the stream which comes into contact
with the main stream of consciousness only by means of a process of
rationalisation which allows the two to exist without great mental
conflict, but this will never be admitted by the owner, though other
people may be acutely conscious of it.
Here, to simplify explanation, I must introduce the word _complex_ as
used to indicate a system of ideas having a common centre,[2] whether
the system is present in the consciousness or exists only in the
unconscious.
[Footnote 2: The word 'complex' was originally used by Freud only in
regard to ideas existing in the unconscious, but the way in which I use
it is convenient and follows the custom of some English writers.]
Our ideas of morality, religion, or politics form complexes, as do our
desires and disappointments. An ardent photographer or naturalist is
possessed of a complex concerning his hobby, and this complex tends to
turn his thoughts in the corresponding direction. If a keen botanist
and an equally keen amateur photographer are travelling by train each
views the scenery according to his complex: the one might note the trees
and plants, their flowering or bursting into leaf, and how they vary
with the soil, and might speculate as to what finds a closer view might
produce; the other sees the same objects, but is busy composing
pictures, thinking out distances and exposures, or differences of light
and shade.
The man with 'a bee in his bonnet' gives an example of a single powerful
complex; but all our thinking is a matter of complexes except on those
rare occasions when logic alone is concerned, such as the consideration
of a problem of mathematics. Scientific men are prone to believe that
their mind-work is purely logical; so it is, up to a certain point, and
the more exact the science the less room there is for thinking in
complexes; but the reception of a new theory is always opposed by those
whose firmly established complexes are offended by it. The aim of
scientific training is to eliminate complex thinking and substitute
logic, and in the exact sciences this is practically attained; but as
soon as the trained man forsakes his laboratory or workshop methods he
is at the mercy of his complexes and becomes the ordinary rationalising
human being.
There is a great difference between a complex, such as photography, of
which the influence is recognised and admitted by its owner, and
another, such as a political one, where the influence is strongly
denied. The latter is kept in a logic-tight compartment and reconciled
to the reason by rationalisations.
Instincts have their abode in the unconscious and differ from acquired
influences in being inborn and common to the race. It is difficult to
determine what emotions and desires are truly inborn, as Benjamin Kidd
shows in a valuable personal observation.[3]
[Footnote 3: _The Science of Power_, p. 284. Methuen & Co., 1918.]
He found a wild duck's nest as the young birds had just emerged from the
egg, the mother-bird flying off at his approach. He took the young birds
out of the nest and they showed no fear, nestling from time to time on
his feet. Then he moved away and saw the mother-bird return with 'the
great terror of man' upon her; next he approached the group again, but
the mother-bird flew away with warning quacks and the little ones
scattered to cover. He found one of them, but it was now 'a wild
transformed creature trembling in panic which could not be subdued'.
McDougall, whose work on Instinct holds high rank, places 'flight' with
its emotion of 'fear' among the primary instincts. The apperception of
danger is necessary in order to call up this instinct, and Kidd shows
that when once the fear of danger from man is planted in the young birds
it becomes integrated with the instinct and inseparable from it.
Acquired tendencies associated with emotion can therefore share the
strength of instincts (the application of this fact is the theme of Mr.
Kidd's book), and we accordingly find the results of early training
accepted by the consciousness as perfect and unquestionable. This same
characteristic applies, in a modified degree, to all complex thinking.
Carry on an argument with an intelligent man on any complex-governed
subject, and he will nearly always come down to the bed-rock foundation
that he believes his view to be right because he _feels it_. Then you
may cease the discussion.
It is by this reasoning that we can understand the attributes of the
German mind. The German had certain complexes concerning the Right of
Might so built into his unconscious that he gave them the obedience that
is demanded by an instinct, and nothing short of national disaster could
induce him to relinquish them.