Mental Magnitude

CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

According to McDougall I there are fourteen instincts which are grouped under the three heads of SELF, SEX, and HERD as follows:

 

Self Instincts

(I) Acquisition

(2) Combat

(3) Construction

(4) Curiosity

(5) Escape

(6) Food-seeking

(7) Laughter

(8) Repulsion

(9) Self-assertion

(10) Submission

Sex Instincts

(11) Mating

(12) Parental

Herd Instincts

(13) Appeal

(14) Social

 

It will be noticed that all those instincts which are known in popular parlance as the instincts of self-preservation, gregariousness, procreation, etc., are explicitly contained in the McDougall list just stated above. There are significant differences between the senses on the one hand, and the instincts on the other. The physical senses are man’s instruments for observation, analysis, judgment, reflection, and reason. The instincts, on the other hand, predispose him to emotionalism and impulsiveness. The employment of any of the senses is a conative act: that is, a deliberate act of the will. Whereas feelings which arise from instinctive dispositions are independent of man’s will. The feeling of hunger, for instance, is independent of a man’s will. Whether he likes it or not, when the previous meal is fully digested and his stomach is empty, he will experience the feeling of hunger. If he is affronted or insulted, his instinct of combat, coupled with the emotion of anger, is aroused independently of his will. On reflection, that is on the application of his faculty of reason, he may bring his will-power to bear to subdue his emotion and curb his predisposition to combat. In this instance, his faculty of sight probably tells him that the person who causes him offence is too big for him to tackle successfully, or too small to contend with reasonably. He suddenly found his child trapped in a burning house, his immediate reaction, arising from the parental instinct, would be to run to his rescue without thought of his own safety. On reflection, his reason might direct him not to make the plunge, lest he and the child should perish, and his other children should become orphans into the bargain. And so on, and so forth. The five physical senses then are rational and objective, whilst the instincts are the seats of a man’s emotions. Some of these emotions can be regarded as positive and good, such as those of curiosity, sexual feeling towards one’s wife or intended wife, escape in the face of actual danger, construction, creativeness or-productivity, laughter, and acquisition for the satisfaction of one’s needs. Others can be negative and dangerous such as anger, rage, fury, pugnacity, aggression, resentment, hate, fear, envy, jealousy, selfishness, and acquisition for the purpose of hoarding and self-display.

If all the organs in man, together with the five senses and all the instincts, are balanced and functioning normally and harmoniously as Nature intends them to, there will be no such things as negative emotions like those we have just mentioned. There will be no deaf and dumb; nor will there be those who are physically blind. Barrenness will be unknown among women; prostitution and debauchery, murder and all other forms of crime, will be non-existent. Man would then live a full, happy, glorious and triumphant life. But the organs are not always what they should be; the sense faculties are more often than not defective; and the instincts tend to overplay their parts. The reasons for all these entricities are not far to seek.

Basically, we are – all of us – what our ancestors and environment make us. Whether we acknowledge it or not, the fact remains that our present individual tendencies and habits, be they physical or mental, are ordained for us by the cumulative physical and mental tendencies, characteristics and habits of all our ancestors since the epoch when man first made his appearance on our planet. Also, whether we acknowledge it or not, the fact is incontestable that our own tendencies and habits, plus those we have inherited from our ancestors, are – just as our ancestors’ were – decisively influenced by our environment. The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the style of our buildings, our temper, prejudices and affections, our mode of thinking, the language we speak, even the diseases with which we are afflicted, are mainly and decidedly the results of heredity and environment. . The Chinese and the African have many things in common as members of the human race; but they differ significantly from each other, because they were respectively born and bred in China and Africa by Chinese and African parents. Similarly, there are many things common to an African born and bred in Ghana and another born and bred in Nigeria, because they live on the continent of Africa and in those parts of it whose geographical features are very much alike. But the peculiar ancestry and environmental circumstances of a Ghanaian, as distinguished from those of a Nigerian, mark the difference between the former and the latter.

For the same reasons, a Nigerian of Yoruba stock, living in Western Nigeria, differs in his tendencies, idiosyncrasies and habits from a Nigerian of Ibo or Hausa stock living in Eastern or Northern Nigeria; just as individual Yorubas of distinct parental ancestries differ from one another, and so on and so forth. From the description which we have made of him, we see man as possessing a body with five physical senses.

CONTINUES NEXT WEEK

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

We Have Not Had Water Supply In Months ― Abeokuta Residents

In spite of the huge investment in the water sector by the government and international organisations, water scarcity has grown to become a perennial nightmare for residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. This report x-rays the lives and experiences of residents in getting clean, potable and affordable water amidst the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state…

Selfies, video calls and Chinese documentaries: The things you’ll meet onboard Lagos-Ibadan train

The Lagos-Ibadan railway was inaugurated recently for a full paid operation by the Nigerian Railway Corporation after about a year of free test-run. Our reporter joined the train to and fro Lagos from Ibadan and tells his experience in this report…

[ICYMI] Lekki Shootings: Why We Lied About Our Presence — General Taiwo

The Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing the killings at Lekki Toll Gate, on Saturday resumed viewing of the 24hrs footage of the October 20, 2020 shooting of #EndSARS protesters by personnel of the Nigerian Army…

ICYMI: How We Carried Out The 1993 Nigerian Airways Hijack —Ogunderu

On Monday, October 25, 1993, in the heat of June 12 annulment agitations, four Nigerian youngsters, Richard Ajibola Ogunderu, Kabir Adenuga, Benneth Oluwadaisi and Kenny Razak-Lawal, did the unthinkable! They hijacked an Abuja-bound aircraft, the Nigerian Airways airbus A310, and diverted it to Niger Republic. How did they so it? Excerpts…

ICYMI: What North Will Not Accept About 2023 Presidency —Prof Mahuta, UDU Don And Kebbi Dev Foundation Chairman

Sahabi Danladi Mahuta, a community mobiliser and APC chieftain. Mahuta spoke to select journalists at the sidelines of an Islamic conference in Abuja recently. Excerpts…