'The Passing of the Gentleman.': W. N. Evans. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 1949, Vol. XVIII, 1, pp. 19–43.

The author uses the development and eventual disappearance of the 'gentleman' to study the struggle between the super-ego and instinctual conflict. The various traits of the English 'gentleman' are traced back and discussed from an analytic point of view. The restraining codes of chivalry were ultimately internalized to become the super-ego. The flair for eroticizing the reality principle and so regarding war as a game was renounced only with reluctance. The 'Gentleman's' unwillingness to work is another expression of his avoidance of the reality principle. In addition, the idea that work was degrading originated with the inferiority of woman, the castrated being. The 'Gentleman' continued the secular or gentile tradition that derives from the split into a priest or war lord as two ways of life. The Gentile used his achievements to deny the fear of castration engendered by the Jew's symbolic castration. The 'Gentleman' was given ready-made responses to deal with his responses instead of creating his own neurotic symptoms. Ultimately, the obsessional code demands renunciation of instincts. The rules of conduct were internalized as a super-ego and thus became more important than reality.