n of the personality. The suppressed wish,
when suppression results in disturbances of the conscious life, has been
called by psychoanalysts a _complex_. Freud and his colleagues have
isolated and described certain of these complexes. Most familiar of
these are the Oedipus complex, which is explained as an effect of the
unconscious conflict of father and son for the love of the mother; and
the Electra complex, which similarly has as its source the unconscious
struggle of mother and daughter for the affection of the father. Adler,
in his description of the "inferiority" complex, explains it as an
effect of the conflict growing out of the contrast between the ideal and
the actual status of the person. Other mental conflicts described by the
psychoanalysts are referred to the "adopted child" complex, the
Narcissus complex, the sex shock, etc. These conflicts which disturb the
mental life of the person are all the reflections of social relations
and are to be explained in terms of status and the role of the
individual in the group.

Emulation and rivalry represent conflict at higher social levels, where
competition has been translated into forms that inure to the survival
and success of the group. Research in this field, fragmentary as it is,
confirms the current impression of the stimulation of effort in the
person through conscious competition with his fellows. Adler's theory of
"psychic compensation" is based on the observation that handicapped
individuals frequently excel in the very fields in which they are
apparently least qualified to compete. Demosthenes, for example, became
a great orator in spite of the fact that he stuttered. Ordahl presents
the only comprehensive survey of the literature in this field.

Simmel has made the outstanding contribution to the sociological
conception of conflict. Just as the attitudes of the individual person
represent an organization of antagonistic elements, society, as he
interprets it, is a unity of which the elements are conflicting
tendencies. Society, he insists, would be quite other than it is, were
it not for the aversions, antagonisms, differences, as well as the
sympathies, affections, and similarities between individuals and groups
of individuals. The unity of society includes these opposing forces,
and, as a matter of fact, society is organized upon the basis of
conflict.

Conflict is an organizing principle in society. Just as the individual,
under the influences of c