Lasswell Harold D. The Political Writings of Harold D. Lasswell
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CHAPTER
Xir
THE
PERSONALITY
SYSTEM
AND
ITS SUBSTITU-
TIVE
REACTIONS
So
far
in
this book
human
behavior has been
inter-
preted
in
terms of
various
"tendencies"
which sjich be-
havior is
supposed to
manifest.
Suppose we
call into ques-
tion this type
of
psychological
explanation.
What,
after
all,
is
a
"tendency"?
It postulates a
relationship
between
events,
one of
which is taken
as
the
terminal situation,
and
others
of which
are treated
as
relative approxima-
tions
to
the type
situation.
Terms
like
"wishes,"
"de-
sires,"
"instincts,"
"impulses,"
"drives,"
and
"motives"
are all
employed in this sense.
For purposes
of analysis, tendency interpretations may
be
divided
into five main classes,
depending on the nature
of
the relationship
wJiich
is
postulated between the
ap-
proximate and the
terminal situation.
First,
personality
events
may
be
interpreted
as
approximations toward,
or
realizations of,
g^al^
(terminals) which
are communi-
cated by the subject.
We
may believe
a
man who tells
us
that he
is running for
a
train
when
we see him dashing
along the street toward the railway
station.
Second,
personality
events
may
be interpreted
as de-
grees of approximation
to subsequent
events
which
are
actually observed.
Mr.
C's solicitude
for the
health and
welfare of the needy
ones of the district
may be construed
in
the light
of his
subsequent campaign
for
Congress.
*
Expanded from
an article
with the same title which appeared
in
the
Journal
of
Abnormal
and
Social Psychology,
January, 1930.
221
222
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
AND POLITICS
Third,
personality events
may be
treated
as
degrees of
resumption
of
terminal
situations
of
a
type
which
have al-
ready
been
observed.
Lying
in bed
after waking up
in
the
morning,
whenever there are
difficulties
to
cope
with,
may
be
interpreted as
a
reactivation
of an earlier psycho-
logical
impulse
to
lie still and be
waited on.
Fourth,
personality
events may be
construed as approx-
imations to
"normal" terminal
events which are observed
for the
biological or
cultural category
of
the individual.
Thus
heterosexuality
may be
postulated as
a
tendency
of
a
human being,
although
he consummates no hetero-
sexual
adjustments.
Fifth, personality events
may
be
interpreted in terms
of end
situations
which
are
"extreme" for the members
of
the
species
or
the culture. Thus the acts
of
man may
be
viewed as
degrees of approximation
to
murder, suicide,
and
incest.
Each
sense
in which the tendency conception is
used is
valid and useful
for certain
purposes, and is
exposed
to
characteristic liabilities
to
error.
Thus if we
accept the
man's statement that he is running to catch
a
train, we
may
be
wrong; he may
be
running
to
the
woods beyond
to es-
cape
the constable.
The reactive
type of statement is
an
alternative (I
should
prefer
to say a
supplement)
to
tendency
generalizations.
When
we make
a
reactive statement,
we specify
quite def-
initely the antecedent-consequent
relation
to
which refer-
ence is made. The specific stimulus-response
description
of
the
events which elicit
the
knee jerk,
or call
out an
avoidance reaction
to yellow cloth, illustrates
what is
meant
here.
Of
course the
stimulus-response style
of thinking
is
not
nearly
as
exhaustive,
and
the tendency
style of
thinking
is not
nearly
as ambiguous
in
actual application,
as might
THE
PERSONALITY SYSTEM
223
appear
at
first glance.
The
stimulus-response
statement of
how
to elicit
the knee
jerk
which is
usually given
may be
predictively
valid
in
eight cases out of
ten; but there are
"exceptions"
which show how
wide is
the
context
of
factors
which it would be necessary to
include
in the
picture, were
it
nearly
complete. And
when the
stimulus-response mode
of
thinking
is extended from such
relatively stable
and
touchable
situations
to
those
which involve complex
cen-
tral
(subjective) events in
the
sequence,
it becomes in
reality
a
disguised
form of tendency
interpretation.
The chief
possible virtue of
tendency
conceptions
is
in
introducing
some sort of order
in complex
phenomena.
If the observer tries to
enumerate all the
body movements,
all the electronic
gyrations,
all
the nuances
of social
ad-
justment which are thinkable in
a
given constellation of
personality events, he is likely
to
become lost in aimless
classification,
and to
prove barren in the invention of
pro-
cedures which
are calculated to
elicit particular aspects
of the whole which may
be
of
high predictive
value.
The
human mind
is able
to operate
with
a
very
small
number
of categories
with which
to
introduce order into events,
particularly
when
these are, for
the most part, still defined
qualitatively.
Clarity
of thought demands economy in the
orienting frames
of thought.
How
a
tendency
simplification
may lead to
fruitful
research for
predictively
valuable particulars
is shown in
the
case of Freud,
in
contrast
to
Janet. Janet
made remark-
ably
clear
classifications
of
the
psychopathological
facts
as he saw them,
and although
his terms and
categories were
abundant, his
work
was
comparatively sterile of
novel pro-
cedures for
the
modification
of human personalities.
Even
his
classificatory
pursuits
were
hampered
by
his
little-criti-
cized
assumptions.
His
notion
that dreams
were
passing
224
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
AND POLITICS
confusions
which were
traceable to
diminished psycho-
logical
tension in sleep
deprived
dream
material
of all
significance as
classifiable data,
and he
almost completely
ignored
it. Freud, who
tended to
operate with
a
few bold
tendency
simplifications,
brought
into the range of
ob-
servation whole
categories of data
which have
high
predic-
tive
value.
When
tendency simplifications are used
until
vast num-
bers
of instances accumulate
of
their supposed
operation,
"subtendencies"
(such
as
the variations
of the
manifesta-
tions
of the Oedipus constellation)
multiply
apace
until
the
problems of rendering
one
tendency
consistent with
the
expressions of another one carry
scientific
speculations
into
the logical molds
of
legalism and dogmatic
theology.
If
the subtendencies
are not
modified, and long
lists of
special
.tendencies
are
added, terminological
difficulties
likewise arise
in applying the
unwieldy list.
The long
inventories
of supposed instincts are less at fault
because
they
imply an unwarranted assurance about the
innate
propensities of man than
because
they are
"too numerous
to
mention,"
and
introduce confusion rather
than orient-
ing
principles in the field
of study.
Although the prediction
of
one
set of tangible
reactions
from another is the aim of scientific formulation,
this
by
no
means implies, then,
that the reactive
style of
thinking
is the one
best
calculated
to guide the
attention
of the
thinker
to
the selection of
the most
fruitful
hypotheses
("if" predictions). Indeed,
especially
valuable
results
have been
secured in the personality
field
by
the
pattern
of
thinking which views
a
cross-section of
facts
as an ex-
pression
of
a
few
tendencies.
But
a
reactive style
of thinking which
operates
with
a
few
simplifications
might
prove useful
in
the study
of
hu-
THE
PERSONALITY
SYSTEM 225
man
personality at
the
present
time, since
both the psycho-
analytical
and
the
"itemistic"
psychologies
have
a
plethora
of
particulars
with which
they
are
familiar, but suffer
from certain
crippling
viewpoints
inherent in their early
starting-points.
Psychoanalysis is
well accustomed to the
use
of
a
few
orienting terms,
but
since
these
are stated
in "tendency"
form, there is
much lack
of emphasis upon
rendering the
objective marks of
their manifestation pre-
cise.
The inventory
psychologies though
accustomed
to
precision are accustomed to
overlooking the woods for
the
trees.
Can
the personality
be
viewed as a
system, and
can
we
think
of it in
a
few
terms
which can
be
gradually
ob-
jectified,
and
which indicate the
principal varieties
of
personality
manifestation? If the
personality
is
a
true
system,
interferences which are introduced
at
various
points ought
often
to produce
substitutive
reactions
at
many remote
parts
of the
personality. Personalities
may
be
compared
from one cross-section
to
another,
and
from
one personality to
another,
by
exposing
them
to
similar
interferences, and by
examining
the
substitutive reaction
sequences
which emerge.
For
the purpose of
summing up the personality
at any
given period, we may consider it
to
be
a
constellation
of
the following action patterns: object orientations,
ad-
justive thinking,
autistic reveries,
somatic
reactions.
The object
orientations of the individual
are describ-
able
as
various
degrees of assertiveness,
provocativeness,
or
submissiveness
toward
sexual and
non-specifically sex-
ual objects
in the environment.
In
extreme
instances the
individual
may
be abusive,
insulting, domineering
toward
superiors,
colleagues,
clients,
and
subordinates
in
his pro-
fession,
and
toward his wife
or
mistress in
intimate
life;
226
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
AND
POLITICS
or he
may be
cowed
in his work
and
timid in
his sexu-
ality;
or he may
show
extreme
variations
between
his pro-
fessional
and
private
levels
of
behavior.
These are the
differentiating
reactions
upon
which
it is
hoped
to
throw
some
light by
the
examination
of
the
personality system
in
its
principal
manifestations.
Adjustive
thinking
has to do
with
the
relationship of the
individual
to
reality.
It
issues
in
socially
relevant acts,
which
on the
creative
level
mean
contributions to
science,
art,
administration,
and
philosophy.
Autistic thinking is
highly
egocentric,
but
adjustive
thinking
when it dwells
upon
the
relationship
of the
self to
its
surroundings is
able to
treat
the self as
an
object
among objects.
Autistic
reveries are
non-adjustive to
reality. They
may
be
divided
into several
classes of
which morbid-suicidal,
pessimistic,
megalomanic,
denunciatory,
and persecutory
reveries are
particularly
common. In
exaggerated forrti
they
become the
most
conspicuous feature
of the
person-
ality, and various
clinical nam^es
are used to distinguish
them.
Common, and
representative,
themes
are
suggested
by
these quotations:
"I'm
a
hopeless sinner"; "The
world's
going
to
the
dogs";
"I'm the
slickest guy in the
world";
"The
President is
the
Judas
of
mankind"; "The
President
is using death-rays
on
me."
Autistic
thinking
flourishes
in greater
or
less abundance in every personality
whose
history is
taken for any
length of time.
The somatic reactions
at any
given
cross-section
of the
personality are striped
muscle
movements
and
tensions;
heart
and
circulatory
reactions; gastro-intestinal
responses;
skin adjustments; organic
sexual behavior;
respiratory,
pupillary, and
urogenital adaptations; inner
glandular
ac-
tion
on the biochemical
balance of the blood;
heat
produc-
tion (fever
and certain
metabolic
alterations
not
included
THE
PERSONALITY
SYSTEM
227
before)
;
electrical
conductivity;
and
immunological
re-
sponses.
Under
the
same
environing
conditions
individu-
als
show
wide
variations
in
physical
behavior,
and
when
these
manifestations
show
certain
gross
deviations
from
norms,
though no
organic
lesion can
be
shown to be
pres-
ent,
the
presumption
is
that the
energy
of some
mental
process
has
been
converted
into
somatic
form. This no-
tion of
hysteria
(and
what
may
be
called
hysteroid re-
actions)
was
classically
formulated by
Freud. Every indi-
vidual who
is closely
scrutinized
shows, from time
to
time,
tendencies to
urinate
excessively
(though no adequate phy-
sical explanation
is
apparent), to
refrain from passing
feces, or
to
suffer pains in the
back or neck.
The comparisons
which
may
be
made among
person-
alities on
the basis of the
nature of the substitutive
reac-
tions
which arise when they are subjected
to
similar
condi-
tions-
may
be
illustrated on the
gross level
by
citing
some
"experiments" which society has
tried. Mr.
A is
a
mem-
ber
of the city council
in one of
our
large
cities.
On
two
occasions, when he was
defeated for re-election,
he
de-
veloped autistic reveries
to
such
an
extent
that
he was
confined in
a
sanitarium under the care of
a
psychiatrist.
Thus Mr.
A met
a
deprivation
in
the sphere
of his
orienta-
tion
to
social
objects
(political
activity)
by developing
exaggerated
autistic reveries (depressive
preoccupations).
The
case of
A may
be
thrown
up
against
that
of Mr.
B.
When
Mr. B
lost out in his
campaign
for
re-election
to
the
legislature,
he
began
to worry about his
health,
and al-
though
the
physicians
could find no
adequate
physical
basis for
his
trouble,
he developed
a
host of
gastro-intes-
tinal
disturbances
which
incapacitated
him
from
regular
professional
life.
His
substitutive
reaction
was
somatic.
Another
man,
a
Mr.
C,
was defeated
and
spent
most of
228
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
AND
POLITICS
his
time
writing a
subsequently
well-recognized
book on
political
theory.
His
substitutive
reaction
was in
the
sphere
of
consecutive,
theoretical,
adjustive
thinking.
It
will be
remembered
that
one
of
our
driving
administrators,
J,
had
his
administrative
duties
curtailed
and
immediately
took
the
wife of
another
for his
mistress
showing
that
his
object
orientation
in. the
world
of
affairs
was
a
substitute
for
his object
orientation
in
the
sexual
field.
From
this
point of
view,
we
are
able to
examine
the
relative
function
which
political
activities
and preoccupa-
tions play
in the
personality
integration
of the
individual.
For one
it is an
alternative
to
mental
disorder, for
another
it is an
alternative to
physical
disease,
for another an
alternative to
aggressive
sexuality.
Now
it is of interest and
importance to
observe
that the
study
of the life-histories of
these
men showed that
their
mode
of meeting the world had
become
organized rather
early.
The man who
developed
somatic symptoms had
shown
a
physical upset
after losing
a
contest for
the
presi-
dency of
his class in
college,
and also
in
adolescent
and
preadolescent
deprivation
situations. Alexander traced the
basis
for
the personality splitting
in
J
to
very early child-
hood.
I
want now
to
indicate how the prolonged interview
throws much light
on
personality development,
and lends
itself to consideration from the point
of
view
outlined here.
If
the
analyst is
"insulted"
by the subject in the
course of
a
day's
interview, the subject
may the next
day report
somatic trouble, or morbid reveries,
or
unusual
kindliness
toward an annoying person,
or
a
burst of
creative work.
The interviewer, taking
such
facts
in
juxtaposition
to
oth-
ers, may
be
able
to
predict
the kind
of
substitutive
reac-
tions which this person is likely
to show in
a
whole range
of
social situations,
and
to
predict
retrospectively
the
THE
PERSONALITY
SYSTEM
229
form
of
reaction
which
was
manifested at
different levels
of
development.
The trained
psychoanalyst watches
the
subject
like
a
hawk
for
clues of
this
kind;
the possibility
of
removing
his
"hunches"
from
the
realm of art
into the
area
of
dependable
knowledge
depends upon
the
objectifi-
cation
of
his
observations,
and
upon
the development of
specifically
experimental
methods.
A method by
which some
certainty is to be introduced
in
personality
records is by
testing
the coincidence of
observations
taken
through time
by
observers
who
occupy
specified
positions in
relation to
the
subject. Very im-
portant
applications
of this
procedure have been made
to
child study by
several
child
psychologists, more particu-
larly by
Florence Goodenough
and
Dorothy Thomas.
A
set of
categories were set up to
describe
various
acts,
such as
"smiling," "physical contact with other child,"
and
"physical
contact with object."
The definiteness of
each
term was then tested by
having two
independent
observers
make the
same number of observations at fixed intervals
during
a
prescribed period. The results showed which
categories were ambiguous,
and
which categories
were suf-
ficiently clear
to
justify their inclusion
in
behavior studies.
It was
discovered, for example, that "smiling"
behavior
showed
much less definiteness
than
"physical
contact with
another child." This procedure
makes it possible
to meas-
ure the error of
a
measuring
procedure
and is strictly
comparable to the calibrating
process common
to the
phys-
ical sciences
in determining
the relative
reliability
of
measurements made
by a
particular instrument.
The
so-
cial scientist is compelled
to
rely
on the use of
his
eyes,
and
the
problem is
to
standardize
the use
so
that
objective
results can be secured.^
'
Dorothy Swaine
Thomas
and Associates,
Some
New Techniques
for
Studying
Social
Behavior.
230
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND POLITICS
Such
methods
of devising and
testing
categories
for the
observation of
behavior need
urgently to be developed for
the study
of
courtroom, legislative,
committee,
mass meet-
ing,
and
other types of
behavior in
situations of immediate
political
interest. It is
possible
to
record the
diflferential
reactions
of
participants,
and to
distinguish that which
is
inherent
in the role performed
(chairman), and that
which
is
the
individualized
penumbra of the act (individual
gesture).
These
objective categories
and
recording
practices
can
be
extended
to
the study of
behavior wherever
dominat-
ing and submissive behavior is found. The
gap between
the studies of children
and the
study of
personalities in
complicated
adult political situations can be filled in
with
the idea of
finding
reliable criteria of
the stability
of
political
reactions. Some
early
studies
have
been made
which
suggest that
types of dominating
behavior
are
isolable
at
very
early
ages.
Charlotte Biihler
detected
children
who dominated
through pressure
of activity,
des-
potic
behavior, and
"leadership" behavior.
Her
mono-
graph reproduces
photographic illustrations
of what she
means by the terms employed.^
An outgrowth
of her work
is the experimental
study by Marjorie Walker
at
the Min-
neapolis Institute of Child Welfare (under direction of
Anderson
and
Goodenough). An
observational
study
by
Mildred
Parten
at
the
same place showed that
in
uncon-
trolled
play activities
the
dominating or submissive
roles
might be strikingly monopolized by
individual children.*
'
"Die ersten sozialen Verhaltungsweisen des Kindes," Quellen und
Studien zur
Jugendkunde, Heft
5.
*
Referred to by John E. Anderson, "The Genesis of Social
Reactions in
the Young Child," The Unconscious:
A
Symposium. These researches are
abstracted in William I. Thomas
and
Dorothy
S.
Thomas,
The
Child in
America.