hers.
The ensemble of reactions tends to be repeated around the same
stimulus, until the whole becomes automatic. One may observe the same
process in the lower animals. Offer a piece of meat to a dog and his
mouth waters. Ring a bell before offering the meat. Repeat this a
number of times, and after a while the mere ringing of the bell,
without the presence of the meat, will cause his mouth to water. This
associated vegetative secretion reflex is the most fundamental to
grasp in an understanding of the deepest strata of personality.

Now there are, besides the associated vegetative-endocrine reactions,
certain inborn automatic processes in the vegetative system and in
the internal secretion system, which work automatically to produce
increased intravisceral pressures. The reduction of these pressures
below the point of their intrusion upon consciousness, their relief,
as we say, also form the centers of constellations around feelings
of satisfaction or love. Such, for example, are the voiding of
excretions. Sooner or later, these automatic reactions, and the
associated reflexes formed around the mother, father and other
associates, come into conflict. Inhibitions or prohibitions of the
automatic act at certain times or moments are imposed by somebody.
And so there occurs a pitting of the automatic mechanism against the
associated reflex. Conflict with adjustment by suppression must occur.
Thus a sense of self as active wisher (for the automatically pleasant
experience), and punishable suppressor (of the same in favor of the
acquired associated reflex) develops.

So far, so good. Compromise by regulation from above, from the
brain, of the automatic reactions follows, as training. No absolute
repression is forced, no absolute encouragement is indorsed.
Harmonious equilibrium, or normality, continues. But now there come
upon the scene the unconscious fears.

In the paleontology of character, these fears are the deepest strata,
the eocene era, so to speak, of the soul. They are the hardest to get
at and the most silent, as well as the most dominant of the influences
which guide conduct. In Sir Walter Raleigh's words:

"Passions are best likened to streams and floods.
The shallows murmur, the deeps are dumb."

During the first period of childhood, up to five or six, the primary
fears group themselves around the taboos and secrets of its life.

Though we have every reason for believing that the sex glands are
acti