Make two inventories of your mental and tem­peramental characteristics.

In one of these write every phase of mental and temperamental characteristics in your personality which is commendable. Don't imagine anything nor wish for anything. Simply write down a list of every form and tendency of mental attitude and tempera­mental disposition of a desirable nature which you know that you possess.

In the other inventory, make a list of all your unde­sirable mental and temperamental qualities. Don't try to do any deliberate "moaning" or "groaning," however; but simply make a matter-of-fact record.

Take a third sheet of paper and divide it into two parallel columns, at the top of one column write the word "Father," and "Mother" on the top of the other.

Into these two columns arrange the contents of the two inventories which you have made of your person­al characteristics. All qualities which you can identify in relation to your father's disposition enter in the father column, and those which you associate with your mother's disposition enter in the mother column.

Characteristics which cannot be definitely allocated may be temporarily ignored, for some may be found hard to define.

If you so desire you can make a third column in which you can enter elements which are of a com­posite character—those which are partly suggestive of your father's disposition and partly of your mother's. Such classification can be carried out with great accuracy.

The object of this inventory, and of the resulting allocations, is to discover your parental influences, and to enable you to form a fair idea as to the existence of any simple complex or simple fixation in your per­sonal disposition.

You will now be able to determine whether you are of the extroversive or introversive type. When this is done you should proceed to cultivate the trend in which you are weak, and thereby to neutralize the tendency in which you are too pronounced.

In every element of every dream, word-dream, and cover-memory, and in every instance of exaggerated mental and temperamental reaction in the daily life, there is a possibility of the free associations leading deep down into a father-influence or a mother-influ­ence or both.

In carrying out the analysis, therefore, whenever a father-memory or mother-memory of any nature what­ever comes into view, scrutinize it and mentally allo­cate its significance to your own individuality. The result will be that you will in course of time have uncovered a multitude of complex memories and fix­ation memories: memories that have played extreme­ly important influences in making you just what you are.

In uncovering such father or mother-memories you will, of course, be able to understand their import with a revised and more significant value than hitherto. You will be able to read the message.

In analyzing dreams, cover-memories, or any other form of mental phenomena, carry the analysis on to deeper levels after the first immediate analytic object has been treated. In other words: in analyzing a dream element look for something of immediate in­terest. Look for something that occurred yesterday, and for something in your personality that was im­mediately affected by that yesterday's occurrence.

After you have analyzed this immediate set of ob­jects, see if any of the associations go down to any complexes or fixations; for you must remember that everything which you analyze in relation to your mental or temperamental attitudes is a potential com­plex or fixation indicator.

Start looking for the father and mother-images in all the root associations of your actions and reactions.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here….