The Origin and Nature of Emotions [9]
emotions, diversified results. The heart beats wildly, or may fail to act and faintness ensues; there is death-like pallor; the breathing is labored; the wings of the nostrils are widely dilated; `there is a gasping and convulsive motion of the lips, a tremor on the hollow cheek, a gulping and catching of the throat'; the uncovered and protruding eyeballs are fixed on the object of terror; or they may roll restlessly from side to side. * * * The pupils are said to be enormously dilated. All the muscles of the body may become rigid, or may be thrown into convulsive movements. The hands are alternately clenched and opened, often with a twitching movement. The arms may be protruded, as if to avert some dreadful danger, or may be thrown wildly over the head. * * * In other cases there is a sudden and uncontrollable tendency to headlong flight; and so strong is this that the boldest soldiers may be seized with a sudden panic. As fear rises to an extreme pitch, the dreadful scream of terror is heard. Great beads of sweat stand on the skin. All the muscles of the body are relaxed. Utter prostration soon follows, and the mental powers fail. The intestines are affected. The sphincter muscles cease to act and no longer retain the contents of the body. * * * Men, during numberless generations, have endeavored to escape from their enemies or danger by headlong flight, or by violently struggling with them; and such great exertions will have caused the heart to beat rapidly, the breathing to be hurried, the chest to heave, and the nostrils to be dilated. As these exertions have often been prolonged to the last extremity, the final result will have been utter prostration, pallor, perspiration, trembling of all the muscles, or their complete relaxation. And now, whenever the emotion of fear is strongly felt, though it may not lead to any exertion, the same results tend to reappear, through the force of inheritance and association"[*] (Fig. 12).
[*] Darwin: Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.
In an experimental research, we found evidence that the physiologic phenomena of fear have a physical basis. This evidence is found in the morphologic alterations in the brain-cells, which are similar to those observed in certain stages of surgical shock and in fatigue from muscular exertion (Figs. 2, 4, 5, and 13). For the present, we shall assume that fear is a REPRESENTATION of trauma. Because fear was created by trauma, fear causes a discharge of the energy of the nervous system by the law of phylogenetic association. The almost universal fear of snakes, of blood, and of death and dead bodies may have such a phylogenetic origin. It was previously stated that under the stimulus of fear animals show preternatural strength. An analysis of the phenomena of fear shows that, as far as can be determined, all the functions of the body requiring the expenditure of energy, and which are of no direct assistance in the effort toward self-preservation, are suspended. In the voluntary expenditure of muscular energy, as in the chase, the suspension of other functions is by no means so complete. Fear and trauma may drain to the last dreg the dischargeable nervous energy, and, therefore, the greatest possible exhaustion may be produced by fear and trauma.
Summation
In the discharge of energy, summation plays an important role. Summation is attained by the repetition of stimuli at such a rate that each succeeding stimulus is applied before the nerve-cells have returned to the resting stage from the preceding stimulus. If drops of water fall upon the skin from a sufficient height to cause the slightest unpleasant sensation, and at such a rate that before the effect of the stimulus of one drop has passed another drop falls in precisely the same spot, there will be felt a gradually increasing painful sensation which finally becomes unbearable. This is summation of stimuli. When, for a long time, a patient requires frequent painful wound dressings, there is a gradual increase in the acuteness of the pain of the receptors. This
[*] Darwin: Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.
In an experimental research, we found evidence that the physiologic phenomena of fear have a physical basis. This evidence is found in the morphologic alterations in the brain-cells, which are similar to those observed in certain stages of surgical shock and in fatigue from muscular exertion (Figs. 2, 4, 5, and 13). For the present, we shall assume that fear is a REPRESENTATION of trauma. Because fear was created by trauma, fear causes a discharge of the energy of the nervous system by the law of phylogenetic association. The almost universal fear of snakes, of blood, and of death and dead bodies may have such a phylogenetic origin. It was previously stated that under the stimulus of fear animals show preternatural strength. An analysis of the phenomena of fear shows that, as far as can be determined, all the functions of the body requiring the expenditure of energy, and which are of no direct assistance in the effort toward self-preservation, are suspended. In the voluntary expenditure of muscular energy, as in the chase, the suspension of other functions is by no means so complete. Fear and trauma may drain to the last dreg the dischargeable nervous energy, and, therefore, the greatest possible exhaustion may be produced by fear and trauma.
Summation
In the discharge of energy, summation plays an important role. Summation is attained by the repetition of stimuli at such a rate that each succeeding stimulus is applied before the nerve-cells have returned to the resting stage from the preceding stimulus. If drops of water fall upon the skin from a sufficient height to cause the slightest unpleasant sensation, and at such a rate that before the effect of the stimulus of one drop has passed another drop falls in precisely the same spot, there will be felt a gradually increasing painful sensation which finally becomes unbearable. This is summation of stimuli. When, for a long time, a patient requires frequent painful wound dressings, there is a gradual increase in the acuteness of the pain of the receptors. This