PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious BY D. H. LAWRENCE NEW YORK THOMAS SELTZER 1921 Copyright, 1921, by THOMAS SELTZER, INC. All rights reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS I. PSYCHOANALYSIS _vs._ MORALITY 9 II. THE INCEST MOTIVE AND IDEALISM 26 III. THE BIRTH OF CONSCIOUSNESS 45 IV. THE CHILD AND HIS MOTHER 64 V. THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED 83 VI. HUMAN RELATIONS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS 102 CHAPTER I PSYCHOANALYSIS _vs._ MORALITY Psychoanalysis has sprung many surprises on us, performed more than one _volte face_ before our indignant eyes. No sooner had we got used to the psychiatric quack who vehemently demonstrated the serpent of sex coiled round the root of all our actions, no sooner had we begun to feel honestly uneasy about our lurking complexes, than lo and behold the psychoanalytic gentleman reappeared on the stage with a theory of pure psychology. The medical faculty, which was on hot bricks over the therapeutic innovations, heaved a sigh of relief as it watched the ground warming under the feet of the professional psychologists. This, however, was not the end. The ears of the ethnologist began to tingle, the philosopher felt his gorge rise, and at last the moralist knew he must rush in. By this time psychoanalysis had become a public danger. The mob was on the alert. The Œdipus complex was a household word, the incest motive a commonplace of tea-table chat. Amateur analyses became the vogue. “Wait till you’ve been analyzed,” said one man to another, with varying intonation. A sinister look came into the eyes of the initiates—the famous, or infamous, Freud look. You could recognize it everywhere, wherever you went. Psychoanalysts know what the end will be. They have crept in among us as healers and physicians; growing bolder, they have asserted their authority as scientists; two more minutes and they will appear as apostles. Have we not seen and heard the _ex cathedra_ Jung? And does it need a prophet to discern that Freud is on the brink of a Weltanschauung—or at least a Menschanschauung, which is a much more risky affair? What detains him? Two things. First and foremost, the moral issue. And next, but more vital, he can’t get down to the rock on which he must build his church. Let us look to ourselves. This new doctrine—it will be called no less—has been subtly and insidiously suggested to us, gradually inoculated into us. It is true that doctors are the priests, nay worse, the medicine-men of our decadent society. Psychoanalysis has made the most of the opportunity.