The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
_M. Binet's theory accounts indeed for a multitude of cases, but
certainly not for all._ The prism does not always double the false
appearance,[134] nor does the latter always disappear when the eyes
are closed. Dr. Hack Tuke[135] gives several examples in sane people
of well-exteriorized hallucinations which did not respond to Binet's
tests; and Mr. Edmund Gurney[136] gives a number of reasons why
intensity in a cortical process may be expected to result from local
pathological activity just as much as its peculiar nature does. For
Binet, an abnormally or exclusively active part of the cortex gives
the _nature_ of what shall appear, whilst a peripheral sense-organ
alone can give the _intensity_ sufficient to make it appear projected
into real space. But since this intensity is after all but a matter
of degree, one does not see why, under rare conditions, the degree
in question _might_ not be attained by inner causes exclusively. In
that case we should have certain hallucinations centrally initiated
alongside of the peripherally initiated hallucinations, which are
the only sort that M. Binet's theory allows. _It seems probable on
the whole, therefore, that centrally initiated hallucinations can
exist._ How often they do exist is another question. The existence of
hallucinations which affect more than one sense is an argument for
central initiation. For grant that the thing seen may have its starting
point in the outer world, the voice which it is heard to utter must be
due to an influence from the visual region, i.e. must be of central
origin.
Sporadic cases of hallucination, visiting people only once in a
lifetime (which seem to be by far the most frequent type), are on any
theory hard to understand in detail. They are often extraordinarily
complete; and the fact that many of them are reported as _veridical_,
that is, as coinciding with real events, such as accidents, deaths,
etc., of the persons seen, is an additional complication of the
phenomenon. The first really scientific study of hallucination in
all its possible bearings, on the basis of a large mass of empirical
material, was begun by Mr. Edmund Gurney and is continued by other
members of the Society for Psychical Research; and the 'Census' is
now being applied to several countries under the auspices of the
International Congress of Experimental Psychology. It is to be hoped
that out of these combined labors something solid will eventually
grow. The facts shade off into the phenomena of motor automatism,
trance, etc.; and nothing but a wide comparative study can give really
instructive results.[137]
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