Part 18 (1/2)

1 THE PRODUCING AND EXPRESSING OF EMOTION

Nowhere more than in connection with our emotions are the close inter-relations of mind and body seen All are faer tends to find expression in the blow, love in the caress, fear in flight, and so on But just how our organisenerally understood Professor Jae have shown us that emotion not only tends to produce some characteristic form of response, but that _the eical reactions_ Let us seek to understand this statement a little more fully

PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION OF EMOTION--We es in ical changes Hard, concentrated thinking quickens the heart beat; keen attention is accohts or sounds increase the rate of breathing; offensive odors produce nausea, and so on So coanisist declares it possible, had we sufficiently delicate apparatus, tochild by the shadow fro upon the closed eyelids

The order of the entire event resulting in an e is _known_; so either froination This fact, or thing known, must be of such nature that it will, (2) set up deep-seated and characteristic _organic response_; (3) the feeling _accoical reactions constitutes the e the street in a perfectly calm and equable state ofan exhausted horse because it is unable to draw an overloaded wagon up a slippery incline The facts grasped as we take in the situation constitute the _first_ ele in our consciousness But instantly our row tense, the heart beat and breath quicken, the face takes on a different expression, the hands clench--the entire organis situation; the _second_ factor in the rising e with our apprehension of the cruelty and the organic disturbances which result we feel waves of indignation and anger surging through us This is the _third_ factor in the emotional event, or the emotion itself In some such way as this are all of our emotions aroused

ORIGIN OF CHARACTERISTIC EMOTIONAL REACTIONS--Why do certain facts or objects of consciousness always cause certain characteristic organic responses?

In order to solve this probleo beyond the individual and appeal to the history of the race What the race has found serviceable, the individual repeats But even then it is hard to see why the particular type of physical response such as shrinking, pallor, and tre harm, should be the best It is easy to see, however, that the feeling which proht be useful It is plain that there is an advantage in the tense muscle, the set teeth, the held breath, and the quickened pulse which accoer itself, which prompts to the conflict But even if we are not able in every case to determine at this day why all the instinctive responses and their correlate of feeling were the best for the life of the race, we may be sure that such was the case; for Nature is inexorable in her dictates that only that shall persist which has proved serviceable in the largest nu question arises at this point as to e feel e some of ourin upon us hour after hour; ination are in constant play; and a continuous reat or s enough to rise to an e If emotion accompanies any form of physical expression, why not all? Let us see whether we can discover any reason One day I saw a boy leading a dog along the street All at once the dog slipped the string over its head and ran away The boy stood looking after the dog for a e

What all had happened? Thesmoothly in the experience of the boy There was no obstruction to his thought or his plans Then in an instant the situation changes The smooth flow of experience is checked and baffled

The discharge of nerve currents which ht, plans, action, is blocked A crisis has arisen which requires readjust new thought, new plans, new activities--the dogup of nerve currents froes Or, putting it into mental terht is violently disturbed--e meet with soht relations and plans, either temporarily or permanently

THE DURATION OF AN EMOTION--If the required readjustment is but temporary, then the emotion is short-lived, while if the readjuster duration, the eer The fear which follows the thunder is relatively brief; for the shock is gone in a ht is but teer is one that persists, however, as of so our life, the fear also will persist The grief of a child over the loss of someone dear to him is comparatively short, because the current of the child's life has not been so closely bound up in a complexity of experiences with the lost object as in the case of an older person, and hence the readjustrief of an adult over the loss of a very dear friend lasts long, for the object grieved over has so become a part of the bereaved one's experience that the loss requires a very complete readjustment of the whole life In either case, however, as this readjustradually fades away

EMOTIONS ACCOMPANYING CRISES IN EXPERIENCE--If our description of the feelings has been correct, it will be seen that the sis are for the common run of our everyday experience; they are the coht and acts fro states, are, however, the occasional high tide of feeling which occurs in crises or ery on some particular provocation, we fear some extraordinary factor in our environood fortune

2 THE CONTROL OF EMOTIONS

DEPENDENCE ON EXPRESSION--Since all eical expression priht back of this secondarily, it follows that the first step in controlling an emotion is to secure _the removal of the state of consciousness_ which serves as its basis This may be done, for instance, with a child, either by banishi+ng the terrifying dog fro is harmless The motor response will then cease, and the eht is persistent, however, through the continuance of its stimulus, then what remains is to seek to control the physical expression, and in that way suppress the emotion

If, instead of the knit brow, the tense anic changes which go along with these, we can keep a smile on the face, the muscles relaxed, the heart beat steady, and a norans, we shall have no cause to fear an explosion of anger If we are afraid of mice and feel an almost irresistible tendency to mount a chair every ti the fear by resolutely refusing to give expression to these tendencies Inhibition of the expression inevitably means the death of the eood in the feeling life, for it ood emotions as well as bad will fade out if we fail to allow them expression We are all perfectly familiar with the fact in our own experience that an interest which does not find means of expression soon passes away Sy passes over into indifference Even love cannot live without expression Religious eo out in deeds of service cannot persist The natural end and aim of our e this opportunity, they have not only failed in their office, but will themselves die of inaction

RELIEF THROUGH EXPRESSION--Eanic reactions, but they also tend to result in acts When we are angry, or in love, or in fear, we have the i about it_ And, while it is true that e the physical expressions on which it is founded, so may a state of emotional tension be relieved by some forms of expression None have failed to experience the relief which coood cry There is no sorrow so bitter as a dry sorrohen one cannot weep A state of anger or annoyance is relieved by an explosion of some kind, whether in a blow or its equivalent in speech We often feel better e have told a lance this all see down as the explanation of emotion Yet it is not so if we look well into the case We have already seen that e of the usual pathways of discharge for the nerve currents, whichup of new rief, for exaanised, the blood pressure diminished, and the nerve tone lowered What is needed is for the currents which are finding an outlet in directions resulting in these particular responses to find a pathway of discharge which will not produce such deep-seated results This y thus expended is diverted fro internal disturbances

Likewise, the explosion in anger may serve to restore the equilibrium of disturbed nerve currents

RELIEF DOES NOT FOLLOW IF IMAGE IS HELD BEFORE THE MIND--All this is true, however, only when the expression does not serve to keep the idea before the inally responsible for the eer by beginning to talk about an insult and, as he grows increasingly violent, bringing the situation more andi to run when he is afraid after night There is probably no doubt that the running would relieve his fear providing he could do it and not picture the threatening so up dire ihtful catastrophes at every step, all control is lost and fresh waves of terror surge over the shrinking soul

GROWING TENDENCY TOWARD EMOTIONAL CONTROL--A tendency toward erief, joy, fear, or anger much more freely than do civilized races This does not mean that primitive man feels more deeply than civilized , or blustering is but a small part of the whole physical expression, and one's entire organism may be stirred to its depths without any of these outward manifestations Man has found it advisable as he has advanced in civilization not to reveal all he feels to those around him The face, which is the most expressive part of the body, has come to be under such perfect control that it is hard to read through it the eh the face of civilizedfar e The same difference is observable between the child and the adult The child reveals each passing shade of eh his expression, while the adult may feel much that he does not show

3 CULTIVATION OF THE EMOTIONS

There is no other et out of life than our feelings and emotions

THE EMOTIONS AND ENJOYMENT--Few of us would care to live at all, if all feeling were eli often makes us suffer; but in so far as life's joys trius minister to our enjoyment Without sympathy, love, and appreciation, life would be barren indeed Moreover, it is only through our own e side of the lives about us Failing in this, we nificant phases of social experience, and are left with our own sympathies undeveloped and our life by so much impoverished

The interpretation of the subtler eree an art The hu panora states to those who can read their signs The ability to read the finer feelings, which reveal themselves in expression too delicate to be read by the eye of the gross or unsympathetic observer, lies at the basis of all fine interpretation of personality Feelings are often too deep for outward expression, and we are slow to reveal our deepest selves to those who cannot appreciate and understand them