The Symbol as an Energy Container. (Journ. Nerv. and Ment. Dis., December, 1919.) Jelliffe, Smith Ely.

Extract

Life is dependent on the energy around it. Being marked by the quality of growth, it must not only seize the energy through its protoplasmic structure, there transform it, and then put it forth, but it must unceasingly devise new means, new carriers for all these three processes. Human speech is such a means. Not consciously but unconsciously, man has made words because he has felt, though not understood, the necessity for a larger and wider self-expression—for more capture of energy, more work upon it within himself, and more giving of it out.