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A premature training in cleanliness has been criticized on the psychological grounds that it predisposes to neurosis in later life. This criticism can be supported by considerations of anatomy and physiology.
The polarity of rage and lust, of hate and love, is the reflexion on the mental (cortical) level of the structurally identical polarity of the autonomic. The rage-reaction of the decerebrate animal is a sympathetic discharge coordinated by the posterior hypothalamus; it may be brought about by local surgical interference with the tissues in the neighborhood of the base of the brain, which serves to release the posterior hypothalamus from the restraining control of higher centers, particularly of the rhinencephalon. Rage, therefore, as understood by the physiologist, is the substrate for hate or aggression as known to the psychologist. These emotions lie within the province of the orthosympathetic.
The parasympathetic is opposed to the orthosympathetic at their every point of contact. The opposition, however, is not destructive but balanced; their antagonism is cooperative, and the polarity of plus and minus at the autonomic, visceral level is the foundation of homeostasis. An important and probably primary function of the parasympathetic is thermal defense against overheating, as the orthosympathetic is against cold. The principal mechanism of the parasympathetic defense is vasodilatation, which shunts the blood from muscles to skin, exactly as the thermostat of a car. Vasodilatation is the underlying mechanism not only of the phallic erection but also of the blush of guilt. This is the reason for assigning lust and guilt to the province of the parasympathetic.
The involuntary processes concerned in the emptying of the bowels and bladder are controlled by the polar couple of the autonomic. The orthosympathetic is inhibitory to the large bowel and rectum, motor to the internal or plainmuscle sphincter of the anus; the parasympathetic has the opposite influence at b