Chapter III: Part II: I.— Aspects of the Libido 127

A backward glance—The sun the natural god—Comparison with
libido—Libido, “sun-energy”—The sun-image as seen by the
mystic in introversion—The phallic symbol of the
libido—Faust’s key—Mythical heroes with phallic
attributes—These heroes personifications of the human libido
and its typical fates—A definition of the word “libido”—Its
etymological context.

II.— THE CONCEPTION AND THE GENETIC THEORY OF LIBIDO 139

A widening of the conception of libido—New light from the
study of paranoia—The impossibility of restricting the
conception of libido to the sexual—A genetic definition—The
function of reality only partly sexual—Yet this, and other
functions, originally derivations from procreative
impulse—The process of transformation—Libido, and the
conception of will in general—Examples in mythology—The
stages of the libido: its desexualized derivatives and
differentiations—Sublimation vs. repression—Splittings off
of the primal libido—Application of genetic theory of libido
to introversion psychoses—Replacing reality by archaic
surrogates—Desexualizing libido by means of phantastic
analogy formations—Possibly human consciousness brought to
present state in this manner—The importance of the little
phrase: “Even as.”

III.— THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE LIBIDO. A POSSIBLE SOURCE OF 157
PRIMITIVE HUMAN DISCOVERIES

An example of transition of the libido—Act of boring with
forefinger: an infantile presexual activity—Similar
activities in patient’s early childhood—Outcome in dementia
præcox—Its phantasies related to mythological products: a
reproduction of the creations of antiquity—The freeing of
libido from the nutritive to enter the sexual function—The
epoch of suckling and the epoch of displaced rhythmic
activity—These followed by the beginnings of onanistic
attempts—An obstacle in the sexual zone produces regression
to a previous mode—These regressions easier in earlier
stages of humanity than now—The ethnological phantasy of
boring—Examples—The production of fire—Its sexual
significance—A substitute for coitus—The invention of
fire-making then due to the need of supplying a symbol for
the sexual act—The psychological compulsion for such
transitions of the libido based on an original division of
the will—Regression to incestuous—Prohibition here sends
incestuous component of libido back to presexual—Character
of its application here—The substitution of Mother-Earth for
the parent—Also of infantile boring—Leading then to
discovery of fire—An example in Hindoo literature—The sexual
significance of the mouth—Its other function: the mating
call—The regression which produced fire through boring also
elaborated the mating call—The beginnings of speech—Example
from the Hindoo—Speech and fire the first fruits of
transformation of libido—The fire-preparation regarded as
forbidden, as robbery—The forbidden thing onanism—Onanism a
cheating of sexuality of its purpose—The ceremonial
fire-production a substitute for the possibility of
onanistic regression—Thus a transformation of libido ensues.

IV.— THE UNCONSCIOUS ORIGIN OF THE HERO 191

The cause of introversion—The forward and backward flow of
the libido—The abnormal third—The conflict rooted in the
incest problem—The “terrible mother”—Miss Miller’s
introversion—An internal conflict—Its product of hypnagogic
vision and poem—The uniformity of the unconscious in all
men—The unconscious the object of a true psychology—The
individual tendency with its production of the hero cult—The
love for the hero or god a love for the unconscious—A
turning back to the mother of humanity—Such regressions act
favorably within limits—Miss Miller’s mention of the
Sphinx—Theriomorphic representations of the libido—Their
tendency to represent father and mother—The Sphinx
represents the fear of the mother—Miss Miller’s mention of
the Aztec—Analysis of this figure—The significance of the
hand symbolically—The Aztec a substitute for the Sphinx—The
name Chi-wan-to-pel—The connection of the anal region with
veneration—Chiwantopel and Ahasver, the Wandering Jew—The
parallel with Chidher—Heroes generating themselves through
their own mothers—Analogy with the Sun—Setting and rising
sun: Mithra and Helios, Christ and Peter, Dhulqarnein and
Chidher—The fish symbol—The two Dadophores: the two
thieves—The mortal and immortal parts of man—The Trinity
taken from phallic symbolism—Comparison of libido with
phallus—Analysis of libido symbolism always leads back to
the mother incest—The hero myth the myth of our own
suffering unconscious—Faust.

V.— SYMBOLISM OF THE MOTHER AND OF REBIRTH 233

The crowd as symbol of mystery—The city as symbol of the
mother—The motive of continuous “union”—The typical journey
of the sun-hero—Examples—A longing for rebirth through the
mother—The compulsion to symbolize the mother as City, Sea,
Source, etc.—The city as terrible mother and as holy
mother—The relation of the water-motive to rebirth—Of the
tree-motive—Tree of life a mother-image—The bisexual
character of trees—Such symbols to be understood
psychologically, not anatomically—The incestuous desire aims
at becoming a child again, not at incest—It evades incest by
creating myths of symbolic rebirth—The libido spiritualized
through this use of symbols—To be born of the spirit—This
compulsion toward symbolism brings a release of forces bound
up in incest—This process in Christianity—Christianity with
its repression of the manifest sexual the negative of the
ancient sexual cult—The unconscious transformation of the
incest wish into religious exercise does not meet the modern
need—A conscious method necessary, involving moral
autonomy—Replacing belief by understanding—The history of
the symbolism of trees—The rise of the idea of the terrible
mother a mask of the incest wish—The myth of Osiris—Related
examples—The motive of “devouring”—The Cross of Christ: tree
of death and tree of life—Lilith: the devouring mother—The
Lamias—The conquering of the mother—Snake and dragon: the
resistance against incest—The father represents the active
repulse of the incest wish of the son—He frequently becomes
the monster to be overcome by the hero—The Mithraic
sacrificing of the incest wish an overcoming of the mother—A
replacing of archaic overpowering by sacrifice of the
wish—The crucified Christ an expression of this
renunciation—Other cross sacrifices—Cross symbol possesses
significance of “union”—Child in mother’s womb: or man and
mother in union—Conception of the soul a derivative of
mother imago—The power of incest prohibition created the
self-conscious individual—It was the coercion to
domestication—The further visions of Miss Miller.

VI.— THE BATTLE FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THE MOTHER 307

The appearance of the hero Chiwantopel on horseback—Hero and
horse equivalent of humanity and its repressed libido—Horse
a libido symbol, partly phallic, partly maternal, like the
tree—It represents the libido repressed through the incest
prohibition—The scene of Chiwantopel and the
Indian—Recalling Cassius and Brutus: also delirium of
Cyrano—Identification of Cassius with his mother—His
infantile disposition—Miss Miller’s hero also infantile—Her
visions arise from an infantile mother transference—Her hero
to die from an arrow wound—The symbolism of the arrow—The
onslaught of unconscious desires—The deadly arrows strike
the hero from within—It means the state of introversion—A
sinking back into the world of the child—The danger of this
regression—It may mean annihilation or new life—Examples of
introversion—The clash between the retrogressive tendency in
the individual unconscious and the conscious forward
striving—Willed introversion—The unfulfilled sacrifice in
the Miller phantasy means an attempt to renounce the mother:
the conquest of a new life through the death of the old—The
hero Miss Miller herself.

VII.— THE DUAL MOTHER ROLE 341

Chiwantopel’s monologue—His quest for the “one who
understands”—A quest for the mother—Also for the
life-companion—The sexual element in the wish—The battle for
independence from the mother—Its peril—Miss Miller’s use of
Longfellow’s Hiawatha—An analysis of Hiawatha—A typical hero
of the libido—The miraculous birth—The hero’s birth symbolic
because it is really a rebirth from the mother-spouse—The
twofold mother which in Christian mythology becomes twofold
birth—The hero his own procreator—Virgin conception a mask
for incestuous impregnation—Hiawatha’s early life—The
identification of mother-nature with the mother—The killing
of a roebuck a conquering of the parents—He takes on their
strength—He goes forth to slay the father in order to
possess the mother—Minnehaha, the mother—Hiawatha’s
introversion—Hiding in the lap of nature really a return to
the mother’s womb—The regression to the presexual revives
the importance of nutrition—The inner struggle with the
mother, to overpower and impregnate her—This fight against
the longing for the mother brings new strength—The Mondamin
motive in other myths—The Savior-hero the fruit of the
entrance of the libido into the personal maternal
depths—This is to die, and be born again—Hiawatha’s struggle
with the fish-monster—A new deliverance from the mother—And
so again with Megissogwon, the Magician—The hero must again
and again conquer the mother—Then follows his marriage with
Minnehaha—Other incidents, his death: the sinking of the sun
in the west—Miss Miller also reminded by Chiwantopel’s
longing of Wagner’s Siegfried—Analysis of the Siegfried
myth—The treasure-guarding dragon—The dragon the son’s
repressed longing for the mother—Symbolism of the cave—The
separation from the mother, the hero’s conquering of the
dragon—The symbolism of the cup—Drinking from the mother—Cup
of the blood of Christ—The resultant mysterious union of
man—Profane interpretations of this mystery—The phallic
significance of the serpent—The snake as representing the
introverting libido—Self-procreation: or creation of the
world through introversion—The world thus an emanation of
the libido—The hero himself a serpent—The psychoanalytic
treatment of regression—The hidden libido touched upon
causes a struggle: that is, the hero fights the fight with
the treasure-guarding dragon—The awakening of
Brunhilde—Siegfried finding his mother: a symbol of his own
libido—The conquest of the terrible mother brings the love
and life-giving mother.

VIII.— THE SACRIFICE 428

Miss Miller’s vision again—The paradoxical striving of the
libido away from the mother toward the mother—The destroying
mother becomes beneficent on being conquered—Chiwantopel a
hero of words, not deeds—He has not that will to live which
breaks the magic circle of the incestuous—His identification
with the author, and her wish for the parents—The end is the
devouring of the daughter’s libido by the mother—Sexuality
of the unconscious merely a symbol—Idle dreaming the mother
of the fear of death—This downward path in the poetry of
Hölderlin—The estrangement from reality, the introversion
leading to death—The necessity of freeing libido for a
complete devotion to life—Otherwise bound by unconscious
compulsion: Fate—Sublimation through voluntary work—Creation
of the world through cosmic sacrifice—Man discovers the
world when he sacrifices the mother—The incest barrier as
the producer of thought—Budding sexuality drawing the
individual from the family—The mind dawns at the moment the
child begins to be free of the mother—He seeks to win the
world, and leave the mother—Childish regression to the
presexual brings archaic phantasies—The incest problem not
physical, but psychological—Sacrifice of the horse:
sacrifice of the animal nature—The sacrifice of the “mother
libido”: of the son to the mother—Superiority of Christian
symbol: the sacrifice, not only of lower nature, but the
whole personality—Miss Miller’s phantasy passes from
sacrifice of the sexual, to sacrifice of the infantile
personality—Problem of psychoanalysis, expressed
mythologically, the sacrifice and rebirth of the infantile
hero—The libido wills the destruction of its creation: horse
and serpent—The end of the hero by means of earthquake—The
one who understands him is the mother.

“_Therefore theory, which gives to facts their value and significance, is often very useful, even if it is partially false, for it throws light on phenomena which no one observed, it forces an examination, from many angles, of facts which no one had hitherto studied, and it gives the impulse for more extended and more productive researches._

“_It is, therefore, a moral duty for the man of science to expose himself to the risk of committing error and to submit to criticism, in order that science may continue to progress. A writer has attacked the author for this very severely, saying, here is a scientific ideal very limited and very paltry. But those who are endowed with a mind sufficiently serious and impersonal as not to believe that all that they write is the expression of truth absolute and eternal, approve of this theory which places the aims of science well above the miserable vanity and paltry ‘amour propre’ of the scientist._”—GUGLIELMO FERRERO.

_Les Lois Psychologiques du Symbolisme—1895. Preface, p. viii._

PART I