I don't like the usual distinction of "mind" and "body". To assuage my discomfort, I've conceived a formulation: Mind is the music which the body-instrument plays.

B. S. Skinner was a remarkable psychologist of behaviorism, whose work is described a little more fully at this Website -- among the "neglected".

I prize especially Skinner's comment about slavery: "There is no slavery without slavery of the mind."

Too few scribblers and talking-heads seem aware of this saying, or at least of its implication, so that, again, I cite my own notion, "The Spartacus Complex".

Spartacus (?-71 BC) was a Roman slave-gladiator trained for fighting-to-the-death in "Arena Games". (His story was made into a remarkable 1960 film, "Spartacus", with Kirk Douglas both as protagonist and producer.) In 71BC, Spartacus and other gladiators revolted and spread out freeing hundreds of slaves from Roman "plantations". For a time, it was feared that this "army of slaves" would march on Rome and capture it. But, they hesitated for a time, then tried to reach the sea, to escape to non-Roman lands. The army of Crassus defeated and captured them. Their leaders were crucified. The remainder went back into slavery.

I think it's possible that Spartacus couldn't believe that he, an escaped slave, could defeat "Rome". Although, bodily free for a time, his "mind" was not free, so he ended, bodily enslaved.

The modern prototype I recall is the great stage and film actor, Richard Burton (1925-84). Burton was born "Richard Jenkins" in a Welsh coal-town, son of a miner. His schoolwork won him a scholarship to Oxford University, preparing him for a great stage career.

But his friends tell of a seminal experience in Burton's life. He was so overwhelmed by the acting of Paul Schofield (1966 Academician: "A Man for All Seasons") as Hamlet that Burton said he could never equal that -- so "now for the boodle" -- to make as much money as possible from his reputation, which he did.

I believe that poor-born Richard couldn't believe he could equal or best so many of the better-born.

And I believe that girls develop a Spartacus Complex that there are many roles they cannot play and many choices denied them or not even imaginable.

How can you take that leap when you tense up in fear of it?

To say that "women may have a spartacus-complex" is not to agree with the Freudian verdict that "women are masochistic". (See The Myth of Women's Masochism, Paula j. Caplan.) That would be a permanent condition. The spartacus-complex, as I conceive it, is conditional, and might be overcome, if understood.

I was married for 52 wonderful years to a smart sassy woman who did Overcome, despite a leg paralyzed in infancy and a discriminating or patronizing world.

Women of the World, Unite! You have only your chains to throw off! There are enough caring men out there such as I who need you, want you beside them. Go for it!