Chapter 8
The Action Of The Life Instinct
389. We need to consider more carefully the action of the two instincts, and in particular their extrasubjective phenomena. We shall begin with the life instinct, bearing in mind the following:
1st. The term of its act is the animate body; the action of the soul is received contemporaneously in all parts of the term.
2nd. The effect of the soul's action is to produce in the body certain extrasubjective phenomena which are observable only in animal bodies and indicate that the body is in the state and act necessary for it to be felt immediately by the soul with a feeling of excitation.
3rd. The organic body is subject both to the soul's action and (granted the material properties of a body) to mechanical, physical, chemical, organic and other forces. These forces can alter the body and destroy the condition and state of the individual life furnished by the soul's action.
4th. The soul, in imparting to the body unique, individual life must find the body endowed with organs and structured according to certain hidden laws, so that it may give the body such an act of life. If the body lacks the required organisation and composition, the soul cannot exercise its wonderful function of fully vivifying it.
390. In the preparatory state necessary for the body to receive the soul's vivifying action, we can identify two extremes, and between the extremes, certain conditions or intermediary states. We must now consider these.
One extreme is the perfect, material state of the body. Granted this, the soul vivifies the body totally with a unique, individual life without any resistance or obstacle on the part of the body; perfect health is the result.(180) The other extreme is the state of the body in which the material condition necessary for receiving this life is completely lacking. In this case the body cannot be animated in its organic entirety.
Between the two extremes, there is, as I said, a gradation of intermediate states. The necessary condition and organisation of the body for receiving the act of unique animation is not entirely absent in these states, but is defective in some part. The result is ill health and disease.
All this can easily be verified by experience.
391. Let us suppose an animal to be in perfect health. All its parts and the whole of its body are perfectly disposed to receive the life-giving action of the soul. Nevertheless, death must result if a material principle so upsets the body that it is taken to the opposite extreme. Death must be the result because the soul no longer has an organic composition suitable for receiving its unique, vital action.
If, on the other hand, the disturbance does not render the body completely incapable of receiving the soul's action, a state of disorder (disease) will result. Although the soul vivifies the body, it finds obstacles to its action, which tend to fragment it and destroy its unity. Although it tries to overcome these obstacles with its own action, it does not always succeed because its action is limited. The body is now affected simultaneously by two contrary forces: the unifying and multiplying principles. The phenomena of different diseases must find their explanation in the opposition between these two forces.
Notes
(180) The perfect state of a body enjoying fullness of life and health is apparently not related to size, nor is it entirely unique. A living body can present a perfect disposition at any age, from infancy to mature adulthood.