apparatus as the determinant of normal
and abnormal behaviour, emotional reactions and disturbances of power
should in time cause even the most fanatic of the psychanalysts to
recognize the functional basis of the mental acrostics they are so
fond of dissecting.

NATURAL ABILITY

Another achievement of the psychanalysts is the recognition of the
influence of organic and functional inferiorities of the individual
upon the history of his personality. Gross organ inferiorities are
those which are definite handicaps in the struggle for success in
society, such as heart disease. Such handicaps, however, are limited
to relatively few of a population. The raison d'etre of the greater
number of minor mental inefficiencies the psychanalyst puts down to
handicaps in the unconscious. Again he mistakes figurative imagery for
explanations. The conception of endocrine diversity in the make-up
supplies us with the rationale of the vast majority of organic and
functional defects and inferiorities, in short, subnormalities of any
group, large or small.

Moreover, how would the psychanalyst explain the occurrence and
influence of organic and functional _superiorities_ and their
tremendous influence upon the individual and society? We live in a
generation which has acquired a flair for the pathologic. Undoubtedly
it is a soul-sick generation, and its interest in sickness of the
mind is only natural. Just the same, whatever advances, improvements,
progress, have been made (and certainly a number of the changes in his
environment, external and internal, must be admitted to be changes for
the better) have been made, not by natural disability, but by natural
ability. What is the physiology of natural ability?

The finest study of natural ability that has as yet been composed is
Francis Galton's on Hereditary Genius. It also remains the best study
of the natural conditions of success. He showed that of the type of
man he classed as "illustrious" there occurred about one in a million,
and of the type "eminent" about two hundred and fifty in a million.
Of the qualities which determine natural ability of this kind, he
selected inherent capacity, zeal, and perseverance as the three
prerequisites. And he states that "If a man is gifted with vast
intellectual ability, eagerness to work, and power of working, I
cannot comprehend how such a man should be suppressed." "Such men
(those who have gained great reputations) biographies show to
be haun