The unconscious : $b The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormalPrince, Morton
Science
The unconscious : $b The fundamentals of human personality, normal and abnormal
Prince, Morton
Psychology, Pathological; Subconsciousness
senses. But in the case of the rabbit it is even still clearer than in
the case of the bird that the effects of these afferent impulses are
different from those which result when the impulses gain access to an
intact brain. The movements of the animal seem guided by impressions
made on its retina, as well as on other sensory nerves; we may perhaps
speak of the animal as the subject of sensations; but there is no
satisfactory evidence that it possesses either visual or other
perceptions, or that the sensations which it experiences give rise to
ideas.”[124]
Even _spontaneity_ which at one time was supposed to be lost it is now
agreed returns if the animal is kept alive long enough. It “wanders
about in the room untiringly the greater part of the day” (Loeb).
Of course there are differences in the animal’s behavior when compared
with normal behavior, but these differences are not so easy to interpret
in psychological terms. Loeb, apparently following Schräder, does not
believe the animal is blind or deaf or without sensation for it reacts
to light, to noise, to smell, to tactile impressions, etc. It avoids
obstacles and is guided by visual impressions, etc. The falcon jumps at
and catches a mouse introduced in its cage; the dog growls and snaps if
its paw is pinched and endeavors to get away or bite the offending hand;
the pigeon flies and alights upon a bar, apparently visually measuring
distance, and so on. But though it is guided by visual and other sensory
_impressions_, does it have visual, auditory and other _images_, that
is, conscious sensory states? This is not easy to answer. It certainly
acts like an animal that is not blind nor deaf nor without tactual
sensation, and yet it is conceivable that it is guided simply by sensory
mechanisms without conscious sensation. The main reason, apparently, for
believing the animal to be without sensation, as some believe (e. g.,
Morgan) is the absence of the cerebral cortex in which alone sensation
is believed to be “localized.” Recently Rothmann[125] has succeeded in
keeping alive for three years a dog from which the entire cerebrum was
extirpated. It was then killed. Although the dog, like Goltz’ dog, in
its behavior exhibited an abundance of functions in the spheres of
mobility, sensibility, feeding, barking, etc., Rothmann came to the
conclusion that it was blind and deaf.[126] Although apparently without
taste for bitter, sweet, sour, and acid, yet the dog reacted differently
to edible and non-edible substances, swallowing the former and rejecting
the latter (moist sand); raw flesh was eaten preferably to cooked flesh
and Goltz’ dog rejected from its mouth food made bitter with quinine.
Some kind of gustatory processes (probably purely reflex as in Pawlow’s
association experiments) were therefore retained though not necessarily
taste as such. But blindness and deafness in the dog cannot negative the
retention in birds and other animals of visual and auditory impressions
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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