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In 1859, when Charles [[Darwin ]] published <i>The Origin of [[Species]]</i>, Sigmund [[Freud ]] was [[three ]] years old. As a young student and later, during his early years as a dedicated [[scientific ]] researcher, Freud greatly admired Darwin, who had gained considerable popularity throughout [[Europe]]. In his <i>Autobiographical Study</i>, Freud would [[recall ]] that "Darwin's [[doctrine]], then in vogue, was a powerful attraction, since it promised to provide an extraordinary thrust to [[understanding ]] the [[universe]]" (1925d). From then on Darwin joined Hannibal in Freud's personal pantheon and he dreamed of becoming his equal. In "A Difficulty in the Path of [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis]]," he described the three wounds inflicted on humanity's pride: when [[Copernicus ]] established that the earth was not the center of the universe, when Darwin proved that mankind developed in an unbroken line from [[other ]] [[animal ]] species, and when he, Freud, showed that man did not have [[control ]] over the most important aspects of his own [[mental ]] [[processes ]] (1917a).Freud cites Darwin at least twenty [[times ]] in his published writings. It is possible, however, to [[identify ]] three "Darwins" in Freud's [[work]]:The first Darwin is the Darwin of <i>The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals</i> (1872), referred to by Freud in the <i>Studies on [[Hysteria]]</i> (1895d), where Darwin is cited in connection with Emmy von N. and Elisabeth von R. Freud writes that Emmy von N.'s [[symptoms ]] remind him "of one of the principles laid [[claim ]] to by Darwin to explain the expression of the emotions—the [[principle ]] of the overflow of [[excitation]]." In describing Elisabeth von R., Freud emphasizes the [[symbolic ]] [[meaning ]] of her symptoms, which, he writes, "are part of the 'expression of the emotional movements,' as Darwin has taught." Consisting "originally of [[acts ]] that are well-motivated and appropriate," [[civilization ]] has reduced and [[symbolically ]] transposed the expressions into [[language]].This sort of reference occurs several times, especially in <i>Inhibitions, Symptoms, and [[Anxiety]]</i> (1926d), where the affects are "reproductions of earlier events of vital importance, possibly preindividual." [[Adaptation ]] is involved since "anxiety must fulfill the [[biologically ]] essential function of reacting to a [[state ]] of [[danger]]." We can, therefore, consider the [[theory ]] of anxiety presented in this work to be of Darwinian origin. [[Emotion ]] (anxiety) is adaptive in two ways, for it prepares the animal for danger not just by mobilizing [[energy ]] but also by aiding adjustment based on the [[nature ]] of the [[threat ]] ([[signal ]] anxiety). However—and this too is taken from Darwin—under certain [[conditions ]] the [[excess ]] excitation can become disorganizing and nonadaptive.The second Darwin is the Darwin of <i>The Origin of Species</i> (1859). This is the influence that is most often noted. It is used to support Freud's views when he postulates a correspondence between phylogenesis (humanity's evolution since its origins) and ontogenesis (the [[individual ]] [[development ]] of the [[child ]] of today). Freud refers to Ernest Haeckel's hypothesis according to which ontogenesis repeats phylogenesis. Freud writes, "Important [[biological ]] analogies have enabled us to acknowledge that individual [[psychic ]] evolution repeats, in abbreviated [[form]], the evolution of humanity" (1910c). In "From the [[History ]] of an [[Infantile ]] [[Neurosis]]" (1918b), he writes, "The phylogenetic schemas that the child possesses at [[birth ]] . . . are the precipitates of the history of [[human ]] civilization . . . this instinctive heritage would constitute the core of the [[unconscious]]."This [[idea ]] is central to <i>[[Totem ]] and [[Taboo]]</i> (1912-13a), where it is used to establish the [[universality ]] of [[primal ]] [[fantasies]], the [[Oedipus ]] [[complex]], and more generally the processes of development and human mentation. It occurs again in "A Phylogenetic [[Fantasy]]: [[Overview ]] of the [[Transference ]] [[Neuroses]]" (1985 [1915]), where the "prehistoric fantasy" (the expression is Freud's) is used to establish a correspondence between three kinds of [[time]]: the time of the assumed succession of psychopathologies, that of phylogenesis, and that of ontogenesis.Freud's views were sharply criticized, even within [[psychoanalysis]], for a variety of reasons, among [[them ]] the questionable nature of the anthropological data on which they were based and the [[impossibility ]] of accepting Haeckel's hypothesis.It is worth noting that in these [[texts ]] (especially in the "Overview") Freud is more Lamarckian than Darwinian: it is essential to his theory that individual traits be transmissible by [[incorporation ]] into the genetic heritage. Freud never abandoned this postulate in spite of the discredit that befell Lamarck's [[ideas]].The [[third ]] and final Darwin is the Darwin of <i>The Descent of Man</i> (1871), a work that postulated a [[process ]] of continuous evolution from animal to man and distinguished [[stages ]] within human evolution, that is, a [[temporal ]] sequence that was also a form of [[progress]], a hierarchy ranging from the most [[primitive ]] forms to the most noble: lower animals, higher animals, the "savage," [[civilized ]] man. Darwin distinguished between "inferior" human races and "superior" races, even superior nations (such as Great [[Britain]]). Like many [[others ]] at the time, Freud accepted these ideas and used them to support his views on the progress of civilization through the difficult, but necessary, [[repression ]] of [[instinctual ]] [[drives]], a repression that made necessary the phenomenon of [[sublimation]], which directed these energies to more "noble" ends.This [[notion ]] of the evolution of civilizations remains a source of continued interest. However, we can obviously no longer adhere to the idea of a hierarchy of values among human "races" that would "[[naturally]]" follow from the process of evolution as described by Darwin. And we [[know ]] only too well what excesses and crimes "[[social ]] Darwinism" can lead to. Nor is it any longer possible to postulate, as Freud once did, an equivalence between prehistoric humanity, or "primitive peoples" of today, and the child.

# [[Freud, Sigmund]]. (1910c). [[Leonardo ]] [[da Vinci ]] and a [[memory ]] of his [[childhood]]. SE, 11: 57-137.