er adaptations, the reactions of
infancy and childhood in meeting situations which arise in adult life.
If this assumption is correct it is seen that a reversion to something
more primitive is an undesirable reaction in the individual as well as
in the race. Here too we find that the emotions and feelings associated
with the reproductive instinct may be inadequately developed. It has
been shown above that the day dreams of the child are probably
beneficial rather than harmful. Is this day dreaming beneficial to the
adult? We know from our experience that it is not, and in its relation
to the reproductive sphere this is particularly true. The adult who
substitutes the realities of life by elaborate day dreams is approaching
dangerous ground. The young woman who in adult life is constantly
dreaming of an ideal but fictitious lover is deriving satisfaction from
unhealthy sources; and the young man who ecstatically becomes a hero or
a racial benefactor is equally at fault. In instances where such
thoughts are believed in and acted upon as we observe again and again in
mental disorders, a serious condition of the mind has arisen. When an
attempt is made to gain satisfaction in these immature ways at a later
stage of development, or when there is a failure to develop at a certain
point, the reaction is harmful in both the individual and in the race.

It is during the adolescent period that these failures of adaptation
generally occur. At this time, the whole development in the
reproductive sphere, particularly in the mental characteristics
associated with the sexual instinct, considered in its broadest sense,
does not take place. There may be much rumination about this topic, but
the responsibilities of adult sexual life, of marriage, of child bearing
with the female, are not adequately met. Fancies are substituted for
reality, and while, as stated above, young women may dream of ideal
lovers, they at the same time are shy and unnatural in their attitude
toward the opposite sex. Young men, instead of taking their place in the
life of the adult community, realize adult ambitions only by elaborate
day dreams. In abnormal mental states, we see young men in their fancies
become important personages, religious benefactors and national heroes.
They may shun all association with women but at the same time maintain
that they have a cultural mission to populate the earth. We see here how
the feelings associated with reproductive instin