(10) The incestuous tendencies with which we are here concerned are, as we have amply seen, among the earliest manifestations of sexuality (in the wide sense of this term commonly employed by psycho-analysts) and, like most other manifestations of this aspect of human nature, suffer from the general repression to which sexuality in all its more direct expressions is habitually subject. It is no doubt true that the incestuous direction of the youthful sexual impulse itself contributes in very appreciable measure to the conditions which bring about this general repression, and that this repression is therefore to some extent an effect rather than a cause of the incest inhibition. Nevertheless it would seem at least equally certain that incest inhibition is far from being responsible for the whole of sexual repression and that the latter does react powerfully in certain respects upon the former, so that the existence of a general tendency to the repression of all manifestations of the sexual instinct may be regarded as constituting an additional factor in the inhibition of incestuous affection for which we have been trying to account[264]. [Sidenote: Thus the circumstances of human life are responsible for the mental conflicts that centre round the incest tendencies] We have now studied some of the principal factors which, it seems, may have had some influence in producing the tremendous conflicts in the human mind which centre round the family. In so far as we have been correct in our analysis of these factors, it would appear that there are strong influences, both in the individual and in the race, which work both positively and negatively in regard to those aspects of love and hate which constitute the Œdipus complex. The existence of the mental struggles which this complex inevitably brings in its train may therefore, on a wider view, appear less startling than on a first approach. Both the human individual and the human race are subject to conditions, some of which favour one mode of response, some of which are best reacted to by a contrary or at least an antagonistic type of behaviour. Owing to the inherent limitations of the human mind at the unconscious and primitive levels--its difficulty in overcoming habits that have once been formed, its tendency to give expression simultaneously to incompatible impulses, its relatively small power of creating distinctions and differentiations--it is inevitable that the different tendencies which are thus created and aroused should frequently come into conflict. It would seem to be more especially the function of consciousness however to produce a clear distinction between different situations and thus to facilitate nicer adaptations of conduct than would otherwise be possible. By understanding his own impulses and the true nature of the situations which have called them forth and to which they are adapted, man becomes to some extent master of his own fate and can rise above the blind level