One type of psycho-analysts rejects all explanations which are simple
: everything must be interpreted in terms of some- thing else no analogy is too fantastic. Indeed, the pm-logical symbolism of the savage is direct simplicity when contrasted with the analogical equations which Dr. Geza R6heim pro- pounds for us in Animism, Magic and the Divine King (Kegan Paul, 21s.) Despite a liberal peppering of terms like " probably," " we suspect," " this appears to be." Dr. Behan shows no sign of doubt in his conclusions. The Primal Horde of Freud, l'rvater Oedipus, all the abracadabra of an undigested sexuality are thrown into the anthropological melting-pot. The results arc often startling and rarely worth while. Are we, for instance, much farther when we are told that "animism means our mental past " ? Maim is inter- preted as " deflected sexual strivings " (poor, ignorant 'Melan- esians, they know not what they do). But the Primal Horde. gives Dr. 116heim an opportunity which he puts to the fullest use with his customary lucidity : for to him " the Primal Horde appears as a super-organic attempt to imitate the pnwess of specialization that led to the gametic cells, and this process itself may perhaps have been a centralization of libidinal sub- stances. A succession of genitopetal and genitofugal currents of the libido is the history and tragedy of humanity."
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