Self-preservation is the central aim of all life-activities.

Superstitions, and especially the early cultivation of religion, with its "fear of the Lord" and of unknown mysterious agencies, are especially potent in the development of the instinct of fear. Even the early cultivation of morality and conscientiousness, with their fears of right and wrong, often causes psychoneurotic states in later life. Religious, social, and moral taboos and superstitions, associated with apprehension of threatening impending evil, based on the fear instinct, form the germs of psychopathic affections.

The main source of psychopathic diseases is the fundamental instinct of fear with its manifestations, the feeling of anxiety, anguish, and worry.

Science is the description of phenomena and the formulation of their relations.

Psychology must postulate uniformity of interrelation of physical, physiological, and psychic processes.

The general tendency of evolution is from structure to function, from bondage to freedom of the individual elements.

Not purpose but chance is at the heart of mental life.