er.

Just as an emotional reaction may become conditioned to almost any other
stimulus than the one which originally called it forth, so there is a
tendency for any emotion to seek a vicarious outlet whenever its natural
expression is inhibited. Were any member of the group to give free play
to his affective life he would inevitably interfere seriously with the
freedom of the other members. But the fear of arousing the disapproval
of his fellows, which is rooted in man's gregarious nature, inhibits the
tendency to self-indulgence. "A most important factor begins to exert
pressure upon the infant at birth and continues throughout its life,"
says Kempf. "It is the incessant, continuous pressure of the herd ... to
conventionalize its methods of acquiring the gratification of its
needs."[5] The emotions thus denied a natural outlet seek other channels
of activity which have received the sanction of social approval.

It is obvious that the rigid social regulations concerning sexual
activities must enforce repression of the erotic impulses more
frequently than any others. The love which is thus denied its biological
expression transmutes itself into many forms. It may reach out to
envelop all humanity, and find a suitable activity in social service. It
may be transformed into the love of God, and find an outlet in the
religious life of the individual. Or it may be expressed only in
language, in which case it may stop at the stage of erotic fantasy and
day-dream, or may result in some really great piece of poetry or prose.
This last outlet is so common that our language is full of symbolic
words and phrases which have a hidden erotic meaning attached to them.

According to Watson, the phenomena seen in this tendency of emotions
inhibited at one point to seek other outlets are too complex to be
explained on the basis of conditioned reflex responses. All that we can
say at present is that too great emotional pressure is drained off
through whatever channel environmental and hereditary factors make
possible.[8] This vicarious mode of expression may become habitual,
however, and interfere with a return to natural activities in a manner
analogous to that in which the development of the erotic fetish often
prevents the normal reaction to the original stimulus.

Because the conditioned emotional reactions and substitutions of
vicarious motor outlets take place at neurological and physiological
levels outside the realm of conscious