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
Most of the viscera are innervated by the sympathetic system, and the
visceral manifestations of emotion indicate the dominance of sympathetic
impulses. “When, for example, a cat becomes frightened, the pupils
dilate, the stomach and intestines are inhibited, the heart beats
rapidly, the hairs of the back and tail stand erect—all signs of nervous
discharge along sympathetic paths” (Cannon). Cannon and his co-workers
have further made the acute suggestion that, as adrenalin itself is
capable of working the effects evoked by sympathetic stimulation, “the
persistence of the emotional state, after the exciting object has
disappeared, can be explained” by the persistence of the adrenalin in
the blood. There is reason to believe that some of the adrenal secretion
set free by nervous stimulation returning in the blood stream to the
glands stimulates them to further activity, and this would tend to
continue the emotional effect after the emotion has subsided. “Indeed it
was the lasting effect of excitement in digestive processes which
suggested” to Cannon his investigations.[208]
According to Féré[209] the _pupils_ may dilate under the influence of
asthenic emotions and contract with sthenic emotions. However that may
be, the dilatation of the pupils during states of fear may be
demonstrated in animals.
exert force of which he is ordinarily incapable. Or this energy, instead
of being discharged into the channels being made use of by the will, and
so augmenting its effects, may be so discharged as to inhibit the will,
and produce paralysis of the will and muscular action.
These muscular vasomotor and secretory changes need not surprise us, as
indeed they have a biological meaning. As Sherrington[210] has pointed
out, “there is a strong bond between emotion and muscular action.
Emotion ‘moves’ us, hence the word itself. If developed in intensity, it
impels toward vigorous movement. Every vigorous movement of the body ...
involves also the less noticeable co-operation of the viscera,
especially of the circulatory and respiratory [and, I would add, the
secretory glands of the skin]. The extra demand made upon the muscles
that move the frame involves a heightened action of the nutrient organs
which supply to the muscles the material for their energy”; and also
involves a heightened action of the sweat glands to maintain the thermic
equilibrium. “We should expect,” Sherrington remarks, “visceral action
to occur along with the muscular expression of emotion,” and we should
expect, it may be added, that through this mechanism emotion should
become integrated with vasomotor, secretory, and other visceral
functions.
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