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Love and Power:
by Paul Rosenfels
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The Psychology of Interpersonal Creativity [1966]
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The editor of this collection is
Dean Hannotte.
To learn more about Paul Rosenfels, visit the Ninth Street Center. |
DEDICATION
In June 1945, standing alone in the Marine cemetery on the island of Tinian in the Marianas, I made a promise to carry throughout life a sense of responsibility for doing my full share to bring a better world into existence. Since then I have turned my back more than once on conventional social responsibility and its rewards to search for the kind of life which might lead to the fulfillment of that pledge. The cemetery in Tinian no longer exists. I offer this book to the memory of the men who once lay buried there.
PART I. The Mechanisms of Psychological Growth
1. The Psychological Surpluses
A living organism can interact with its environment in one of two ways: by the use of its sensory or responsive capacities or by the exercise of its motor or expressive capacities. The responsive channel of interaction brings data concerning the outside world to the organism. The expressive aspect of interaction confers control over a portion of the external world.
A higher level of interaction with the environment comes into being when a sustained relationship of either the submissive or dominant type is operating. In a submissive relationship, data which has no clear meaning to the organism can alert the entire organism to a higher level of sensibility. It then gathers data selectively as a goal in itself, using mobility where necessary, until the meaning of stimuli becomes clear to the organism. Inner sensations arising from survival needs, such as hunger, alert the whole organism to the gathering of data concerning the sources of food. In a dominant relationship to the environment, energies which have no harmonious pathway for discharge lead the organism to a search for situations which are interesting and productive. The organism commits itself to the finding of opportunity, reaching a higher level of expressiveness. It finds modalities of control by becoming mobile, using selectivity as necessary, until the value of the opportunity becomes apparent. Inner drives arising from survival needs, such as possession of its food supply, involve the organism in a permanent commitment to the exercise of skill in manipulative ways.
With the coming of sexuality in the evolutionary development of living organisms, the submissive and dominant tendencies become specialized in the form of male and female. In the lower animals such specialization operates in a significant way only under mated conditions. Before the courtship and the subsequent union or during non-mated phases, the submissive or dominant relationships to the external world are less specialized and are subject to alteration by external forces and situations. After the reproductive union of male and female, at the evolutionary level where the young are born immature, the relationship to the external world shrinks to basic essentials and the surpluses of tension and energy are expended within the familial domain, being utilized in the nurture and protection of the young.
2. Sex and Celebration
In the mated reproductive relationship in nature, a domain is formed between male and female in which the submissive tendency of the female and the dominant tendency of the male have a deepening and invigorating effect on each other. Depth of feeling for its own sake becomes sexual, and vigor of attitude for its own sake becomes celebrative. The union of male and female is fulfilled when the male is drawn into sexuality by means of the sexual intercourse. The male is not feminized by sexual feeling because his participation has an orgastic goal. As part of the same mated union, the female participates in the celebrative mood with the male by means of the mechanism of altruistic surrender. Her surrender to the dominance of the male confines her celebrative mood to the domain which his exercise of dominance creates, and in this way she is not masculinized by the experience.
Sexuality is an inborn biological channel of intensification of feeling for its own sake. When this feeling takes over the whole self, it is no longer directly available for adaptive interaction with the world, and reaches only toward its own gratification. The celebrative mood, which is experienced as an untrammeled sense of freedom of the individual will, is an inborn channel of self-expression, and when it finds a situation where the individual feels permanently in control without qualification, it reaches only toward its own further spontaneous expression in a mobile state colored by pride and exhibitionism. The celebrative attitude gives an outlet for energy which is not at that moment available for adaptive use.
In the lower animals the growth process ends with biological maturity. Maturity consists of an endpoint in the growth process which comes into being when the basis for interaction with the external world undergoes no further significant changes. As long as the individual is growing, the world in which he lives is growing also. The capacity for further development of the inner life forces does not end when the world becomes stabilized, however. The capacity for intensification of sensitivity and the expansion of vigor which are no longer needed to interact with a growing world becomes channeled into the reproductive life. Specialization into male and female confers great psychological advantages. A far greater degree of submissiveness is possible where dominance loses access to independent elaboration, and similarly dominance can reach new heights of expression where submission is found in dependent channels only. Each individual pursues his own specialized identity, driven by the biologically established pleasure and enjoyment which these tendencies bring. The courtship is the time when the differences are manifested and are mutually deepened and invigorated by each other. At the height of these established differences a mating occurs on the basis of a mutual need for each other. They find balance again through each other. The mating relieves each of the tension accumulation and stored energy reserve which courtship brings. This process repeats itself cyclically until the young arrive at which time female sensitivity is converted into nurture of the young and male vigor is channeled into the establishment of a protective function. The architecture of nature's reproductive mating brings the young into a family domain where the needs of the young can be met at a high level of awareness and involvement.
3. Character and Family Life
The specializations which serve to form the structure of the reproductive domain in the lower animals have been used by human beings for a non-reproductive purpose. They form the basis of the creative faculties which civilized man uses to increase his adaptive capacities far above the level which he could otherwise have attained. Civilized man is something new in the evolutionary process. He is more than simply a superior kind of primate. With the emergence of the creative capacities he has become invested with an inner identity which permits lifelong application to conceptual thinking for its own sake and the constructive development of methods and skills as ends in themselves. The character specialization of civilized man makes it possible for him to live in relationship to other human beings in such a way as to increase the adaptive potential of his cerebral cortex many times. Without the high tension levels and large energy reserves which come from specialized human character, there would be no philosophy, science, art, or engineering. It is the capacity for creative productivity which gives man the inner identity which he calls his soul.
Human character becomes specialized for those needs and purposes which have a surplus or creative quality. The creative relationship to the world has as its goal the bringing into existence of new insights and new methods of mastery, which then become the property of all men. There are two fundamental kinds of character, based on the feminine and masculine relationship to life. Since femininity and masculinity of this kind have no direct relationship to the reproductive function, they are not identical with the femininity and masculinity which arise from biological gender. Since men and women must elaborate a social role of masculine or feminine qualities and since this kind of identity is different from the basic character identity, the recognition of the psychological sources of the basic character is often difficult. In this book the basic feminine character, whether in male or female, will be referred to as a yielding character and the corresponding masculine character will be identified as assertive.
In the civilized world the character is formed in either a yielding or assertive pattern by the influence of family life. The family forms and preserves character, operating as a unit in which each member plays an interacting part. The family identity is essential to its permanence and unity. Although the family prepares the growing individual for an ultimate independent relationship with the outer world, it must also serve that side of the individual's needs which has a dependent quality. The dependent needs are different in yielding and assertive families. The yielding family prepares the individual for a life of independent access to understanding while gratifying his dependent needs for access to patterns of action. The assertive family leaves the individual free to explore responsibility on his own while guiding him in a dependent way in the area of beliefs and principles.
4. Character and the External World
It is man's hunger for knowledge and his sense of self-fulfillment in manipulative skill which have led him to utilize his psychological surpluses in a creative fashion. Through the holding of a reservoir of tension in the form of love for others and the retention of energy potential in the readiness to expend personal power in human affairs, civilized man has made possible a great expansion of human cohesion and cooperation.
The capacity for sustained conceptual thinking takes its psychological origin in the holding of tension in interpersonal relationships, and the development of large scale manipulative procedures begins in the building of energy reserves in human relationships. It is true that the psychological capacities which owe their origin to a love orientation of the self have found their most successful outlet in the non-human subject matters, such as mathematics and physics, but this state of affairs is not due to a lack of psychological investment in the science of human nature, but only to the inherent complexity of the task. Man is a greater builder of skyscrapers and bridges than of effective human institutions, but his striving for constructive social control remains always a primary purpose in life, refractory though the forces of human cooperation may be. In addition to dealing with frustrations in human affairs, civilized man encounters many kinds of inner psychological distortions which arise from the vicissitudes of this creative struggle with the world.
5. The Emergency Reactions
The specialization of human character into yielding and assertive types arose historically out of a need of the social group for exploration of the unknown and the chaotic in the external world. Before this psychological investment of the self could come into being, men had to deal with the emergency reactions of fear and rage which the unknown and the chaotic arouse. If the unknown is not to arouse fear, the exploration of it must proceed on a basis of inner security in the individual. The only basis for such security lies in the investment of a psychologically feminine surplus for its own sake. If the chaotic is not to invoke rage, the effort to deal with it must be characterized by a sense of freedom in the individual. The only source of this kind of personal freedom lies in the utilization of a psychologically masculine surplus as an end in itself. Inner security of a surplus kind becomes the basis of truth seeking, and surplus psychological freedom leads to the elaboration and extension of the right. In the context of this book, the right refers to that state of possession of the modalities of control which is characterized by inner pride and a sense of integrity, and uses resources in such a way as to bring out their inherent and ultimate qualities. The right has no goals but its own effectiveness, and it is unalloyed with destructiveness.
The emergency reactions utilize surplus mechanisms for survival purposes. The same unlimited capacity for feeling and self-awareness which enters the sexual channel in reproduction can be converted by circumstances into fear. The individual is receptive to sexuality when his expanding self-awareness is harmonious and pleasurable, but the expanding self-awareness of fear is discordant and painful, leading him to take flight from danger. The unlimited readiness for mobility and self-confidence which leads to the celebrative mood can be converted by circumstances into rage. The individual welcomes the celebrative state because the expanding self-confidence is characterized by spontaneous enjoyment, but he enters into conflict with his environment in the presence of rage because the stresses produce intolerable suffering.
6. Interpersonal Creativity
In the social interaction of civilized human beings a maximum of depth and scope is sought for its own sake. When men interact on such a basis, they are in a position to deal with human problems and obstacles, and social life becomes an expanding entity which makes room for personal growth. The development of social cohesion and cooperation ultimately alters established social ideas and institutions, resulting in social progress. The individual finds a place for psychological growth because the world around him is well supplied with the stimulating challenges which his idealizing nature and possessive tendencies require.
When the personality is balanced, reacting with submissive or dominant tendencies which are the opposite of the basic character, the individual finds himself completely taken up by his adaptive involvement with the world. When the individual meets the world with a surplus within himself, choosing those relationships which reinforce and express his specialized character, he has greater access to contentment and happiness. The surplus interface between the individual and society is enlarged by selectivity and mobility in interpersonal relationships. The yielding surplus is recognized as love; the assertive surplus takes the form of personal power.
When the growing individual has reached his biological maturity, the surpluses emerge in their sexual and celebrative form and are utilized among the lower animals for the formation of the domain. The domain has is its function the rearing of the young. Civilized human beings use love and power to maintain a state of psychological growth throughout life. It is the capacity for growth in interpersonal relationships which elevates the civilized individual above the level of both the lower animals and the primitive in his own nature. Growth not only implies an expansion of self-awareness and self-confidence within the self, but also a deepening understanding and an increasing capacity for responsibility in interpersonal relationships. The individual and his world grow together, and this process leaves a residue of knowledge and ability behind which outlives the life span of the individual. Love is meaningless unless it does work in the world; power is without enduring value unless it finds constructive opportunity. As love does its work in human relationships, it produces insights which are readily communicable and become the property of all. As power finds its proper outlets, it becomes capable of exercising leadership, and its techniques are passed from one generation to another through identification with the modalities of mastery. Insights which come from the hands of love and mastery which evolves from the devoted commitments of personal power become the tools of social progress.
7. Dynamic Imbalance in Character
Love which governs the surplus relationship of the individual to his world alters the character in a feminine direction and leaves the self in a state of dynamic imbalance. The individual bears a harmonious tension in his relationships with others, seeking always to expand the depth of this interaction, because such feelings give him a sense of increased self identity. If he is to remain healthy, he must bear tension in such a way that it can ultimately be discharged. With each successful discharge, he is more able to renew the tension accumulation without fear of being overwhelmed by it. The individual sacrifices independent access to freedom of action in order to find the kind of inner security which opens his personality to depth of feeling without arbitrary limit.
Personal power which governs the surplus relationship of the individual to his world alters the character in a masculine direction, resulting in a dynamically unbalanced personality. The individual carries a surplus of energy in the form of a potential for action, seeking always to expand the scope of the vigor he invests in his personal interactions. This kind of self-expression heightens his mood in a self-fulfilling way. If he is to retain his capacity for social conformity, he must use his energies in such a way that they find socially constructive channels of expression. With each success in establishing an outlet, he is more able to renew the energy accumulation without danger of encountering social conflict in the process. In the surplus area where personal power operates, the individual sacrifices independent access to secure self-awareness in favor of unlimited freedom of action.
Wherever the surplus tendencies are found, whether it is in the reproductive life of the mated union in nature or in the creative interpersonal life of civilized man, they bring a dependent need for the finding of balance. The domain draws a circle around two interacting individuals who find permanence and completeness together; they have no further relationship with the world except to satisfy basic needs or to deal with emergencies. In creative relationships the surplus tendencies lead out into the world. Love holds its tensions until it finds work to do in the service of others, and such activity brings balance and relief from mounting tension. Power maintains its potential for action until it finds constructive opportunity which has social meaning, and when it finds such a commitment the feeling of involvement brings balance, creating avenues of discharge for the mounting energy accumulations. The mastery patterns of love are never ends in themselves. They accomplish their tasks, and are then laid aside while love prepares itself for further work. The attachments of power depend on the insights contained in the individual's view of his world, but this sense of meaning is never sought as an end in itself. The insights accumulated by power provide outlets for action, and when these needs have been gratified by the full exploitation of opportunity, the individual turns toward the exploration of new interests and loyalties.
8. The Sexual and Celebrative Mechanisms
The reproductive surplus which forms the domain in the lower animals first manifests itself in the courtship period. The submissiveness of the female is stirred by the dominance of the male, and male dominance is aroused in the process. As feminine depth of feeling increases without limit, it becomes channeled biologically into sexual feeling, and masculine vigor overflows into the celebrative mood. Each partner then finds balance through the sharing of the other's state of being, utilizing empathy and identification. Balance is reached through a dependent relationship with the partner. When male sexuality is aroused by the female it has an orgastic goal. The tension accumulation is guaranteed a biological outlet in the act of copulation and therefore does not feminize the male. When the female celebrative state is brought into being by the behavior of the male it takes its origin in the surrender to masculine control, and feminine mobility is confined to the area where the male is in command. Within this domain, and in the company of the male, the female is free to discharge energy for its own sake. This pattern of utilization of the biological channels of celebrative energy discharge does not masculinize the female.
In the mated union, masculine warmth must be sexualized if the masculine identity is to be preserved, and feminine pride must enter celebrative channels if the feminine identity is to remain intact. With the arrival of the young, sex and celebration depart in favor of the nurturing and protecting functions. The mechanisms of this stage of the reproductive life have been used by civilized mankind in building love and power in interpersonal relationships. In this final stage of the reproductive union, male warmth flows toward the female and the young, but not in surplus; it is not a limitless feelingfulness. Female pride is aroused by the inclusion of the male and the young in her world, but it is not an attitude based on unlimited access to action. Female warmth, however, is in surplus, and is available to the young in the ministration to their needs. Male pride is also in surplus, guaranteeing a maximum readiness to protect the safety of the young from all outside threats to their security. By this method, nature has given the offspring an environment of the greatest possible survival value.
9. Truth and Right
The desexualized and non-celebrative surpluses which are expended in the domain of the mated union are available to creative interpersonal relationships in the civilized world. This shift of direction eliminates the domain with its separation from the world outside, and brings man close to a sense of the magical and miraculous in his dealings with other people. Behind this utilization of the surpluses in human relationships lies man's religious spirit and his sense of fervor in group undertakings. Without a social investment of the surpluses the meaning and value of life diminishes, losing enthusiasm and inspiration, and men become subject to the invasive depredations of flattened affect and depression of mood.
The surplus embodied in creative love needs work to do but it cannot expend itself in willful power without destroying the substance and depth of love. The willfulness which channels the work of love lies outside the individual and resides in the thing loved. The person who loves must find his avenues of action through a dependent relationship with the forces in society which embody the kind of power he can believe in. If he attempts to find what is right purely out of his own inner resources, his access to truth is compromised. The tension accumulating life of creative love does not take a sexual channel, but accumulates insight and truth as its natural destiny.
The surplus invested in creative power needs attachments and loyalties, but it cannot be captured by a self-conscious awareness without undermining the scope and spontaneity of power. The image of the self which comes to the individual out of his awareness of his possessions must take its origins outside the self, originating in the responsiveness of the environment. The individual who is the vehicle of personal power must find feelingfulness through a dependent relationship with the sources of love in society which are worthy of his loyalty. If he attempts to find the truth exclusively out of his own inner resources, his access to the right is compromised. The energy accumulating life of creative power does not find discharge through celebrative experience, but accumulates mastery and right as its inevitable goal.
10. Security and Freedom
If love is to be creative in nature, it must attach itself in a selective manner. When love commits itself where there is no need of its unlimited depth, it is divested of its surplus quality. The truth seeking function of love seeks to reduce the unknown in human affairs, and for this the individual must be able to believe in the ultimate emergence of the insights which can win territory from the unknown. The only way he can know that this state of affairs exists is through his idealizing capacities. The individual cannot solve problems in human relationships without the kind of involvements with other people which lead to exposure to new experiences. Although he is guided on this path by the spirit of love itself, seeking to deepen understanding for its own sake, he must find a submissive participation in what he believes to be right. The activities of those who embody the right are idealized by him. As he works within the area established by the right, he finds inner security and peace of mind, whether understanding has yet emerged or not. Unless the understanding he seeks takes its origin within the domain of the right, it loses access to social meaning and becomes a mere exercise in self-serving intellectuality. Human insights come to the thinker when the creative interaction with others has done its work. They do not emerge because he has a need for the release of inner tension or because of their potential adaptive usefulness.
Personal power operates in a mobile fashion in its creative phases. If power accepts involvement where there is no opportunity for the investment of its expansive nature, the surplus in it will be undermined. The reaching for the right is a function of power, and it involves itself with the chaotic in human affairs under circumstances where control is within the scope of ultimate attainment. This state of affairs can only exist where the individual is able to feel an unassailable confidence in the ultimate emergence of those modalities of mastery which can win territory from the chaotic. He will only find himself in this psychological state when the human environment becomes his reality, that is, when his explorations of mastery techniques are guided by actual human responses. In this process he is accessible to a deepening awareness of the human resources at hand. He is motivated in this undertaking by the spirit of power, reaching for an expansion of responsibility for its own sake. The new awareness and feelingfulness that come to him do not arise from an inner self-awareness, but from a sense of the possession of the truth. The ideas of those who are the carriers of truth become his assets. As he reaches toward self-expression within the area defined by truth, he finds inner freedom and spontaneity of action whether the capacity to take responsibility has yet emerged or not. Unless the capacity for responsibility that he attempts to develop has taken root in the domain of truth, it loses social value and becomes a mere embellishment and display of vanity. Human mastery can emerge only when the efforts of the individual have been tempered in the forge of uncompromising human involvement. It does not come because the energy accumulation of the individual calls for discharge, or because of the adaptive advantages which might ensue.
11. Faith and Hope
The capacity of love to hold tension is essential to its existence. When love is desexualized it no longer has a biological channel of discharge. If tension mounts in a meaningless fashion, the individual cannot maintain his mental health. The resolution of the tensions of love comes out of its accomplishments in human affairs, and especially out of the insights which result from the search for understanding. The release from problem solving effort brings a harmonious and pleasurable psychological state of self-awareness which is characterized by contentment. Love must be prepared for any task which its own sensitivity and perceptiveness establishes, and once started on a course of action, its labors may be Herculean in scope and without guarantee of success in any given time and place. Love is willing to pay the price of such devoted effort. The work of love brings a diminution in self-awareness, and in this phase the tension level of love is maintained by faith. Faith is essential if love is to leave behind the secure orientation of established insights to go forth into an unprotected world of experience. Faith permits security to enter the self, becoming a permanent asset of the personality, above and beyond the vicissitudes of the life of experience.
The capacity of power to accumulate energy is essential to its existence. When power gives up its celebrative investment, it no longer finds an automatic biological channel for energy utilization. If accumulated energy finds no outlets of value, the individual cannot maintain his social conformity. The finding of outlets comes through the making of meaningful human attachments, and especially out of the mastery which evolves from the reaching for responsibility. The release from the search for meaning brings a harmonious and enjoyable psychological state of self-confidence which is characterized by a sense of happiness. Personal power must be ready to expose itself to any kind of tension bearing which its own vigor and resourcefulness requires, and once committed to extremes of discipline, its selflessness may be Promethean in scope without guarantee of effectiveness in any particular time and place. Power accepts the cost of such self-developing involvements, not resisting the constriction of self-confidence which such submission brings. In this phase of its operation the energy level of power is maintained by hope. When hope shapes the goals of human undertakings, power can put aside the immediate rewards of freedom without losing its inner identity. Hope establishes freedom as the organizing principle of the personality, insuring the integrity of power regardless of the circumstances of day to day commitments.
12. Instincts in the Civilized World
Character specialization of the yielding or assertive type takes priority over the biological specialization into male or female. Nature has organized the instinctual tendencies in such a way that their form can be molded by the context in which they come into being. If instinctual patterns are not reinforced, the drive behind them tends to become generalized, and alterations develop in the pathways of expression. The sexual and celebrative instincts of male and female in nature come to fruit in an environment which facilitates the submissive role of the female and the dominant role of the male. The sexual and celebrative instincts of civilized man come to their mature expression in a world in which some persons are already committed to a yielding role in life, and others to an assertive role. These commitments are strongly reinforced by social contexts and have an impelling importance in the maintenance of the inner identity. If the individual attempts to give up his character identity in favor of his biological identity, the whole basis of his mental health and social conformity is compromised. Men care more for their sense of individuality and the rewarding depth and vigor which it brings than they do for uncomplicated conformity to their biological role. If they turn away from the complexities of character differentiation, they cheat themselves of the psychological heritage which is the basis of civilization itself. They become the victims of a glorification of biological identity which leads them on into a wasteland of ignorance and pretense. Without character specialization their interpersonal relationships can never develop the richness and scope which the apparent vividness of their biological identity has led them to expect.
Men learn to adhere to their inner identity out of the search for contentment and happiness. Adolescence in the civilized world is more than a time of adjustment to emerging biological maturity. It is a time of affirmation and reaffirmation of the inner identity in relationship to the world, and it constitutes a search for the self which requires both time and space for the reaching of its fulfillment. The search is not terminated with absolute finality even when a stable pattern of mature social adjustment is attained. Adolescent mechanisms are subject to reemergence whenever the impact of major human problems and obstacles exposes the individual to an inescapable need for inner growth.
13. The Sexual and Celebrative Adjustment
Sex and celebration have a place in the psychological life of civilized man which is unique in the evolutionary scale. The mated mechanisms which bring the psychological surpluses into being are no longer contained within the reproductive domain. Desexualized love and non-celebrative power constitute the major psychological content of man's civilized existence. If the surpluses enter where they do not belong, man's most cherished human goals become impossible of attainment. The task of the developing personality is the establishment of a place for sex and celebration which is walled off from areas where it does not belong, while maintaining a full access to intensity and spontaneity. Man is the only animal who is called upon to make an adjustment to his own surplus tendencies. He deals with sex and celebration as things in themselves which appear and disappear without apparent design or means of control, becoming threats to his equilibrium or gifts from the hands of life, depending on the context in which they are experienced. The adolescent search for an inner identity must include the finding of a place within the personality for the sexual and celebrative life.
The sexual adjustment reaches toward stability and does not welcome the problems inherent in the unknown. It rejects tasks of any sort, save the biologically channeled activity which serves its own physical gratification. In order to find the simple organic patterns of sexual arousal which physical love needs, the individual has to be able to set up contexts in his personal life where such phenomena can readily occur. The finding of these contexts is the key to the sexual adjustment. They are subject to great variation in the life of different individuals, as well as variation in different phases of the mature life of the same individual, depending on the pressures of his own psychological growth. No individual can accept psychological growth without risking a shift in his sexual adjustment. Each individual wants to take a good sexual adjustment for granted, and the bringing of sexuality into focus as a problem in itself comes only as a psychological necessity. Sexual adjustment has become one of the elements in man's adaptive world, being inextricably involved with his mental health. It is only important as a thing in itself when the contexts it needs cannot readily be found.
Celebrative personal power, in contrast to the creative outlets of power, does not attempt to find its fulfillment in chaotic situations. It rejects any commitments which would lower its elevated mood. Feelings flow only into those situations which give automatic outlet to its high spirits. In order to find the necessary simple spontaneity on which celebration rests, the individual has to establish contexts in his personal life which guarantee such outlets. The finding of these contexts is the key to the celebrative adjustment, and they must be found by each individual in accordance with his personal needs. Such contexts are subject to change in the presence of psychological growth. The attainment of established patterns of mood elevation is something that each individual would like to take for granted. The establishing of socially harmonious celebrative outlets has become one of man's adaptive necessities without which his social conformity is undermined. Celebration only becomes important as a thing in itself when the contexts which it needs cannot readily be found.
14. The Unstable Equilibrium of the Surpluses
Man must make a sexual and celebrative adjustment through the finding of contexts which preserve sexual potency and celebrative self-abandonment without the undermining of creative interpersonal relationships. For this purpose society brings into being general patterns of permissiveness and prohibitions which are supported by social ideas and institutions. Although society establishes certain limits, the development of an adequate sexual and celebrative life remains the ultimate psychological task of the individual. Since adequate sexuality takes its being in privacy and is characterized by an unlimited feelingfulness, it is not directly under social influence. Its boundaries are established through the regulation of the contexts which arouse it. Celebration takes place in the social world, but it is detached and separate from adaptive commitments, and since its mood must be unlimited in quality it is intolerant of direct social control. There are no fixed patterns for the development of an adequate and socially acceptable sexual and celebrative adjustment. In a healthy personality there is always room for further exploration of sexual pleasure, provided that it proves acceptable to the self, just as there are no necessary commitments to sexuality where its disappearance does no harm to the self. In a socially harmonious personality there is always readiness for an expansion of celebrative enjoyment which proves acceptable to the self, just as there can be no fixed need of celebrative expression in any given aspect of living. The psychological surpluses are therefore in an unstable equilibrium and are phasic in the life of the individual, expanding and contracting according to his efforts to come to terms with this side of his nature. Literally, the work of adapting to sex and celebration is never finished. Sexual love tends to be blind, and celebrative power tends to exhibitionistic excesses. The mature personality tolerates his irrationalities and impulsiveness in this area as part of the acceptance of his human qualities.
15. Perversity and Addiction
Sexuality may be healthy or unhealthy, and the ultimate test of the contexts in which sexuality is aroused is not a matter of social standards but of the inner equilibrium of the personality. Perversity is sexuality that feeds on itself. It has an autistic quality, erecting a barrier within the self which makes celebrative experience difficult to find.
Celebration may be socially harmonious or antisocial. The contexts which bring it into being are selected by the individual out of his need to fulfill himself and not through any automatic acceptance of social beliefs. Addiction to power moods is celebration which rejects social interests and surrenders to its own euphoric world. Its presence makes sexuality difficult to find.
Sexuality cannot form a healthy bond between two human beings in and of itself. It must depend on the context in which it emerges for its meaningful status. In the mated state in nature the context is created by the domain. Feminine depth of feeling is aroused by male vigor, and when deepening feeling spills over into the sexual channel, the female carries the male with her into the act of copulation.
The celebrative state cannot be the exclusive basis of an interpersonal relationship without becoming antisocial. It is dependent on context for its attainment of social value. In the domain the mated relationship enlivens male vigor in the presence of feminine sensitivity. When masculine energy breaks free into the celebrative sphere, it includes the female through the mechanism of her altruistic surrender.
Family life in the civilized world is built out of relationships which are not mated in the biological sense and which do not form a domain. The partners bring an existent sexual and celebrative capacity to each other and share together on an equal basis the pleasure and enjoyment of their surplus psychological life. The establishment of contexts in which sex and celebration are neither over-controlled or over-expressed in the lives of the partners is crucial to the success of the relationship.
Sexual feeling which responds only to the sexual nature of another person is perverse, and unmated sexuality is vulnerable to perverse manifestations. When love governs the feelings of the individual, becoming permissive of sexuality in certain contexts, perversity can be overcome because love is capable of making a place for the power needs of the partners. This opens the door to celebrative experience and guarantees the balance of the psychological surpluses. A celebrative attitude which involves itself only with a similar attitude in another is addicted in nature, and unmated celebration is vulnerable to addictive phenomena. When power establishes the mood of the individual, making a place for celebrative experience in certain contexts, the addiction pattern can be overcome because power can take responsibility for the love needs of the partners. This gives access to sexuality and guarantees psychological balance.
Whenever sex and celebration exist in a non-mated state, only love and power are big enough to contain them and establish circumstances in which they can reach fulfillment. This kind of love and power is actually desexualized and non-celebrative. It is permissive of sex and celebration, but it does not owe its existence to them. Any time love comes into being through sexuality instead of love granting a place to sexuality, invasion of the personality by perverse phenomena becomes inevitable. If power owes its existence to the celebrative state instead of celebration being released by power, addiction tendencies will become established within the personality. The ultimate cause of perversity is the inability to become fully involved by desexualized love, and addiction is rooted in the inability to commit the self to a non-celebrative power world. In the barren land where love and power cannot grow, depression is kept at bay by the overgrowth of perversity and addiction, and men convince themselves that this garden of weeds is their natural heritage.
16. Withdrawal and Indifference
The establishment of a specialized character creates an imbalance within the self. One of the functions of family life is to satisfy the dependent needs of the individual for balance. The access to equilibrium is essential to mental health and social harmony. As the individual turns from the family to the outer world, the mated mechanisms tend to come into play. Depth in the yielding character is enriched in the presence of an assertive ideal, and vigor in the assertive character is enlivened by the responsiveness of the yielding elements in his social environment.
Individuals who develop a deeper and broader character identity than their familial environment can accept and support are driven to an autonomous search for self-realization in interaction with the outer world. The first step in breaking away from family influence in a yielding environment is withdrawal. The individual cuts himself off from the dependent support which the family offers for his assistance in reaching experience. If he is not to fall victim to neurotic inhibition he must find sufficient mobility to enter a new psychological environment on his own. Once he has established an inner identity consistent with his needs, he can begin again to make familial-type attachments. The transitional period is one of inner growth and it is adolescent in nature. His mobility is in the service of his search for an ideal. In some individuals this search never ends and they live permanently in a pattern of rebellion and cynicism.
The first step in the breaking away from family influence in an assertive environment is the refusal to feel empathetically with others. This state of indifference cuts off the individual from dependency on familial ideas and beliefs. If he is not to fall victim to delinquent perplexity, he must find sufficient discrimination and selectivity to develop his own loyalties in a new psychological environment. Once he has found an inner identity worthy of his strivings, he can afford to make familial-type attachments again. His selectivity has as its goal the discovery of a responsive human environment which can embody reality for him. Some individuals never discover such a world and they retain their individuality only through heretical disbelief and opportunism.
17. Idealization and the Exploitation of Reality
If love is to do creative work in the world, it must have the capacity for idealization. The establishment of an ideal is a conceptual process. The ideal is an entity which maintains an unassailable unity no matter what problems emerge in the course of an interaction with it. The individual remains aware of his own permanent submissive relationship to it. Idealization is a feeling state of esthetic quality, and the ideal embodies beauty.
If power is to find a constructive outlet for its manipulative capacities, it must be able to exploit the inherent malleability of resources. Such resources are not discovered conceptually; they become real to the individual out of experience. The interaction with reality is a matter of dealing with the concrete. Reality has a permanent identity, and no matter what obstacles emerge in the course of a manipulative relationship with it, the sense of possession which permanence brings is never broken. A sense of reality comes to the individual as an aspect of experiencing what is right and is ethical in nature. Reality embodies goodness, creating an environment worth possessing.
The adolescent struggle to establish an inner identity requires that the individual find his ideal or his sense of reality outside the family circle. The family has given him his specialized character and the dependent support he needs to find balance, but he has not yet used his inner identity in an autonomous relationship with the world. He cannot fulfill his need to contribute to the reservoir of truth and right on which social progress rests unless he is able to go beyond the concepts and methods of the previous generation. To do this, he must find his own interaction with the ideal and his own sense of reality. If the family rejects his efforts to establish a creative relationship with the outside world, he will need rebellion and heresy to reach this autonomy.
Whether idealization is directed toward human beings or toward impersonal entities, it utilizes love as its vehicle. Without love idealization cannot reach the kind of interaction which permits growth and the winning of territory from the unknown. Whether the reaching for a wider reality takes place in a human or impersonal environment, it utilizes personal power as its instrument. Without power the sense of reality cannot explore life in a way that preserves its capacity for growth and permits the individual to deal with the chaotic.
Man has made his greatest creative contributions in impersonal areas. His love of the world has brought enriching insights in the area of science, and his power relationships have bestowed rewarding mastery in the area of engineering techniques. Desexualized love and non-celebrative power have found their first and easiest application in the non-human fields of endeavor. These accomplishments have come at some psychological cost to the human being, because they often exact the price of a constriction in the depth and scope of human interpersonal reactions. The ivory tower of the intellectual is no accident. Without it, he would have to risk his wisdom in the market place of daily living, dealing with problems which involve him personally and exposing the unknown in himself. The commitment of the man of action to the harnessing of the forces of nature has spared him a full scale exposure to inner moral conflict. Without the outlet which the undertaking of impressive works and hazardous tasks affords, his strength would have to be tested in the arena of the commonplace in human affairs, dealing with obstacles that involve his personal life and engaging the chaotic within himself.
When love is directed toward an idealized human being, the sexuality in that individual becomes part of what is known. If the relationship is not to be sexualized, it is necessary that it fully express that kind of human interaction which mutually serves the inner identity, and there is no limit on the amount of understanding and responsibility which can be invested. It must be guided only by the need of each to deepen and expand his interaction with society.
When personal power finds outlet in an attachment to a responsive human being, the submissive celebrative tendencies become part of the human reality. If the relationship is not to be taken over by the celebrative spirit, it is necessary for it to be guided into channels which serve the psychological growth of both individuals, and there is no fixed limit on the amount of understanding and responsibility which may be invested.
Love and power are in great need of each other if they are not to be cut off from the roots which feed their depth and vigor. In their development they must pass through an area fraught with sexual and celebrative dangers. Adolescence is the time when the personality first comes to grip with these great psychological issues. If sexuality and celebration are too easily conquered in human growth relationships, love may lose its capacity to find a living human ideal, and power may be cut off from the sources of genuine human opportunity. If the surpluses usurp the place of goodness and beauty in a permanent way, men find themselves unable to reach a creative relationship with society, and must accept withdrawal and indifference as an inevitable part of their psychic life.
18. The Surpluses and Family Life
The warmth and cooperation of family life utilize love and power in a stable fashion. Although the family must establish a specialized yielding or assertive atmosphere if the individual is to have an inner identity, the family as such does not seek to grow psychologically. Its purposes are served by reinforcement of the familiar and adherence to the reliable. It prepares its growing members for a life of independent adult psychological growth, and makes a place for the adult members to interact with the outside world on a creative level. It provides for balance within the personality of its members so that tension and energy do not accumulate in an environment which cannot utilize an excess of these psychological states. The family wants love, but not more than serves its interests. It makes a place for power, but only as much as the existent family loyalties can fulfill. It is very important that family attachments have a desexualized and non-celebrative basis. Since the family is the giver of mental health and the arbiter of social harmony, it must ultimately concern itself with the sexual and celebrative components of the personality. It accomplishes this end by taking cognizance of sexuality which already exists, and dealing with celebrative tendencies which are ready to express themselves. The family establishes contexts of a private and separate nature in which sex and celebration run their course, and these contexts remain isolated from the main stream of familial interaction. This kind of sex and celebration has an adaptive basis. The contexts are established by mutual exploration, consent, and arrangement. Sex, which is not inherently rational, is given a rational home. Celebration, which is not inherently subject to organization, is released in a disciplined way.
Too much order and organization can destroy sex and celebration. Sexual potency and celebrative self-abandonment cannot be sacrificed without damage to mental health and social harmony. Civilized familial sexuality is no longer feminine and masculine in the primitive biological sense, but rather has as its goal a balanced sexuality between two partners, each with a capacity to store sexual tension, and each with orgastic capacity. The civilized celebrative strivings no longer follow the mated patterns of nature, but rather utilize the capacity of each partner to store celebrative energy and release it by a mutual and cooperating surrender.
The mated mechanisms are never far from the surface in the search for sexual potency and celebrative self-abandonment, and this fact has no necessary connection with the biological gender of the partners. In either heterosexual or homosexual relationships, the psychological femininity of men and the psychological masculinity of women can readily be used in the pursuit of sexual and celebrative adequacy. The inner character, when well defined, is always dominant over biological identity under civilized conditions. If the character fails to attain clear definition, and men turn toward their biological identity in an attempt to establish a valid inner nature, they attain only a caricature of primitive potency and self-abandonment which becomes self-defeating in human relationships.
19. The Mated Mechanisms in Family Life
The familial surpluses express themselves in a time and place chosen for them by rational and disciplined human beings. The yielding personality is dependent in the expression of the masculine side of the surplus tendencies. The partners help each other to find the masculine components together. What each needs is another individual who supplies the masculine component as it is used in the reaching of balance, and this does not imply a masculine personality. Men who elaborate a deep capacity for tension bearing in a creative pattern often choose wives who are actionists in domestic life and casual social activities, but who are in no sense masculine in their inner identity.
The assertive personality is dependent in the expression of the feminine side of his surplus tendencies. He must find empathetic communication with a partner who embodies the feminine patterns he needs. This feminine component is a contribution to the relationship and does not imply a feminine personality. He finds another assertive personality who is oriented toward loyalty and attachment in such a way as to enlarge the interpersonal cohesion of both. Men who are creative at the action level often find wives who embody feminine virtues in domestic life and casual social activities, but who retain a clear masculine identity in the inner self.
The psychological welfare of the family requires that the dependent needs of its adult members be met with a maximum of effectiveness. Courtship provides a testing ground for the establishment of mutually beneficial dependent relationships. Although men must elaborate a masculine social role, and women a feminine one, the way in which they accept masculine and feminine tendencies toward each other is governed by their need to reach a stable equilibrium together. Whichever partner is best suited to maintain heightened tension or energy levels for both performs this function, and the other maintains their mutual access to discharge of these surpluses. In a good marital relationship, one partner is more autonomous in his character development, and the other is more dependent in type.
20. Masculine and Feminine Roles
The domestic household established by family life needs stability and reliability. It is a social institution which society protects because its child-rearing function serves the interests of society. Only certain general characteristics are established by social influences. Within this broad social identity there is room for the marital partners to create the kind of interaction which best serves their personal needs. The actual nature of the masculine and feminine role within the family is subject to wide variance in the private and separate psychological life. These roles are important to the individual in a dual way. In relationship to society in general the masculine and feminine roles must be well-defined according to gender in conventional terms, sufficient to establish the image of a stable marriage which bears significant similarities to other marriages. It is a way of universalizing marriage and giving it a social identity which can exist without regard for individual differences. The second way in which the masculine and feminine roles are important is in the personal surplus interaction between the marital partners. Here the identity of each must be found out of their shared personal needs, and the role they play has no necessary relationship to the social one. Courtship before marriage is often prolonged and experimental in nature. This courtship is different from the mated courtship of animals. Its purpose is not to release the inborn masculine and feminine tendencies, but rather to discover the interpersonal contexts in which the partners feel comfortable and interested in a shared life which includes the surplus tendencies. They explore the question of their capacity for warmth and cooperation together, without the inevitable intrusion of sex and celebration, while making provision for a time and place in which the surplus pleasures and enjoyments can be accepted and reach their fulfillment.
The complexities of civilized courtship are far greater than in the case of mated courtship. The spirit of romance and adventure infuses longing and eagerness into the surplus life. Romance must be cultivated by the partners. If the enthusiasm is not there, it cannot be forced on the relationship. The sense of adventuresome inspiration which they share must flow readily from their natural interests, and cannot be artificially constructed. Although they choose the contexts in which the surpluses are expressed, they are not privileged to alter each other in order to attain these outlets. A marriage which is based primarily on social advantages, in which each partner embodies a high level of excellence in the social image of what a wife or husband is supposed to be, but where the marriage has failed from the beginning to take interaction at the surplus level into account, can never tolerate privacy and separateness. It is also true that a marriage which was formed exclusively out of the romantic and adventuresome spirit, without due regard for the adaptive relationship of the family to the rest of society, must always gravitate toward privacy and separateness and thus fail to sustain the necessary social identity.
The masculine and feminine roles in relationship to society are established by the acceptance of conventional gender traits, which are based partly on biological tendencies of a general nature but take their essential form through the influence of social ideas and institutions. The conformity to community standards of masculinity and femininity at a minimal level is essential to social empathy and acceptance. When the creative feminine tendencies of men gain expression in the adaptive area where they do not belong, they interfere with the elaboration of the masculine social role and the personality becomes effete. Where the creative masculine tendencies are overinvested in the masculine social role, the personality becomes brutalized.
21. Masculine and Feminine Tendencies within the Family
In a familial partnership between individuals of like character, the absence of primitive mated mechanisms creates difficulties in the establishment of sexual and celebrative outlets. As the partners seek to make a place for their surplus tendencies, they use their masculine and feminine traits in any way that contributes to sexual and celebrative gratification. For this purpose one partner tends to take either a tension or energy holding role, and the other provides the opposite to the degree that is required to achieve balance. This division into feminine and masculine is for the limited purpose of finding surplus pleasure and enjoyment. It is a psychological arrangement which takes its being in the personal relationship between the partners and can only fulfill itself in the context of that relationship. It is not bound to gender, as is the masculine and feminine identity of the social roles. It comes from those pairings established by courtship in which psychological functions are accepted without regard to which one is male or female. This is not a mated relationship because both partners face the outside world with the same type of inner character and in their adaptive life they share a common view of life and way of life. It is a means of enriching and invigorating the surplus life and belongs in this private and separate world. It must not alter the masculine or feminine social role or distort the basic inner character.
In those cases where the social role is so rigid as to completely dominate familial psychological functions, there is no need for courtship and no guarantee that the partners will find a spirit of romance and adventure together. Such a dominating social role tends to invade the inner character and is destructive of creative relationships between the individual and the outer world.
22. The Scope of the Social Roles
Unless love does work in the world it cannot fulfill itself. The feminine social role as it is utilized in the adaptive functions of family life cannot lead to a growing productive interaction with society. It must be stable and reliable and it rejects growth as a potential threat to its continuity. The tasks that come out of its functions are highly routine and subject to fatigue. Any embellishments that are introduced in an effort to deal with emotional emptiness tend to become self-aggrandizing and to interfere with efficiency. An example of feminine productivity at an instinctual level is the nest building activity of birds. It utilizes techniques well adapted to the future function of the nest. Since the engineering skill of the bird is in no way experimental or subject to reason, any effort to add to the enjoyment of the task by willful alterations of technique could only lead to malfunction of the nest during the rearing period. Femininity cannot fulfill itself in its creative aspects in the familial functions. If it attempts the impossible, it expands the familial feminine identity and thus compounds the problem because the only pathway to a creative interpersonal life lies in restricting the feminine social role to the irreducible minimum.
Unless power finds commitments in the world, it cannot fulfill itself. The masculine social role as it is utilized for the goals of family life cannot lead to a growing productive interaction with the outside world. Within the family, the individual must remain stable and reliable in his loyalties and involvements. The meanings which power finds in family life are elemental and expose the individual to boredom. Any extraneous and creative interests which become focused within the family become outlets for egotistical vanity and interfere with family cohesion. An example of pure masculine expressiveness is the song of the male bird, an activity which creates an atmosphere of unity in the mated domain which is free from encroachment. The feeling tone of the male bird is not based on an expanding sensitivity and it is not related to particular accomplishments. He takes his mood of dominance for granted, and it is not alloyed with self-consciousness. In this way he reaches a maximum readiness to repel the challenge of other males to his ownership of the domain. Masculinity cannot fulfill itself in its creative aspects through intensifications of the familial attachments. If it attempts to do so, it expands the masculine social role at the expense of the autonomous masculinity, and thus reduces the scope of the energies available for interaction with the outer world.
Among civilized human beings the masculine and feminine social identity goes only so far as is required by the community standards which define it. The social identity is like any other adaptive function. There is a basic minimum psychological investment which the individual must find if the automatic channels of social acceptance and cooperation are to be established. An investment beyond this point entraps the personality in an interpersonal world which leaves no room to utilize its inner growth potentials.
23. Social and Familial Roles
The social roles which express the surface masculine or feminine identity are stable, self-evident, and are based on highly communicable feelings and readily demonstrable modes of behavior. Such psychological resources cannot be put to work in dealing with the unknown and the chaotic. The individual in a state of growth invests a minimum of himself in his social role. A creative maturity is characterized by the ability to conform to a full adaptive social role without any encroachment on the inner identity.
An autonomous capacity for love seeks an involvement with others which taxes its capacity for understanding. The permanent nature of love requires a continuity of feeling which cannot be disrupted by the presence of problems. Love seeks a relationship with another person who needs love, but the sharing of love cannot be a simple flow between two people. Love must do psychological work to justify its existence. Without this autonomous capacity to maintain itself, love becomes the victim of any frustration which it meets, and as the capacity for love dies, the shrinkage of the inner self-awareness creates a crisis which can only be met by a helpless appeal for love from another.
An autonomous capacity for personal power seeks a commitment with others which takes the capacity for responsibility beyond its previous limits. The uncompromising nature of power requires a self-control which cannot be disrupted by the encountering of obstacles. Power seeks a relationship with another person who can make an alliance with it, but the sharing of a power interaction is not an automatic event. Power must develop new dimensions in its capacity for loyalty in order to justify its existence. This autonomous capacity to expand into new areas where resources can be discovered and exploited confers on power a self-generated integrity. Unless power is on this kind of independent basis, it becomes the victim of any frustration which it encounters, and as the capacity for a power attitude dies, the shrinkage of self-confidence creates a crisis which can only be met by an undisciplined attempt to win control by arousing the sympathy and pity of another.
All men are required to establish masculine social roles, and all women feminine ones. They bring these traits to each other in their adaptive social intercourse, and the contrast in their social identities provides a basic feminine warmth and masculine pride which colors social interactions. Society requires a minimal cohesiveness and readiness for cooperation among its members, and this is facilitated by gender differentiation, provided the differences are not deepened and invigorated by inappropriate and intrusive over-involvements.
The gender traits must be preserved in familial attachments but they can be shaped to individual needs by courtship activity. The courtship requires that the inner identity expose itself. When both partners have the same yielding or assertive identity, as they must have in a stable family relationship, it becomes necessary for the basic character to reveal itself as the real foundation of their attachment and cooperation, and the contrast in the social roles fades into the background of their personal life together.
24. Fantasy and Play-acting
The psychological interactions between individuals which serve the interests of psychological growth are private and separate in relationship to the adaptive life of maturity. If the individual is exclusively governed in his feelings and attitudes by the established forms of his mature social roles, there is no opportunity for the elaboration of fantasy and play-acting, which limits the development of new facets of sensitivity and initiative in human affairs. Enriching fantasy is only possible where the mind is free to explore feeling in any direction that brings a pleasurable self-awareness. Fantasy permits a maximum of selectivity in a world in which mobility is suspended. Once the individual has found new dimensions in himself in feeling, he is prepared to seek the necessary experiences which will permit the preliminary work of fantasy to lead him to a larger interaction with others. The individual does not act directly on his fantasies. He acts on the basis of the inner readiness for new experience which fantasy has created. Individuals who act out fantasies are ensnared by perverse mechanisms, and this is especially true in the sexual area. If the process replaces the adaptive life it becomes schizophrenic in nature.
Play-acting expands the scope of experience only where the individual is able to involve himself in any interest which brings enjoyable self-confidence. Play-acting permits a maximum mobility in a world in which selectivity of opportunity is suspended. Once the individual has expanded the scope of his capacities for entering experience, he is prepared to accept the necessary feeling attachments which will give a value to the preliminary work of play-acting. These commitments do not come directly out of play-acting itself. He accepts new feelingfulness out of the need for involvement that play-acting has created. Individuals who allow play-acting to usurp the place of a meaningful relationship with reality become the victims of addiction mechanisms, and this is especially true in the celebrative area. If the process spreads to the adaptive life it may become psychotic in proportion, leading to a manic-depressive type of disorganization.
Where fantasy is not free to follow channels of self-indulgent pleasure, there is not sufficient psychic investment to carry feelings into the areas where growth can occur. Because of the privacy of fantasy, it readily enters the sexuality of the individual. Yielding personalities who conform closely to the experiential patterns established by parental influence in childhood may develop an apparently rich fantasy life by taking over the fantasies of the parents. Such fantasy has no flexibility and is useless for independent growth. The conformity of the child is threatened at puberty by the emergence of sexuality since parental sexual fantasy is not communicated to the child. The adolescent must attempt to find sexual adequacy either through an autonomy he does not possess or through utilization of social roles which are inflexible in nature. His independent efforts often lead to the acting out of fantasies in a highly rebellious pattern. He ends with a loss of access to feelingfulness which may bring catastrophic depressive reactions with suicidal consequences.
Where play-acting cannot find autonomous and egocentric enjoyment, there is not sufficient psychic investment to develop new modalities of self-expression. Because of the dissociated quality of play-acting, it readily enters the celebrative area. Assertive personalities who submit completely to familial patterns of feeling may develop an apparently resourceful capacity for play by taking over the parental modes of self-expression in this area. Such play is not flexible and cannot establish a basis for independent growth. The conformity of the growing child is threatened at puberty by the emergence of the celebrative capacities, since parental celebrative experiences are not shared with the child. The adolescent must explore celebration with an autonomy he does not possess or confine himself to identification with the patterns of the established social roles. His independent efforts often lead to overwhelming involvements in evanescent thrill-seeking undertakings. If he chooses dependence on the conventional roles to which he has access, he must accept a rigidity which is beyond alteration by himself. This deprivation leads to a premature maturity which undermines the capacity for mood elevation, leading to a heretical and irresponsible exposure to self-destruction.
25. Shame and Guilt
The feeling of inferiority arises from an inability to enter experience on a scope which can provide an outlet for the feeling resources of the individual. It is the fundamental psychic motivation which leads the yielding personality to expand its awareness of the world. The feeling of shame cannot be overcome by mere activity, but only through that kind of self-development which carries within it new modalities of experience. The more the individual understands, the more avenues of self-expression open to him. In this way he preserves the sensitive orientation of his inner identity while developing a full commitment to a life of organization for action. Fantasy plays a substantial role in guiding the direction of his self-development. The most pleasurable self-awareness comes from that kind of inner identity which provides him with unobstructed channels of constructive action. The kind of mastery sought by the yielding personality comes as a gift from the hands of insight.
The sense of guilt arises when feelingfulness cannot find the depth which permits commitment to meaningful patterns of action. It is the fundamental psychic motivation which leads the assertive personality to expand its scope of interaction with others. The sense of guilt cannot be overcome by sentimental feeling which is its own reason for being, but only through that kind of loyalty which brings new avenues of sensitivity in human interaction. The wider the scope of the interpersonal responsibilities, the more meaning develops in the individual life. In this way a man preserves the spontaneity of his inner self while finding a lasting commitment to a life which is oriented by feeling. Play-acting guides the development of his expanding interpersonal responsibilities. The most enjoyable self-confidence comes from that kind of inner identity which provides him with uncomplicated access to meaningful loyalties unalloyed by doubt. The kind of insight sought by the assertive personality comes to him as the by-product of mastery.
Where the growing child is too strongly influenced by the parental fantasies, there is not an adequate opportunity for the finding of new experience. Whatever independent enrichment of the inner self the child is able to attain remains locked within himself because of the degree of his attachment to the parental image of his social and familial roles. Such states of feelingfulness lead to a growing inner awareness which is burdened with self-conscious shame. When sexuality emerges at puberty, there is a sudden and often catastrophic increase in the kind of self-awareness which cannot find access to the world.
Where the patterns of play-acting are taken over from the parents, there is no opportunity for the exploration of new areas of involvement. Whatever independent elaboration of spontaneity the growing child can establish remains in an unavowed dissociated area, banished from interaction with others, due to the exclusive commitment to the conventional masculine image of the parents. Such states of readiness for action lead to an expanding inner self-confidence which has no outlet and is burdened with guilt. When the celebrative capacities emerge at puberty, there is a sudden and disorganizing increase in the level of the kind of personal self-confidence which cannot find a real world in which to fulfill itself.
26. Creativity and the Surpluses
The inner character of man can only find creative outlets in interpersonal relationships when the sexual and celebrative surpluses are not used to form a domain. The creative spirit can thrive only when love can reach the greatest depths without necessarily becoming sexualized, and power can extend without predetermined limits without inevitable overflow into the celebrative state. The work of love is the only ultimate antidote to the sense of inferiority, and the loyalties of power alone can bring the sense of meaning which can resolve guilt. It is sexual fantasy which brings the greatest shame, and celebrative play-acting which accumulates the greatest guilt. Because the familial functions provide a place for sex and celebration, they tend to relieve shame and guilt through the social acceptance which accompanies family life. The surpluses which are expressed within the conventional patterns of married life put shame and guilt outside the scope of individual accountability, thus diluting them and nullifying their individual impact.
The capacity to handle shame and guilt independently is an essential element in establishing a creative relationship with the world. Love cannot deepen without dealing with the sexual tendencies which are inevitably aroused in the process, nor can power expand its scope in human affairs without dealing with the celebrative components that are stirred by it. An individual who cannot deal with his own sexual and celebrative tendencies autonomously must invest so much of himself in his familial involvements as to make significant participation in creative interpersonal activity impossible. Family life, in spite of the place it makes for the surpluses, is still part of the basic adaptive life of mankind.
There is no such thing as a significant increase in the depth of the yielding personality which does not bring a new influx of sexual responsiveness. This sexual increment tends to follow a mated pattern and is not readily confined to the established familial patterns of expression. Since the core of the yielding personality is feminine, the individual must deal with an awareness of sexual responsiveness to surplus masculinity in the world. Any significant increase in the vigor of the assertive personality brings a new influx of celebrative tendencies. This celebrative increment tends to follow a mated pattern, breaking away from the established familial channels of expression. Since the core of the assertive personality is masculine, the individual must deal with a strong self-confident readiness to possess any feminine elements in the world that are open to exploitation.
Mated tendencies which deepen and invigorate the idealizing and constructive capacities tend to alter the adaptive social life, bringing withdrawal and indifference into familial interactions. This creates the psychological atmosphere of adolescence. If the tendency to invest the surpluses in a mated pattern are overcome, the new sexual and celebrative components remain as unattached elements in the personality, seeking outlet where they can. They find a private and separate existence which can be made harmonious with the adaptive requirements of living. There is so much of unconventional sex and celebration within the fabric of civilized living that this state of affairs can be taken to be part of normal human psychology. Men accept the obligation of protecting the secret and separate status of these phenomena. As long as a substantial part of sexual feeling and behavior is hidden, honest communication about man's sexual life remains difficult, and sexual problems are left to the individual to deal with as he can. As long as the celebrative attitudes and involvements remain in an unavowed dissociated state, the individual is deprived of the cooperation he may need in dealing with these tendencies.
27. Repression and Renunciation
Since sex and celebration are not fully channeled into conventional familial outlets, they tend to establish their own patterns of expression, using those human relationships which lie outside adaptive involvements. The diversity of these forms can be very great, and their variety is a clear indication that the mated domain which is found in nature is not operating in the psychological life of civilized human beings.
Deviations in the patterns of sexual expression take their origin in the need to overcome discontent in sexual experience. Man accepts the psychological task of building and elaborating his sexual capacities on his own. Without adequate sexual gratification man remains in an unremitting search for it. Dissatisfaction in this area remains a challenge which preoccupies him and leads to inner efforts toward new orientation in his feeling with others. Adequate sexuality depends both on an involvement in sexual sensuality and a capacity for orgastic discharge.
Celebrative enjoyment is also subject to variations in the patterns of expression, and the restless search for celebrative adequacy is motivated by a lack of spontaneity in this area. Man seeks celebrative self-abandonment because this psychological state is an essential aspect of inner freedom. When it is obstructed the individual searches for it in a restless fashion, leading to efforts to make a new organization of his energies in relationship to others. Adequate celebration depends both on a vigor of the celebrative mood and a capacity for inner surrender to the circumstances which release the sense of freedom.
The search for sexual and celebrative fulfillment parallels a growth in the inner identity. If the feminine core of the yielding personality is a threat to the masculine social role of the individual, he may reject those kinds of interpersonal interactions which bring awareness of his psychological femininity. Under these conditions the masculine social role is preserved at the cost of psychological independence since flexibility and growth can only occur when the yielding personality has sufficient inner security to find new insights. The privacy which takes its being in the sustaining of aloneness becomes alien to his psychological balance. His identity becomes attached to the kind of masculine experience which can only be found through dependence on socially established avenues of action. Whatever sexual adequacy comes with this state of balance he must accept without dissatisfaction, and under these circumstances he learns not to question his sexual adjustment. To be aware of discontent means to threaten the whole basis of his masculine social adequacy. Feelings which are foreign to his pattern of adjustment lose access to self-awareness, and sexuality which does not serve his masculine social role is seen as deviant and pathological. The search for sexual fulfillment is cut off, and sexual control is elevated to the status of a primary aspect of maturity. Self-control is only possible where it receives a wide social support. The sexuality which does not fit the social role is seen as shameful, and if such feelings do not emerge because of the avoidance of the experiences which could bring them to self-awareness, the individual may lose access to knowledge of them. This process is called repression, although there is no actual repressing force at work. In the presence of such repression self-control is no longer necessary.
If the masculine core of the assertive personality becomes a threat to the capacity for social conformity, the individual may turn away from those interpersonal involvements which bring the masculine self-confidence into focus. Under these conditions, the balance of the personality is preserved at the cost of psychological independence since autonomous growth can only occur when the assertive personality has sufficient freedom to find new avenues of mastery. The separateness which takes its being in the capacity to lay aside established commitments cannot operate where it is alien to psychological balance. The individual becomes imprisoned by the kind of feminine access to feeling which can only be found by dependence on socially shared beliefs. Whatever celebrative adequacy comes with this state of balance he must accept without dissatisfaction and he learns not to expose himself to the alternatives. To be aware of unhappiness means to threaten the whole basis of the feminine elements of his social attainments. Attitudes which are foreign to his pattern of adjustment are no longer used to reach self-confidence, and celebrative patterns which do not conform to his social role are seen as deviant and antisocial. The search for celebrative spontaneity is blocked, and celebrative discipline becomes an essential part of social maturity. This kind of discipline is only possible where it receives broad social reinforcement. The celebrative impulses which are seen as non-conforming are experienced only with guilt, and as they disappear from the personality through avoidance of the situations which tend to evoke them, the individual is no longer called upon to deal with them in any way. This is the process of renunciation, which is the experiential equivalent of repression. In the presence of renunciation, discipline is no longer necessary.
28. Psychological Independence and the Surpluses
The masculine social role can be fulfilled by adherence to socially established traits which the community recognizes as masculine, without regard to the inner identity. Individuals with a feminine inner identity have a tendency toward excessive privacy in their psychic life, as a consequence of their need to establish their social role. In the case of individuals with a masculine inner identity, the masculine social role is easier to establish, but the tendency to invest the whole self in this role brings disappointment and frustration to a degree which forces the individual to an excessive dissociation of his energies.
Unless the private and secret aspects of love become a bridge to experience for the individual, the sensitivity and feelingfulness of the inner self remains walled off from the world of interaction with others. This is especially evident in the area of sexual fantasy. The individual does not employ all the depth he has in adaptive relationships with others, and if his full capacity for depth of feeling is never brought into the light of day, his faith in the meaning of love in human affairs ceases to function in a creative fashion. Where there is a tyrannical spread of the adaptive functions, the love orientation ceases to find access to self-awareness, and a process of forgetting effaces the consciousness of this aspect of the self. There is a difference between privacy and absence of self-knowledge. The deepest part of the self can exist and grow only in the secure world which the secret inner life creates, but this security can never be a stable one. Under the pressure of the sense of inferiority there is an unrelenting reaching toward putting love to work in human affairs, and love which operates without self-knowledge and unabashed honesty finds itself deprived of the essence of its identity.
Unless the separate and dissociated aspect of personal power becomes an avenue to feelingful awareness, the vigor and spontaneity of the inner self cannot find genuine attachments. This is especially true in the area of celebrative play. The individual cannot use all of the vigor of which he is capable in his adaptive relationships, and if his entire potential for participation in experience is never actually utilized in interpersonal relationships, the anticipation of growth and development which hope alone can sustain must be put aside. When there is a dogmatic ensnarement of the adaptive energies in socially rigid patterns, the power drives cease to find expression in a growing self-confidence, and a process of resignation effaces all manifestations of this aspect of the self. Dissociation of action patterns does not mean loss of the sense of participation in these separate experiences since that which is dissociated is capable of expression under conditions of freedom from restraint. The most spontaneous part of the self can exist and grow only in that world of psychological freedom which the separate inner life creates, but access to this atmosphere of freedom is never an established fact of life in the sense that adaptive patterns are. Under the pressure of the sense of guilt there is an unrelenting inner need to find human resources which provide an outlet for personal power, and power which tries to establish itself without courageous innovation finds itself deprived of the essence of its constructive identity.
The capacity for privacy in psychological life leads to autonomy in the personality, but only when inner secrecy does not lead to a loss of self-knowledge. The capacity to sustain access to spontaneous action, dissociated from established social values, leads to inner autonomy, but only when such activity is not characterized by loss of self-investment in the dissociated behavior. Man's great capacity for privacy leads to elaborations of fantasy, and sexuality readily flows into this area. Awareness of his own sexuality is an essential part of self-knowledge, and masturbatory phenomena are released in the process. Man's access to spontaneous dissociated patterns of behavior leads to elaborations of play, and celebrative tendencies flow readily into such activity. The ability to deal with his celebrative nature is an essential part of self-control, and a readiness for thrill seeking enjoyment is released in the process.
29. Creativity and Maturity
The adaptive interactions which make up maturity and bring the social roles into being leave a place for the creative surpluses of civilized man, but they cannot directly guide and support them. If maturity is tyrannical and dogmatic in its utilization of psychological resources, there will be an emptiness of affect and a depression of mood that only becomes an increasing burden as the commitments to adaptive involvements grow in scope. Expanding investment in adaptive activities becomes parasitic on the inner psychological life. The scope of adaptive life can and must develop if the maturity of the individual is to maintain social adequacy in a changing world, but if the individual is in an active phase of creative personal growth, expansion of the adaptive life is difficult or impossible.
Where men react against depressive tendencies by seeking to invest more of themselves in their adaptive life, they tend to distort the nature of the world around them. They attempt to idealize the traits of others which further their own adaptive development, rather than idealizing psychological qualities which have universal meaning. They search for responsiveness in others on the basis of preconceptions which are fixed by their social commitments, rather than on a basis of exploring the actual resources which are inherent in human nature. They see the world through the eyes of their own ambitious strivings and deal with the world as an exercise in promoting social acceptance.
Where worldly ambition becomes the channel of self-development, rather than the inner growth which comes from the work of love, the ideal being served becomes false, and idealism becomes the servant of self-aggrandizing tendencies. Such idealism actually serves the power tendencies of the self. The individual's adaptive aspirations make up the substance of his ideal. Truth seeking in such circumstances must stop when insights have attained usefulness in adaptive ways, and they have no necessary relationship to the abiding truth which exists for its own sake.
Where the need for an increasing social acceptance becomes the channel of self-development, rather than the inner growth which comes from the explorations of personal power, the search for reality loses its responsible qualities and reality becomes a tool of personal vanity. The individual guides his behavior by the response he gains from others, without regard to his personal integrity. He accepts those loyalties which prove useful to him, and interpersonal reality becomes a reflection of his own nature. The development of mastery in such circumstances ends with adaptive accomplishment, and there is no necessary relationship with the kind of uncompromising right which has an existence of its own.
30. The Individual and Social Progress
Human understanding can remain in the service of love, or it can become a means of power seeking. When truth exists for its own sake, its insights are an entity which has an existence of its own. These insights become a resource for others to use, either in the search for more truth, or as a resource in the hands of those individuals who are capable of the creative expansion of the right. Truth can set men free, but the thinker himself is not the agent of this release from bondage. Society must have both thinkers and men of action if it is to fulfill the creative potentials that are inherent in truth and right, and their interaction is essential to social progress.
The expanding capacity for responsibility which comes from personal power can remain a goal in itself, seeking always new human resources, or it can become the means of self-idealization. When the right exists for its own sake, its modalities of mastery become an entity which attracts the identification of others. They may use these modes of behavior in establishing new mastery, or their embodiment of moral integrity may provide an ideal for those who do the creative work of love. The right can make men secure, but the man of action is not in a position to make this security a source of creative productivity for himself.
All the insights and modalities of mastery which human beings develop in their interpersonal life are potentially available for use in practical adaptive activities. This kind of application of truth and right can only come when circumstances make fruitful utilization possible. Truth and right may lie fallow in human affairs for years, decades, or centuries, depending on the course of social progress and the lack of access to the social problems and obstacles to which they could be applied. When men turn away from creative productivity because of the lack of avenues for practical application, their capacity for inner growth disappears. Creativity is a personal accomplishment, and the social gain which accrues from it must depend on factors which lie outside the control of any given individual.
There can be no guarantee of social progress out of the creative contributions of any individual thinker or builder. It is the process of making the contribution itself, and the personal life of access to growth which goes with it, that provides the reward for the creative mode of living. The autonomy which interpersonal creativity requires must be paid for in the rejection of easy access to communication of ideas and to ready demonstrability of modes of control. If the individual does not find his own way in interpersonal relationships, sustaining the aloneness add separateness which such independence brings, he cannot use his own life for the exploration of the meaning of new experience and the value of new concepts. The intellectual enters new experience only when his autonomous capacity to explore meanings remains intact. The man of action exposes himself to new concepts only when his autonomous capacity to develop moral values remains intact. Self-awareness and self-confidence are the basic tools of a creative interpersonal life.
31. Aggression and Passivity
Civilized man has a surplus of insights and modalities of mastery which has no necessary or inevitable application to the practical affairs of every day life. The existence of this surplus is taken for granted in the impersonal fields of physical science and engineering. When men accumulate insights and mastery in human affairs, the tendency to apply them to their adaptive social life may become irresistible. Men live in a world of expanding psychological needs and purposes, and this developmental tendency may lead to a compulsive need to gain material and self-aggrandizing adaptive rewards, or to an obsessive involvement in purposes which gratify adaptive egotism. Any increment in the psychological striving toward material success or popular acceptance tends to weaken the inner commitment to creative goals. When access to conventional success is difficult, inner growth is often facilitated, and conversely, men can lose their devotion to higher purposes when the broad and open road to worldly advantage lies unobstructed before them.
When men withhold themselves from an overinvolvement with the practical and adaptive social interactions, they utilize the mechanisms of withdrawal and indifference. The establishment of a boundary between the creative and the adaptive is a difficult psychological task. The price for living a truth seeking life has often been the acceptance of a priest-like retreat, and men who wish to establish the right may find themselves in a soldier's enlistment. If men put too much of themselves into the day to day involvements of practical living, they find that they are using big tools for little tasks. Love cannot do its work where there is nothing worthy of being loved, nor can power find attachments where there is no genuine opportunity for its kind of integrity. A personality which is both mature and creative is capable of great flexibility in its investment in the adaptive aspect of living. It expands only where circumstances so dictate, and never as a means of inner self-fulfillment. Even though the stresses of life circumstances may call for a major increase in the investment in adaptive interactions, a part of the self remains above and beyond practical affairs, ready to find its proper sphere of expression when opportunity presents itself. Although man is thus a victim of circumstance, the core of his personality remains uncommitted save in areas of his own choosing.
Where there is a fixed commitment to the utilization of all the resources of the inner self in the adaptive social life, the compulsive and obsessive mechanisms come into play. The yielding personality cannot any longer seek truth as an end in itself, but only in terms of its utilization for adaptive ends. The inner feminine core of the personality has none of the security which selective withdrawal confers, and faith no longer has any meaning. Driven by the compulsive need for adaptive success, truth loses its independent identity and becomes the victim of power manipulations. If these power activities are to reach socially successful channels of expression, they need to be shared and reinforced by others, since they can never attain a genuine creative autonomy. This kind of power organization exploits weaknesses in others and does not bring new resources into existence. It flows into areas where there is no effective resistance, justifying itself by a self-serving moral code, and maintains itself by the mutual idealization of similar personalities. The power that builds nothing but the personal advantage of the individual is called aggression. Although aggression serves the individual's adaptive goals rather than the interests of society, it can only exist successfully where it receives social support.
The mechanism of passivity comes into operation when personal power is unable to resist being captured by the adaptive life. The assertive personality loses its freedom to reach for the right as an end in itself. The inner masculine core of the personality requires the mobility which indifference makes possible. Without a genuine mobility, hopefulness cannot translate itself into experiences which make a significant difference. The individual becomes the prisoner of his own loyalties. The right loses its independent identity and is undermined by a parasitic need for love. If these love attachments are to have an adaptive meaning, they must be shared and reinforced by others since they can never attain a creative autonomy. This kind of love orientation submits to the vanity of others and cannot bring new ideals into existence. It is readily captured by surface emotionality and pretense, establishing an aura of permanence through the sharing of cultistic beliefs, and maintains itself by mutual exploitation among similar personalities. The kind of automatic love that understands nothing except the need of another for unquestioning acceptance underlies the passive mechanism, and it cannot exist without social reinforcement.
32. The Psychological Content of Interpersonal Creativity
Man can only fulfill himself as a creative human being by withholding himself from a full commitment to the demands of adaptive social living. To succeed in this psychological task requires constant flexibility in assessing the minimum basic requirements of mature social conformity. He skirts the edge of rebellion and heresy in his unconventional self and risks a loss of inner identity in his adaptive roles.
Individuals who maintain a clear inner identity must find the psychological security and freedom which are essential to its existence. If the individual is committed to patterns of maturity which leave no room for independent growth, a conflict must occur which renders the inner self alien to the world of maturity. This conflict may take up so much of the psychic life as to threaten the capacity for adaptive living.
A yielding personality has more need of love than his mature social interactions can use. An assertive personality has more personal power to express than his adaptive social world can absorb. These creative reservoirs of tension and energy must find an interaction with the human world th
