CHAPTER III

Footnote 279:

Naturally a precursor of onanism.

Footnote 280:

This true catatonic pendulum movement of the head, I saw arise in the case of a catatonic patient, from the coitus movements gradually shifted upwards. This Freud has described long ago as a shifting from below to above.

Footnote 281:

She put the small fragments which fell out into her mouth and ate them.

Footnote 282:

“Dreams and Myths.” Vienna 1909. Translated by Wm. A. White, M.D.

Footnote 283:

A. Kuhn: “Mythologische Studien,” Vol. I: “Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertrankes.” Gütersloh 1886. A very readable résumé of the contents is to be found in Steinthal: “Die ursprüngliche Form der Sage von Prometheus,” _Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft_, Vol. II, 1862; also in Abraham: Ibid.

Footnote 284:

Also mathnâmi and mâthayati. The root _manth_ or _math_ has a special significance.

Footnote 285:

_Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung_, Vol. II, p. 395, and Vol. IV, p. 124.

Footnote 286:

I learn (that which is learned, knowledge; the act of learning), to take thought beforehand, to Prometheus (forethought).

Footnote 287:

Prometheus, the herald of the Titans.

Footnote 288:

Bapp in Roscher’s “Lexicon,” Sp. 3034.

Footnote 289:

_Bhṛgu_ = φλεγυ, a recognized connection of sound. See Roscher: Sp. 3034, 54.

Footnote 290:

For the eagle as a fire token among the Indians, see Roscher: Sp. 3034, 60.

Footnote 291:

The stem _manth_ according to Kuhn becomes in German _mangeln_, _rollen_ (referring to washing). Manthara is the butter paddle. When the gods generated the amrta (drink of immortality) by twirling the ocean around, they used the mountain Mandara as the paddle (see Kuhn: Ibid., p. 17). Steinthal calls attention to the Latin expression in poetical speech: _mentula_ = male member, in which _ment_ (_manth_) was used. I add here also, _mentula_ is to be taken as diminutive for _menta_ or _mentha_ (μίνθα), _Minze_. In antiquity the _Minze_ was called “Crown of Aphrodite” (Dioscorides, II, 154). Apuleius called it “mentha venerea”; it was an aphrodisiac. (The opposite meaning is found in Hippocrates: Si quis eam saepe comedat, ejus genitale semen ita colliquescit, ut effluat, et arrigere prohibet et corpus imbecillum reddit), and according to Dioscorides, Minze is a means of preventing conception. (See Aigremont: “Volkserotik und Pflanzenwelt,” Vol. I, p. 127). But the ancients also said of Menta: “Menta autem appellata, quod suo odore mentem feriat—mentae ipsius odor animum excitat.” This leads us to the root _ment_—in Latin _mens_; English, mind—with which the parallel development to _pramantha_, Προμηθεύς, would be completed. Still to be added is that an especially strong chin is called _mento_ (_mentum_). A special development of the chin is given, as we know, to the priapic figure of Pulcinello, also the pointed beard (and ears) of the satyrs and the other priapic demon, just as in general all the protruding parts of the body can be given a masculine significance and all the receding parts or depressions a feminine significance. This applies also to all other animate or inanimate objects. See Maeder: _Psycho.-Neurol. Wochenschr._, X. Jahrgang. However, this whole connection is more than a little uncertain.

Footnote 292:

Abraham observes that in Hebrew the significance of the words for man and woman is related to this symbolism.

Footnote 293:

“What is called the gulya (pudendum) means the yoni (the birthplace) of the God; the fire, which was born there, is called ‘beneficent’” (“Kâtyâyanas Karmapradîpa,” I, 7; translated by Kuhn: “Herabkunft des Feuers,” p. 67). The etymologic connection between _bohren_—_geboren_ is possible. The Germanic _bŏrôn_ (to bore) is primarily related to the Latin _forare_ and the Greek φαράω = to plow. Possibly it is an Indo-Germanic root _bher_ with the meaning to bear; Sanscrit _bhar-_; Greek φερ-; Latin _fer-_; from this Old High German _beran_, English to bear, Latin _fero_ and _fertilis_, _fordus_ (pregnant); Greek φορός. Walde (“Latin Etym.,” s. Ferio) traces _forare_ to the root _bher-_. Compare with this the phallic symbolism of the plough, which we meet later on.

Footnote 294:

Weber: “Indische Studien,” I, 197; quoted by Kuhn: Ibid., p. 71.

Footnote 295:

“Rigveda,” III, 29—1 to 3.

Footnote 296:

Or mankind in general. Viçpatni is the feminine wood, viçpati, an attribute of Agni, the masculine. In the instruments of fire lies the origin of the human race, from the same perverse logic as in the beforementioned shuttle and sword-hilt. Coitus as the means of origin of the human race must be denied, from the motive, to be more fully discussed later, of a primitive resistance against sexuality.

Footnote 297:

Wood as the symbol of the mother is well known from the dream investigation of the present time. See Freud: “Dream Interpretation.” Stekel (“Sprache des Traumes,” p. 128) explains it as the symbol of the woman. Wood is also a German vulgar term for the breast. (“Wood before the house.”) The Christian wood symbolism needs a chapter by itself. The son of Ilâ: Ilâ is the daughter of Manus, the one and only, who with the help of his fish has overcome the deluge, and then with his daughter again procreated the human race.

Footnote 298:

See Hirt: “Etymologie der neuhochdeutschen Sprache,” p. 348.

Footnote 299:

The capitular of Charlemagne of 942 forbade “those sacrilegious fires which are called Niedfyr.” See Grimm: “Mythologie,” 4th edition, p. 502. Here there are to be found descriptions of similar fire ceremonies.

Footnote 300:

Kuhn: Ibid., p. 43.

Footnote 301:

Instead of preserving the divine faith in its purity, the reader will call to mind the fact that in this year when the plague, usually called Lung sickness, attacked the herds of cattle in Laodonia, certain bestial men, monks in dress but not in spirit, taught the ignorant people of their country to make fire by rubbing wood together and to set up a statue of Priapus, and by that method to succor the cattle. After a Cistercian lay brother had done this near Fentone, in front of the entrance of the “Court,” he sprinkled the animals with holy water and with the preserved testicles of a dog, etc.

Footnote 302:

Preuss: “Globus,” LXXXVI, 1905, S. 358.

Footnote 303:

Compare with this Friedrich Schultze: “Psychologie der Naturvölker,” p. 161.

Footnote 304:

This primitive play leads to the phallic symbolism of the plough. Ἀροῦν means to plough and possesses in addition the poetic meaning of impregnate. The Latin _arare_ means merely to plough, but the phrase “fundum alienum arare” means “to pluck cherries in a neighbor’s garden.” A striking representation of the phallic plough is found on a vase in the archeological museum in Florence. It portrays a row of six naked ithyphallic men who carry a plough represented phallically (Dieterich: “Mutter Erde,” p. 107). The “carrus navalis” of our spring festival (carnival) was at times during the Middle Ages a plough (Hahn: “Demeter und Baubo,” quoted by Dieterich: Ibid., p. 109). Dr. Abegg of Zurich called my attention to the clever work of R. Meringer (“Wörter und Sachen. Indogermanische Forschungen,” 16, 179/84, 1904). We are made acquainted there with a very far-reaching amalgamation of the libido symbols with the external materials and external activities, which support our previous considerations to an extraordinary degree. Meringer’s assumption proceeds from the two Indo-Germanic roots, _ṷen_ and _ṷeneti_. Indo-Germanic _*uen Holz_, ai. ist. _van_, _vana_. Agni is _garbhas vanām_, “fruit of the womb of the woods.”

Indo-Germanic _*ṷeneti_ signifies “he ploughs”: by that is meant the penetration of the ground by means of a sharpened piece of wood and the throwing up of the earth resulting from it. This verb itself is not verified because this very primitive working of the ground was given up at an early time. When a better treatment of the fields was learned, the primitive designation for the ploughed field was given to the pasture, therefore Gothic _vinja_, υομη, Old Icelandic _vin_, pasture, meadow. Perhaps also the Icelandic _Vanen_, as Gods of agriculture, came from that.

From _ackern_ (to plough) sprang _coïre_ (the connection might have been the other way); also Indo-Germanic _*ṷenos_ (enjoyment of love), Latin _venus_. Compare with this the root _ṷen_ = wood. _Coïre_ = passionately to strive; compare Old High German _vinnan_, to rave or to storm; also the Gothic _vēns_; ἐλπις = hope; Old High German _wân_ = expectation, hope; Sanscrit _van_, to desire or need; further, _Wonne_ (delight, ecstasy); Old Icelandic _vinr_ (beloved, friend). From the meaning _ackern_ (to plough) arises _wohnen_ (to live). This transition has been completed only in the German. From _wohnen_ → _gewöhnen_, _gewohnt sein_ (to be accustomed), Old Icelandic _vanr_ = _gewohnt_ (to be accustomed); from _ackern_ further → _sich mühen_, _plagen_ (to take much trouble, wearing work), Old Icelandic _vinna_, to work: Old High German _winnan_ (to toil hard, to overwork); Gothic _vinnan_, πάσχειν; _vunns_, πάθημα. From _ackern_ comes, on the other hand, _gewinnen_, _erlangen_ (to win, to attain), Old High German _giwinnan_, but also _verletzen_ (to injure): Gothic _vunds_ (_wund_), wound. _Wund_ in the beginning, the most primal sense, was therefore the ground torn up by the wooden implement. From _verletzen_ (to injure) come _schlagen_ (to strike), _besiegen_ (to conquer): Old High German _winna_ (strife); Old Saxon _winnan_ (to battle).

Footnote 305:

The old custom of making the “bridal bed” upon the field, which was for the purpose of rendering the field fertile, contains the primitive thought in the most elementary form; by that the analogy was expressed in the clearest manner: Just as I impregnate the woman, so do I impregnate the earth. The symbol leads the sexual libido over to the cultivation of the earth and to its fruitfulness. Compare with that Mannhardt: “Wald- und Feldkulte,” where there are abundant illustrations.

Footnote 306:

Spielrein’s patient (_Jahrbuch_, III, p. 371) associates fire and generation in an unmistakable manner. She says as follows concerning it: “One needs iron for the purpose of piercing the earth and for the purpose of creating fire.” This is to be found in the Mithra liturgy as well. In the invocation to the fire god, it is said: ὁ συνδήσας πνεύματι τὰ πὑρινα κλεῖθρα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (Thou who hast closed up the fiery locks of heaven, with the breath of the spirit,—open to me). “With iron one can create cold people from the stone.” The boring into the earth has for her the meaning of fructification or birth. She says: “With the glowing iron one can pierce through mountains. The iron becomes glowing when one pushes it into a stone.”

Compare with this the etymology of _bohren_ and _gebären_ (see above). In the “Bluebird” of Maeterlinck the two children who seek the bluebird in the land of the unborn children, find a boy who bores into his nose. It is said of him: he will discover a new fire, so as to warm the earth again, when it will have grown cold.

Footnote 307:

Compare with this the interesting proofs in Bücher: “Arbeit und Rhythmus,” Leipzig 1899.

Footnote 308:

Amusement is undoubtedly coupled with many rites, but by no means with all. There are some very unpleasant things.

Footnote 309:

The Upanishads belong to the Brâhmana, to the theology of the Vedic writings, and comprise the theosophical-speculative part of the Vedic teachings. The Vedic writings and collections are in part of very uncertain age and may reach back to a very distant past because for a long period they were handed down only orally.

Footnote 310:

The primal and omniscient being, the idea of whom, translated into psychology, is comprehended in the conception of libido.

Footnote 311:

Âtman is also considered as originally a bisexual being—corresponding to the libido theory. The world sprang from desire. Compare _Bṛihadâraṇyaka-Upaniṣhad_, I, 4, 1 (Deussen):

“(1) In the beginning this world was Âtman alone—he looked around: Then he saw nothing but himself.

“(2) Then he was frightened; therefore, one is afraid, when one is alone. Then he thought: Wherefore should I be afraid, since there is nothing beside myself?

“(3) But also he had no joy, therefore one has no joy when one is alone. Then he longed for a companion.”

After this there follows the description of his division quoted above. Plato’s conception of the world-soul approaches very near to the Hindoo idea. “The soul in no wise needed eyes, because near it there was nothing visible. Nothing was separate from it, nothing approached it, because outside of it there was nothing” (“Timaios”).

Footnote 312:

Compare with this Freud’s “Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory.”

Footnote 313:

What seems an apparently close parallel to the position of the hand in the Upanishad text I observed in a little child. The child held one hand before his mouth and rubbed it with the other, a movement which may be compared to that of the violinist. It was an early infantile habit which persisted for a long time afterwards.

Footnote 314:

Compare Freud: “Bemerkungen über einen Fall von Zwangsneurose.” 1912 _Jahrbuch_, Vol. I, p. 357.

Footnote 315:

As shown above, in the child the libido progresses from the mouth zone into the sexual zone.

Footnote 316:

Compare what has been said above about Dactyli. Abundant examples are found in Aigremont: “Fuss- und Schuhsymbolik.”

Footnote 317:

When, in the enormously increased sexual resistance of the present day, women emphasize the secondary signs of sex and their erotic charm by specially designed clothing, that is a phenomenon which belongs in the same general scheme for the heightening of allurement.

Footnote 318:

It is well known that the orifice of the ear has also a sexual value. In a hymn to the Virgin it is called “quæ per aurem concepisti.” Rabelais’ Gargantua was born through his mother’s ear. Bastian (“Beiträge z. vergl. Psychologie,” p. 238) mentions the following passage from an old work, “There is not to be found in this entire kingdom, even among the very smallest girls, a maiden, because even in her tender youth she puts a special medicine into her genitals, also in the orifice of her ears; she stretches these and holds them open continuously.”—Also the Mongolian Buddha was born from the ear of his mother.

Footnote 319:

The driving motive for the breaking up of the ring might be sought, as I have already intimated in passing, in the fact that the secondary sexual activity (the transformed coitus) never is or would be adapted to bring about that natural satiety, as is the activity in its real place. With this first step towards transformation, the first step towards the characteristic dissatisfaction was also taken, which later drove man from discovery to discovery without allowing him ever to attain satiety. Thus it looks from the biological standpoint, which however is not the only one possible.

Footnote 320:

Translated by Mead and Chattopâdhyâya. Sec. 1, Pt. II.

Footnote 321:

In a song of the Rigveda it is said that the hymns and sacrificial speeches, as well as all creation in general, have proceeded from the “entirely fire consumed” Purusha (primitive man-creator of the world).

Footnote 322:

To shine; to show forth; reveal;—light.

Footnote 323:

I said; they said; a saying; an oracle.

Footnote 324:

Compare Brugsch: “Religion und Myth. d. alt. Aegypter,” p. 255 f., and the Egyptian dictionary.

Footnote 325:

The German word “Schwan” belongs here, therefore it sings when dying. It is the sun. The metaphor in Heine supplements this very beautifully.

“Es singt der Schwan im Weiher Und rudert auf und ab, Und immer leiser singend, Taucht er ins Flutengrab.”

Hauptmann’s “Sunken Bell” is a sun myth in which bell = sun = life = libido.

Footnote 326:

Why is it wonderful to understand the universe, if men are able? i.e., men in whose very being the universe exists and each one (of whom) is a representative of God in miniature? Or is it right to believe that men have sprung in any way except from heaven—He alone stands in the midst of the citadel, a conqueror, his head erect and his shining eyes fixed on the stars.

Footnote 327:

Loosely connected with ag-ilis. See Max Müller: “Vorl. über den Ursprung und die Entwicklung der Religion,” p. 237.

Footnote 328:

An Eranian name of fire is _Nairyôçağha_ = masculine word. The Hindoo _Narâçam̆sa_ means wish of men (Spiegel: “Erân. Altertumskunde,” II, 49). Fire has the significance of Logos (compare Ch. 7, “Siegfried”). Of _Agni_ (fire), Max Müller, in his introduction to “The Science of Comparative Religions,” says: “It was a conception familiar to India to consider the fire upon the altar as being at the same time subject and object. The fire burned the sacrifice and was thereby similar to the priest, the fire carried the sacrifice to the gods, and was thereby an intercessor between men and the gods: fire itself, however, represented also something divine, a god, and when honor was to be shown to this god, then fire was as much the subject as the object of the sacrifice. Hence the first conception, that Agni sacrificed itself, i.e. that it produced for itself its own sacrifice, and next that it brings itself to the sacrifice.” The contact of this line of thought with the Christian symbol is plainly apparent. Krishna utters the same thought in the “Bhagavad-Gîtâ,” b. IV (translated by Arnold, London 1910):

“All’s then God! The sacrifice is Brahm, the ghee and grain Are Brahm, the fire is Brahm, the flesh it eats Is Brahm, and unto Brahm attaineth he Who, in such office, meditates on Brahm.”

The wise Diotima sees behind this symbol of fire (in Plato’s symposium, c. 23). She teaches Socrates that Eros is “the intermediate being between mortals and immortals, a great Demon, dear Socrates; for everything demoniac is just the intermediate link between God and man.” Eros has the task “of being interpreter and messenger from men to the gods, and from the gods to men, from the former for their prayers and sacrifices, from the latter for their commands and for their compensations for the sacrifices, and thus filling up the gap between both, so that through his mediation the whole is bound together with itself.” Eros is a son of Penia (poverty, need) generated by Poros intoxicated with nectar. The meaning of Poros is dark; πόρος means way and hole, opening. Zielinski: “Arch. f. Rel. Wissensch.,” IX, 43 ff., places him with Phoroneus, identical with the fire-bringer, who is held in doubt; others identify him with primal chaos, whereas others read arbitrarily Κόρος and Μόρος. Under these circumstances, the question arises whether there may not be sought behind it a relatively simple sexual symbolism. Eros would be then simply the son of Need and of the female genitals, for this door is the beginning and birthplace of fire. Diotima gives an excellent description of Eros: “He is manly, daring, persevering, a strong hunter (archer, compare below) and an incessant intriguer, who is constantly striving after wisdom,—a powerful sorcerer, poison mixer and sophist; and he is respected neither as an immortal nor as a mortal, but on the same day he first blooms and blossoms, when he has attained the fulness of the striving, then dies in it but always awakens again to life because of the nature of his father (rebirth!); attainment, however, always tears him down again.” For this characterization, compare Chs. V, VI and VII of this work.

Footnote 329:

Compare Riklin: “Wish Fulfilment and Symbolism in Fairy Tales,” translated by Wm. White, M.D., where a child is produced by the parents placing a little turnip in the oven. The motive of the furnace where the child is hatched is also found again in the type of the whale-dragon myth. It is there a regularly recurring motive because the belly of the dragon is very hot, so that as the result of the heat the hero loses his hair—that is to say, he loses the characteristic covering of hair of the adult and becomes a child. (Naturally the hair is related to the sun’s rays, which are extinguished in the setting of the sun.) Abundant examples of this motive are in Frobenius: “Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes,” Vol. I. Berlin 1904.

Footnote 330:

A potion of immortality.

Footnote 331:

This aspect of Agni is similar to Dionysus, who bears a remarkable parallel to both the Christian and the Hindoo mythology.

Footnote 332:

“Now everything in the world which is damp, he created from sperma, but this is the soma.” _Bṛihadâraṇyaka-Upaniṣhad_, 1–4.

Footnote 333:

The question is whether this significance was a secondary development. Kuhn seems to assume this. He says (“Herabkunft des Feuers,” p. 18): “However, together with the meaning of the root _manth_ already evolved, there has also developed in the Vedas the conception of ‘tearing off’ due naturally to the mode of procedure.”

Footnote 334:

Examples in Frobenius: “Das Zeitalter des Sonnengottes.”

Footnote 335:

See in this connection Stekel: “Die sexuelle Wurzel der Kleptomanie,” _Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft_, 1908.

Footnote 336:

Even in the Roman Catholic church at various places the custom prevailed for the priest to produce once a year the ceremonial fire.

Footnote 337:

I must remark that the designation of onanism as a “great discovery” is not merely a play with words on my part. I owe it to two young patients who pretended that they were in possession of a terrible secret; that they had discovered something horrible, which no one had ever known before, because had it been known great misery would have overtaken mankind. Their discovery was onanism.

Footnote 338:

One must in fairness, however, consider that the demands of life, rendered still more severe by our moral code, are so heavy that it simply is impossible for many people to attain that goal which can be begrudged to no one, namely the possibility of love. Under the cruel compulsion of domestication, what is left but onanism, for those people possessed of an active sexuality? It is well known that the most useful and best men owe their ability to a powerful libido. This energetic libido longs for something more than merely a Christian love for the neighbor.

Footnote 339:

I am fully conscious that onanism is only an intermediate phenomenon. There always remains the problem of the original division of the libido.

Footnote 340:

In connection with my terminology mentioned in the previous chapter, I give the name of autoerotic to this stage following the incestuous love. Here I emphasize the erotic as a regressive phenomenon; the libido blocked by the incest barrier regressively takes possession of an older way of functioning anterior to the incestuous object of love. This may be comprehended by Bleuler’s terminology, Autismus, that is, the function of pure self-preservation, which is especially distinguished by the function of nutrition. However, the terminology “autismus” cannot very well be longer applied to the presexual material, because it is already used in reference to the mental state of dementia praecox where it has to include autoerotism plus introverted desexualized libido. Autismus designates first of all a pathological phenomenon of regressive character, the presexual material, however, of a normal functioning, the chrysalis stage.