The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
"Here, then, are two rather notable results: the one is the proved
facility of obtaining statistical insight into the processes of other
persons' minds, whatever _a priori_ objection may have been made
as to its possibility; and the other is that scientific men, as a
class, have feeble powers of visual representation. There is no doubt
whatever on the latter point, however it may be accounted for. My own
conclusion is that an over-ready perception of sharp mental pictures
is antagonistic to the acquirement of habits of highly-generalized
and abstract thought, especially when the steps of reasoning are
carried on by words as symbols, and that if the faculty of seeing the
pictures was ever possessed by men who think hard, it is very apt
to be lost by disuse. The highest minds are probably those in which
it is not lost, but subordinated, and is ready for use on suitable
occasions. I am, however, bound to say that the missing faculty seems
to be replaced so serviceably by other modes of conception, chiefly,
I believe, connected with the incipient motor sense, not of the
eyeballs only but of the muscles generally, that _men who declare
themselves entirely deficient in the power of seeing mental pictures
can nevertheless give lifelike descriptions_ of what they have seen,
and can otherwise express themselves as if they were gifted with a
vivid visual imagination. _They can also become painters of the rank
of Royal Academicians...._[56]
"It is a mistake to suppose that sharp sight is accompanied by
clear visual memory. I have not a few instances in which the
independence of the two faculties is emphatically commented on; and
I have at least one clear case where great interest in outlines and
accurate appreciation of straightness, squareness, and the like, is
unaccompanied by the power of visualizing. Neither does the faculty go
with dreaming. I have cases where it is powerful, and at the same time
where dreams are rare and faint or altogether absent. One friend tells
me that his dreams have not the hundredth part of the vigor of his
waking fancies.
"The visualizing and the identifying powers are by no means
necessarily combined. A distinguished writer on metaphysical topics
assures me that he is exceptionally quick at recognizing a face that
he has seen before, but that he cannot call up a mental image of any
face with clearness.
"Some persons have the power of combining in a single perception more
than can be seen at any one moment by the two eyes....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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