Search -
Studies in abnormal psychology ;. v. 1, 1913
Studies in abnormal psychology v 1 1913 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY JUNE —JULY, 1910 THE RELATIVE VALUE OF THE AFFECTIVE AND THE INTELLECTUAL PROCESSES IN THE GENESIS OF THE PSYCHOSIS CALLED TRA... more »UMATIC NEURASTHENIA TOM A. WILLIAMS, M.B.C.M. (EDIN.), WASHINGTON, D.C. NEUROLOGIST TO THE EPIPHANY CHURCH FREE DISPENSARY. 7.— Common belief that emotional shock causes permanent nervous disturbance. Psychological views regarding emotion. The prevalent belief that emotional shock is the preponderant factor in chronic perturbations of the nervous system is receiving less and less the acceptance of neurologists; and even psychiatrists are now departing from what was once a firm conviction (1). It would be a pity, for this reason, to go to the other extreme and ignore the role of emotion in psychological and even somatic perturbations; for every psychologist must know what a rich, almost virgin, field is furnished by the quantitative study of affective reactions. In a short paper I must necessarily leave out of account the epistomological difficulties with which the subject bristles (2). We are not yet even decided whether pleasantness and unpleasantness are really sensations or differ from these in kind. There is much difference of opinion at to whether other feelings, e.g. surprise, anguish, etc., should be considered elemental equally with these. Even the co-relations of each of these are undetermined, some believing with Lagerborg (3) that pleasantness is notonly a cognate of, but intrinsically is, of sexual character, and some believing that unpleasantness is merely an attenuated form of pain. Read before the Southern Society of Philosophy and Psychology at their meeting in conjunction with the Southern Educational Association at Charlotte, N. C., Dec. 28th, 1909. Nor is there agreement as to the qualitat...« less