But the homogeneous (as Spencer would say) when it is finite
is unstable: and matter, presumably not being co-extensive with space,
necessarily forms aggregates which have an inside and an outside. The
parts of such bodies are accordingly differently exposed to external
influences and differently related to one another. This inequality, even
in what seems most quiescent, is big with changes, destined to produce in
time a wonderful complexity. It is the source of all uneasiness, of life,
and of love.
"Let us imagine [writes Freud][11] an undifferentiated vesicle of
sensitive substance: then its surface, exposed as it is to the
outer world, is by its very position differentiated, and serves as
an organ for receiving stimuli.... This morsel of living substance
floats about in an outer world which is charged with the most
potent energies, and it would be destroyed ... if it were not
furnished with protection against stimulation. [On the other hand]
the sensitive cortical layer has no protective barrier against
excitations emanating from within.... The most prolific sources of
such excitations are the so-called instincts of the organism....
The child never gets tired of demanding the repetition of a game
... he wants always to hear the same story instead of a new one,
insists inexorably on exact repetition, and corrects each deviation
which the narrator lets slip by mistake...
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