Outwitting Our Nerves: A Primer of Psychotherapy — John Shaqi
Outwitting Our Nerves: A Primer of PsychotherapyJackson, Josephine A. (Josephine Agnes)
Science
Outwitting Our Nerves: A Primer of Psychotherapy
Jackson, Josephine A. (Josephine Agnes)
Nervous system -- Diseases; Psychoanalysis; Therapeutics, Suggestive
As fear supplies the energy for running, so anger fits us for
fight,--and for nothing but fight. The mechanism is almost identical
with that of fear. Brain and liver, adrenals and thyroid are the
means, but the emotion presses the button and releases the energy,
stopping all digestion and energizing all combat-muscles. The blood is
flooded with fuel and with substances which, if not used, are harmful
to the body. We were never meant to be angry without fighting. The
habit of self-control has its distinct advantages, but it is hard on
the body, which was patterned before self-control came into fashion.
The wise man, once he is aroused, lets off steam at the woodpile or on
a long, vigorous walk. He probably does not say to himself that he is
a motor animal integrated for fight and that he must get rid of
glycogen and adrenalin and thyroid secretion. He only knows that he
feels better "on the move."
The wiser man does not let himself get angry in the first place unless
the situation calls for fight. However, the fight need not be a
hand-to-hand combat with one's fellow man. William James has pointed
out that there is a "moral equivalent for war," and that the energy of
this instinct may be used to reinforce other impulses and help
overcome obstacles of all sorts. A good deal of the business man's
zest, the engineer's determination, and the reformer's zeal spring
from the fight-instinct used in the right way. As James, Cannon, and
others have pointed out, the way to end war may be to employ man's
instinct of pugnacity in fighting the universal enemies of the
race--fire, flood, famine, disease, and the various social
evils--rather than let it spend its force in war between nations. Even
our sports may be offshoots of the fight-instinct, for McDougall holds
that the play-tendency has its root in the instinct of rivalry, a
modified form of pugnacity. Evidently fighting-blood is a useful
inheritance, even to-day, and rightly directed is a necessary part of
a complete and forceful personality.
This, then, completes the list of self-preservative instincts, those
which are commonly called egoistic and which have been given us for
the maintenance of our own individual personal lives. But our
endowment includes another set of impulses which are no less important
and which must be reckoned with if human conduct is to be understood.
CHAPTER IV
_In which we learn more about ourselves_
THE STORY OF THE INSTINCTS (Continued)
II. THE RACE-PRESERVATIVE INSTINCTS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account