Likewise as regards so-called bad forms, no single statement is
unqualifiedly true of any considerable number of subjects. The
decided feeling of irregularity, the "bulging-out" or the undesirable
"pushing-in" of the figure, the feeling of weakness in one's own body
corresponding, the feeling of instability which one tends himself to
imitate in various ways, the total effect of lack of poise, all tend
to make these figures on the whole unpleasant. But one cannot even
here count upon the constancy of the subjects' feelings. At times, due
perhaps to undercurrents of association processes of which even the
subject himself is not clearly aware, the figure suddenly looms up as
quite definitely pleasing, and full of vague suggestiveness and hidden
richness of content. These varying characters of the feelings for
forms come out interestingly later in the study of them when they are
presented as frames for the above described colors.
* * * * *
_Section B._ The bodily processes noted by the subjects are numerous,
and here also, just as with the amount of feeling above, the personal
differences are striking. Some subjects detect a great many forms of
organic commotion, others rarely find anything that can be said to be
descriptive or explanatory of the feeling-state. To all of them at
first this looking for bodily accompaniments destroyed the feeling
itself. Only after considerable training was it possible for them to
find any physiological processes that seemed at all significant. As a
general statement the evidence would all tend to suggest that feelings
for color are most readily and directly referred to the head, face,
throat, and particularly to the forehead and to the eye-muscles. When,
however, the feelings are particularly strong, they tend to pervade the
whole organism. Red thus often brings about the suggestion of general
bodily comfort, and yellow, when very strong, arouses the impulses
calling for "spreading-out, aggressive movements," referred to arms,
shoulders, and chest. Tones have in general the same reference to
the head. Odors are always more organic, affecting more directly the
respiration, muscles of the abdomen, and the more internal apparatus
generally. Tactual impressions refer to the trunk rather than to
the face, hand, arms, or legs. Forms seem to call forth imitative
movements, and the actual or incipient motor impulses refer to the
action of the eyes in motion, the position of the head, of the whole
body, of the shoulders particularly, of the shaping of the cheeks,
lips, etc., and of the similarly imitative actions in the hands and
arms. The following is a list collected from the reported bodily
references given for the feelings described in Part I, Section A.
(1) Free full respiration and free activity of all voluntary muscles;
or, for other feelings, the checking of respiration and often the lack
of impulse to move at all, with no suggestion, however, in most cases,
of lassitude.
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