CONQUERING COMPLEXES

Southland Times, Issue 22131, 27 September 1933, Page 13

CONQUERING COMPLEXES

LECTURE BY DR ELSIE M. PORT. Conquering complexes, repressions and inferiority, was the subject of last night’s lecture at Everybody’s Hall by Dr Elsie M. Port. A complex was a group of associated ideas or memories stored in the subconscious mind and there were good and bad complexes, the bad ones being responsible for the sense of inferiority, said Dr Port. Complexes arose from various causes, but in the main they could be described as those feelings which a person was prevented or inhibited from expressing. The instinctive life was the soul urge towards self realization and must find an outlet in some form of outward expression. If unexpressed it would eventually manifest itself by nervous explosions. The law of thought was that it proceeded through a system of associations. The psycho-analyists showed how to dip dowh into the storehouse of memory and recall its repressions, in this way releasing the energy for use in constructive directions.

The instructive urge, the lecturer said, seemed to be along the lines of what were called natural instincts. That was to say, persons sought to protect and preserve themselves by acquiring those things that were essential in life, whether they were intellectual, social or cultural, according to their ambitions or welfare. Tendencies were given in childhood days, but by knowledge and will power, they could be changed by eliminating the unnecessary and inferior, and replacing them with the good and valuable. The secret of a happy and successful life was that a person would boldly and consciously analyse his or her past life and seek for the causes of weakness.

The free public lectures are being continued at 3 and 8 p.m. until September 29.