The recently defined procedure called neurotic transfer pertains to the Occident’s current geopolitical standing. In nature, arming a rival never happens. Such behaviour is maladaptive: the fox has no interest in helping the rabbit run faster. To do so would reduce the fox’s chances of survival. It does occur between humans however.

In a human contest, neurotic transfer takes place when a Protagonist induces neurosis in an Opponent and the Opponent responds by giving power to the Protagonist.

Sometimes the neurosis-inducing event is obvious. Suppose a young woman is on a ‘first date’ with a young man she is very attracted to. In conversation she finds herself revealing her least attractive features or habits. Her neurosis arises from being interviewed as a potential long-term mate. She has transferred power to her opponent and made her rejection more likely. Theoretically, neurotic transfer originates from the female testing a male’s commitment, ensuring that he will still be around when she needs him, especially when she bears his offspring.

Neurosis, in its simplest terms, is internal conflict. Although we might expect such neurotic expressions to be more common in women, the influence of feminism has caused a shift – it’s not often nowadays we hear one say “I’m just a woman.”

Most instances of neurotic transfer involve giving away information, and many examples could be quoted. Considering this procedure in a wider context, in a game involving populations, neurotic transfer provides a template for the modern tendency of Occidental societies to act against their own interests. Susceptibility to neurosis may be a particularly European feature.

Today, the Occident lacks confidence in its civilisation and it neurotically empowers its competitors by sharing its technological innovations with them. Neurotic transfer of a physical, rather than informational, kind is taking place when Western technology is exported, enabling other nations to prosper selling back to the West the products of that innovation. An obvious example is oil-extraction technology. It could be argued that many of the world’s ills derive from the misuse of Western technology.

I contend that European male susceptibility to neurosis and the consequent sublimation of sexual drives largely accounts for Occidental predominance in art, which can be regarded as a form of sexual display, and science.^† The male flies from female ambiguity and irrationality to logical pursuits. Contemporary Western man is confused and made neurotic by a malevolent mass media, rendering him vulnerable to exploitation by populations less constrained in furthering their group interests.

† See Kanazawa, S. (2006). No, it ain’t gonna be like that. Evolutionary Psychology 4: 120-128.