1. And then there is the case of Galileo, who was compelled to retract his absurd belief that the earth is not the center of the universe.
2. Another interesting case involved one of Freud's favorite anecdotes: the vigorous denial that there could be male hysterics, because the word hysteria was derived from hystera, the Greek word for womb, and everyone knew that hysteria was caused by a disturbance in the womb.
3. An interesting fairly recent case in point is the intense controversy that emerged after the first theoretical assertion that electrons spin counterclockwise rather than clockwise around the atomic nucleus. The controversy did indeed end rather abruptly when experimental evidence supported the assertion of the original theorists.
4. A British physiologist, Paul Brain, after noting the vast range of definitions of agression, includes four factors in his definition: 1(“actual or potential noxious stimuli… directed towards some object”; 2)(“the act is intentional”; 3) the aggressor is “emotionally aroused”; and 4) the intended victim “is motivated to remove itself or avoid such exposure” to noxious stimuli. The fourth factor seems to relate to the aggressor's state of mind and not necessarily to the victim's. The intended victim, as I see it, may either flee or fight. If the victim succeeds in escaping, the aggressor may have to find a substitute object on which to displace his or her aggression. If the victim stays and fights, both become aggressors, each intending to harm the other. See Brain . (1985: 10–11). An American psychologist, David Adams (1979:202) who has done physiological research in aggression describes “three motivational systems, offense, defense, and submission.” What he calls submission is akin to what I call subordination here.
5. In a careful reading of Lorenz's work On Aggression, I was unable to find anywhere a definition of the term. This omission by the writer left the reader, or at least one reader, with the task of inferring Lorenz's definition of the term from reading the book as a whole. Any such inference can be a perpetual matter of dispute among those who agree and those who disagree with Lorenz's basic themes.