Note 289 — LECTURE XIX (THE SAME CONTINUED)—THE B PERSONALITY

C writes: “To me this point of the affections is one of the most interesting and curious. As a child and young girl I was affectionate, shy, proud, and reserved—everything that B was not. I positively never had in me any of these traits that B exhibited during those weeks ... except gaiety.”

This statement, when analyzed, is in entire agreement with the results of our study. The absence of affection is what would be expected from the loss of the primary emotion “tender feeling,” the affective element in the parental instinct. Shyness is determined by the instinct of self-abasement which was dissociated from B. Likewise with the self-regarding sentiment of pride in one of its varieties, self-respect. According to McDougall this comprises two instincts: that of self-assertion with its emotion of elation, and that of self-abasement with its emotion of subjection. The latter instinct we have seen reason to conclude was inhibited in B. Hence, on this theory of pride, this sentiment was lost.