Page:American Journal of Psychology Volume 21.djvu/613

Rh He finds three stages in the mental aspect of inhibition. Immediately upon hearing the significant word, consciousness is crowded with ideas in the focus and swamped by a strong affection. This stage passes more or less gradually into an empty staring, waiting, seeking, with practically no focus and all background. Finally a single idea comes, shooting to a head, that is, to focal clearness and discharging itself into movements of speech. It thus overcomes the inhibition or brings about its Auflösung, and initiates a state of bodily relief accompanied by a sudden change from the previous strong unpleasantness to a less strong pleasantness. These three stages seem to occupy various lengths of time and reach different degrees of intensity. The physiological side of inhibition includes such phenomena as holding of the breath, upward pressure of the diaphragm, drawing inward of the abdominal region, and rigidity of the laryngeal organs, tongue-tightness, and open mouth. The strains and pressures coming from these different parts of the body make up a large part of the background that is left during the second stage, the "empty staring and waiting period," during which one feels utterly helpless.

The feelings or emotions which in G characterize the presence of a "complex" are of two kinds, excitement and anxiety on the one hand, and relief on the other. The excitement seems to be mainly a quick, flash-like, but strongly unpleasant complex of faint visceral sensations, while the anxiety takes a certain time to develop, gradually becoming more and more unpleasant and at the same time confining itself more and more to the sensations due to muscular rigidity. There does not seem to be any regularity in G's records about the occurrence of the one or the other emotion. Both emotions are subject to decay after several recurrences in the same hour. The visceral complex loses in intensity and excitement gradually wears off; and similarly, anxiety slowly disappears with the shortening of the empty waiting period. The change from excitement or anxiety to relief sets in with the appearance of a new idea. Relief is characterized, according to G's observations, by the resumption of normal breathing, beginning usually with a long exhalation which leads sometimes to a whispered "oh!" and by the return of the muscles from the strained contraction to a normal equilibrium. This loosens the vocal organs and makes the pronunciation of the reaction-word possible. The speaking and hearing of the voice is moderately pleasant. In a few rare instances a "slight feeling of relief at easy reaction" is experienced, even in cases of insignificant stimuli, while there is no preceding excitement or anxiety.