THE ENERGIZING INFLUENCE OF EMOTIONAL EXCITEMENT
The close relation between emotion and muscular action has long been
perceived. As Sherrington[158] has pointed out, “Emotion ‘moves’ us,
hence the word itself. If developed in intensity, it impels toward
vigorous movement. Every vigorous movement of the body ... involves
also the less noticeable coöperation of the viscera, especially of
the circulatory and respiratory. The extra demand made upon the
muscles that move the frame involves a heightened action of the
nutrient organs which supply to the muscles the material for their
energy.” The researches here reported have revealed a number of
unsuspected ways in which muscular action is made more efficient
because of emotional disturbances of the viscera. Every one of the
visceral changes that have been noted--the cessation of processes
in the alimentary canal (thus freeing the energy supply for other
parts); the shifting of blood from the abdominal organs, whose
activities are deferable, to the organs immediately essential to
muscular exertion (the lungs, the heart, the central nervous system);
the increased vigor of contraction of the heart; the quick abolition
of the effects of muscular fatigue; the mobilizing of energy-giving
sugar in the circulation--every one of these visceral changes is
_directly serviceable in making the organism more effective in the
violent display of energy which fear or rage or pain may involve_.
“Reservoirs of Power”
That the major emotions have an energizing effect has been commonly
recognized.[*] Darwin testified to having heard, “as a proof of
the exciting nature of anger, that a man when excessively jaded
will sometimes invent imaginary offences and put himself into a
passion, unconsciously for the sake of reinvigorating himself;
and,” Darwin[159] continues, “since hearing this remark, I have
occasionally recognized its full truth.” Under the impulse of
fear also, men have been known to achieve extraordinary feats of
running and leaping. McDougall[160] cites the instance of an
athlete who, when pursued as a boy by a savage animal, leaped over
a wall which he could not again “clear” until he attained his full
stature and strength. The very unusual abilities, both physical
and mental, which men have exhibited in times of stress were dealt
with from the psychological point of view by William James[161] in
one of his last essays. He suggested that in every person there
are “reservoirs of power” which are not ordinarily called upon,
but which are nevertheless ready to pour forth streams of energy
if only the occasion presents itself. These figurative expressions
of the psychologist receive definite and concrete exemplification,
so far as the physical exhibitions of power are concerned, in the
highly serviceable bodily changes which have been described in the
foregoing chapters.
*[Footnote: Russell (The Pima Indians, United States Bureau of
Ethnology, 1908, p. 243) relates a tale told by the Indians to
their children, in which an injured coyote was chasing some quails.
“Finally the quails got tired,” according to the story, “but the
coyote did not, for he was angry and did not feel fatigue.”]
It would doubtless be incorrect to attempt to account for all the
increased strength and tireless endurance, which may be experienced
in periods of great excitement, on the basis of abundant supplies
provided then for muscular contraction, and a special secretion for
avoiding or abolishing the depressive influences of fatigue. Tremors,
muscular twitchings, the assumption of characteristic attitudes,
all indicate that there is an immensely augmented activity of the
nervous system--an activity that discharges powerfully even into
parts not directly concerned in struggle, as, for example, into
the muscles of voice, causing peculiar cries or warning notes; into
the muscles of the ears, drawing them back or causing them to stand
erect, and into the small muscles about the lips, tightening them
and revealing the teeth. The typical appearances of human beings,
as well as lower animals, when in the grip of such deeply agitating
emotions as fear and rage, are so well recognized as to constitute a
primitive and common means of judging the nature of the experience
through which the organism is passing. This “pattern” response of
the nervous system to an emotion-provoking object or situation is
probably capable of bringing into action a much greater number
of neurones in the central nervous system than are likely to be
concerned in even a supreme act of volition. The nervous impulses
delivered to the muscles, furthermore, operate upon organs well
supplied with energy-yielding material and well fortified by rapidly
circulating blood and by secreted adrenin, against quick loss of
power because of accumulating waste. Under such circumstances of
excitement the performance of extraordinary feats of strength or
endurance is natural enough.[*]
*[Footnote: If individual neurones obey the law of either supreme
action or inaction, the “all-or-none law,” the only means of
securing a graded response is through variation of the _number_ of
neurones engaged in action--the more, the greater the resulting
manifestation of strength.]
In connection with the conception that strong emotion has a
dynamogenic value, it is of interest to note that on occasions
when great demands are likely to be placed on the neuro-muscular
system in the doing of unusual labors, emotional excitement is not
uncommonly an accompaniment. In order to emphasize points in the
argument developed thus far, I propose to cite some examples of the
association of emotional excitement with remarkable exhibitions of
power or resistance to fatigue.
The Excitements and Energies of Competitive Sports
Already in an earlier account (see p. 75) I have mentioned finding
sugar in the urine in approximately fifty per cent of a group of
college football players after the most exacting game of the season’s
play. As is well understood, such games are heralded far and wide,
loyal supporters of each college may travel hundreds of miles to
attend the contest, enthusiastic meetings of undergraduate students
are held in each college to demonstrate their devotion to the team
and their confidence in its prowess--indeed, the arguments for
victory, the songs, the cheering, are likely to be so disturbing
to the players, that before an important contest they are not
infrequently removed from college surroundings in order to avoid
being overwrought when the contest comes.
On the day of the contest the excitement is multiplied manyfold.
There is practically a holiday in college and to a large extent
in the city as well. The streets are filled with eager supporters
of each team as the hosts begin to gather at the field. As many
as 70,000 spectators may be present, each one tense and strongly
partisan. The student bands lead the singing, by thousands of
voices, of songs which urge to the utmost effort for the college;
and, in anticipation, these songs also celebrate the victory.
Into the midst of that huge, cheering, yelling, singing, flag-waving
crowd, the players are welcomed in a special outburst of these same
demonstrations of enthusiasm. Soon the game begins. The position
of every player is known, if not because of previous acquaintance
and recognition, because card-diagrams give the information. Every
important play is seen by the assembled thousands, and the player who
makes it is at once announced to all, and is likely to be honored
by his multitudinous college mates in a special cheer, ending in
his name. Any player who, by infraction of the rules or failure to
do his part, loses ground gained by his team is also known. The man
who is “played out” in efforts to win for his team and college,
and consequently has to leave the field, is welcomed to the side
lines by acclamations suited for a great hero. In short, every
effort is made, through the powerful incentives of censure and
a flaunting recognition, to make each member of the team realize
vividly his responsibility, both personal and as one of a group,
for the supreme, all-important result--victory for his college.
This responsibility works tremendously on the emotions of the
players. In the dressing room before a critical contest I have seen a
“gridiron warrior,” ready in canvas suit, cleated shoes, and leather
helmet, sitting grimly on a bench, his fists clenched, his jaws
tight, and his face the color of clay. He performed wonderfully when
the game began, and after it was over there was a large percentage
of sugar in his urine! Probably no sport requires a more sustained
and extreme display of neuro-muscular effort than American football.
And from the foregoing description of the conditions that surround
the contests it is easy to realize that they conspire to arouse in
the players excitements which would bring forth very efficiently
the bodily reserves for use in the fierce struggle which the game
requires.
What is true of football is true, though perhaps to a less degree,
of the racing sports, as running and rowing. Again great multitudes
attend the events, the contests are followed closely from beginning
to end, and as the goal is approached the cheering and cries for
victory gather in volume and intensity as if arranged for a thrilling
climax. The whole setting is most highly favorable to the dramatic
development of an acme of excitement as the moment for the last
desperate effort to win is put forth.
Frenzy and Endurance in Ceremonial and Other Dances
Dancing, which formed a significant feature of primitive rituals, has
always been accompanied by exciting conditions, and not unusually
was an exhibition of remarkable endurance. In the transfer of the
Ark to Zion there were processions and sacrifices, and King David
“danced before the Lord with all his might.” Mooney[162] in his
account of dances among the American Indians tells of a young man
who in one of the ceremonials danced three days and nights without
food, drink or sleep. In such a terrible ordeal the favoring
presence of others, who through group action help to stimulate both
the excitement and the activities, must be an important element in
prolonging the efforts of the individual.
In the history of religious manias[163] there are many instances
of large numbers of people becoming frenzied and then showing
extraordinary endurance while dancing. In 1374 a mania broke forth
in Germany, the Netherlands and France, in which the victims claimed
to dance in honor of Saint John. Men and women went about dancing
hand in hand, in pairs, or in a circle, on the streets, in the
churches, at their homes, or wherever they might be, hour after
hour without rest. While dancing they sang, uttered cries, and
saw visions. Whole companies of these crazy fanatics went dancing
along the public roads and into the cities, until they had to be
interfered with.
In 1740 an extraordinary sect, known as the “Jumpers,” arose in
Wales. According to the description given by Wesley, their exercises
were not unlike those of certain frenzied states among the Indians.
“After the preaching was over,” Wesley[164] wrote, “anyone who
pleased gave out a verse of a hymn; and this they sung over and
over again, with all their might and main, thirty or forty times,
till some of them worked themselves into a sort of drunkenness
or madness; they were then violently agitated, and leaped up and
down in all manner of postures, frequently for hours together.”
There were sometimes thousands at a single meeting of the Jumpers,
shouting out their excitement and ready to leap for joy.[165] Wesley
has also described instances of tremendous emotional outburst at
Methodist meetings which he addressed. “Some were torn with a kind
of convulsive motion in every part of their bodies, and that so
violently that often four or five persons could not hold one of
them. I have seen many hysterical or epileptic fits,” he wrote,
“but none of them were like these in many respects.”
Among the dervishes[166] likewise the dance is accompanied by
intense excitement and apparently tireless movements. “The cries
of ‘Yâ Allah!’ are increased doubly, as also those of ‘Yâ Hoo!’
with frightful howlings shrieked by the dervishes together in the
dance.”... “There was no regularity in their dancing, but each seemed
to be performing the antics of a madman; now moving his body up and
down; the next moment turning round, then using odd gesticulations
with his arms, next jumping, and sometimes screaming.”... “At the
moment when they would seem to stop from sheer exhaustion the sheikh
makes a point of exciting them to new efforts by walking through
their midst, making also himself most violent movements. He is next
replaced by two elders, who double the quickness of the step and
the agitation of the body; they even straighten themselves up from
time to time, and excite the envy or emulation of others in their
astonishing efforts to continue the dance until their strength is
entirely exhausted.” Such is the frenzy thus developed that the
performers may be subjected to severe pain, yet only show signs of
elation.
In all these dances the two most marked features are the intense
excitement of those who engage in them and the very remarkable
physical endurance which they manifest. Although there is no direct
evidence, such as was obtained in examining the football players,
that bodily changes favorable to great neuro-muscular exertion are
developed in these furies of fanaticism, it is highly probable that
they are so developed, and that the feats of fortitude which are
performed are to a large extent explicable on the basis of a “tapping
of the reservoirs of power” through the emotional excitement.
The Fierce Emotions and Struggles of Battle
Throughout the discussion of the probable significance of the bodily
changes in pain and great emotion, the value of these changes in the
struggles of conflict or escape was emphasized. In human beings as
well as in lower animals the wildest passions are aroused when the
necessities of combat become urgent. One needs only to glance at
the history of warfare to observe that when the primitive emotions
of anger and hatred are permitted full sway, men who have been
considerate and thoughtful of their fellows and their fellows’ rights
suddenly may turn into infuriated savages, slaughtering innocent
women and children, mutilating the wounded, burning, ravaging, and
looting, with all the wild fervor of demons. It is in such excesses
of emotional turbulence that the most astonishing instances of
prolonged exertion and incredible endurance are to be found.
Probably the fiercest struggles between men that are recorded are
those which occurred when the wager of battle was a means of
determining innocence or guilt. In the corners of the plot selected
for the combat a bier was prepared for each participant, as a symbol
that the struggle was for life or death. Each was attended by his
relatives and followers, and by his father confessor.[167] After
each had prayed to God for help in the coming combat, the weapons
were selected, the sacrament was administered, and the battle was
begun. The principals fought to the end with continuous and brutal
ferocity, resembling the desperate encounters of wild beasts. A
fairly illustrative example is furnished in an incident which
followed the assassination of Charles the Good of Flanders in 1127.
One of the accomplices, a knight named Guy, was challenged for
complicity by another named Herman. Both were renowned warriors.
Herman was speedily unhorsed by Guy, who with his lance frustrated
all Herman’s attempts to remount. Then Herman disabled Guy’s horse,
and the combat was renewed on foot with swords. Equally skilful in
fence, they continued the struggle till fatigue compelled them to
drop sword and shield, whereupon they wrestled for the mastery. Guy
threw his antagonist, fell on him, and beat him in the face with his
gauntlets till he seemed to be motionless; but Herman had quietly
slipped his hand below the other’s coat of mail and, grasping the
testicles, with a mighty effort wrenched them away. Immediately
Guy fell over and expired.[168] In such terrific fights as these,
conducted in the extremes of rage and hate, the mechanisms for
reënforcing the parts of the body which are of primary importance
in the struggle are brought fully into action and are of utmost
value in securing victory.
The Stimulating Influence of Witnesses and of Music
It is noteworthy that in all the instances thus far cited--in the
great games, in dancing, and in fighting--two factors are present
that are well known to have an augmenting effect both in the full
development of emotions and in the performance of unusual muscular
labors. One of these is the crowd of witnesses or participants, who
contribute the “mob spirit” that tends to carry the actions of the
individual far beyond the limits set by any personal considerations
or prudencies. The other is the influence of music. As Darwin long
ago indicated, music has a wonderful power of recalling in a vague
and indefinite manner strong emotions which have been felt by our
ancestors in long-past ages. Especially is this true of martial
music. For the grim purposes of war the reed and the lute are
grotesquely ill-suited; to rouse men to action strident brass and
the jarring instruments of percussion are used in full force. The
influence of martial music on some persons is so profound as to
cause the muscles to tremble and tears to come to the eyes--both
indications of the deep stirring of emotional responses in the body.
And when deeds of fortitude and fierce exertion are to be performed
the effectiveness of such music in rousing the aggressive emotions
has long been recognized. The Romans charged their foes amid the
blasts of trumpets and horns. The ancient Germans rushed to battle,
their forces spurred by the sounds of drums, flutes, cymbals and
clarions. There is a tradition that the Hungarian troops are the
worst in Europe, until their bands begin to play--then they are the
best! The late General Linevitch is quoted as saying: “Music is one
of the most vital ammunitions of the Russian army. Without music a
Russian soldier would be dull, cowardly, brutal and inefficient.
From music he absorbs a magic power of endurance, and forgets the
sufferings and mortality. It is a divine dynamite.” And Napoleon
is said to have testified that the weird and barbaric tunes of the
Cossack regiments infuriated them to such rage that they wiped out
the cream of his army.[169] A careful consideration of the use of
martial music in warfare would perhaps bring further interesting
evidence that its function is to reënforce the bodily changes that
attend the belligerent emotions.
Only a few instances of the combination of extreme pain, rage, terror
or excitement, and tremendous muscular power have been given in the
preceding pages. Doubtless in numerous other conditions these two
groups of phenomena occur together. In the lives of firemen and the
police, in the experiences of escaping prisoners, of shipwrecked
sailors, in the struggles between pioneers and their savage enemies,
in accounts of forced marches or retreats, search would reveal
many examples of such bodily disturbances as have been described
in earlier chapters as augmenting the effectiveness of muscular
efforts, and such exhibitions of power or endurance as are evidently
far beyond the ordinary. There is every reason for believing that,
were the conditions favorable to experimental testing, it would
be possible to demonstrate and perhaps to measure the addition to
the dynamics of bodily action that appears as the accompaniment of
violent emotional disturbance.
The Feeling of Power
In this connection it is highly significant that in times of
strong excitement there is not infrequent testimony to a sense of
overwhelming power that sweeps in like a sudden tide and lifts the
person to a new high level of ability. A friend of mine, whose
nature is somewhat choleric, has told me that when he is seized
with anger, he is also possessed by an intense conviction that he
could crush and utterly destroy the object of his hostility. And
I have heard a football player confess that just before the final
game such an access of strength seemed to come to him that he felt
able, on the signal, to crouch and with a jump go crashing through
any ordinary door. There is intense satisfaction in these moments
of supreme elation, when the body is at its acme of accomplishment.
And it is altogether probable that the critical dangers of adventure
have a fascination because fear is thrilling, and extrication from a
predicament, by calling forth all the bodily resources and setting
them to meet the challenge of the difficulty, yields many of the
joys of conquest. For these reasons vigorous men go forth to seek
dangers and to run large chances of serious injury. “Danger makes
us more alive. We so love to strive that we come to love the fear
that gives us strength for conflict. Fear is not only something
to be escaped from to a place or state of safety, but welcomed as
an arsenal of augmented strength.”[170] And thus in the hazardous
sports, in mountain climbing, in the hunting of big game, and in
the tremendous adventure of war, risks and excitement and the sense
of power surge up together, setting free unsuspected energies, and
bringing vividly to consciousness memorable fresh revelations of
the possibilities of achievement.
REFERENCES
[Footnote 158: Sherrington: The Integrative Action of the Nervous
System, New York, 1906, p. 265.]
[Footnote 159: Darwin: The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals,
New York, 1905, p. 79.]
[Footnote 160: McDougall: Introduction to Social Psychology, London,
1908, p. 50.]
[Footnote 161: James: The Energies of Men, p. 227, in Memories and
Studies, New York, 1911.]
[Footnote 162: Mooney: The Ghost-Dance Religion, United States
Bureau of Ethnology, 1892-3, p. 924.]
[Footnote 163: Schaff: Religious Encyclopedia, New York, 1908, iii,
p. 346.]
[Footnote 164: Southey: Life of Charles Wesley, New York, 1820,
ii, p. 164.]
[Footnote 165: Southey: _Loc. cit._, i, p. 240.]
[Footnote 166: Brown: The Dervishes, London, 1868, pp. 218-222,
260.]
[Footnote 167: Majer: Geschichte der Ordalien, Jena, 1796, pp.
258-261.]
[Footnote 168: Lea: Superstition and Force, Philadelphia, 1892, p.
178.]
[Footnote 169: Narodny: Musical America, 1914, xx, No. 14.]
[Footnote 170: Hall: American Journal of Psychology, 1914, xxv, p.
154.]