s a
costly proceeding, an emergency measure like a fire-alarm, to be used
only when the occasion is urgent enough to demand it. How often it is
misused and how large a part it plays in nervous symptoms, both mental
and physical, will appear more clearly in later chapters.

=Repulsion and Disgust.= Akin to the instinct of flight is that of
repulsion, which impels us, instead of fleeing, to thrust the object
away. It leads us to reject from the mouth noxious and disgusting
objects and to shrink from slimy, creepy creatures, and has of course
been highly useful in protecting the race from poisons and snakes. It
still operates in the tendency to put away from us those things,
mental or physical, toward which we feel aversion or disgust. Recent
psychological discoveries have revealed how largely a neurosis
consists in putting away from us--out of consciousness,--whatever we
do not wish to recognize, and so it happens that disgust plays an
unexpected part in nervous disorders.

=Curiosity and Wonder.= Fortunately for the race, it has not had to
wait until different features of the environment prove to be helpful
or harmful. There is an instinct which urges forward to exploration
and discovery and which enables the creature not only to adapt itself
to the environment but to learn how to adapt the environment to
itself. This is the instinct of curiosity. It is the impulse back of
all advance in science, religion, and intellectual achievement of
every kind, and is sometimes called "intellectual feeling."

=Self-Assertion.= It goes almost without saying that one of the
strongest and most important impulses of mankind is the instinct of
self-assertion; it often gets us into trouble, but it is also behind
every effort toward developed character. At its lowest level
self-assertion manifests itself in the strutting of the peacock, the
prancing of the horse, and the "See how big I am," of the small boy.
At its highest level, when combined with self-consciousness and the
moral sentiments acquired from society and developed into the
self-regarding sentiment, it is responsible for most of our ideas of
right, our conception of what is and what is not compatible with our
self-respect.

=Self-Abasement.= Self-assertion is aroused primarily by the presence
of others and especially of those to whom we feel in any way
superior, but when the presence of others makes us feel small, when we
want to hide or keep in the background, we are bein