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A paper read before the Royal Anthropological Institute on an occasion which, as the author justly remarks, was not without some historical interest, being the first time that the doctrines of psycho-analysis were propounded to an anthropological audience.
The paper was worthy of the event, for it presents, within the compass of a few pages, a masterly presentation of some of the chief points of contact between the two disciplines. Attention is drawn in the first place to the very remarkable similarity between the facts brought to light by the two very different methods, a similarity 'often so striking and unexpected as positively to call out for explanation'; a comparison being made in this connection between the 'omnipotence of thought' and the 'Oedipus complex' on the one side, with the facts of animism and incest prohibition upon the other. With regard to the distinction between the mentality of primitive man, of the child and of the civilized adult, it is held that the differences depend primarily on the relative predominance of two modes of thinking. These two modes of thinking differ profoundly, but both are present in some degree in all three types of mind. The author then considers certain ways in which the views of psycho-analysts and anthropologists seem to have converged. Both, for instance, tend to interpret their data in terms of purely human and ego-centric motives, in distinction to some of the more philosophic or cosmological interpretations in vogue among certain of the earlier schools of anthropology. Another matter with regard to which the convergence is very striking is that of symbolism, and in this connection extensive parallels are quoted between psycho-analytical results and the independent conclusions of such workers as Elliott-Smith and Perry. It is shown how psycho-analysis can corroborate, amplify and deepen the 'self-preservation' theory held by writers of this school; particular consideration being given to womb symbols, and thei