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第22章

the foundations of personality-第22章

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CHAPTER VI。 EMOTION; INSTINCT; INTELLIGENCE AND WILL In a preceding chapter we discussed man as an organism reacting against an outside world and spurred on by internal activities and needs。 We discussed stimulation; reflexes; inhibition; choice and the organizing activity; memory and habit; consciousness and subconsciousness; all of which are primary activities of the organism。 But these are mere theories of function; for the activities we are interested in reside in more definite reactions; of which the foregoing are parts。 We see a dreaded object on the horizon or foresee a calamity;and we fear。 That state of the organism (note I do not say that STATE OF MIND) resulting from the vision is an emotion。 We fly at once; we hide; and the action is in obedience to an instinct。 But ordinarily we do not fly or hide haphazard; we think of ways and means; if only in a rudimentary fashion; we shape plans; perhaps as we fly; we pick up a stick on the run; hoping to escape but preparing for the reaction of fight if cornered。 〃What shall I dowhat shall I do? finds no conscious answer if the emotion is overwhelming or the instinctive flight a pell…mell affair; but ordinarily memories of other experiences or of teaching come into the mind and some effort is made to meet the situation in an 〃intelligent〃 manner。 Here; then; is a response in which three cardinal reactions have occurred and are blended;the emotion; the instinctive action; and the intelligent action; or to make abstractions; emotion; instinct and intelligence。 (Personally; I think half the trouble with our thought is that; we abstract from our experiences a common group of associations and believe that the abstraction has some existence outside our thoughts。) Thus there arise in us; as a result of things experienced; curious feelings and we speak of the feelings as emotions; we make a race…old response to a situation;an instinctive reaction; our memories; past experiences and present purposes are stirred into activity; and we plan and scheme; and this is an intelligent reaction; but there is in reality no metaphysical entity Emotion; Instinct; Intelligence。 I believe that here the philosophers whose mental activities are essentially in the direction of forming abstract ideas have misled us。 What I wish to point out is this: that to any situation all three reactions may take place and modify one another。 We are insultedsome one slaps our facethe fierce emotion of anger arises and through us surge waves of feeling manifested on the motor side by tensed muscles; rapid heart; harsh breathing; perhaps a general reddening of face and eyes。 Instinctively our fists are clenched; a part of the reaction of fight; and it needs but the slightest increase of anger to send us leaping on the aggressor; to fight him perhaps to the death。 But no;the situation has aroused certain memories and certain inhibitions: the one who struck us has been our friend and we can see that he is acting under a mistaken impression; or else we perceive that he is right; that we have done him a wrong for which his blow is a sort of just reaction。 We are checked by these cerebral activities; we choose some other reaction than fight; perhaps we prevent him from further assault; or we turn and walk away; or we start to explain; to mollify and console; or to remonstrate and reprove。 In other words; 〃intelligence〃 steps in to inhibit; to bring to the surface the possibilities; to choose; and thus overrides the emotional instinctive reaction。 It may not succeed in the overriding; we may hesitate; inhibit; etc。; for only a second or so; before hot anger overcomes us; and the instinctive response of fight and retaliation takes place。 These examples might be multiplied a thousandfold。 Every day of our lives situations come up in which there is a blending or an antagonism between emotional; instinctive and intelligent responses。 In fact; very few acts of the organized human being are anything else。 For every emotion awakens memories of past emotions and the consequences; every instinct is hampered by other instincts or by the inhibitions aroused by obstacles; and intelligence continually struggles against emotion and blind instinct。 Teaching; experience; knowledge; all modify emotional and instinctive responses so that sometimes they are hardly recognizable as such。 On the other hand; though intelligence normally occupies the seat of power; it is easily ousted and in reality only steers and directs the vehicle of life; choosing not the goal but the road by which the goal can safely be reached。 In general terms we shall define emotions; instincts and intelligence as follows: 1。 For emotions we shall accept a modified James…Lange theory; supplementing it by the developments of science since their day。 When a thing is seen or heard (or smelled or tasted or thought); it arouses an emotion; that emotion consists of at least three parts。 First; the arousal of memories and experiences that give it a value to the individual; make it a desired object or a dreaded; distasteful object。 Second; at the same time; or shortly preceding or succeeding this; a great variety of changes takes place in the organism; changes that we shall call the vaso…visceral…motor changes。 This means merely that there is a series of reactions set up in the sympathetic nervous system; in the blood vessels and bodily structures they control and in the glands of internal secretion;changes which include the blush or the pallor; the rapid heartbeat; the quickened or labored breathing; the changes in the digestive tract which include the vomiting of disgust and the diarrhoea of fear; the changes that passion brings in the male and the female and many other alterations to be discussed again。 Third; there is then the feeling of these coenaesthetic changes;a feeling of pleasantness; unpleasantness mingled with the basic feeling of excitement; and from then on that situation is linked in memory with the feeling that we usually call the emotion but which is only a part of it。 Nevertheless; it becomes the part longed for or thereafter avoided; it is the value of the emotion to us; as conscious personalities; although it may be a false; disastrous; dangerous value。 Excitement is the generalized mood change that results in consciousness in consequence of the vaso…visceral…motor changes of emotion; it is therefore based on bodily changes as is the feeling; pleasant or unpleasant; that also occurs。 William James said that we laugh and are therefore happy; we weep and are therefore sad; the bodily changes are primary and the feeling secondary。 We do not accept this dictum entirely; but we say that the organism reacts in a complicated way and that the feelingsadness; disgust; anger; joysprings from the memories and past experiences aroused by a situation as well as from the widespread bodily excitement also so aroused。 For the neurologist both the cerebral and the sympathetic… endocrinal components of emotion are important。 For the moment we turn to instinct and instinctive reactions。 2。 Man has always wondered that things can be known without teaching。 So slow and painful is the process of mastering a technique; whether of handicraftsmanship or of art; so imbued are we with the need of education for the acquirement of knowledge; that we are taken aback by the realization that all around us are creatures carrying on the most elaborate technique; going through the most complicated procedures and apparently possessed of the surest knowledge without the possibility of teaching。 The flight of birds; the obstetric and nursing procedures of all animals; and especially the complicated and systematized labors of bees; ants and other insects; have aroused the wonder; admiration and awe of scientists。 A chick pecks its way out of its egg and shakes itself;then immediately starts on the trail of food and usually needs no instruction as to diet。 The female insect lays its eggs; the male insect fertilizes them; the progeny go through the states of evolution leading to adult life without teaching and without the possibility of previous experience。 Since the parent never sees the progeny; and the progeny assume various shapes and have very varied capacities at these times; there can be no possibl

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