Our Mother Tongue Etymological Implications of the Social Neurosis*

This paper has attempted to present briefly certain aspects of the phylobiological thesis which has developed out of the researches in human behavior carried on by Trigant Burrow and his associates of The Lifwynn Foundation. To this end it has presented certain aspects of man's linguistic function—a function which is the most characteristic attribute of his behavior and which most clearly demarcates the human from other animal species. It has reviewed the biological origin, the physiological mechanism and the sociological function of language, and has indicated that, while constructive in aim, language nevertheless reflects behavior-trends in man which are socially discrepant. There has been the further attempt to correlate certain linguistic associations of the folk-mind with the altered, phylobiological frame of reference. Through etymological relationships expressive of the folk-consciousness we have disclosed evidence of a deeply organismic trend existing in man as an integral organism, as well as the presence of hidden conflict and divisiveness. From a background which recognizes the social impediments to communication and commonness among men, I have tried to indicate the urgent need for man to undertake an internal study of the complex instrument which projects speech—the instrument, namely, that is man himself. This vital and sensitive instrument of communication and coordination must ultimately become as effective socially as are the mechanisms which through his projective capacity of invention man has so ably devised for the conveyance and dissemination of the spoken and written word.