Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/191

 ATTENTION 173

centred upon the speaker himself, or his methods, rather than upon his message.

2. Voluntary attention, in which the concentration of the mind takes place under the control of the will. It is a matter of choice, and is based upon some measure of delib eration, or weighing of alternatives. It implies a tendency to attend to something else. This divergent tendency has to be overcome, which involves strain. Voluntary atten tion presupposes a considerable degree of mental organ ization, the existence of a plan and purpose and the cen tralized control of one s energies in the realization of the purpose. Angell says : &quot; When we say that in voluntary attention we force ourselves to attend to some particular object or idea, what we evidently mean is that the mind in its entirety is brought to bear in suppressing certain dis turbing objects or ideas, and in bringing to the front the chosen ones. The act of voluntary attention is, in short, an expression of the sovereignty of the whole mind over its lesser parts, i.e., over the disturbing or alluring ideas and sensations/ 1 It is not quite correct to say that &quot; the mind in its entirety is brought to bear in suppressing certain dis turbing objects or ideas.&quot; This real situation is that there are two mental tendencies opposing one another, and the characteristic note of the process is the effort to attain men tal unity, to bring &quot; the mind in its entirety &quot; to act along a certain line, or to focalize upon one object to the exclusion of others. There is a recurrent swinging of the attention away from one object of interest to another and a repeated pulling of it back. This is wearisome and disagreeable. There is not only much unpleasantness but much waste of energy in the exercise of voluntary attention. As the men tal energy diminishes by reason of the strain, the unpleas antness of the process increases ; there is a decrease of power to direct the mind to the chosen object, or more properly speaking, to keep the choice fixed upon a certain object; and after awhile the point is reached where voluntary attention 1 &quot; Psychology,&quot; pp, 72-73.

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