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Since the primary concern of psychoanalysis will probably always remain with problems relating to the individual, it is unlikely that it can ever aspire to a dominant role in sociology. But in view of the fact that it does help to throw light on the barriers that are raised between the individual and the community we are justified in appealing to psychoanalysis for aid whenever we find ourselves puzzled about barriers that exist between one community and another.
By applying what psychoanalytical research has taught us about the ideas, convictions and practices of the individual, we may be able to obtain some insight into unconscious factors which underlie the ideas, convictions and practices of a community or even a race of mankind. Indeed, such attempts have been made in a psychoanalytical study of the English by Maeder (1) and of the Hindus by myself (2).
It may be presumed that at all times and among all people the variations in the color of the human skin have attracted an enormous amount of attention. Some might incline to the view that this is only what anyone would expect in view of the very striking nature of the phenomenon. This is perfectly true, but I would like to observe that it is not so much in the measure of the attention that has been paid so universally to skin pigmentation that the interest for us lies, as in the quality of that attention. No matter whether we turn to the literature of olden times or to the columns of the daily press, we cannot fail to be impressed with the fact that the ideas on this subject to which mankind has become habituated are remarkable for the strong “feeling-tone” with which they are invariably associated. In the phraseology of psychoanalysis, these ideas are “over-determined”.
Now psychoanalysis has taught us that whenever we encounter