elf
and expend its energy in other lines of creative endeavor. There seems
to be some sort of close connection between the especially intense
energy of the reproductive instinct and the modes of expression of the
instinct for construction; a connection which makes possible the
utilization of threatening destructive energy by directing it toward
socially valuable work. Just as we harness the mountain stream and use
its wild force to light our cities, or catch the lightning to run our
trolley cars, so we find man and woman--under the right
conditions--easily and naturally switching over the power of their
surplus sex-energy to ends which seem at first only slightly related
to its original aim, but which resemble it in that they too are
self-expressive and creative. If a person is able to express himself
in some real way, to give himself to socially needed work; if he can
reproduce himself intellectually and spiritually in artistic
production, in invention, in literature, in social betterment, he is
drawing on an age-old reservoir of creative energy, and by so doing is
relieving himself of inner tension which would otherwise seek less
beneficent ways of expression.

The world knew all this intuitively for a long time before it knew it
theoretically. The novelists, who are unconsciously among the best
psychologists, have thoroughly worked the vein. The average man knows
it. "He was disappointed in love," we say, "and we thought he would go
to pieces, but now he has found himself in his work"; or, "She will go
mad if she doesn't find some one who needs her." It is only lately
that science has caught up with intuition, but now the physicians and
psychologists who have had the most intimate and first-hand
acquaintance with the human heart are recognizing, to a man, this
unique power of the love-instinct and its possibilities for creative
work of every sort.[14]

[Footnote 14: Among those who have shown this connection between the
love-force and creative work are Freud, Jung, Jelliffe, White, Brill,
Jones, Wright, Frink, and the late Dr. Putnam of Harvard University,
who writes: "Freud has never asserted it as his opinion and it
certainly is not mine, that this is the only root from which artistic
expression springs. On the other hand, it is probable that all
artistic productions are partly referable to this source. A close
examination of many of them would enable any one to justify the
opinion that it is a source largely dr