The Psychology of the EmotionsRibot, Th. (Théodule)
Science
The Psychology of the Emotions
Ribot, Th. (Théodule)
Emotions
Case 6. A woman, aged 28. “Three years ago, I used to go and see a
relative who was undergoing treatment at an establishment in the
neighbourhood of P——. My visits were very frequent, and always
began with a long wait in a room overlooking the garden. If I wish
to repeat the impressions of this time of waiting, which was
always disagreeable to me, all I have to do is to sit down in a
chair, as I was then seated, to close my eyes and put myself in
the same frame of mind, which I can do quite easily. Not half a
minute passes between the evocation and the clear and absolute
reconstruction of the scene. First, I feel the carpet under my
feet, then I _see_ its pattern of red and brown roses; then the
table with the books lying on it, their colour and style of
binding; then the windows, and through them the branches of the
trees, of which I hear the sound as they beat against the glass;
lastly, the peculiar atmosphere of the room, its unmistakable
smell. After this, I feel over again all the weariness of waiting,
complicated by an intense dread of the doctor’s arrival, a state
of apprehension ending in a violent palpitation of the heart,
which I find it impossible to escape. When once I have entered on
this train of thought, I have to follow it out to the end, passing
through the whole series of states which I passed through at the
time. If I wished to eliminate any of them I am sure that I could
not do so, as when, in a dream, one tries, without ever
succeeding, to avoid an unpleasant fall which one foresees.”
Here nothing is wanting, either the circumstances, or the repetition
of the emotion itself; and this case shows that the complete revival
of an emotion is the beginning of the emotion itself.
Lastly, there remains a third category of answers, of which I have
only four cases. I mention these merely as a curiosity, and in order
to omit nothing. These persons represent the emotion _objectively_
to themselves, by localising it in another. One can only represent
anger to himself under the force of some particular angry man.
Another incarnates fear and hatred in a certain person whose
countenance or attitude expresses fear or hatred. The emotional
state is, for these, only represented under its bodily form.
Is this because they have, personally, little experience of these
different emotions?
III.
This series of facts, with their multiform and often contradictory
manifestations, may perhaps leave the reader in perplexity, which
would be still greater were I to enumerate all. Let us try to bring
them into some sort of order, and understand their significance.
If—placing ourselves at the point of view of the question stated
above, the possibility of a revival not produced by an actual
occurrence—we propose to ourselves to classify all images
whatsoever, we shall see that they fall into these groups, viz.:—
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