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The conception of man is unlikely to be thought of as a practical matter. It may not seem to be of interest to any but philosophers and others who lead academic lives. But the question, ‘Who do you think you are?‘ is a spontaneous tribute to the fact that a man's idea of himself may be important in fashioning his behaviour.
The question, ‘Who do you think you are?’ is often associated with hostility aroused by what the questioner thinks is aggression. Hitherto, until the wars of 1914 and 1939, the aggression that an individual might suffer at the hands of another seemed to be of proportionately greater consequence than the injury one nation might do to another. A man might kill another, but a group would be unlikely to kill, or even seriously damage, another group. The atom bomb has altered that, and with it any hopes we might harbour that the greater the group, the more unlikely it would be to suffer or to inflict much harm. It therefore matters for a group to ask of another group and of itself, ‘Who do they think they are?’ Much may depend on the answer.
I began by framing our inquiry narrowly, as it might be necessary in a particular episode in the life of a man. It is no longer advisable to leave the wider application on one side as of no consequence in the affairs of nations. I shall consider it as a concept with significance in the context of man's place amongst living things in their historical development. Who, or what, does the human race think it is?
The question, and its possible answers, has become urgent since our capacity for destruction has increased. Our capacity for asking the question and pursuing an inquiry has also been increased by the work of Freud. Freud invented psychoanalysis during his observation of the class of sick persons who appeared to be ill and yet showed no
sign of physical or mental disorder as that was ordinarily understood. The investigation commenced with his interest in neurotic disorders, but I wish to focus attention on hi