The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
diversities which prevail.[71]
_Touch-images_ are very strong in some people. The most vivid
touch-images come when we ourselves barely escape local injury, or
when we see another injured. The place may then actually tingle with
the imaginary sensation--perhaps not altogether imaginary, since
goose-flesh, paling or reddening, and other evidences of actual
muscular contraction in the spot may result.
"An educated man," says a writer who must always be quoted when it
is question of the powers of imagination,[72] "told me once that on
entering his house one day he received a shock from crushing the
finger of one of his little children in the door. At the moment of his
fright he felt a violent pain in the corresponding finger of his own
body, and this pain abode with him three days."
The same author makes the following discrimination, which probably most
men could verify:
"On the skin I easily succeed in bringing out suggested sensations
wherever I will. But because it is necessary to protract the mental
effort I can only awaken such sensations as are in their nature
prolonged, as warmth, cold, pressure. Fleeting sensations, as those
of a prick, a cut, a blow, etc., I am unable to call up, because I
cannot imagine them _ex abrupto_ with the requisite intensity. The
sensations of the former order I can excite upon any part of the skin;
and they may become so lively that, whether I will or not, I have to
pass my hand over the place just as if it were a real impression on
the skin."[73]
_Meyer's account of his own visual images_ is very interesting; and
with it we may close our survey of differences between the normal
powers of imagining in different individuals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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