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This material constitutes the first part of a longer study on the nature of inspiration and focuses on the prototype of inspiration as it appears quite regularly in the young child, with special emphasis on the phallic phase of development. Inspiration is defined in its literal sense and linked with respiration. References are made to its association with ideas of death, birth, and rebirth, as pointed out by Frazer in The Golden Bough. The age of four is considered of special significance in the natural history of inspiration, at which time the child has a growing awareness of his own identity and an appreciation of the outer world. The relationship between respiration, taking in of food, and expulsion of feces is viewed in the light of the increasing importance of phallic urges. Experiences of exciting, expanding, and revelatory nature are based on genital sensation and those arising from increased motor capacity.
The differences between the phallic phase of the little boy and girl are also stressed. Further, the experiences of this special period are influenced by the position of the phallic phase between the 'early body-control conscience of the anal phase, and the subtle … conscience extension of the Oedipal phase'.
The child's growing awareness of power, exhilaration, greater motility, and excitement, so strongly influenced by phallic urges, are projected onto the external world, and act as a prototype for experiences of inspiration. Mention is also made of its bearing on creativity as well as screen memories of exceptionally gifted people dating back to this phase. 'Vivid memories from the phallic period reveal how much the body sensations are reflected and expressed in the projections of the imagination about cosmic events.'
The author suggests a basic biological variance in the gifted child to explain why the capacity for inspiration goes into partial eclipse in the less gifted. It is also further suggested that the superego of the artist has less pers