Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/137

 THE EXCITATION OF FEELING 119

extent has a person voluntary control of his emotions? Can one by a simple act of the will induce in himself any emotion he desires to experience? If so, how? Can he inhibit, annul, any emotion which has been aroused in him self? And how? Actors have been questioned as to whether they consciously feel the emotions the physical manifestations of which they assume, and they do not agree in their answers. Possibly this disagreement is due to the failure of at least some of them to understand all that is implied in the question. At any rate it is extremely prob able, if not certain, that whenever the organic tensions which constitute the physical side of the emotions are really induced, the corresponding feeling-tones are always present. The feeling on its conscious side consists of a mass of or ganic sensations plus their feeling-tones. If the organic disturbances are really induced, the organic sensations must be present, and the feeling-tone in some degree of inten sity will inevitably accompany. Can, then, the organic ten sion be induced at will? Not immediately, not by a sheer fiat of the will directed straight upon that part of the mus cular system. It must be done by fixing the attention upon the appropriate mental images. One cannot make himself feel the emotion of anger by simply saying, &quot; I will be an gry &quot; ; but he can by vividly imagining a situation which would arouse his anger. The will induces the emotion by choosing to dwell upon the appropriate ideas. Likewise one can induce the feeling of gratitude by fixing his attention upon the mental image of a situation or act which would in cite that feeling. On the other hand, how can one inhibit or annul an emotion which he already feels? The answer is, by voluntarily relaxing the muscular tensions which con stitute the physical side of the emotion. If in the heat of anger he will by an act of the will relax his tense muscles the anger will at once cool. But here also it is really the direction of the attention which accomplishes the result. In the resolve to relax, the attention is directed away from the act or situation or idea which aroused the anger and is

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