So far I hope we have established four basic facts concerning ourselves.

1. Our greatest drive is self preservation.

2. We are all egocentric human animals with self interest.

3. That we need and enjoy reciprocation with other humans for personal gain and healthy social development.

4. There is a social inclination within each one of us. (We benefit from approval and social grooming).

Let us now look at some of the conditions which prevent us from fully enjoying and participating in this reciprocating society where its members are egocentric and in need of social grooming. The following are some of the conditions which unconsciously affect our early responses to our environment.

Dr. H,F. Harlow in "Determinants of Infant Behaviour" describes experiments with a new born rhesus monkey which he reared in a cage with two surrogate mothers. One, a wire object fitted with a feeding nipple and the other of the same size and shape, covered with soft cloth but without the feeding nipple. An interesting thing is that the infant spent most of its time with the cloth surrogate mother and if frightened, clung to it- The baby only went to the wire mother for feeding. It points out forcibly the importance of comfort and security in the life of an infant as distinct from the supply of food.

In discussing [he experiment Dr. J. Robertson of the Tavistock Child Development Research Unit says "almost all one sees in these monkeys in distress can be seen in short stay hospital children."

Ann Chisholm in "Philosophers of the Earth" tells of an interview with Professor Rene Dubois, medical researcher and discoverer of an enzyme which would attack the microbe which caused pneumonia. For ten years, he has conducted a series of experiments with colonies of mice. He states "All the mice possess the same genetic constitution" (that is, bred for over twenty generations by brother and sister mating to become an isogenic strain, creating genetic identi-cals). He continues "But we are showing that depending on the condition of their earliest development, you can end up with giant mice or tiny little mice, skinny animals or fat animals, all sorts of physical characteristics even brain development. This is crucial- It is a demonstration of what I call 'biological Freudianism' to convey my view that all the characteristics of animal and human beings are, if not determined, at least conditioned by their environment during the very first period of life."

One of the first influences a child experiences is imprinting. This is when the first loyalties are established. It could occur as early as a few weeks and go on for several years.

Imprinting is a name given by Dr. Konrad Lorenz, winner of a Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine in 1973. and refers to a short critical period of time when an animal makes a strong attachment. Lorenz's work was extended by Dr. Hess who worked on Mallard ducks built a cage with a central moving platform. On this he placed an object, it could have been a dog hoot or anything else. The new bom Mallard hick was also placed in the cage with the object.

Hess proved that Mallards, if malprinted with what was on the central moving platform from the thirteenth to the seventeenth hour after hatching, would thereafter continue to follow the object or animal. Of course, nature intended the duckling to follow the mother but this could be perverted.

We do not know exactly to what extent or what time the human infant is imprinted. We do know without doubt that the first few years of a child's life are the most important and that the direction of its whole life is set then.

Dr, Eric Erikson talking in Freudian terms of the oral stage (early infant dependent stage) says "All emerge from it either with a sense of basic trust and hope or basic mistrust and pessimism. The residues constitute the elements from which identity will be fashioned during adolescence . . . Basic trust must be moulded into faith in people and in ideas."

These able researchers have all spoken in forthright language of the importance of our very early life experiences- Let us see what happens as we grow up. How does conditioning affect a human during the growing up period of his life?

Claude Brown in "Manchild in the Promised Land", is listening to his friend Reno. "Man, they ain't got no kids in Harlem, I ain't never seen any. Man, do you remember being a kid? Not me. Kids are happy, kids laugh, kids are secure. They ain't scared of nothing. You ever been a kid, Sonny? Damn you lucky, I don't ever remember being happy and not scared." What chance has a child in those circumstances of making good? On the average, perhaps, very little. Yet Claude Brown himself does make it.

Fortunately for most of us, our conditioning is different from what Claude Brown received. Yet our needs are exactly the same as his and Reno's. We need [Q have established our own personal dignity, a sense of personal worth. Even though we did not have to fight our way up so desperately we still need the right conditioning to enable us to grow up to experience and enjoy the full flow of the tide of life in all its variety.

O.K. — you may say, so children need love and security to develop, but they seem to learn to stand on their own feet and settle down to be Mr, Average. Do they?

Children tend to believe the evaluation of parents and teachers- They can become victims of false or extreme concepts about themselves, imparted to them by frustrated, nagging seniors. If they are constantly told that they are dumb, clumsy, a failure or weak, they will most likely come to believe it.

They begin to internalise the concept with self calk "I am dumb, clumsy or any number of other failures." They may continue such self degrading statements for all of life. This is a kind of negative or destructive self hypnotism with which many condition themselves-Personal expectation unconsciously influences the direction of life. The man or woman who expects to be a servant of others, poor or hurt and inferior will most probably be just that. Our basic concepts grow with one more statement.

1. I have a right to the concept of self preservation.

2. I am an egocentric person with self determined interests.

3. I enjoy two way reciprocation with others for personal gain.

4. I am a socially inclined being who is capable of loving and accepting love.

5. I most likely have been imprinted with false or extreme concepts about myself from early childhood. These concepts will be personal and unique to me according to the conditioning to which I have been subjected. I am therefore a unique and separate dignity in my own right.