524
FRANCIS GOLFFING
instinctual conflict, which is resolved intra-instinctually, without
benefit---or "malefit"---of a superego; and b) instinctual frustra–
tion through aim-inhibition. We do not know enough about the
adjustment mechanism through which the animal comes to terms
with such frustration, but there is no evidence that would suggest
a process resembling Freudian repression.
Superego formation is dependent on symbolization, symboliza–
tion on the capacity for language
(cf.
Kenneth Burke, Suzanne
Langer). Quite early in man's evolutionary history the logic of
concept formation and the logic of instinct begin to bifurcate
sharply. Once rational schemes for living are entertained, certain
curbs on the individual instincts-there is no such thing as a
"gregarious instinct"-are bound to ensue. Libidinal gratification
is seen at many points to
be
at variance with the dictates of reason,
on which any form of conscious sociality, incorporation, is pre–
dicated. The seeds of superego formation-and of sublimation–
are present in the earliest forms of human society, and develop
henceforward at a rate of acceleration proportional to the
mounting complexity of social compacts.
I hold that the view which would see man as a divided being
(i.e. necessarily, biologically divided) is false; it receives no sup–
port whatever from modern ethological research. That view is
nothing other than a secularization (unacknowledged, for the
most part) of the various creation myths which postulate a man
originally perfect and then suddenly fallen from biological perfec–
tion (usually identified with a state of supernatural grace). Reason
is seen in most of these myths as evil, the cause of man's fall; but
a closer reading suggests that man's libido structure bears equal
responsibility with
his
reason for his undoing, in the form of
unrestrained appetency. Man, then, is damned from the begin–
ning, on two counts: being "neither beast nor angel" he has to
carry the weight of his double nature (tantamount to a double
guilt) through history, without remission except for the possibility
of supernatural redemption.
What has given rise to these "origin myths," which are in
such striking accord with each other? Primitive man felt most
sharply his separateness from, rather than his continuity with, the
animal kingdom. Yet, being so different from animals, why
did he
