A Study on the Nature of Inspiration—Part I. Some Special Considerations Regarding the Phallic Phase

In the foregoing account I have attempted to show how the stage is naturally set in the phallic phase for experiences of exciting, expanding, revelatory significance. Genital sensations and those arising from increased motor capacity give the foundation. The upright body position, combined with the ability to move up and down in space (to climb and to jump) give an increase in the sense of autonomy and separateness, and contribute to a greater ability to look at the body self and its functions with a modest critique. But further, the sense of lightness and invigoration of the period, as though the whole body were affected by deep breathing, comes coincidentally with the opportunity (or obligation) for a greater awareness of external space and time, and the confrontation with intangibles. In the natural symbolization of experience, these are intimately associated, then, with the air, the unseen conveyor of "contact" with the outer world without touch. In the awareness of the own functions, the consciousness of thinking, remembering, dreaming appears. But most of all, the experiences of this special period are influenced by the natural position of the phallic phase between the relatively simple early body-control conscience of the anal phase, and the subtle but elaborated and intense conscience extension of the oedipal phase. This results, as it must, in the further development of ideals and social regulations, but with some encroachment on the fresh expanding innocence of the infantile inspiration. It is my belief that the experiences of inspiration of the phallic period form the prototype for experiences of inspiration, whether these occur in the creative process of gifted individuals, or in a somewhat different form in religious experiences.

One may recall Melville's "What shall be grand in thee must needs be plucked at from the skies and dived for in the deep, and