The moon was associated with the female deity of the ancients. Isis is accompanied by the moon on most coins and emblems. Venus has the same symbols. Indeed, the star and crescent of our modern times, of the Turkish flag and elsewhere, are in reality the sun and crescent of antiquity, male and female symbols in conjunction. Lunar ornaments of pre-historic times have been found throughout England and Ireland, and doubtless explain the superstitions about the moon in those countries. The same prehistoric ornaments are found in Italy. In the legends of the North American Indians, Moon is Sun's wife.

The full extent of these beliefs is pointed out by Mr. John Newton in "Assyrian Grove Worship." Here we see that the ancient Hindus gave a much more literary relationship between the sun and earth than we are accustomed to express in modern times. He states, "This representative of the union of the sexes typifies the divine Sakti, or productive energy, in union with the pro-creative or generative power as seen throughout nature. The earth was the primitive pudendum or yoni which is fecundated by the solar heat, the sun, the primitive linga, to whose vivifying rays man and animals, plants and the fruits of the earth, owe their being and continued existence."

It is not possible to discuss Sun worship at any length without at the same time discussing phallicism and serpent worship. Hargrave Jennings, who has made careful study of these worships, points out their general identity in the following paragraph. He states: "The three most celebrated emblems carried in the Greek mysteries were the phallus, the egg, and the serpent; or otherwise the phallus, the yoni or umbilicus, and the serpent. The first in each case is the emblem of the sun or of fire, as the male or active generative power. The second denotes the passive nature or female principle or the emblem of water. The third symbol indicates the destroyer, the reformer or the renewer, (the uniter of the two) and thus the preserver or perpetuater eternally renewing itself. The universality of serpentine worship (or Phallic adoration) is attested by emblematic sculptures or architecture all the world over."

The author of the "Round Towers of Ireland" in discussing the symbols of sun worship, serpent worship and phallicism, found on the same tablet, practically reiterates these statements. He says: "I have before me the sameness of design which belonged indifferently to solar worship and to phallic. I shall, ere long, prove that the same characteristic extends equally to ophiolatreia; and if they all three be identical, as it thus necessarily follows, where is the occasion for surprise at our meeting the sun, phallus and serpent, the constitutent symbols of each, embossed upon the same table and grouped under the same architrave?"

By a number of references, we could readily show the identity of all these worships. The preceding paragraphs give, in summary form, the conclusions of those writers who have made such religions their special study. We shall not exemplify this further, but will now point out the general relationship of sun worship to the religious festivals and mythology of the Ancients. This relationship becomes important when it is appreciated that the sun worship expressed in the mysteries is also a part of phallicism. On some of these festive occasions the phallus was carried in the front of the procession and at other times the egg, the phallus and the serpent were carried in the secret casket.



ANCIENT FESTIVALS AND MYSTERIES

The Ancients expressed their religious beliefs in a dramatic way on a number of occasions throughout the year. The festivities were held in the Spring, Autumn, or Winter. These were to commemorate the activities of the sun, his renewed activity in the Spring calling forth rejoicing and his decline in the Fall being the cause of sorrow and lamentation. As well as the festivities, there were the various mysteries, such as the Eleusinia, the Dionysia and the Bacchanalia. These were conducted by the priests who moulded religious beliefs and guarded their secrets. The mysteries were of the utmost importance and the most sacred of religious conceptions were here dramatized.

Mythology also gave expression to the religious ideas of the time and we find that the most important myths, dramatically produced at the religious festivals, were sun myths.

The annual festivities and mysteries will be discussed together because both were intended to dramatize the same beliefs. Both were under priestly control and so were national institutions. The festivals were for the common people but the mysteries were fully understood only to the initiated.

While no very clear account of the mysteries has been given, a certain theme seems to run through them all, and this is found in the myths as well. A drama is enacted, in which the god is lost, is lamented, and is found or returns amid great rejoicing.[3] This was enacted in Egypt where the mourning was for Osiris; and in Greece for Adonis, and later for Bacchus. All these are, of course, sun gods, and the whole dramatization or myth is in keeping with the activities of the sun.

[3] The Enactment and Rebirth.

On these occasions, the main object seems to have been to restore the lost god, or to insure his reappearance. The women took the leading part and mourned for Osiris, Adonis or Bacchus. They wandered about the country at night in the most frenzied fashion, avoided all men and sought the god. At times, during the winter festival, the quest would be fruitless. In the Spring, when they indulged themselves in all sorts of orgies and extravagances, Adonis was found.

The underlying motive appears to have been to enact a drama in which the deity was supposed to exercise his procreative function by sexual union with the women. This was an ideal which they wished to express dramatically. In order to realize this ideal obstacles were introduced that they might be overcome; in the old myth, Adonis was emasculated under a pine tree, and in Egypt Osiris was similarly mutilated, his sex organs being lost. But at the festivals it was portrayed that Adonis was found, and in the myth, Osiris was restored to Isis in the form of Horus (the morning sun). In a number of myths, the god is said to have visited the earth to cohabitate with the women, an occurrence which was doubtless desired, in order that the deistic attributes might be continued in the race. Thus, judging from what we have been able to learn of this subject, the worship expressed in the mysteries revolved about sexual union, the desire being to dramatize the continued activity of deistic qualities.

This character of many of the festivals and mysteries is very evident. In the Eleusinian mysteries the rape of Persephone by Pluto, the winter god, is portrayed. The mother, Demeter, mourns for her daughter. Her mourning is dramatically carried out by a large procession, and this enactment requires several days. Finally Persephone is restored. The earlier part of the festival was for dramatic interest, and the real object was the union of Persephone with Bacchus. "The union of Persephone with Bacchus, i.e., with the sun god, whose work is to promote fruitfulness, is an idea special to the mysteries and means the union of humanity with the godhead, the consummation aimed at in the mystic rites. Hence, in all probability the central teaching of the mysteries was Personal Immortality, analogue of the return of the bloom to plants in Spring."[4]

[4] Dr. Otto Rhyn, Mysteria.

The mysteries of Samothrace were probably simpler. Here the phallus was carried in procession as the emblem of Hermes. In the Dionysian mysteries which were held in mid-winter, the quest of the women was unsuccessful and the festival was repeated in the Spring. The Roman mysteries of Bacchus were of much later development, and consequently became very debased. Men as well as women eventually came to take part in the ceremony, and the whole affair degenerated into the grossest of sexual excesses and perversions.

We have stated what appears to us to have been the underlying motives of the religious festivals and mysteries; namely, the enactment of a drama in which the reproductive qualities of the deity were portrayed. The phallus was carried in procession for this purpose and the women dramatized the motive as searching for the god. Our account can be regarded as little more than an outline, but it is sufficient for our present purposes. It indicates that the mysteries give an expression of phallic worship, just as do the various monuments of art and religion to which we have referred. It may also be said that this same worship is represented in what may be termed early literature, for much of the early mythology deals with the same subject. The study of origins in mythology, however, cannot be dealt with adequately in our present communication.



CONCLUSION

We have now traced the worship of sex, as recorded by the monuments of antiquity, through its various phases. In its simplest form, the generative organs are worshipped without disguise; the sexual act also forms a part of religious ceremonies. Later, a rude symbolism develops. As the race becomes more advanced, this becomes more elaborate, until finally a considerable degree of ingenuity and skill are evidenced. The worship of sex is not only expressed in religious usages, but comes to dominate early art as well; it is also expressed in mythology, and so we find the same symbolical and allegorical expressions in early literature. In fact, the deepest thoughts of primitive races, as expressed in their religion, eventually dominate most of the customs and usages of every day life.

We may appropriately ask, why did primitive people deify the sexual organs? This question may be answered when we understand the religious ceremonies of primitive tribes. The earliest objects worshipped were those which were of known benefit to man. The Aborigines of Australia have very elaborate ceremonies which superficially seem meaningless but when understood have a very definite meaning. This aim is to ensure some certain product of the earth. If it is a Yam[5] ceremony, an elaborate procedure is carried out which is supposed to make yams grow. There is a secret ceremonial object which is a symbol of the yam and which bears to it more or less resemblance. Other ceremonies are carried out for similar purposes. The meaning of all these semi-religious performances, as clearly shown by Spencer Baldwin, is to ensure the benfits which nature gives. This, in brief, explains nature worship, and were it our object at present, it would be most interesting to show the peculiar resemblance of these ceremonies to those carried on in sex worship.

[5] A kind of sweet potato.

As the early races advanced in knowledge, they came to know that the perpetuation of the race depended upon generative attributes. For this reason human generative attributes were deified and appropriate ceremonies were held, just as in the case of nature worship. These are not "lewd practices," as they are not infrequently called. It is indeed regrettable that the subject of sex worship has been disregarded by many historians, as thereby erroneous impressions are given. The facts of nature worship have always been much better understood and its importance has been realized; those of sex worship have been less carefully recorded.

The literature and philosophy which we are accustomed to associate with Greek thought are of a later date. Once such abstract reasoning is possible, sex worship is no longer seriously entertained. The symbolism remains, but is, associated now, not so much with religion as with art. Likewise in India, the early Buddhism, which was sex worship, has changed to the present day Buddhistic Philosophy, the symbols alone remaining.

From all this we are inclined to believe that in sex worship we are dealing with important motives in the development of the race. We make no presence of having exhausted the subject in this communication. The decadence of this religion, as observed in the early Christian period, and in fact well through the middle ages, forms a very interesting history. It is not our purpose, however, to deal with it at present. Likewise, it should be understood that the motives which we have been discussing are not necessarily the earliest manifested in racial development; we have a record of a time in the history of man when the worship of sex had not yet made its appearance but this period also is not a part of our present topic.

The influence of early racial motives upon present day civilization is a topic of great interest. Its importance is, in fact, the main object of studies of this kind. However, we wish our account to be mainly an historical one, and so will not at present make reference to a number of applications which arise. We have also refrained from making use of the modern writings on matters of sex, as we thereby avoid criticism to the effect that our findings have been drawn from biased sources. We feel that while the reader may disagree in certain details as here set forth, the universal appearance of sex worship at a certain stage of racial development is scarcely to be denied. The writers whom we have cited are all of a former generation, and they were searching for origins in religion, not in sexual life; inadvertently they found the latter, in fact could not avoid it, and so their conclusions are all the more valuable to us.

REFERENCES.[6]

[6] For a number of additional references consult New York Library under Phallicism.

Cox, Rev. G. W.: The Mythology of the Aryan Nations.

Deiterich, A.: Mutter Erde.

Fraser, J. G.: Adonis, Attis and Osiris; Balder, the Beautiful; Psyche's Task.

Grosse: The Beginnings of Art.

Higgins, Godfrey: The Anacalypsis; Celtic Druids.

Harrison, Miss Jane: Ancient Art and Ritual; Themis.

Howitt, A. W.: The Native Tribes of South East Australia.

Inman, Dr. Thomas: Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names; Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism.

Jennings, Hargrave: The Rosicrucians; The Indian Religions.

King, C. W: The Gnostics and their Remains; Hand-book of Engraved Gems.

Knight, R. P.: The Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology; Two Essays on the Worship of Priapus.

Layard, A.: Babylon and Nineveh; Nineveh and its Remains.

Murray, Gilbert: Hamlet and Orestes.

Newton, John: Assyrian Grove Worship.

O'Brien, Henry: The Round Towers of Ireland.

Rawlinson, G.: History of Ancient Egypt; Ancient Monarchies.

Rhyn, Dr. Otto: Mysteria.

Rocco, Sha: Ancient Sex Worship.

Spencer, B.: Native Tribes of the Northern Territory of Australia.

Westropp, Hodder M.: Primitive Symbolism.

Wood, Rev. J. G.: The Uncivilized Races.



ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

(Primitive customs, religious usages, etc.)

Bryant: System of Mythology.

DeGubernatis, Angelo: Zoological Mythology.

Judson: Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes..

Langdon, S.: Tammuz and Ishtar.

Perrot, and Chipiez: History of Art in Phrygia, Lidia, Caria and Lycia; History of Art in Persia.

Prescott: Conquest of Peru.

Rousselet, Louis: India and Its Native Princes.

Stevens, J.: Central America, Chiapez and Yucatan.

Solas, W. J.: Ancient Hunters.

Wood-Martin: Pagan Ireland.



REVIEWS

THE MEANING OF DREAMS. By Isador H. Coriat. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1915, Pages xiv plus 194.

This concise and well written little book hardly needs reviewing for the readers of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology as all who have followed Dr. Coriat's writings for the last few years will know at once the nature of the book and what it contains. His purpose is evidently to give a simple clear statement of the position of the Freudian school and he accomplishes this with more than ordinary success. He is lavish in his praises of Freud and seemingly accepts unquestionably the whole mass of Freudian doctrines. One searches in vain for the least question or the slightest suggestion that some of the Freudian concepts might possibly be wrong. Everywhere the words of Freud and the beliefs of the author are given as absolute, eternal and unquestionable. He incorporates some of the recent additions to the Freudian teachings, such as Brill's treatment of the "artificial dream," but concerning the fundamentals he leaves the original doctrines without noticeable modification. In discussing the mechanisms of dreams he adds a fifth to the original four, calling his addition "reinforcement." Reinforcement is the mechanism by which "the prominent or primary wish of the dream is reinforced, expressed anew for the purpose of emphasis by means of a second dream following the first, really a dream within a dream." With this exception he leaves the original Freudian teachings intact and unchanged. He says that a dream is the fulfilment of a wish and no modifications of the statement follow that could possibly make one think he meant anything else. His definite position is stated as follows: "The term 'wish' in psycho-analysis is very comprehensive and connotes in a broad sense all our desires, ambitions or strivings." He illustrates his points by numerous dreams which he has himself analyzed. He will probably meet some objection from those who are not ardent Freudians concerning some of these dreams as the interpretation is not always "perfectly clear" as he says it is to him. Some may say that at least a dozen other interpretations might just as well and just as logically have been given, but this is the objection that is raised concerning all Freudian literature. The best characterization of the book is to say that it is typically Freudian.

(As a side issue, it is interesting to notice how many of the dreams given relate to the European War. Some one has said that America shows her concern over the war by the way Americans dream.)

There are two characteristics of the book which are worthy of special mention and for which Dr. Coriat needs special praise. One of these is that it is so simply written that the general public can read it and understand it. No other Freudian publication which the reviewer has seen can boast of the same simplicity. The other point is that absolutely everything concerning sex which could possibly be objectionable has been ruled out. There is not a word or a sentence in the book that a precise maiden lady need hesitate to read to her Sunday School class or at a pink tea. In doing this Dr. Coriat has indeed achieved the impossible as all will readily agree. This book is probably too elementary for the majority of the readers of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology but it is destined to fill a place which no previous Freudian publication could ever fill; it is a book for the general public and the beginner in psychology and for this purpose it is truly a little gem. RAYMOND BELLAMY. Emory and Henry College.



THE PSYCHONEUROSES AND THEIR TREATMENT BY PSYCHOTHERAPY. By Professor J. Dejerine and Dr. E. Gauckler. Authorized Translation by Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D., Ph. D. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, Pa.

This book is another instance of the lack of a common nomenclature in psychopathology. Psychological mechanisms are penetratingly discussed; and important syntheses are made regarding categories which many American psychopathologists name differently not to speak of the nomenclature of the repressionist of Vienna. It seems to the reviewer indeed, that what the authors call neurasthenia is merely a somewhat complex elaboration of the psychosis by induction to which Babinski has restricted the name hysteria. It is true that certain manifestations of this, especially a false gastropathy, may lead to an increased fatigue, and to this the name neurasthenic might appropriately be given. But still more often one sees the appearance of increased fatigue on account of the patient's faulty notion; and to this the name neurasthenic should certainly not be given.

To place in the same rubric a simple somatic hysteria like a paralysis and the complications of what are comprised in psychological neurasthenia as so lucidly described in this book, seems at first sight irrational; but so at first appeared the placing together of clinical pictures as unlike as cervical struma, phthisis pulmonalis and ossious caries under the rubric of tuberculosis, and in a nearer field the synthesis of catatonia, hebephrenia and cementing paranoia into the rubric of dementia precox. So, recognizing the accuracy of the beautiful analysis of Professor Dejerine of what he calls neurasthenia, we venture to assimilate it with the equally true analysis which Babinski has made of the immediate mechanism of what he wishes to call pithiatism. It is the condition which we personally term hysteria, and the mechanism of which we have more especially studied in the traumatic neuroses and the occupational dyskinesias and some other disorders incident to the exercise of trade or profession. Indeed, the authors say:—"One can see that the helmet headache, the pain in the nape of the neck, and the pain in the spine are frequent among cultivated people and educated neurasthenics, but much rarer among the others" and he explains this by saying that these disturbances "are due to the diffusion of the attention towards obsessions or preoccupations;" and he gives as an example the reply of a patient "I think of my illness or such vicissitude by which it was brought about." Indeed, in one place, Professor Dejerine goes so far as to permit himself to say that the hypochondriac preoccupation itself constitutes originally a purely intellectual conception, a propos of which, but secondarily to it the patient really may work up an emotion, but which is really NOT OF EMOTIONAL ORIGIN, a position first taken and long insisted upon by the reviewer.

What is this when traced to its source but the mechanism of suggestion? The portion of the book describing the functional manifestations of the digestive system is charged with most illuminating instances of associational mechanism typifying the induction of morbid reactions by suggestion. No one perusing them can fail to perceive that the psychological process at work does not differ in principle from that found in the somatic hysterias, from which therefore their separation seems unjustifiable, and at the hands of so eminent an author is likely to maintain rather than diminish present psychological misunderstanding.

The dissimilarity of terms and resemblances of ideas has another illustration in the reference to energy and the will; here it is clearly pointed out that the apparent aboulia of the "neurasthenic" is not a lack, but an unfruitful directing of the will while the Viennese school imply the same idea in their doctrine of sublimation.

The authors believe that neurasthenia differs from the psychasthenia of Janet in that the latter is constitutional, and that the obsessions are secondary, when analysed profoundly, to some pain-bearing contingency which by the mechanism of association has pervaded the mind and which henceforth distorts it with subsequent realities. And yet when Dejerine lays stress upon the fact that badly organized moral hygiene conduces to the emotional preoccupations which lead to obsessions and which he regards as the essential characteristics of the neurasthenic constitution, he leaves no apparent distinction from the psychasthenia of Janet.

"The fundamental distinction of neurasthenia is causation by emotion," but the authors have not extricated this factor from the role played by induction either of idea or its secondary emotion. In such a fundamental matter as anaesthesia for instance, they say: "In our opinion there exist three classes of hysterical anesthesia. In the first series of facts one may place the cases due to simulation. In the second group of cases we shall range the patients in whom the disturbances of sensibility are directly due to suggestion. Finally there remains a third class of patients in whom the disturbances of sensibility seem to us to be residual emotional phenomena."

"Emotion is able to suppress sensibility entirely by producing absolute side-tracking, and that under such circumstances it was really a question of total anesthesia and not purely psychoanesthesia. When the state has passed and the emotional cause has disappeared the sensibility may return, but anesthesia which is preserved may also persist, either by auto-suggestion or as in the case of the individual who remarks that he felt none of the various injuries which he has experienced, or it is a question of simple residual phenomenon independent of all suggestion." And yet, further on, the authors say that the phenomena of auto-suggestion cannot be separated from the emotion. All this lacks clarity; and except in the instances of failure of perception or of auto-suggestion, the mechanism is not intelligibly set forth.

The authors, however, although under the deplorable classification of neurasthenia or hysteria, depart from the usual therapeutic methods and seek the cause of the patient's disease outside of the objective symptoms and declare that the "element of diagnosis lies chiefly in the origin of the symptoms."

They make much of the assertion that Dr. Weir Mitchell's method of treatment is based practically upon isolation, rest in bed, over-feeding, douches, massage and electricity, in fact on purely physical measures and Professor Dejerine adds: "I was not long in discovering that unless the patient's state of mind improved, the therapeutic results were far from satisfactory;" and he gives examples.

But in spite of the objections to the nosology and psychopathological theory of the authors, there remains nothing but the highest praise for the presentation of the clinical facts and of the sound advice regarding the therapy of various functional manifestations, and concerning the role of the physician in the prophylaxis of the psychogenic neuroses. It is most desirable that every physician should be aware of the clinical facts which Professor Dejerine has accumulated in his vast experience. In gynaecology, gastroenterology, cardiology. and genitounary disease the psychogenetic affections are ignored by most physicians.

This book will give a better understanding of what every practitioner of those specialities should be familiar with. TOM A. WILLIAMS.

THE END