Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/89

 ��FEELING 71

isms ; it is quite possible, and there are good reasons which render it quite probable, that the physical excitation and the conscious realization of its meaning for the organism, are simultaneous effects of the stimulus. The psycho-physical organism reacts to every stimulus that enters consciousness with a double response one psychical (affective), the other physical (nervous and muscular). Why think of either as preceding the other in time ? However, the important prac tical consideration is that there always accompany feelings certain physiological excitations. These organic disturb ances corresponding to the various feelings are of great sig nificance, and must be carefully considered in order to arrive at an understanding of the emotional life.

5. It is a matter of great theoretical and even greater practical importance to understand the relation of feeling, i.e., the conscious side of emotion, to the motor, or physical side. They do not stand in a fixed or invariable ratio to one another. To bring out this relation I shall quote from Angell. 1 &quot; The peculiar feeling which marks off each emo tion from other emotions is primarily due to the different reactions which various objects call forth. These reactions are in turn determined by circumstances which may lie in definitely far back in the early history of the race, but in each case they require for their effective manipulation special forms of co-ordination of the incoming with the out going nerves. Every emotional reaction represents, there fore, the survival of acts originally useful. ... In the pres ent-day individual these originally valuable reactions are not commonly executed as they once were, for they are no longer unequivocally useful. But they appear now in the form of attitudes or tendencies to actions, which are, how ever, in part inhibited from expression. This inhibition is due to the fact that, owing to our personal experience and present complex structure, the emotional stimulus tends to produce two or more different motor reactions, instead of producing simply the old, instinctive, hereditary one. The

i &quot; Psychology,&quot; pp. 327-333-

�� �