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DELUSION and MASS DELUSION by A. M. MEERLOO
Introduction: The human mind is characterized by two antagonistic forces struggling for supremacy. This is the conflict between the intellectual components and the instinctive drives, each apparently attempting to achieve dominancy. In some situations the instinctive forces gain control in a way to encourage those individuals involved to gather in groups, masses and mobs. Here the "herd instinct" becomes supreme with the inclination to organize and to follow and obey a leader. In such situations either much good or irreparable harm to society may result, according to the issues involved. Psychology is the discipline that has the most direct bearing on our daily activities. Its phenomena are ever present in our feeling, thinking and dreaming. However, the ways in which it works and its actual significance are mysterious to the average person, and the language of the learned in this field is mere jargon to the uninitiated. It is unfortunate that it is not better understood by all, and particularly by those whose duty is to make decisions that may threaten the security of mankind. Many writers have attempted to inform the public on matters of psychology and psychopathology without having the proper training and experience, the result being a flood of books on the market having little value and too often presenting untrue and harmful pronouncements. The human mind is a very complex system of actions and reactions requiring years of persistent study to acquire even a working knowledge of its intricate patterns of expression and function. The average reader is not able, nor can he be expected to be able, to differentiate between the real specialist and the would be authority in psychological science. There is a great deal of psychological knowledge that has accrued without yet having gained its possible applications in society where it would enrich the lives of the people. The problems of mass psychology are complex and do not lend themselves to an early, rapid solution. Some may never be solved, but it is our task to make careful studies and to disseminate whatever knowledge that has been gained about the psychological peculiarities of so called "mass mentality". Dangers in social life cannot be avoided without some idea of their nature. People should be informed about these dangers Mass psychology should be brought into the foreground for much needed research with special institutes for the study of its unique problems, where all aspects could be analyzed and data accumulated for the direction of practical applications. In this monograph Dr. Meerloo, an experienced psychiatrist, has presented a large area of psychological and psychopathological import. He has discussed, psychodynamically, the thinking process in all of its various normal and pathological ramifications and special significant functions. The different types of delusion formation, the problems of the masses, mass thinking, and the characteristics of collective action in its many expressions are treated in a most informative and interesting account. His concepts are clearly stated and they bring together a wide variety of facts, theories and constructive ideas that should prove to be thought provoking and a stimulation to additional investigation. Preface These essays are the reactions of a psychiatrist to fettered thinking. The first draft was written during the dark days of Nazi occupation in 1 Holland, when the iron blows of official "thought control" smashed down on all free cultural discussion. In such an atmosphere, imagine the cathartic value of setting down one's own aggressive reaction on paper, of clarifying-for oneself, at least-why man must resist attacks on mental freedom and civilization or perish. These days of conquest saw the people of Western Europe turning more and more to American thought, to the pragmatic philosophy of that huge, free land. Long before the two world wars Europe had been overwhelmed by German romantic idealism. With high-flown words and theories that captivated a willing world, Germany went far toward conquering European thought long before its armies annexed its material wealth. The first essay attempts to show the change in attitude that arose from our need to stem the German impact on our thinking. It started as a series of lectures in occupied territory and developed into an essay on man's fearful groping with the mind in the midst of his expanding knowledge of the universe. The two shorter essays present some practical implications of our deluded attitudes. Most of these reflections were gathered without benefit of scientific contact, without access to any literature, without the possibility of research or discussion. Yet the very fact that they were born of mental exile may help them to portray more convincingly the spirit of stubborn resistance that filled our hearts in those days. Are we not becoming increasingly aware of the tremendous influence that opposition exerts in shaping man's mental processes and character? A. M. MEERLOO, M.D. Contents Part One Delusion and Mass-Delusion THINKING AND DELUSION II. MASS AND DELUSION Part Two Part Three A Picture of the Human Animal. To be a part of human tragedy, To know all things so very well, But still to act against all intellect. A.M.M. THINKING AND DELUSION SECTION ONE Can we be made to understand what an exciting adventure thinking is? Can we be made to understand at the same time that there is often more wisdom in silence than in endless talk? We live in the midst of a curious and continuous clash of opinions. Opinions and catchwords do not arise sui generis. We are constantly swayed and subjected to the convincing thinking of others. We are confronted with persuasive editorials. It is almost impossible to evade the suggestive pressures of the world around us. In this essay I have briefly attempted to place myself outside the tumult of hastening, deliberating and fighting mankind, attempted to answer how men came to accept their fictions, their chaotic notions and ideas. The Tragedy of Thinking The realization that our own open mind and brain are not entirely our own is a tragic one. We come to realize that the weighty thoughts with which we attempt to clarify the problems of our time are partially the products of the thinking of others and partially emerge from the unconscious patterns of our own mind. We think and try to become conscious of the world around us but we are not independent in our reasonable existence. The new psychology has given us many examples of primary instincts and urges which act upon our thinking. There is a close link between thoughts and emotions. A well-known philosopher, spokesman for a sharp-witted idealistic system, once confessed that during the writing of his best theories, he experienced several curious bodily sensations together with accelerated intestinal activity. It was as if his best logic were expelled physically as well as mentally. He functioned best when suffering from a headache. This essay is an attempt, from the clinical standpoint, to account for the various influences that rule our thoughts. Delusion and mass delusion, suggestion and mass suggestion have to be accounted for if they are to be corrected. Thought and Delusion Our first concern is the problem of delusion. The clinical psychology of the nineteenth century attempted to explain delusion as the result of a pathologically changed process of thinking. It defined delusion as an incorrigible error, as an incomprehensible obstinacy of the psyche. The intrapsychic process of delusion, since it was not understood, was written off as inexplicable. Examples of the curious thought pictures of the mentally diseased were cited, which were impervious to outside influence. These patients tried to prove one delusion with another, even more improbable one, and out of the primary error erected an entire delusional system. The analysis of this delusionary growth process revealed threads of comprehensible thought with, however, a bizarre and incomprehensible superstructure. Many adequately functioning people who show too much concern with themselves often conclude that the treatment accorded them does not do them justice. This common correctible aberration we refer to as "conceit" and "self-centered behavior". Incomprehensible in the delusion, however, was its fixed, incorrigible nature. The delusion seemed to persevere as an impenetrable mental armor. Many psychologists considered this well protected and armored insulation of the delusion the specific pathological process. They defined the delusion as a specific change in the thinking process, in which selfcentered evaluations turned into rigid delusions as a result of pathological processes of the brain. In most cases, however, it was impossible to point to the intracerebral deviation. Affective Delusions Beyond these pathological thinking processes there is also the formation of delusions due to the impact of emotions, namely, the affective delusions. When the intensity of certain emotions reaches abnormal proportions the thinking processes change. This form of delusion is a more comprehensible one. It is plausible, for instance, that a person under the impact of tremendous fear might think he is persecuted, or that a person in extreme pain and sorrow might consider these punishment for his sins. But even here our understanding is not complete. The reasons for the persistence of fears and suspicions, their incorrigibility and immutability, seem inexplicable. It is as if a strange growth had invaded the thinking processes and distorted them. Thinking is a Thinking as Contact with Reality The animal lives and moves in a passive world. The human being lives and moves in an active world. His senses transmit a passive picture of reality, but from these fragments he structures his own picture of the reality situation. Active and passive reality are interacting, related to each other. Without this interaction man is lost. This creates the constant need for accounting for both realities, for continually gathering new experiences. This constant process of orientation, confrontation and constant contact with reality is evidenced in the erect posture of man. Unlike the animal, man walks erect and faces reality. It is only tinder these conditions that the continuous interrelationship between the inspecting subject and the object can be maintained. This relationship is the basis for our relative and temporary knowledge. Thinking is that process which enables us to come to terms with reality. Through trial and error the subject gradually comes closer to the object and both subject and object undergo change as a result of this interrelationship. This dialectic process of interrelated development of man and world shapes the remaining elements of human culture and civilization. Limitations of the Psychologist In judging delusions and mass-delusions the psychologist studies the biological phenomenon of human thought, which, at the same time is his own instrument of research. Only one's own thinking can evaluate that of others. It is an unfortunate limitation of the method that one's own thinking might reasonably form the nucleus for further study. The necessary circularity of the operation in the study of delusions, therefore, poses a paradox which in its essence excludes the subjectmatter from philosophy and formal logic. But having faced this, it is not proposed that the subject be dropped here. It has been shown most convincingly that delusion and mass delusion do exist, that they are dangerous and persuasive. The psychological approach, however imperfect, is urgent. Straight human thinking is in danger and will remain in danger until the nature of delusion and mass-delusion is understood. Our Thought is Capricious During the past few years we have witnessed ages of science and critical thinking melt like snow in the sun as a result of mass feelings. The process was the same as the formation of affective delusions. The sense of reality dwindled before mass feeling and delusion. Politically inspired fictions penetrate science and philosophy. Systems of thought provide masks and justifications for brute drives and lust for power. We vaguely sense that desire and instinct are masked behind "logic". Mental tricks are easily substituted for "logic" and out of the multifarious logical possibilities we tend to choose those most compatible with our own desires. SECTION TWO The old logic, the science which first sought to provide us with immutable laws for sound deductive reasoning, was grounded in the conviction that the thought processes were identical in all persons. Even the "possible" fallacies were tabulated and defined. A list of "thoushalt-nots" was compiled and as long as truth was dumped into one end of a syllogism truth would unfailingly emerge. Socrates is mortal. Thus it was hoped that through discussion differences could be resolved. In actuality the surface is only scratched. Clear thinking for any sustained period (five minutes, for instance) is rare indeed. But for two persons to hold a clear, dispassionate and mutually comprehensible discussion, which terminates in absolute agreement, is virtually unknown outside the field of mathematics. (And the only reason for the exemption of mathematics is its highly hypothetical nature. It is a question of if f I have four apples and if f you have four apples then between us we have eight.) The main single reason that the old logic is of little use in resolving differences of opinion is that there is no sound method of lighting on a mutually agreeable major premise. Aristotle and the logicians of his time were convinced that "all men are mortal" was an immutable truth, whereas we of the modern world recognize that all the data is not yet in. This is not to be construed as a bland dismissal of modern logic, which is even more hypothetical than arithmetic. It simply means that from a hypothetical premise one can draw only a hypothetical conclusion, and human thinking is rarely carried out on that level. The present world is a chaos of conflicting beliefs, not of conflicting hypotheses. It is not a mere question of "all men are mortal" but whether "this is better than that" or "that is strategically unsound" or "he is an evil man". A living logic sufficient for the purposes of psychology must be equipped to deal with moral and qualitative judgments. Not only are ideas subjective but so are the words that express them. The word "evil" alone has a separate connotation for each person who sees, hears or speaks it. Fortunately, there tends to be general agreement in practice on the meaning of some of our more common words. Webster-or rather the brothers Merriam-define the word "chair" as "a seat, usually movable, for one person. It usually has four legs and a back, and may have arms." Quite involved arguments may be constructed around this definition. Everything seems to be optional except that it shall hold only one person. Is an upended box a chair? We may argue (teleologically) that it is not, because it was not constructed for that purpose, but then neither are those cut-down and upholstered beer-barrels one falls into! Or we may argue (functionally) that anything becomes a chair when it is used as such. This of course immediately involves small tables, foot-stools, radiators and so on. But happily, one may yet use the word chair witch presupposes certain basic ideas or evidences on which unprovable ideas may be built (as in mathematics, complex conclusions). Thus, thinking, with the human being as the engineer, becomes an intelligent construction. Everyone utilizes these unconscious thought constructions of which analogies and syllogisms are a part. Conversations and discussions are understandable as long as they stem from similar premises. The technique of reasoning, however, results in constant error and chaos. Wrong analogies are constantly drawn. Circular Reasoning Man's present forms of aggressive argumentation and verbal seduction approach the comical. Not only do we pretend not to be aggressive, we go so far as to assert that our aggression is nothing but a higher expression of civilization. It was precisely this argument that the oppressor of our country (Holland) used against us. While our country was plundered and our freedom destroyed, the Nazis asserted that we were being ushered into the European heaven. Most arguments accomplish little beyond stating their own falseness. One supposes what one has to prove, and reasoning moves in a circle. It is like the story of the accused dishonest borrower, who attempted to prove before the court, first, that he had never borrowed anything, second, that he had received it in bad shape, and finally, that he had returned it long ago and did not owe a thing. The premise includes what one wishes to prove (petitio principii). In the same way, the tyrannical aggressor argued that bombardment of an open, peaceful, neutral town like Rotterdam was an emergency measure perpetrated for the benefit of the people oppressed by democracy. Constant repetition imbues this argumentative sophistry with more and more suggestive power. The vicious circle is only too well-known. As far back as Greek antiquity, a clear distinction was drawn between everyday reasoning permeated with incorrect syllogisms and analogies and a pure thinking which is conscious of itself and aware of its limitations. The latter produces philosophical derivatives of a qualitatively superior order. The clear statement of a problem encourages this advanced treatment. Psychology and Logic The psychologist is required to familiarize himself with both types of thinking. He approaches the process of thinking differently than the The psychologist allows riddles to exist. He opposes the fiction that phenomena demand an immediate explanation. All logical reasoning was produced as much by impressions and suggestions as logical rules. Logic presupposes a world made tangible by hand and idea, a world in need of coordination and selection. Logic can only prevail in a stable world. Life, however, is forever bypassing logic. Psychology studies the inner and outer conditions which determine thinking. Philosophy concerns itself with the laws of thinking apart from those conditions. Psychology plays a role in those areas where thoughts are still rigidly rooted in the conditions that are responsible for their growth. The psychologist looks upon thinking as a biological luxury largely limited to the human species. Thinking is a curious biological function, an inhibition of vital functions accompanied by a curious self-accounting consciousness. The anatomist Bolk (4) ascribed those peculiar inhibitions and retardations of functioning and the special structure of the brain to the erect posture of man, his long youth and his never-ceasing play. Because man remained a foetus and his physical defenses did not develop and differentiate, as for instance in the ape, his forebrain had the opportunity to develop as a useful instrument of consciousness. Foetalization and retardation provide the opportunity for thinking. Thinking as a Foetal Luxury Man, homo sapiens, does not throw himself impulsively upon his prey, but has the capacity for restraint which is a function of his reflective organ. Many scholastic philosophers will shudder at the follies written by this philosophic outsider. The guns and tanks and planes, however, jump their prey and leave philosophy in rags. Today's world bears dramatic proof of thought as a reaction to the occurrences of the day. We get more and more "liberated" from the serene period of isolated scientific thinking which preceded the first World War. Today we are forced, nolens volens, to take a stand toward the events around us. It did not take Hitler long to convert many an idealistic philosopher into a spokesman for his madness. Thinking as a Social Function Thinking is a social instrument. We think and speak to someone, in relation to others. Thought is unconscious speech and communication. We must speak, even if only to the trees. Not until recently has the intellect become so aware of its social function of thought. It had remained aloof from wisdom and peace, power and wealth. Intelligence and technical thought were available for the highest bidder. They were at the service of drives and instincts, negligent of their social and harmonizing function. Thinking is a multifarious instrument with roots and stimuli in all organs, instincts and emotions. Thinking is an attitude of the organism as a whole. Feeling and willing, striving and acting, cannot be differentiated from the reactive and reflective organism. The psychologist has to try to unravel our complex split world of platonic fictitious thought and unguided animal action. SECTION THREE Comparative psychology teaches us that the higher mammals still live in a world of pure sensations. Nevertheless, a primitive synthesis of sensations and new responsive actions does function, namely the socalled conglomerate of conditioned reflexes. The reflex, however, occurs without reflection, without the knowledge of knowing. This should immediately brake the action. Unlike lower animals, however, the mammal is able to adjust to a new environment. The insect is almost completely bound to its innate rigid instinctual actions. The insect remains chained to the reflexes brought about by the stimuli of the outside world. Only the highest mammal, the human being can synthesize the different sensations with his own observations and create the distinction between an inner world-the subject-and an outer world-the object. The insect can adjust only in the most limited way, that is, it can survive in a world already geared to its innate potentialities. The mammal, by means of the conditioned reflex, has the capacity for growing and changing adjustment. Man alone, with forethought, afterthought, self-reflection and self-observation at his disposal, can achieve an almost unlimited adjustment to his environment. His mind is an organ of adjustment. More effective than innate and conditioned reflexes, it teaches the organism to adjust itself to changed circumstances. The organism is free to select its form of adjustment. Consciousness of its aim determines the selection of stimuli. The instinct can adjust rapidly but is limited in scope. Thinking adjusts gradually but is unlimited. Man is most adapted for adjustment to reality. Man, therefore, can also fear, anticipate and tolerate more than any other organism. Thinking is the retarding and tolerating process. Via its sensations the animal is in continuous and direct communication with the outside world. Man, however, opposes, confronts the outside world. Once reflection has been liberated from sensation and representation, it becomes pure and independent thinking. Thinking must be planned and be productive; it must be regulated and directed toward an adjustment and a real aim-thinking has to reflect something. Representations and feelings weaken thinking and regress it to the level of animal dependency on accidental impulses. Love makes us blind. Due to hormonal action people in love revert to magical thinking. The adult tackling of reality is supplanted by reflex actions springing from direct communication with a limited world. On one hand, thinking widens the distance between man and his physical universe; on the other, it bends him toward it and sharpens his conception of reality. Thinking observes the personal struggle, observes the disentanglement of the biological chains and biological indispensabilities. Thinking as a Function Thinking is a developing function. Every thought process integrates previous and lower processes. Thinking is the function of growing consciousness and self-enlightenment. It is the instrument of readaptation. It is the ripening of prejudices into judgments. Man is never completely conscious but is always progressing toward complete consciousness, that is, toward a better adjusted approach to himself and reality. The growth of consciousness signifies the capacity of the organism to contemplate and confront reality. Man gradually rouses himself from somnambulistic slumber to a waking contact with reality. Without difficulty, however, he slips back into sleepwalking and automatisms. Man can sleep with his eyes wide open without ever taking account of himself. A few men become seeing prophets and show us a new reality. Most people, however, remain in a sleeping state having hardly opened their eyes. The thinking of others does not benefit us no matter how great its stature may be. Only our own readiness to think and verify for ourselves, to attack new problems benefits us. The ability of the thinker to put forth his thoughts demands the courage to doubt old truths and correct threadbare thoughts. Thinking, as stated above, is coming to grips with reality. It is the probing and searching of reality with accepted propositions and the reshaping and reformulation of these where they no longer serve adequately. This coming to terms with reality takes place with an aim in mind, namely, the reshaping of reality. Interest and self-interest direct the thoughts, and thinking, however imperfect, is motivated movement toward a goal. This reshaping of reality takes place even under the most tragic circumstances. In concentration camps one of the first deeds was to rebuild the reality following some simple symbolic schemes, a womb, a house, some cozy corner; it was the only way to cope with the circumstances. All psychological thinking implies identification with its object of study. It presupposes the feeling of oneness with the object of research. It feels itself a part of it. Because of its failure to grasp with care, psychology runs the risk of faulty observations. Its aims compel psychology to take this risk. Thinking, then, consists of imaginative action and selection, a regulation of impressions and sensations with an aim in view. The psychologist refers to an intentional thinking "act", apart from all content of thoughts. Thinking as an Ambivalent Function Thinking, as much as speaking, is an ambivalent function. Thinking is the effort to acquire knowledge and is at the same time an intellectual play facilitating escape from the riddles of the world. Thinking is both a cognitive function and an active imaginative process which shapes a private, secluded world. It is simultaneous approach to and flight from reality, submission to nature and worship of idols. Thinking and Feeling The gradually expanding consciousness liberates itself slowly from the partly conscious, partly unconscious receptive world of feelings. Feeling is the partly conscious experiencing of emotions. Feeling is a reaction to the outer world directed by instincts. Every such reaction has components of pleasure and displeasure, depending on the impressions from without and drives from within. An impression without feeling does not exist; an impression without thinking does not exist. An impression is always partially an observation. Feeling and thinking are the inseparable function of becoming conscious. Nevertheless, a continual polarity between thinking and feeling exists. I use my intelligence in certain instances and follow my feelings in others. This latent dichotomy between feeling and thinking leads to erroneous assumptions. The human being needs the harmony of both a thinking and a feeling reality-response. The human being cannot permit over-evaluated affects to suffocate the intellect, or the biting intellect to kill the warm feeling. This is the explanation the psychologist provides for the split-personality prototype. Thinking and feeling constantly alternate. Certain neurotic persons substitute thought for feeling. One cannot only think but must feel at the same time; man has to experience the world with all layers of his personality. In our period of civilization our feelings about many things are even more difficult to accept than our thoughts about them. Who, conscious of his moods, can accept and be happy with them? Fascism has taught us how destructive the solely emotional basis of thinking can be. Thinking and Intellect Consciousness grows out of observation, regulation, schematization, planning, abstraction-the polishing and chiseling of all these component functions to a thought-picture. There is a tendency to shape and fix such a picture instead of maintaining its mobility and vividness. Thinking actions tend to become rigid systems in the service of narrow aims. Man has a tendency to repeat his primary actions even when they are failures. The same phenomenon occurred with the unhappy laboratory dogs of Pavlov. The trained functional and useful reflex (conditioned reflex) became a useless automatism. Productive thinking is extension of the first thought and first deed to further suppositions and possibilities. Intellect comprises not only the analytical research quality, but the vivid ability to search for a new aim and broaden the scope. The higher animals, too, act intelligently; that is, they adapt speedily to a new situation. Man, however, because of his eccentric position in the world, has special opportunities for developing his intellect. Vivid intellect, however, can regress to rigid automatisms and so resemble the innate instinct patterns. In man every automatism and rigid behavior pattern can revert again to a new adjustment. If this were not so, neurosis would be inaccessible to treatment. The analytical part of the intellect, the selecting and sifting capacity, is forever hesitant. It opposes all that is accepted. It welcomes discussion and dialectic research. It breaks the spell of old thought concepts and paves the way for the spontaneous, creative function of the intellect. Unintelligence implies an inability to change, a rigid adherence to the same pattern, enslavement to habit. Intellect can remain the sterile tool for selection and correction, the mere librarian of observed data. It can be creative only so long as it remains active, charged by the live personality. Out of his delusions of greatness, man overestimated the technical intellect and neglected the instinctive, creative power that propelled it. The supertechnical surgeon, however, is helpless without the instinctual regenerative forces. Those forces heal the wounds inflicted by his tools. In every human being there dwells an instinctual unconscious technician operating outside the conscious functions. This formative intelligence, which makes or breaks us, can be studied by different methods beside the usual ones of psychoanalysis. Pseudo-Intellect We still tend to evaluate all labor of the mind as intellect instead of the thinking potency behind it. The human being comes into the world a bare, unprotected and unadapted animal, who can be subjected to various forms of training. He may even be made an imitative, mechanical thinking automaton. An intellectual is not necessarily a personality. On the one hand, training has created pedants, students, servile clerks-mental engineers who fall easy prey to the economically and mentally powerful. This form of imitative intellect is as much for sale as the labor of our hands and the power of our muscles. On the other hand scholarly training may make independent free thinkers of people who are forced to reorientate themselves as soon as they stand before a new situation. The real power of thinking is not imitation. The over-development of technique and pseudo-intellect creates the myth that special training in a certain school or college produces more valuable personalities. The development of character and personality is subordinate to scholastic and technical achievement; to diplomas and report cards. The quiz can become a fatal instrument of education. The last war taught us the danger inherent in the mass production of pseudo-intellectuals. They failed to resist overwhelming fatal emotions and capitulated to every outside mental power. Knowledge and philosophy were controlled by the blackjack. Many of the "intelligentsia", emotionally dissatisfied and disgruntled, surrendered to traitors and tyrants who ruled by intellectually-rationalized brutality. Previous Theory of Delusions Analysis reveals that instinct and affect, memory and conscience, are the roots of the thinking function. Love and hate penetrate our thinking and stimulate it to demonical activity. Gradually it becomes stripped of affects, but it cannot survive without feeling. Thinking loses its potency and contact when thoughts become isolated; one set point of view obscures all others. In our world too much is thought and not enough is felt. Thinking is stripped of its instinctual basis. Delusion is a regression or isolation of the thinking function. It is either the dominance of archaic instinctual forms of thinking or the isolation of consciousness, the autonomy of thoughts without feelings. Delusion seeps gradually into the thinking function. It begins with a basis of truth, but the persistent error gradually supplants reality to such an extent that it is impervious. Feeling must never he without thinking, thinking never without feeling. If either of these functions gains autonomy the individual loses his consciousness of and contact with reality. Our science of thought has as yet failed to detach itself from the Aristotelian concept of one way of thinking. The science of physics was dominated by the same misconception until the period of the renaissance. It is regrettable that the experimental inquiry into thought processes is such a difficult procedure. (The Rorschach test has taught us a great deal about the relation between thinking and feeling and psychoanalysis has clarified the role of the unconscious.) I want this essay to be limited to the phenomenology of deluded thinking under normal circumstances. Delusions are incorrigible ideas for which many normal men are willing to die. Delusion as Substitute Let us first understand that delusion is inherent in normal thinking. The delusion treated by psychiatrists belongs to the same thinking process, but is fortified by pathological disturbances of the psychosomatic organism. ' In all growing'processes of consciousness man reaches a limit. Beyond that limit thinking ends and faith begins: Credo quia absurdum. Delusion is a substitute belief. It is the enforcement of certainty instead of the acceptance of uncertainty. Delusion is the fear of uncertainty, of hesitation and skepticism. Just as the "idee fixe" defends the human being against the small vaccilations of life, the delusion defends us against the great leap into the obscure and unknown. Every acceptance of limits implies an obscure and unknown. Superstition is also a substitute for faith, it is a collective delusion, a remnant from previous magical and mythical conceptions of life. Delusion is the fear of realistic, critical thinking, the kind of thinking which is subject to criticism from without and the criticism from within that illuminates one's own subjective notions. Hallucinations The hallucination is a regression to a genetically older mode of feeling and observation in which ego and world are not yet distinct entities. This archaic orientation toward and contact with the outside world is dependent on functional disturbances of several organsystems. Otherwise it occurs only among children and primitive people. Since reality contact is disturbed, most of the hallucinations are the result of a chaotic projection of memory-pictures (engrams). (13) When man is possessed by an overwhelming emotion, he immediately may hallucinate its possible causes. Fear produces hallucinations even more easily. The exhausted soldier on the battlefield envisions every automobile noise as an aerial attack of the enemy. Every social formation has its own collective illusions, hallucinations, revived images and primitive representations. These collective conceptions are never subject to discussion but only to blind acceptance. Every form of rite and suggestive training enforces these collective images. Many a member of such a collective can never be freed of such an unconscious, enforced image. In the delusion we become familiar with a similar process. Thinking that Withdraws from Reality Janet was one of the first to call the attention of psychology to the reality function (fonction du reelle). He speaks of a mental tension and force in. man, the highest perfection of which is the reality-function. When this tension diminishes certain mental characteristics disappear. The first to weaken is the capacity for adjustment to changing reality. The immediate experience of, insight into and enjoyment of reality is a highly differentiated and vulnerable mental activity. Mature man, confronting reality, must have an alert adjustment. Learnedness Eventually we may prefer learnedness to wisdom. The learned and strange holds for us a magic fascination before which, like children, we bow. Learnedness grasps only that which has already developed and become rigid; it can never, however, follow the continuous stream of development. It is often a mixture of undeveloped wisdom and lust for power. The learned man is distracted and lacks contact with living reality. His system of thinking is a facade for inner doubt. His scientific display is often a well-regulated collection of plagiarisms. SECTION FOUR The Development of Thinking To understand the above statement, we have to give up the dogma of identical thinking in all human minds. We may say that the more purified and technically trained thinking is, the more identical it becomes. Unconsciously the different laws of logic are accepted. The more primitive thinking is, the more confused feelings it contains and the less identical it is. It is possible, nevertheless, to study the general development of thought. It was analytical psychology which first called our attention to the gradually evolving relation to reality. The following stages in the development of a sense of reality may be distinguished (7). First is the phase of intrauterine development, preceding birth, in which there can be little more than a feeling of satisfied omnipotence. There is no noxious outside world. The stage of magic-hallucinatory potency follows birth. The child has the feeling of knowing and directing all. No distinction between an inner and outer world is drawn. This phase is succeeded by initial attempts at conquest of the outside world with magic gestures. The child tries to command the world within his reach by pointing at it with his hands. Children feel that ideas are tangible and plastic. By keeping their lips stiffly closed they withhold evil thoughts. They also imbue inanimate objects with life. When they get hurt by bumping against a table, it is the table which beats them. Out of this gestural thinking develops an uncritical animistic thinking, in which self-qualities are projected upon the outside world. All inanimate objects have a soul and no distinction between dead and alive is made. This thinking has a passive nature; thoughts are experienced as personified actions in which father, mother and siblings are the actors. Mythology is filled with such personifications. The adult, too, creates his personified delusions. The following stage of magic thought is more active. It is a form of primitive strategy in which the spirits of objects are not only passively accepted but manipulated. The magic action attempts to seduce the spirits and to command them. The inner and outer world grow apart and magic thoughts are used to maintain contact between the two. After the phase of imaginary omnipotence a change takes place. Unlimited power is granted not to the ego but to the outside world. In the games of children, every toy can become a symbol of parental power. Gradually this power and influence are incorporated and conscience is shaped by the penetration and incorporation of social values. In these early stages of thinking the main influences emanate from the outer world. They overwhelm the thinking subject. His feeling of loss and helplessness is the same that we experience when we feel ourselves part of a mass. The regressed thinking of many psychotics reflects a similar experience; everything in the mind is experienced as an influence from outside. Archaic thinking is an almost wordless thinking, a kind of dream thinking and sinking away unto unconsciousness. In totemistic thinking a symbolic displacement has already taken place. Good or bad spirits are represented or symbolized by a totem. In this projective thinking one's own power, misery and cruelty is transferred and attributed to the totem. The totem, the sacred animal, for instance, is the feared animal. It takes some time before an independent judging ego is shaped, free from observations and images. The first ego is the product of observation rather than an independent entity. Primitive thinking is primarily affective thinking. The ego judges immediately under the influence of an observation and emotion. Only gradually this subjective form of thinking adjusts itself to reality. In adult thinking the archaic illusion of almighty power may lead to self-overestimation and egocentricity. The evolution of individual thinking is paralleled in the growth of civilization. Archaic or Primitive Thinking During the last few decades primitive thinking has been subjected to careful study. This is due not only to progress in the fields of ethnology and anthropology, but also to the realization that analogous forms of thinking could be found in children, psychotics and the unconscious of every human mind. The idea has also developed that the difference between civilized and primitive thinking is one of degree. Many present primitive societies are the descendants of formerly civilized peoples. Primitive thought is not less logical than mature thought. Sensual experiences, however, are less adequately controlled and the reaction is a far more emotional one. The primitive confronts the world with more affectivity. He lives in a world oŁ continually existing fear toward which he is constantly alerted. Constant tension prevails between himself and his environment. His feelings are more explosive, his actions more instinctive. Modern man of the Atomic Age shares the same attitudes to some extent. The European of the Middle Ages was still a man of uncontrolled emotionality. His actions were affect-ruled. The mourner was paralyzed 1>y sorrow for weeks; the sad man displayed his feelings with theatrical complaints. Collective hallucinations and delusions were experienced with greater ease (20). Collective myths, alive in all, came to the fore more easily. Primitive thinking is not subject to argumentation and correction and is almost insensitive to experience. If it fails to coincide with the reality situation, its errors are ascribed to mysterious influences from without. The primitive easily resorts to pretexts and magic forces to explain his failure. Hidden qualities take precedence over actual ones. The primitive rejects logic. B may be equal to A or not, depending on the wishes of strange powers. The archaic thinking is concept- and habit-bound. It is dominated by the images and emotions of the collectivity, which easily abandons logic. Its own rules are elementary and infinite in power. The archaic psyche has an unlimited memory. It is comparable to our own subconscious. The primitive man is familiar with a large quantity of images and words. His language, usually more complex than our own, does not combine word pictures to form abstractions. What he thinks he sees, he sees. That is why he lives in a hallucinated world. Affect and drive rule his observations. A vague feeling, a superficial resemblance, an insignificant totem carry more meaning than generalized concepts. Man, animal and inanimate object bear mystical relationships to each other. The world is colored with subjective expectation and the expectations are hallucinated. Primitive conception of life supposes a "mystic participation" existing between man, animal and inanimate object. Identifying or Magic Thinking In primitive societies a man does not live far apart from his fellows. A relationship of common fate and mutual thought pervades primitive community life. The thoughts of one member of the tribe, for instance, can endanger the entire community. The word as such has suggestive and destructive power. The victor who slays an enemy is imbued with the power of the dead man. The Dajaks in Borneo believed that the decapitation of their enemies would fortify them with the power of the killed. One is what one possesses. The artistic remnants of pre-historical man are interpreted as examples of magic thinking. The pre-historic hunter inscribed his prey on a rock wall so as to gather greater power. Creative art was a magic action performed as a symbolic conquest of future prey. Our unconscious is still permeated with magic archaic power. The twentieth century slave is too dependent on his technical intellect to show concern for his magic, yet a Teutonic magician restored him to a stage of collective madness. The economic logic of our time has rejected all magic and fears the untouchable possibilities of long forgotten worlds. It does not dare to live side by side with the shadows of long ago. Yet all objective knowledge preserves the magic experience of unity. Every higher form of thinking embodies earlier forms. Participating Thinking There are many causes for regression to primitive thinking. Terror and persecution, slavery and famine can reverse high civilization to more primitive modes of mentality. Recall the extinct Negro civilizations of central Africa, the civilizations of the Mayas and Aztecs. Even more clearcut are the many examples of primitive thinking we find in our own present-day society. Thinking implies active participation in collective events. Barriers between individuals are nonexistent, and each individual participates in the thinking of the entire world. Growing consciousness, however, opposes reality as critical judge and observer. The public in the theater considers itself a participant In In the dramatic action. Participation Through Isolation of Culture Participating thinking spreads if the community remains isolated. We shall see how this may cause mass delusions in a modern civilization. In a closed circle of conversation some magic participating thinking occurs. Participating-thinking imbues life with all kinds of rites. Without these, the world would not be what it is. We experience this clearly with the thinking of the Malayan people among whom a general feeling of spiritual participation prevails. Everyone is invested with a soul, whether dead or alive. Everything is imbued with good or evil forces. The man who covers his dagger with saliva thus makes it part of himself and assures his own immunity. In Java people open doors and chests to facilitate the birth of a child. The world is a magic helper in everything that affects the individual. Similar concepts survive in popular medical superstition. The weak child is made to eat horse. meat and drink oxblood. The father partakes of the medicine when his child is ill. The newborn infant is protected from future trouble by burial of the placenta and so forth. Mythical Thinking Man likes to live in myth. He converts his fatherland into a legend a beautiful fairy tale. He speaks of the old European liberalism an( the new American democracy while he by-passes reality with all its subtleties. As part of a mass, as members of a crowd, our identifications and As the native identifies with the totem in his group, so do more civilized groups identify with their subtly concealed totems. If our home town is subjected to criticism we spring to its defense. We identify with our school, our town, our country. At a meeting in which this topic of disguised identification was discussed a philosopher debated rather indignantly: "My Groningen-heart is revolted." In his criticism he had identified with the theories of his university. We identify with our countries, our climates, our class, with the layer of the population to which we belong and with its way of thinking. We identify especially with our possessions. The more we possess, the more difficult it becomes for us to renounce either the possessions as such or the theories which justify our having them. Certain remnants of archaic thinking permeate our daily existence. Take, for instance, "lese majeste". It is a rather primitive conception that damage to the name or damage to the picture implies damage to the person himself. The magic man lives on within us. A preconceived idea, a rooted, fixed way of thinking is often such a remnant. It is as if archaic thinking continued to contaminate our well-adjusted system of thought. There exists a refined form of identifying thinking. To empathize or sympathize with another is impossible without this thought process. The serious psychologist has to utilize this process to familiarize himself with his fellow human beings. Psychology, therefore, maintains certain aspects of a magic science. Such thinking processes, however, are of slight value to the physical scientists. False Figurative Language Since our daily language so frequently resorts to allegory and figurative speech, we can assume that man feels a tremendous need for identification. Whenever we are anxious to prove something, we refer to an analogous case. These analogies, which play on feeling rather than logic, are dangerous for our thinking. A political speech, for instance, can overwhelm and narcotize by a flood of suggestive pictures and allegories. When our feelings are aroused we lose our critical ability and insight and reactivate earlier, incorrect concepts of reality. False figurative language dims our thinking. The Dictatorship of Imagery In primitive thinking as well as in our trained twentieth century mind imagery plays an almost dictatorial role. Ask a philosopher to walk the plank over an abyss-as Pascal proposed-and he will hesitate as much as the child who has no reason. The imagined risk defies all logic. Images and representations exert a formative influence on our organism; they are creative thoughts. Wrong and good images act deeply on our biological being and produce organic reactions. The science of hypnosis teaches us these facts. Wishful Thinking The subjective wish as well directs our thinking. Our daydreams and undefined wishes are forever misinterpreting reality. There is chaos in our thinking. Sorrow and defeat and all other emotions are continuously playing on the direction of our thoughts. Pride and bitterness revolve our thoughts in an eternal vicious circle. Totalitarian Thinking Totalitarian or dictatorial thinking is a remnant of archaic times. Objective verification of ideas is rejected since no reality beyond the dictatorial opinion exists. The deviant point of view is considered dangerous for the weak. Free thought is experienced as a thwarting, hostile force. The critical word, the deviating attitude, the non-conformism of one man threatens the clan. The individual is only permitted to think with the tribe. Archaic thinking follows what we might call an imperialistic strategy. It lulls people to sleep, it resists their consciousness and critical confrontation, it suppresses all individual creativity. Totalitarian thinking is identifying thinking; it takes account only of totalities and never of parts. Specific and particular forms have no value. Only the recurrent and expected is accepted. Man remains one with his people, his land, his race. Human evolution, however, breaks the bond between man and his world and places him in opposition to it. In time of war primitive attitudes come to the fore in all fighters. The individual is only part of an organism. The army is hypersensitive to In the highly vulnerable feeling of military honor one finds much archaic thinking. To lose face, to be shamed, is equivalent to a beating. The aggressive word demands revenge as much as the bullet. Restrictions placed on the topics of discussion by soldiers and enemy aliens are a further reflection of the authoritarian attitude. Primitive civilizations are more keenly aware of the need for respect of leaders and superiors. In Java, for example, a respectful language, devoid of the aggressive and sharp words of everyday speech, is used in addressing superiors. In occupied Europe a great many had to learn restraint in their speech. Expression of individual thinking was severely punished by the magic Teuton. Traditional Thinking We find the archaic way of thinking in all forms of traditional thought, rooted in fixed patterns of feeling, acting and thinking. Tradition is the continuum of mass action. School already forces ideas into the harness of dogma. Only after intense conflict is the personality able to free itself from this tradition. SECTION FIVE Thought and language are intimately related to each other. All memory of mankind, all tradition, are enclosed in language. Language reveals old historical traditions. He who creates new words opens up new territories of thought. The word raises man above the level of the animal. It provides the In a later phase of development sound and speech become our chief means of communication. Timbre, velocity of expression and gesture as well, constantly change the meaning of words. Primitive languages express sensual variations and concrete peculiarities with a tremendous richness of distinction. They are unfamiliar with the symbolic condensations, displacement and transference of meanings, which, for instance, the mathematical sciences use. Hence, primitive man must resort to manifold distinctions. He cannot arrive at a general insight-his language affords no opportunity for thinking in generalizations. He speaks in a pictorial way, as the poet, he identifies in word and gesture with the expressed situation. The Language of the Child The first verbal expression of the child is usually a monosyllabic prattling, much like that of animals, used to indicate the aim of his drives. Natural sounds are imitated. The dog is "wuf, wuf", the cat "meow, meow", etc. Soon the sounds and half-words are utilized as magic strategy. When the baby says "fair", he means chair, give me that chair, I want to do something with that chair. The child endows the object with life through the use of the word. When babies converse in their broken tongue they do not ask for a logical compromise. They talk with no thought of relating the different parts of their conversation. The same abracadabra recurs in the language of senile patients. As we have already seen, identification with and feeling for someone are the incipient processes of reality contact. Without these "human" qualities, deeper communication between beings is impossible. However, by naming things, the child partially frees himself of this process of identification and acquires the notion of a real world distinct from the "I". The monosyllabic nominative thinking of the child is the beginning of his capacity for confronting reality. Word and Intonation Our word is a manifold being. Every word evokes visual images from our unconscious. We first thought in pictures, later in words. In dreams we revert largely to the world of pictures. The pronunciation of words as such changes their meaning. Every word has its significance but at the same time its unconscious background. Words are expression, but also disguise. They are a living act with peripheral scenes and hidden motives. Sound-Languages Sound and rhythm often have a more important function than the specific meaning of the word. Eros especially colors ordinary words and makes them deep and significant. Would it even be possible to write the semantics of the half-words and sounds that people in love use as a means of conversation? The murmuring and small names between mother and baby mean words of love indescribable in stark definitions. There are languages which rely more than others on undefined emotional sounds. German words often have more sound than real meaning. Appealing more to mass and sentiment than reason, they keep the words caught in ambivalence, suspended between emotion and intellect. It was a strange experience to hear the vocal disguise of Goebbels propaganda thrown over one during the Nazi-occupation. Word-Magic Words may become magic symbols, condensations of meanings endowed with special power. This is seen especially in the rapt, repetitious phrases of the child. The expression of the word signifies the attainment of power over the indicated object. Words themselves become powerful. During the evolutionary phase of a word especially, during its period of detachment from an object, the value of the word and its power become especially great. The words become bold flashes of lightning with which one can banish, beat or praise. How many snobs there are, whose loaded words tyrannized their surroundings! With a master-word, one can conquer masses. The magical quality of the word is greater than most of, us realize. How many of us "touch wood" when we express a certain word? We fear that the word with its magic background attracts danger. This superstitious influence is especially pronounced in vague, undefined words. Their contact with the unconscious is closer and they therefore exercise more power. To move the masses one has to make use of such vague terms whose real significance defies definition. The therapist uses the magic influence of the word when asking the patient to express freely his feelings. The verbalization of vague feelings is of great cathartic value. The Power of Talk Endless talk my conquer fear. One fears silence. Those who least understand the world in which they live are its most talkative citizens. Propaganda tries to achieve its aim through endless repetition and the constant dinning in of words. The masses like mythical words and the sledgehammer blows of windy speeches. Clear expression becomes heresy. The word that evokes the most bizarre associations becomes the most beloved. Everyone projects his own unfulfilled wishes upon it. The preachers of penitence in the Middle Ages were familiar with the suggestive power of words. Their word-pictures of hell could transport whole masses into a state of religious ecstasy. In our age the loudspeaker has assumed that task. Crypto-Archaisms It is difficult to free our thinking from hidden archaisms. After the first world war, many crypto-archaisms came again to the fore. There was a preference for the emotional and the ecstatic, the elementary and the chaotic. In the field of art, futurism and dadaism were the fads of the day. This rebellion against civilized refinements was rationalized with theoretical explanations of the respect for the primitive. Jazz was existence of its own. The child begins to grasp that the word is a creation of human intelligence. The more keenly he senses that the word belongs to him, the more the child is able to free himself of his inner fixation to the rest of the physical world. As we have already seen, identification with and feeling for someone are the incipient processes of reality contact. Without these "human" qualities, deeper communication between beings is impossible. However, by naming things, the child partially frees himself of this process of identification and acquires the notion of a real world distinct from the "I". The monosyllabic nominative thinking of the child is the beginning of his capacity for confronting reality. Word and Intonation Our word is a manifold being. Every word evokes visual images from our unconscious. We first thought in pictures, later in words. In dreams we revert largely to the world of pictures. The pronunciation of words as such changes their meaning. Every word has its significance but at the same time its unconscious background. Words are expression, but also disguise. They are a living act with peripheral scenes and hidden motives. Sound-Languages Sound and rhythm often have a more important function than the specific meaning of the word. Eros especially colors ordinary words and makes them deep and significant. Would it even be possible to write the semantics of the half-words and sounds that people in love use as a means of conversation? The murmuring and small names between mother and baby mean words of love indescribable in stark definitions. There are languages which rely more than others on undefined emotional sounds. German words often have more sound than real meaning. Appealing more to mass and sentiment than reason, they keep the words caught in ambivalence, suspended between emotion and intellect. It was a strange experience to hear the vocal disguise of Goebbels propaganda thrown over one during the Nazi-occupation. Word-Magic Words may become magic symbols, condensations of meanings endowed with special power. This is seen especially in the rapt, repetitious phrases of the child. The expression of the word signifies the attainment of power over the indicated object. Words themselves become powerful. During the evolutionary phase of a word especially, during its period of detachment from an object, the value of the word and its power become especially great. The words become bold flashes of lightning with which one can banish, beat or praise. How many snobs there are, whose loaded words tyrannized their surroundingsl With a master-word, one can conquer masses. This superstitious influence is especially pronounced in vague, undefined words. Their contact with the unconscious is closer and they therefore exercise more power. To move the masses one has to make use of such vague terms whose real significance defies definition. The therapist uses the magic influence of the word when asking the patient to express freely his feelings. The verbalization of vague feelings is of great cathartic value. The Power of Talk Endless talk my conquer fear. One fears silence. Those who least understand the world in which they live are its most talkative citizens. Propaganda tries to achieve its aim through endless repetition and the constant dinning in of words. The masses like mythical words and the sledgehammer blows of windy speeches. Clear expression becomes heresy. The word that evokes the most bizarre associations becomes the most beloved. Everyone projects his own unfulfilled wishes upon it. The preachers of penitence in the Middle Ages were familiar with the suggestive power of words. Their word-pictures of hell could transport whole masses into a state of religious ecstasy. In our age the loudspeaker has assumed that task. Crypto-Archaisms It is difficult to free our thinking from hidden archaisms. After the first world war, many crypto-archaisms came again to the fore. There was a preference for the emotional and the ecstatic, the elementary and the chaotic. In the field of art, futurism and dadaism were the fads of the day. This rebellion against civilized refinements was rationalized with theoretical explanations of the respect for the primitive. Jazz was preferred to more traditional musical forms, expressionism replaced naturalism. One could also find these crypto-archaisms in the lability and suggestibility of human opinions. Year after year new dogmas were presented to an eager audience. The extreme was defended. Romantic attitudes toward crime and gangsterism developed and the criminal was idealized. The intelligentsia, especially, provided fertile ground for this peculiar fluctuating thinking. They did not know what to confess or what to believe and bent to each passing wind. In central Europe the adoration of the people's mentality (das Volkische) was a triumph of archaic thinking. In retrospect, such crystal-clear dogmas and proven theories are later seen to belong to a certain period. Even for the man of science, the more objective he considers himself, the less aware he is of the subjective premises of his knowledge. SECTION SIX The causally-oriented theoretician tries to reduce reality to generally valid rules. The smaller probability becomes absorbed into a larger probability. He is not taken up with the accidental constellation of reality, but only with the manifest causal chain. Causes and consequences were at work in the world, even when they remained unobserved by the thinking individual. It is impossible for us to view something outside these causal relations. We are confronted everywhere with the outcomes of causes. Causality dissects the continuum of reality into a series of sections. It responds to the human preference for regularity, for interrelated and dependent facts, for continual and gradual development. It does so, even where reality does not correspond. Final thinking, however, tries to discover the sense and significance of historical events. Every historical event is an accidental "cross-section" of continuity. The individual conceives of the "accidental happening", the "unique event" (Einmaligkeit) only as a phase of historical, purposeful reality. Indeed, creative thinking tries to free itself of archaic automatisms and aims at planning before acting. This tendency to plan, to develop a thought-program, is projected by man onto external affairs. For him there is no accident. Historical events are symbolic meeting-places of the historical process and the historical cause. Reality never changes suddenly; the foundations for these changes are laid underground and come to the fore as historical facts. From the causal point of view, occurrences are living proof of prevailing laws. From the final point of view, the concrete event is an incidental happening in the service of a greater aim. Both forms of thinking aim to create eternal continuity out of the chaotic present. Laws of Thinking Thanks to the influence of Aristotle, philosophy is burdened with formal laws of thinking. Aristotle's postulate of the identity of thinking is an incorrect one. Even philosophers in their discussions don't think in the same way. Their education, training, social environment and other factors combine to determine their way of thinking. Acquaintance with other systems of thought invalidates Aristotelian logic. The Brahman philosophy, for instance, preaches that human sorrow begins with thinking, that thinking is revolt against the Gods and bans us from the truth. Aristotle's principle, nevertheless, provided the thinkers of twenty centuries with a meeting ground and formalized laws of thought. Other civilizations demonstrate that common modes of thinking are the product of a culture. Western thinking is restless. The Western spirit is impelled toward activity. The Eastern thinker does not think with the same motility. He enjoys a static state, rest and contemplation. He is more open to inner visions than to illusions of the senses based on external stimuli. Western thinking is geared toward the broadening of its views of the world. Eastern thinking does not search for disparate point of views. It does not define but creates inner worlds. Western civilization makes use of confronting thinking. Its logicloving mentality places itself in opposition to rather than in the midst of reality. It belongs essentially to an individuating civilization. The Aristotelian logic belongs to him who, in his loneliness, touches the world with critical antennae. This touching has an element of danger, since it may alter reality. There is always a destructive element in restless touching and tasting of the world. Nervous, obsessional thinking and verifying continually destroys part of its own world-picture. Once the individualistic man conforms to the logical laws of thinking, all other forms of thinking become illogical or primitive to him. He praises only what is adequate in terms of his own system. Logic, however, also embraces a series of rules which are made use of as long as they prove adequate. Who can tell what other means of gaining consciousness remain unexplored (metaphysical, parapsychological) as a result of the dictatorship of Aristotelian thinking? The clinician knows that the exploration of the apparently chaotic unconscious yields a treasure of knowledge about man and universe. European logic, however, nearly always fails in actual life. It is difficult to convince people in a logical way; they are eager to convict and mistrust logic. They justify their actions in terms rooted in unconscious wishes and drives. Logic remains only one means for cataloging reality. Types of Consciousness Psychology has tried to classify the ways of gaining consciousness of oneself and the world. The roads toward reality are manifold. The typical separation is dependent on the means chosen toward gaining consciousness of the world. Jung (10) and Van der Hoop (21) distinguish intuitive types, feeling types and thinking types. Although any such classification is rather artificial, it offers insight into the varied character structures of man, and his reasons for choosing a particular road toward reality. Male and Female Thinking Let us take an example of different approaches to reality. In reality there is no pure distinction between masculine and feminine thinking; both forms exist in everyone in varying degree. Man is more of a specialist, concerned with specific aspects of the universe. He is one-sided, and stronger because of this one-sidedness. Woman is more of a generalizer. Her functions demand familiarity with many things that man treats with disdain. She must know a little of a great many things while the man seeks to know a great deal about few. Ancient science went through a generalizing feminine approach. In the future, science must become more conscious of the new need for generalized integrated knowledge. It will have to become more female in character. Female thinking is more realistic; it is imbued with more sense and feeling for practical adjustment. Anatomical Thinking The sharp, dissecting thinking, which destroys feelings, is unaware of moral value judgments. It makes no distinction between good and evil. Anatomical thinking became a means of gaining power. He who could handle it well could subject the world and his fellow beings. This is the main reason for the worship of cold, intellectual thinking and critical dissection. Biological Roots of Thinking All thinking has biological roots. Thinking requires certain foods and fluids for growth, a special diet and special physical exercise. Certain rites and rhythms alter thinking. The gastronomist thinks in another way than the aesthete who tries to purify his thought by fasting. We witness the arousal of self-awareness in those who are successful erotic partners and its disappearance among those whose sexual pride was hurt. Woman nearly always places her thinking in the service of an erotic aim. Male thinking derives more satisfaction from maintaining a logical equilibrium. Shallow Modes of Thought Many thinkers live among big and idle thoughts and words, borrowed from books, rather than derived from experience. Unaware of life's reality, they think in the same way in which the child plays with colorful soap-bubbles, watching the brilliance and color of the bubble until it bursts. It is the infantile philosopher in us who is seduced by weighty thoughts and impressive plans. But we use this play as training for the realities of life. We learn to select from superfluous wisdom. In practical life we are able to distinguish other forms of thinking, dependent on the special adjustment of the individual. We distinguish dogmatic thinking, wishful thinking, labeling thinking, juridical thinking, political thinking, modish thinking. All these speak for themselves. Labeling Thinking Only two forms of thinking, dangerous to everyday practice, are mentioned here. Labeling thinking is that which attaches labels to all thinking human beings. If one once belonged to a certain school, class, or race one's opinions and language are forever regarded as part of this school, class, or race. Once labeled, the label can never be lost. Forever, we have to belong to a certain rubric. What lives behind the label doesn't matter. Juridical Thinking Juridical thinking is another rigid form of interpreting life and its habits. Because men require rules and laws for the limitation of each other's instincts, the man of law seeks to reduce all spontaneous life to similar rules and laws. He thinks in a codified world and views people as its codified inhabitants. It was this form of anti-psychological thinking which ruled international relations between the two world wars. The United Nations are still in danger of viewing peace as a purely codified Valhallah. SECTION SEVEN Normal Delusions Francis Bacon (2) in his Novum Organum was the first to view delusions of the spirit and errors of thinking from a psychological standpoint. He rejected all rigid philosophical abstractions. Because of its rigidity theory can become the wrong object of thinking rather than reality. Bacon reproached his predecessors for living too much in theory and not enough in reality. Our thoughts are representatives of ourselves, rather than of reality. Theory aims at subjecting reality to its own dictatorship. Human intellect is no pure instrument of research but is bound to influences of feeling and will; what man would like to see as true, he believes as true. Hence, Bacon advises us to approach with suspicion all that which the spirit accepts greedily. Fantasy is the greatest enemy of the intellect. This conceit of thought Bacon refers to as general delusion, the "idola generis". He calls special delusion, "idola specus", that type of human thought which is colored by man's special characteristics, by his temperament, his mood, his yearning. Language, the unstable vehicle of thought, also leads to delusion and error. Don't the phrases and definitions of philosophers serve to disguise their nude irresolution? Bacon calls this delusion of words and labels "idola theatri". Catchword and label accomplish their greatest triumph in establishing a mass-delusion. The famous English statesman and philosopher was referring especially to the dogmas and theatrical parading of philosophers which only served to justify the creations of their own imagination. They were thought-plays detached from reality and representative only of the mind of their conceited creator. A person's cherished dogmas reveal his personality. The manifold systems of philosophers describe more adequately the philosophers themselves than the world of realities, according to Bacon. Can we add anything better to this concept of delusion and conceit? Bacon's ideas are as valid today as they were three centuries ago. Seductive Stupidity When intellect can no longer contribute to the knowledge of the world, when our spirit is no longer potent enough to struggle with the facts of the day, we take recourse to the stupidity and "innocence of childhood". We experienced this regressive behavior and escape from consciousness most pointedly during the years of occupation and terror, and understood it as a natural defense against pain and sorrow. But there is another more seductive way of flirting with superficiality and playing with stupidity. There is a yearning to return to the land of morons. We are relaxed and gay when we hear the radio voices carry us back to a realm which does not require our brain. Gradually we become more and more infected with silliness and escapism. Why should we think? Why should we fight to understand this world? Why not remain in comfortable stupidity? Superfluous Thinking Thinking often has a firmer grasp on some of us than we expect. Thoughts often remain rooted in our mind; we are possessed with a problem and we cannot escape its answer and the consequent presentation of newly aroused problems. We would prefer to idle away and yet a cogitating fury lives in us. We destroy things by thinking and destroy ourselves with it in the delusion that only thinking solves our problems. The self-temptation of superfluous thought and the restless overestimation of our own brain makes us suspicious. This is reminiscent of the baby's strategy. The repetition of the same gruesome tale helps him to conquer his vague, bigger fear. Similarly the adult tries to free himself from "the great fear of being in the world" by compulsively torturing his own brain. Obsessional Thinking This form of obsessional thinking exercises a narcotic influence. Gradually unconscious drives take possession of our thought. Thoughts arise which cannot be mastered. They are feared and alien to us, yet we cannot rid ourselves of them. They are absurd yet they possess us. There is a tragic relation between cogitating, ruminating and meditating. Vague thoughts may become rooted in our mind as symbols of suppressed unconscious drives. The Autonomy of Ideas Every thought as such has a growth-potential. It can expand to an allembracing image that suppresses all other ideas. He who creates ideas may become possessed by them. The idea may become detached from him, subdue all other ideas and precipitate unwilled actions. In reality every new thought leaves its creator and lives its own life. It may stimulate the imagination of other people. Dostoiewski describes Raskolnikov as one who was dragged away by one pure idea. Fascinated by an isolated thought the hero justifies the crime in the service of his lust for power. It is as if in every idea some mystic archaic powers remained alive. With one simple idea, with one catchword, one can sow poison and hate as well as blessings for many people. Think, for instance, of the treatment by Coue, who tried to heal neurotics by the monotonous repetition of one simple idea and image. All these phenomena can occur because thinking is a biological function, comparable to other motor and sensory functions. Every thought is an unconscious action. The Delusion of Certainty Only the reflexive animal is instinctively certain. Man is and remains unsteady in his thinking. His world is neither ready, nor fixed, nor limited, but must grow. From one uncertainty he must move on to others. The nineteenth century was too much preoccupied with constant norms and evaluations and too insensitive to the dynamics of its own system of thought. He who firmly asserts his certainty is often surpressing his doubt and evading the vacuum of his ignorance. Every delusion is endowed with the same inner certainty we find in primitive thinking. It does not create problems. Delusion is a regression, a theatrical disguise of inner impotence. This process does not refer to pathology only. It occurs in everyday thinking. The scientists of the last century were possessed by the delusion of hasty declaration and explanation. Many theories preceded the facts. Many scientists wrote off as understandable and transparent that which remained secret and obscure. By atomization of the infinite they tried to profane unsolved mysteries. Thinking is the equalization of chaos, the reduction of single accidental occurrences to generalized happenings. Every theoretical reduction, however, omits the secret of the unique historical accident, the mystery of the individual event. Man overestimates his instinctual certainties. Thinking extinguishes the certainty of innate knowledge. Recall the story of the thousandfooted insect who was interrogated by the cunning fox. From the day he was asked which foot he set in motion first, he could no longer walk; he was paralyzed by the new problem. Instinctual certainties disappear as soon as they reach the domain of reflection and thought. Feeling alone can give certainty. Thinking and reflection create doubt. That is why art provides straighter insight into truth than philosophy. Mass knowledge is inert. The patterning of thought is enhanced by the industrialization and standardization of life. Our brain is a maze of fixed patterns, slogans and cliches. It has become a bad camera for recording reality. The Subject Thinks In all thought concerned with reality, the thinking and creating subject remains the greatest riddle to himself. The self, the ego, the focal point of every world view, remains its own greatest source of confusion. Every world picture is a subjective creation, no matter how minutely the subject thinks he has copied the world. The most objective copy still contains a subjective view. The graphologist will tell us that every handwriting, originally a fixed pattern of letters, is different. Children, in copying the simplest pictures, distort them in accordance with their own character. How varied our subjective thinking is! Some overflow with original ideas, while others remain content with simple imitations. The Unconscious as Creator of Our Thinking Why do subjects think so differently? For the psychoanalyst the answer is not difficult. In every hour with his patients, he is aware not especially of his patient's thinking but of his confused reactions to unconsciously formed ideas. Thinking is the constant struggle against the preconceived patterns of our mind. The unconscious guides the willing conscious mind, which accepts, justifies or rationalizes the deeper notions. Men's thoughts are propelled by the creative forces of their unconscious. Through special technique the ego can grow aware of these unconscious motives. Our desire for clarity, our fight to gain new insights gives us a partial conception of structural relations. The deepest levels, however, remain hidden. Fashionable Thinking There is a fashion of ideas and arguments similar to that of hats and dresses. Out of tradition one can incorporate certain fashionable ideas. Man is possessed by more lust for imitation and tradition than for creation of original ideas. It is as if several instincts clashed in the process of thinking. There is a social instinct which induces imitation and identification. Simultaneously there is an individualistic instinct which demands distinction and the formulation of a personal vision as opposed to that of collectivity. Some ideas have a pandemic character and work like an infectious agent the individual is unable to resist. The idea finds such deep resonance that man is dragged away by it. Forty years ago the word "socialist" was applied as a nickname to people. Today, socialism is an ideal for those who not long ago spoke of it disapprovingly. In our time, "communism" is the catchword for all that is taboo. Scapegoating Scapegoating grows out of normal attitudes, normal biases and ordinary prejudices. Its most famous example is found in the rituals of the Hebrews and is depicted in the Book of Leviticus. On the Day of Atonement, a live goat was chosen. The high priest, attired in linen garments, laid both hands on the goat's head and confessed over it the iniquities of the children of Israel. The sins of the people having thus been symbolically transferred onto the beast, it was taken out into the wilderness and let loose. The people felt purged, and for the time being, guiltless. (1). The tendency to revert to this primitive level of thinking has persisted. People are forever seeking scapegoats, most often in human form, whom they can saddle with their misfortunes and misdeeds. "Civilized people" remain primitive in their thinking. Such events have occurred throughout history. The victims have always been small minority groups who, because of conspicuousness and tradition, became the bearers of the burden of blame. Nominative Thinking In his thinking the simple man is fixated to names. By naming things he feels that he has explained them. Primitive languages are characterized by vast numbers of names and words with fine nuances of meaning. The king of the Middle Ages was surrounded by innumerable pages, lackeys, grooms, etc. Every royal function called for another servant with another name. Every function was named. The same happens in the mind; all that remains incomprehensible acquires names. Our modern bureaucratic system maintains this name-giving tendency when confronted with a difficult problem. Things are better understood when they are filed. Fixed Thought Values In different circles of society different values are attached to thoughts. Every member of a given society unconsciously accepts this hierarchy of thinking. He shows little appreciation for the thought systems and logic of other circles. Just as the followers of Hegel detected the dialectic triangle in all situations, so the hyper-orthodox Freudian is forever seeing the Master's patterns without looking for new ones and the Communist is eternally searching for Marxist explanations. These fixed thought values are most pointed among our common citizens. Their thinking is primarily formulated by professional interests. Butchers think in meat values, dairy-men in cheese values, psychologists in mind values, and so forth. Private interests, especially, rule the laws of thinking. The nonsensical delusion or the illogical thought system is more often than not the justification for personal gain or material profit. "Whose bread one eats, his word one speaks" (Dutch proverb). The delusion clearly relates to the size of the purse or the extent of political power of its propagator. As James indicated, "Truth is the cash value of ideas." (g). The Readiness for Truth The inner resistance to real thinking is often a violent one. Many prefer to stay in the childish dreamland of ignorance to escape the responsibility of wrong knowledge and wrong actions. Psychotherapy has taught us how unsteady our readiness to accept truth can be. The subject defends himself continuously against painful truths. Most people have a blind spot for truths which relate to their own life and personality. This unwillingness to know disappears only after the subject is trained in self-knowledge. Such awareness causes many a painful conflict. Its avoidance, therefore, is understandable. With diabolic dialectic and ceaseless rationalizations any truth can be disguised. Only in the depth of unhappiness, in which delusion and illusion are more painful than reality, does the preparedness to accept the truth about oneself come about. Personal relations toward truth vary. Some change their personal truths constantly. Imagination and myth are often stronger than truth. Archaic images are forever regaining possession of reality. Knowledge-A Dangerous Game People with too many arguments should always be approached with suspicion. Dialectic and endless reasoning are usually used as resistance against disagreeable truths. Knowledge and insight can be dangerous. The adept may be persecuted when he knows more than his teacher. In scientific circles, students who try to free themselves from scientific tradition are treated with much aggression. Wherever doubt arises, compulsive thinking is used as a defense against hard truths. People lose themselves in the great problems of life to avoid facing problems of their own; they become pseudophilosophers in order to escape the activities at home. Synthetic and Analytic Thinking There is a cry for synthetic thinking, especially among certain psychological schools. Those who did not dare to accept analysis as a therapy, used "synthesis" as a catchword. Analysis and synthesis, however, can never be separated in living thinking. Wherever psychoanalysis dissects arising thoughts, spontaneous synthesis takes place simultaneously. The surgeon dissects and analyzes living organisms, but the "vis medicatrix naturae" synthesizes and regenerates the tissues. Whatever human beings divide, nature brings together again. Good analysis stimulates spontaneous regeneration. Life as such is always wiser than the human being who thinks about life. Autistic Thinking The phrase, "autistic thinking" is lifted from psychopathology (Bleuler). It was known that thinking could serve as a means of escape into fantasy, into the inner world which was neglectful of all outer contacts. Obstacles are fantasied away. Longings and strivings assume the aspect of reality. The subject no longer verifies reality; he surrenders to the dream. We speak of pathological autism where the escape into phantasy and dream life violates all contact with reality. All intellect and pure thinking tends to become cold and isolated, devoid of feelings and drives. Isolated intelligence creates hesitancy. The danger of the break-through of the isolated instinctual impulse is greater. A healthy character requires the integration of thinking and feeling. Primitive thinking, on the other hand, although constantly directed toward the material world, is enslaved to that world. It is bent to the dictatorship of the sensual impulse; it does not think but acts in shortcuts. Autistic thinking is inwardly directed thinking, thinking which lacks the awareness of reality. Thinking can be overstrained. It cannot function without stimulation from the unconscious. Without relaxation and rest it breaks down. The mind wants sleep, it has to retreat from reality to dream life in order to regain new strength for confrontation on awakening. SECTION EIGHT Delusion and the Subjective Feeling of Power Delusion gives the subject an inner certainty of omnipotence and strength. Normal thinking about reality is never as secure about itself. The rigid thought is stronger than man. The deluded man likes to suffer for his delusions. The quarrelsome, especially, never stop exciting and moving the world in the service of their overburdened feelings of justice. He who is possessed by delusion is forever running his head against a stone wall; the realities of logic and physical relations are of no consequence to him as he searches for the perpetuum mobile and the square of the circle. Scientific thought is irrelevant. The deluded goes his own way, growing within the delusion and anxious only to live for the peculiar aberration of his thoughts. Thinking is the constantly expanding function of accounting for and being responsible for the subject in relation to the world. Where this process of growing consciousness stops, delusion begins. Every fixation in growth gives rise to abnormal phenomena in thinking. Real thinking, real adequatio cum re, requires perpetual conversion and renewal. Delusion and the Subjective Feeling of Certainty The more primitive man is, the younger he is, the more keenly he feels his opinions and notions. His experiences are for him of great reality value. Characteristic of growing consciousness is its grasp of the relativity of personal insight. It experiences doubt and hesitation, becomes familiar with the various phases and levels of thinking, with the eternal need for correction and evolution from old to new insight. The delusion, however, is certain of itself. Regressive thinking knows no doubt; it does not see the conflict between its own opinions and reality since it is incapable of a critical self-corrective attitude. The Incomprehensibility of the Delusion Medical theories assumed that the delusion was intangible in terms of understanding and comprehension. Understanding is a subjective process and its degree is dependent on the individual student. The deeper the regression, however, the less contact and communication takes place, for Delusion speaks another language. Its archaic language is rooted in the period when no verbal communication between human beings existed, as we experience in the psychoanalysis of schizophrenics. A deluded man is essentially a lonely man. SECTION NINE Thinking-The Overstepping of Limits In daily life, thinking moves on very different levels. Most people do not like the cataloging of reality. The road from random, disorganized thinking, to patterned thinking, to free intuitive thinking is not a simple straight line. Man must always struggle for a new world outlook. Thinking is a challenge and a daring feat. When we assay to leave traditional paths and step into the obscure, reality suddenly assumes new aspects. It is impossible to grasp these with old modes of thinking. Gaining consciousness implies the shedding of old realities through expanding freedom and conquering new realities. Growth from infantile to adult thinking is bound to the laws of physical power and matter which set limits on growth possibilities. To live is to create. The creative living subject develops to a thinking subject. The comprehension of the thinking subject includes some knowledge of his limitations. The psychology of thinking and deluded thinking must indicate the limitations of human thought in any given period of its evolution. It must indicate the origin and extent of these limitations and the means for surpassing and conquering them. Living thought must always bypass these limitations. How much truth can man bear? How much truth about himself can he bear? Does he have the courage to penetrate ever more deeply into reality? Can he free himself, if he so desires, from it? Thinking must undergo a continuous process of renewal. Unless it does so, man remains only "wise". Being wise in the vulgar sense of the word means being prudent and neutral, means hesitation and keeping to the middle of the road. Man, however, must step beyond this. Dimensional Thinking Many thought images cannot penetrate the thought world of our fellow beings. As the rainworm lives in a world of rainworms, and a child in a world of children, so the man lives within his own thought world. His thought organs are attuned only to a special wave length. The thought pictures received are translated into his own language. Man cannot grasp dimensions which are not commensurate with his own mental capacity. Primitive ideas cannot absorb more complex ones. Advanced thinking can, however, absorb less differentiated thinking. These differences in terms of thinking constitute the major source of misunderstanding. Human beings live in different thought worlds. Those who live on a higher level detect the delusions of those on a lower one, but remain unaware of their own. Lower, less differentiated levels of thinking regard the higher ones as exaggerated nonsense and an incomprehensible "secret cult". Higher levels view the lower ones as regressions, delusions or disturbances of growth. Let us not forget, however, that every higher form of thinking, every truth, is the end process of the integration of more primitive modes of thinking and partial truths. The world is full of misunderstood thought. Isolated thinking can refine itself and reach new truth; it can also, however, regress and deteriorate. In an isolated culture thinking ultimately regresses. (See section on collective psychosis.) Thoughts need intermarriage and opposition. He who abandons a higher culture for an isolated lower culture also reverts to primitive archaic thinking. Many examples can be cited of natives who studied at western universities and embraced our form of thinking, but on returning to their former tribes shed their newly conquered fields of thought. Nearly all of us are encased in our own world of thought and find it difficult to move beyond. We maintain the illusion of understanding a higher world but remain hemmed in by our traditions. However, all of a sudden we experience momentary flashes of insight and higher clarity and then the struggle for a new way of knowledge may start. The Conceit of Thinking People are hard to convince of the incorrectness of their thinking. The majority are fixated to their own thoughts to such a degree that they are unable to listen to those of others. They fear doubt and close their ears. They approach their ideas as doting parents approach their children. They fight for their ideas as Don Quixote did; they will follow a doctor's prescription quite passively but will deny the logic of his argument. Pedantic thinking is unable to correct itself. Its conception of state, society and leader are unassailable, inspired by the infantile assumption of the magic power of thought. Chaotic and difficult thoughts are easily accepted if they bear a semblance of learning and sophistication. The incomprehensible has a strong magic influence. People are very receptive to quasi-profound ideas and abstruse demonstrations. They suspect the clear and simple. Some people enjoy the weekly sermon only when it is obscure and incomprehensible. Our age is ready to embrace the highest truth with the smallest brain, unaware of the impossibility of the task. This constitutes the exalted delusion of technical man. Over-Strained Thinking It is dangerous to overestimate the capacity of our brain. When it attempts too much it overstrains itself. It does not dare to confess to its ignorance and limitations. The strained thinker not only claims to understand all that is illogical and inimical to his culture but out of his fear of misunderstanding begins to court and love what he cannot grasp. He identifies himself with absurdity. Many traitors and turncoats in wartime were themselves victims of this treacherous attitude of the intellect. The incomprehensible, the chaotic and abstruse holds a strange fascination for many. Identification with powerful psychopaths and chaotic fanatics may result in a complete surrender of personal insights. The most abhorrent theories are proclaimed as understood and accepted. Vague fear, especially, causes this passive surrender. A similar process occurs in the primitive: he always attaches more importance to the obscure than to the clearly observed. Less differentiated thinking never can grasp more differentiated ideas. A broad abyss separates these worlds of thinking. In the Middle Ages the more differentiated way of thinking was called heresy and black magic and many clear thinkers finished their lives on the burning stake. Even now there exists a tremendous suspicion in the world toward clarification of ideas. The Delusion of Justification Such passive acceptance of ideas gives rise to the delusion of justification. "Look," one calls, "I think so objectively and righteously that I Thoughts can have a narcotic effect. They can sweeten every sorrow. There are philosophies for periods of success and periods of failure. The liberation of one's thinking from archaic chains is a hazardous process. The path of the spirit is narrow; the fear of a vast vacuum tempts many to throw themselves into the abyss and to surrender to the dark drives of the unconscious. The Treason of Our Thoughts Let us go back to the treacherous delusion of justification. What is this curious need to betray the father and teacher? Is it only the mental reaching beyond the own being and the own period? Or is it always mingled with hate and resentment? In times when our soul is empty, we sell ourselves for a couple of poor ideals and we become traitors, too. Much treason and crime arise out of shame, guilt and powerless reproach for our own inadequacy. We heap coals of fire on our own head. Out of an inner shame of ourselves and others we destroy what we love and honor. There are other forms of disloyalty, however. Deep in our soul lives that other form of self-betrayal, the regression, the tendency to revert to more primitive opinions. Regression of thinking and advancement of thinking are both considered betrayals of the conventional systems. There is high treason and cowardly treason. Real treason, however, can only be a self-betrayal. The problem is that of the potential traitor in all men. It is the process of justification of the fundamental dissatisfaction with oneself. People who like power politics can misuse their insight. When one's existence becomes vulnerable, one's thoughts follow suit. Thought control is the new technique of suppression of the authoritarian state. The danger of a huge corps of civil servants is that a highly intelligent group becomes dependent on a salary. Their thinking is gullible and much too conscious of their dependence on governmental power. The Mania for Objectivity Many people suffer from an objectivity disease. Objectivity assumes the proportion of a compulsion neurosis. They refuse to choose between contradictory ideas. They lack the passion for further and better thinking. Beware of those who remain objective and dispassionate. They betray the ever-developing continuity of life. This pseudo-objectivity may also be treason. Life is a constant choice between right and wrong, between going backward and going forward, between the primitive and the civilized in us. Those who insist on objectivity do not dare to chose and betray the good action that had to be chosen. In a world which suffers, to remain a spectator is a luxury and a shirking of responsibility. "Objectivity is to expose and to lose oneself." (Bolland). The last war taught us well how many a so-called objective thinker became a collaborator of the enemy. There is a form of intellectualism which is sterile, which surrenders easily to power. Intellectualism differs from intelligent productivity. It is imitation without creation. Our world pays too much homage to such unproductive learnedness. Real intellect is a potential apart from knowledge and pedantry. Every man, for fear of becoming a consequential thinking being, is a potential traitor. He often talks and argues for fear of expressing himself and coming into conflict with reality. Thinking demands patience, attention and the gradual development of consciousness. The destruction of old wisdom and productivity is not always free productivity. Not every rebellion is a sacred revelation. Wisdom grows in the weak as well as in the strong, in silence as well as in conversation. But silence may be treason when there is a need for the thinker to speak. Delusion and Resentment The greatest disappointment in thinking may be when there is lack of energy to express itself. Ideas are too often tired. The danger then The disappointed thinkers compensate for their impotence by erecting immature theories. The uncultured myth is then launched on mankind with the help of the fist, if necessary. Much rancor and resentment motivate thinking. It constitutes a kind of mental auto-intoxication. When there is no energy for coming to terms with the world, the compulsive stream of thought is directed inward and destroys the own mind. Hate and resentment grows in the mind and directs all thinking and action. Resentment destroys all that is spiritual. The failures in life, those who feel ignored, revolt against the thoughts of their time and turn hate and rancor into the highest wisdom. When the fist of the enemy lay heavily on our occupied country many unsuccessful thinkers used the situation for spreading their weird opinions with the help of the guiding hand of the conqueror. There was no freedom and argument was forbidden. Idealistic catchwords disguised the thinkers' resentment. The thinker with the fist will long be remembered in the memory of occupied nations. Pathological Delusion In the nineteenth century there was a tendency among psychiatrists to explain pathological delusions in a mechanical way as an unclear electric current, a short-circuit of the brain, or as an intoxication of the normal stream of thoughts. Delusion and thinking, however, are integral parts of the living organism and the function of coming to terms with reality. Every thinking process is rooted in a primary vital process. Those who refer to the delusion as a partial reconstitution of disturbed thinking are correct. In every living function we find regression and progression beside each other. The important problem in reference to delusion is why normal man is able to correct the slight delusions of everyday life while the mentally ill are unable to do so. Delusions as such are normal symptoms as long as they are subject to correction. The primary de |
