in studying the hate aspects of the original ?dipus complex displacements of hate less complex than those of love we saw that these aspects, on their first appearance and in so far as they depend on mere jealousy or envy, are secondary products, arising as a consequence of the love aspects. when the cause of the jealousy is removed by a successful displacement of the love impulse, there is no longer any reason for the continuance of the hate. it is probably for this reason that the displacements of the hate aspects appear to be, on the whole, less numerous and less complicated than those of the love aspects.

certain forms of love displacement, it is true, necessarily imply, to some extent, correlative forms of hate displacement; as in the case (studied in the last chapter) of the transfer of love exclusively to married or betrothed persons or in the case of the rescue phantasy. in these cases the rival with whom the lover competes for the possession of the loved object or the tyrant from whose clutches the captive lady is snatched by the skill or daring of the youthful hero, are (in the light of psycho-analytic knowledge) manifest substitutes for the original rival or tyrant who existed in the person of the father. the intensity of hostile feeling of which these representatives become the objects may however vary very considerably from one instance to another, according as the emphasis of the whole phantasy is laid upon the elements of hatred or of love. sometimes the hostile rival may be present only in a vague and shadowy form, constituting little more than a necessary background; as, for instance, in cases where the existence of some kind of opposition is essential to the arousal or enjoyment of[118] love. in other cases, however, the hate element may be equal in importance to the love element, or may even constitute the predominant motive of the whole displacement.

in these latter cases it will usually be found that the the development of hate hostility brought about secondarily as the result of jealousy has been powerfully reinforced by hatred of a more direct and independent kind, arising as a reaction against a more general interference with the child's aspirations or desires on the part of a tyrannous parental authority (or one that is considered to be such). the presence, in some degree, of this form of reaction is very prevalent, and this is not surprising when we bear in mind the fact that the child has, during its early years, to be continually moderated, guided, stimulated or restrained in its actions, or tendencies to action, by the exercise of parental or of delegated parental authority[140].

the exercise of such restraint or guidance, even within necessary and desirable limits and with all the care, refinement and regard to the child's own natural course of development which modern methods of training may dictate, is bound to give rise to some feeling of resentment, especially in children of self-willed, obstinate or independent character or in those with whom the tendencies in need of guidance or restraint are unusually vigorous or persistent. much more so even is this liable to be the case where (as may often happen) the child's upbringing is carried out with but little regard for, or understanding of, its own feelings, susceptibilities or tendencies. in all such cases the hostile sentiments aroused by the conflict of parental authority with the impetuous desires of childhood may be such as to outlast the period of early life to which they properly belong and to furnish a basis for a pathological fixation at the stage of parent-hatred, as a result of which this hatred may constitute an important—and usually maleficent—component of the individual's character throughout his life.

we have already, in the earlier chapters, discussed the displacement of hate on to parent substitutes manner in which parent hatred of early origin (together with most other aspects of the young child's attitude towards its[119] parents) should, in the course of normal development, be overcome. we have already seen, however, that certain of the secondary hatreds consequent upon incestuous love are in many individuals incapable of being completely and satisfactorily resolved in any of the normal ways, but become, instead, displaced on to parent substitutes in the same way as the love impulses which they accompany. the same fate of displacement awaits, in most cases, those more direct and primary hatreds which are consequent upon the parent's interference with the child's more general wishes and desires. in the course of the individual's life, the authority over his expressions, activities and general mode of living originally exercised by the parents, passes in succession, wholly or partly, to a number of other persons; to whom the feelings directed to the parents in virtue of the exercise of this authority is then transferred. among those to whom such transference most frequently and regularly takes place are to be found—nurses, teachers, school prefects, police officers, employers, professional or military superiors, or persons occupying general positions of command, such as magistrates, statesmen or kings.

there can be little doubt that much of the general this displacement may lead to rebellion against authority and the persons who exercise it resistance to, and intolerance of, authority, that may be exhibited by certain individuals, or at times by whole sections of a community (or even by whole peoples) derives its motive power from a persistence in the unconscious of parent hatreds of this kind. a very considerable proportion of criminal actions in the individual are also due to the same unconscious source, the still existing desire to resist the authority of the parents finding outlet in a displaced form in infringements of the laws, conventions, or regulations imposed by the authority of society or of the state. particularly is this true of crimes against persons who embody or exercise this authority—emperors, kings and other persons in high places, and it would seem probable indeed that many cases of regicide or of attempts on the lives of official personages have been committed by those suffering from insufficiently controlled parent hatreds of unusual strength. bearing in mind the dangers that beset a community in which tendencies to anarchy, lawlessness or unreasonable opposition to governmental authority are widespread, it is obvious that the frequent occurrence of violent and persistent[120] parent hatreds in children, leading, as they so often do, to displacements of this kind, is a matter of very serious sociological and political importance[141].

these same persons in authority, who thus become the displacements of respect and esteem recipients displaced enmity towards the parents, may however also serve in later life as substitutes for those aspects of the parents in virtue of which these latter were in childhood reverenced as the possessors of unlimited power, wisdom, virtue or knowledge (cp. above p. 54). especially is this the case perhaps with regard to ecclesiastical authorities; the priest, as the interpreter of wisdom that transcends earthly knowledge and the transmitter of commands that transcend earthly authority, being peculiarly suitable as an object of this emotional attitude. the head of the roman catholic church has indeed, through the doctrine of infallibility, been explicitly endowed (with reference to a certain sphere of thought) with the character of perfect knowledge and perfect wisdom, which the young child with the sense of its own immense inferiority in these respects, is liable to attribute to its parents. the teacher too, in his position of moral and intellectual authority, frequently becomes the recipient of similar feelings; the additional influence which he possesses over his pupils through the latter's childish over-estimation of his knowledge and capacity often receiving frank acknowledgment in the fact of his unwillingness ever to appear to have been mistaken or to have been ignorant with regard to any matter, lest the realisation of his fallibility should detract from the suggestive power that he has hitherto enjoyed.

the displacement on to medical advisers and attendants medical practitioners as parent-substitutes originally directed to the parents, has frequently been recognised. here again, it is more particularly the attribute of benevolent omniscience that is liable to be transferred. three factors contribute especially to this result:—(1) the[121] physician's knowledge on matters of the highest interest and importance, about which others are relatively ignorant (particularly perhaps "medical" matters, in the sexual sense of that euphemism); (2) the fact that the situations in which his assistance is called in, for the most part urgently demand some kind of action which he alone can adequately perform; the sense of helplessness which others feel in these situations being similar in many respects to that frequently experienced in early years when, as children, we were dependent upon the efforts of our parents in many of the important affairs of life; (3) the fact that this sense of helplessness and the general attitude of suggestibility are still further increased in the case of the patient by the general regression to a relatively childish state of mind which illness so frequently brings in its train. the physician's capacity to stimulate and maintain the power of suggestion, which he possesses in virtue of this attitude on the part of those who consult him, is undoubtedly the secret of much real success in medical practice, inasmuch as the mental factors in disease—the importance of which is now becoming fully recognised, although their nature is not yet always clear—are to a large extent directly affected by the patient's belief in his doctor's ability to understand and cure the complaint from which he suffers.

this suggestive power plays of course a specially prominent the r?le of parent-regarding tendencies in suggestion and hypnosis part in dealing with disorders of a directly psychopathic nature[142] and peculiarly so where a condition of enhanced suggestibility is deliberately induced and utilised with a view to the cure of such disorders, as in the practice of hypnotism. the work which has been directed to the study of hypnotism from the psycho-analytic point of view has brought out very clearly the similarities between the condition in hypnosis and some of the mental characteristics of early childhood; and has led to the conception of the hypnotic trance as a regression to a relatively infantile state of mind, the rapport between operator and subject being regarded as, in certain important respects, a repetition or revival of the relations which had previously existed between parent and child. ferenczi[143] has[122] gone so far as to regard the different methods of inducing hypnosis as depending upon a revival in a displaced form of the child's typical attitude towards its father or its mother respectively; the stern, commanding, confident tone, adopted by some operators, tending to bring about a relationship between them and their subjects that constitutes a revival of the former relationship between father and child, the calming, soothing, soporific methods of others serving to recall the attitude of the child towards its mother, as when in early infancy it was lulled to sleep by its mother with the aid of a very similar procedure.

in the practice of psycho-analysis, too, the displacement of "transference" in psychoanalysis emotional attitudes originally adopted with reference to the parents has been shown to play an important part, though the therapeutic effect of the method is not, as has sometimes erroneously been supposed, due to the simple action of suggestion[144]. psycho-analysis aims at producing a state of greater co-ordination in the patient's mind by giving him an understanding of the nature and direction of his unconscious mental trends, thus putting him in a position to bring about a state of relative harmony between the different impulses which formerly, by their mutual antagonisms, were responsible for the production of the neurosis. a mere understanding of the nature of the unconscious processes involved is however, as has frequently been shown, powerless to effect the desired result, unless the conative and affective sides of these processes are also loosened from their fixations in the unconscious and made available for use in other directions. it is here that the transference of tendencies originally directed to the parents becomes important. just as, in the first unfolding and development of the child's emotional capacities, the direction of the love impulses on to the parents was the means of bringing the child beyond the primitive stages of auto-erotism and narcissism, so now in the emotional re-education that psycho-analysis involves, the further process of displacement of the parent love on to new objects is one of fundamental importance and is often an essential condition of the necessary readjustment and integration of the emotional life. not of course that the parent-love is the only impulse requiring displacement in this way,[123] but, inasmuch as the ?dipus complex is (as freud has put it) the nuclear complex of the neuroses, it is just the emotions that centre round the parents that usually constitute the most fundamental and far-reaching, as well as in themselves the most massive and weighty, of those that need readjustment as regards their object. in this process of readjustment, the analyst himself—as is now well recognised—usually plays a highly important, though a transitory, r?le; the emotions loosened from their fixations by the process of analysis being temporarily displaced on to his person, (on their way to more suitable and permanent objects) both because he is the first available object, and because his position of authority as the conductor of the analysis naturally suits him for the part[145].

it is principally because a displacement of this sort can be transference and the cure of neuroses much more easily produced in certain kinds of neurosis than in others, that neuroses differ from one another markedly in their amenability to treatment; what freud has called the transference neuroses[146] (such as hysteria or obsessional neurosis), in which the patient, though unable to adjust his emotions to the level required for satisfactory adult life, has nevertheless for the most part attained—and retained—the stage of object-love, comparing very favourably in this respect with the narcissistic neuroses (such as paranoia), in which the patient has regressed beyond the stage of object-love to the relatively infantile level at which his emotional outlets are sought only in, or in connection with, his own person.

all the displacements with which we have been hitherto the displacement of parent-regarding feelings, on to objects other than individuals concerned have at least this one important feature in common, that the feelings and tendencies originally directed to the parents are transferred to definite individuals. there are, however, certain forms of displacement, of very considerable sociological importance, in which this is no longer the case, the parent substitutes being found, not in any individual persons, but in groups, places, societies and institutions.

thus in many cases the home, as the place in which the home parents lived and in which the feelings of love, tenderness and admiration towards the parents were first developed, acquires[124] and retains throughout life a peculiar attractiveness, in which piety, tenderness and pride are intermingled and which is, it would seem, to a very large extent derived from the emotional attitude of the child towards the parents themselves. the attachment to the home in this sense frequently manifests itself in home-sickness whenever the individual is compelled to leave his native place or native land; those who suffer from home-sickness to an unusual degree or for an unusual length of time being in most cases burdened with an overstrong attachment to and dependence on their family, or certain members of it, having failed to free themselves adequately from their infantile fixations in this direction.

in certain persons again—especially in members of an family or clan aristocratic caste or in others who are able to trace their descent through a long line of ancestors—some important aspects of the parent-love come to be attached to the idea of the whole family of which they form a part; the tendencies to esteem, obedience, admiration or idealisation originally aroused by the child's immediate parents being transferred to the family or clan regarded as a social group, which has existed in the past, exists now in those of its members who happen to be living and will continue to exist in their descendants. this kind of transference may constitute a sublimation of considerable value, inasmuch as it may afford a powerful motive to the individual for not falling below the level of attainment or civic worth that is expected of the family, and generally for doing all that may enhance, and avoiding all that may degrade, the family reputation; on the other hand, it may sometimes be productive of an undue tendency towards conservatism and may lead to the stifling of individual effort, independence and initiative, through the imposition of a too uniform standard of conduct and achievement or a too close adherence to tradition.

in many persons, again, the school, as the centre of school influence that succeeds in time (and often in importance) to that constituted by the family circle, naturally draws to itself many of the emotions which had hitherto found their exclusive outlet in the family; loyalty and obedience to school traditions, together with respect, tenderness, pride and admiration for the school as a collective body replacing to some extent the[125] corresponding feelings which had previously been experienced principally or solely in relation to the parents.

at a later age, these same feelings may be again displaced university on to a college or university; the term alma mater, so frequently applied to the latter, bearing witness to the extent to which a university is habitually endowed with maternal attributes—being regarded as a kindly mother (often of venerable age and experience) who imparts to her sons the learning and wisdom that she possesses, and generally equips them for the tasks and trials of life in the outer world.

towns[147] may also become the recipients of parentally, and town especially maternally, directed feeling; those who love and admire a town often referring to it in terms which would be more directly appropriate to a woman; a woman behind whom the mother image can usually be discovered. the emotions aroused by the besieging, attacking or capturing of towns in warfare are also in part derived from the same source.

the same feeling too is often directed to houses, ships, other objects churches (and especially to the institution of the church; cp. the phrase "mother church"); also to trees, woods, mountains, lakes, rivers, the sea and other natural objects.

probably the most important displacement of this kind the attitude of the individual to the state: from the sociological point of view is that in which parental attributes are transferred to the community, state, or country. the mental ties that bind the individual to the community are of course complex in nature, comprising emotional and intellectual factors belonging to a variety of psychic levels. among the most fundamental and deep seated of these factors are, as ernest jones[148] has pointed out, those that take their origin in feelings that regard the self, the mother and the father respectively.

the self-regarding tendencies are enlisted in the service self-regarding tendencies of patriotism;—on the conscious, intellectual level, through a recognition of the community of interest between the individual and the state; on the more primitive, emotional and unconscious level, through a process of identification of the individual with[126] the state, as a result of which the former participates in the successes and failures of the latter in much the same way as if they affected him directly and principally in his own person. in these latter respects the feelings of the individual towards the state are similar in many ways to those that are involved in a corresponding identification of the self with the family, the school or any other group with whose prosperity and honour the well-being and self-respect of the individual is bound up.

the displacement of the mother-regarding feelings on to mother regarding tendencies state is, it would seem, chiefly connected with the ideas of being nourished, trained and protected, on the one hand, and of actively protecting, on the other. thus we tend to regard our native land as a great mother who brings into being, nourishes, protects and cherishes her sons and daughters and inspires them with respect and love for herself and her traditions, customs, beliefs and institutions; in return for which her children are prepared to work and fight for her—and above all, to protect her from her enemies; a good deal of the horror and disgust which is inspired by the idea of an invasion of one's native land by a hostile army being due to the unconscious tendency to regard such an invasion as a desecration and violation of the mother.

in the displacement of the father-regarding feelings on to father-regarding tendencies the state, the tendencies connected with the attitude of respect, obedience and loyalty to the paternal authority are usually the most prominent. great importance is moreover almost invariably attached to the head of the state as its embodiment and its supreme authority, the country over which he rules being looked upon as his possession or estate, which it is the duty of his children to uphold, to protect or to enlarge. kings, as we have already seen, are habitually identified in the unconscious with the father, as are other persons in positions of authority, and it is interesting to note that the evidence of language and of certain common appellations applied to these persons fully endorses the conclusions of psycho-analysis in this respect. thus, as rank[149] and jones[150], following max müller, have pointed out, the word king is ultimately derived from the sanskrit root[127] gan, meaning to beget, ganaka being sanskrit for father. the czar of russia was until recently called the "little father," the same title as the hunnish attila (diminutive of atta = father). the title "landesvater" is commonly used in germany just as the americans still call washington the father of his country. the ruler of the roman catholic church is called the "holy father," or by his latin name of "papa[151]" (from the root pa to protect, nourish). similarly, the word "queen" comes from the sanskrit ganí, which means mother (greek [greek: gynê], gothic quin?)[152] and a queen who has had children, is the mother of the reigning monarch or has merely attained to a certain age, is frequently spoken of as the "queen mother."

there are considerable differences, both individual and political importance of these tendencies national, as regards the relative importance of the father and the mother elements respectively in the general attitude adopted towards the state, and it would seem probable that these differences are apt to lead to, or at least to be correlated with, political characteristics of very great importance. thus england is looked upon almost entirely as a mother, the father-regarding aspects of an englishman's feeling for his country playing but a very minor part in the formation of his total attitude; the same is in the main true of modern—as distinct from prerevolutionary—france (though, as ernest jones[153] points out, the term 'la patrie'—combining as it does a feminine form with a masculine connotation—implies to some extent the co-operation of both elements), while the colossal female statue of liberty at the entrance to new york would certainly seem to indicate that the land of freedom which the traveller is approaching is to be regarded as an embodiment of the matriarchal, rather than of the patriarchal, aspects of human society. germany, on the other hand, is habitually spoken of as the fatherland; while in russia the czar was regarded, to a unique extent perhaps among modern nations, as the father of his country. the tendency to blind loyalty and obedience manifested in these latter countries compared, until recently, most markedly with the relatively free and unconstrained affection exhibited by the citizens of the former states towards their native land,[128] and suggests the existence of a fairly close correspondence, on the one hand between the maternal view of the state and the development of democratic institutions and individual independence, and on the other hand between the paternal view and the development and retention of autocracy and a relatively strict subordination of the individual to the authority of the government and of its representatives.

it would be possible also perhaps to point to a general tendency towards a similar association of the mother-regarding attitude with a trend towards change, progress or instability, and of the father-regarding attitude with a corresponding trend towards stability and conservatism; though the extreme progressiveness, in certain respects, of modern germany has shown that any such tendency does not hold for all cases or for all aspects of culture.

where the attitude towards the state, its institutions and authority is not one of love, friendliness or reverence, but one of hate and rebellion, it is of course the corresponding feelings of hostility towards the parents which play a leading part in the unconscious motivation of malcontents or revolutionaries. it is principally for this reason that revolutions in autocratic paternal states (cp. the recent upheavals in russia and germany and the french revolution) are usually more violent and extreme than in the case of the freer and more liberal maternal countries, since the desire for rebellion in early family life is generally directed against the authority of the father to a much greater extent than against that of the mother.

there probably exists, moreover, as rank[154] and jones[155] have already suggested, a considerable degree of correspondence family organisation and state organisation between the nature of the family system as found in any country and some of the political features to which we have referred. thus the authority of the head of the household—the patria potestas—was perhaps more developed among the romans than among any other western people, and the romans elaborated a military and civil administration of such strength and durability that the whole of western civilisation has to a large extent been raised and developed on the foundation and the model it afforded. with the jews also the[129] patriarchal system was developed to its fullest extent and this people has shown its inherent conservatism and stability by the preservation of many of its characteristic physical, psychological, moral and social qualities, though homeless for upwards of two thousand years. among oriental nations, the chinese are distinguished for their rigid system of family rule and individual subordination to the parents and they evolved a civilisation which lasted almost without change for a period that is without parallel in recorded human history. on the other hand it is notorious that in times of rapid social change or political upheaval, family ties and family authority tend to be relaxed, the individual asserting his freedom in domestic as well as in political matters; and it is probable that there exists a tendency for all periods of national or racial instability, whether leading to development or to degeneration, to be characterised by a relaxation or throwing off of parental authority and tradition; though it is obvious that, owing to the great complexity of the factors involved in the rise or fall, expansion or decay of nations, the correspondence cannot be an absolute one.

as regards the attitude adopted by the individual member ambivalent attitude towards the king of a state towards the king or ruler, freud has shown[156] that it tends to be, in bleuler's useful phrase, ambivalent, i. e., to be determined by two motives of opposite character, in one of which hate is the principal element, in the other love. this ambivalency manifests itself most clearly in the many restrictions and taboos that are attached to, or connected with, the office of king in different parts of the world, and that are to some extent still operative even in civilised societies at the present day. these taboos are in the main of two kinds:—

(1) those that restrict the activities of the king himself, such taboos affecting the king as manifestations of this attitude as the rules in virtue of which he may only live in certain places, go out at certain times or eat certain foods, must avoid all situations involving danger of any kind and must submit to a cumbrous, wearisome and often exhausting system of court routine and ceremony. taboos of this kind would seem on analysis to have two main objects:—(a) to guard the king from any harm, (b) to limit his power in a variety of ways, and generally to make his life burdensome and unpleasant (under[130] the guise of assuring his dignity or safety). the exaggerated fear of some harm coming to the king, which is manifested in (a), arises by way of a reaction against the unconscious desire that some harm may befall him, in the same way as an exaggerated and unreasonable anxiety as regards the health and welfare of some relative usually indicates a repressed feeling of hostility towards that relative (cp. above p. 57); while (b) even more obviously involves elements of fear and of hostility.

(2) taboos that affect the subjects in their relations to the king, such as those which forbid looking at, or touching, the king, or the touching or eating of his food, or the touching or removal of his personal effects. these may likewise be traced to two predominant motives:—(a) the desire, as before, to preserve the king from any harm—in this case more especially from harm that may result from the actions of those about him; (b) the desire to avoid any harm befalling the subjects as a result of influences emanating from the king, the latter being regarded as a potent but mysterious source of danger to all who rashly approach or come in contact with him. the latter tendency, with its correlative belief, arises as the result of a projection of the hostility felt towards the king; this hostility (in accordance with the mechanism of projection—now well recognised both in normal and in abnormal psychology)[157], being falsely attributed to its object, instead of to the person in whose mind it really originates.

in both sets of taboos the presence of hostility towards the king is thus made manifest, the taboos themselves arising chiefly as a result of this hostility and aiming only secondarily, and by way of reaction, at an increase of the king's safety, dignity or happiness.

the reality of this hostile feeling is placed beyond all hostility towards and murder of the king reasonable doubt when we bear in mind the frequent occurrence of openly cruel practices, such as imprisonment, enforced immobility[158], starvation[159], or even beating[160], especially when we [131] take into consideration the very widespread custom of killing the king at the end of his period of office or as soon as his strength or ability show signs of failing—a sinister theme which frazer has treated with such charm of manner and such wealth of erudition in the twelve immortal volumes of the golden bough. both on account of the actual nature of many of its manifestations[161] and because of the close unconscious[132] identification of king and father, to which we have already referred, it is evident that this hostility is in many of its aspects a displaced form of the hate elements of the ?dipus complex; the historical, sociological and political bearings of which acquire in this light, and in the light of the other facts and considerations brought forward in this chapter, a new, and in many respects an altogether overwhelming, significance.