action an efferent stimulus follows an afferent promptly and quite
mechanically. It is only where efferent stimuli do not immediately
become entirely transmuted into outwardly moving impulses that
mental action comes in and an animal feels. There appears to be a
direct relation between sensation and motion. For instance, the
shrieks and other instinctive violent motions produced by pain,
"shunt off" a certain amount of nervous impression that would
otherwise register itself as additional painful sensation. Similarly most
women and children understand the comfort of a "good cry," and its
benefit in shifting off a disagreeable mental state.