ABSTRACT
The mechanism of projection disturbs human relations when one projects his own jealousy and attribute to other people through his aggressive acts. But it may work in another way as well, enabling them to form valuable positive attachments and so to consolidate their relations with one another. This normal and less conspicuous form of projection might be described as “altruistic surrender” of one's instinctual impulses in favor of other people. The finest and most detailed study of this altruistic surrender is to be found in Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac. There is an obvious similarity between the situation in altruistic surrender and the conditions which determine male homosexuality. It remains an open question whether there is such a thing as a genuinely altruistic relation to one’s fellowmen, in which the gratification of one’s own instinct plays no part at all, even in some displaced and sublimated form.
