FEELING AND ITS FUNCTIONS
In the psychical world as well as the physical we must meet and overcome
inertia. Our lives must be compelled by motive forces strong enough to
overcome this natural inertia, and enable us besides to make headway
against many obstacles. _The motive power that drives us consists
chiefly of our feelings and emotions._ Knowledge, cognition, supplies
the rudder that guides our ship, but feeling and emotion supply the
power.
To convince one's head is, therefore, not enough; his feelings must be
stirred if you would be sure of moving him to action. Often have we
_known_ that a certain line of action was right, but failed to follow it
because feeling led in a different direction. When decision has been
hanging in the balance we have piled on one side obligation, duty, sense
of right, and a dozen other reasons for action, only to have them all
outweighed by the one single: _It is disagreeable._ Judgment, reason,
and experience may unite to tell us that a contemplated course is
unwise, and imagination may reveal to us its disastrous consequences,
and yet its pleasures so appeal to us that we yield. Our feelings often
prove a stronger motive than knowledge and will combined; they are a
factor constantly to be reckoned with among our motives.
1. THE NATURE OF FEELING
It will be our purpose in the next few chapters to study the _affective_
content of consciousness--the feelings and emotions. The present chapter
will be devoted to the feelings and the one that follows to the
emotions.
THE DIFFERENT FEELING QUALITIES.--At least six (some writers say even
more) distinct and qualitatively different feeling states are easily
distinguished. These are: _pleasure_, _pain_; _desire_, _repugnance_;
_interest_, _apathy._ Pleasure and pain, and desire and repugnance, are
directly opposite or antagonistic feelings. Interest and apathy are not
opposites in a similar way, since apathy is but the absence of interest,
and not its antagonist. In place of the terms pleasure and pain, the
_pleasant_ and the _unpleasant_, or the _agreeable_ and the
_disagreeable_, are often used. _Aversion_ is frequently employed as a
synonym for repugnance.
It is somewhat hard to believe on first thought that feeling comprises
but the classes given. For have we not often felt the pain from a
toothache, from not being able to take a long-planned trip, from the
loss of a dear friend? Surely these are very different classes of
feelings! Likewise we have been happy from the very joy of living, from
being praised for some well-doing, or from the presence of friend or
lover. And here again we seem to have widely different classes of
feelings.
We must remember, however, that feeling is always based on something
_known_. It never appears alone in consciousness as _mere_ pleasures or
pains. The mind must have something about which to feel. The "what" must
precede the "how." What we commonly call a feeling _is a complex state
of consciousness in which feeling predominates_, but which has,
nevertheless, _a basis of sensation, or memory, or some other cognitive
process_. And what so greatly varies in the different cases of the
illustrations just given is precisely this knowledge element, and not
the feeling element. A feeling of unpleasantness is a feeling of
unpleasantness whether it comes from an aching tooth or from the loss of
a friend. It may differ in degree, and the entire mental states of which
the feeling is a part may differ vastly, but the simple feeling itself
is of the same quality.
FEELING ALWAYS PRESENT IN MENTAL CONTENT.--No phase of our mental life
is without the feeling element. We look at the rainbow with its
beautiful and harmonious blending of colors, and a feeling of pleasure
accompanies the sensation; then we turn and gaze at the glaring sun, and
a disagreeable feeling is the result. A strong feeling of pleasantness
accompanies the experience of the voluptuous warmth of a cozy bed on a
cold morning, but the plunge between the icy sheets on the preceding
evening was accompanied by the opposite feeling. The touch of a hand may
occasion a thrill of ecstatic pleasure, or it may be accompanied by a
feeling equally disagreeable. And so on through the whole range of
sensation; we not only _know_ the various objects about us through
sensation and perception, but we also _feel_ while we know. Cognition,
or the knowing processes, gives us our "whats"; and feeling, or the
affective processes, gives us our "hows." What is yonder object? A
bouquet. How does it affect you? Pleasurably.
If, instead of the simpler sensory processes which we have just
considered, we take the more complex processes, such as memory,
imagination, and thinking, the case is no different. Who has not reveled
in the pleasure accompanying the memories of past joys? On the other
hand, who is free from all unpleasant memories--from regrets, from pangs
of remorse? Who has not dreamed away an hour in pleasant anticipation of
some desired object, or spent a miserable hour in dreading some calamity
which imagination pictured to him? Feeling also accompanies our thought
processes. Everyone has experienced the feeling of the pleasure of
intellectual victory over some difficult problem which had baffled the
reason, or over some doubtful case in which our judgment proved correct.
And likewise none has escaped the feeling of unpleasantness which
accompanies intellectual defeat. Whatever the contents of our mental
stream, "we find in them, everywhere present, a certain color of passing
estimate, an immediate sense that they are worth something to us at any
given moment, or that they then have an interest to us."
THE SEEMING NEUTRAL FEELING ZONE.--It is probable that there is so
little feeling connected with many of the humdrum and habitual
experiences of our everyday lives, that we are but slightly, if at all,
aware of a feeling state in connection with them. Yet a state of
consciousness with absolutely no feeling side to it is as unthinkable as
the obverse side of a coin without the reverse. Some sort of feeling
tone or mood is always present. The width of the affective neutral
zone--that is, of a feeling state so little marked as not to be
discriminated as either pleasure or pain, desire or aversion--varies
with different persons, and with the same person at different times. It
is conditioned largely by the amount of attention given in the direction
of feeling, and also on the fineness of the power of feeling
discrimination. It is safe to say that the zero range is usually so
small as to be negligible.
2. MOOD AND DISPOSITION
The sum total of all the feeling accompanying the various sensory and
thought processes at any given time results in what we may call our
_feeling tone_, _or mood._
HOW MOOD IS PRODUCED.--During most of our waking hours, and, indeed,
during our sleeping hours as well, a multitude of sensory currents are
pouring into the cortical centers. At the present moment we can hear the
rumble of a wagon, the chirp of a cricket, the chatter of distant
voices, and a hundred other sounds besides. At the same time the eye is
appealed to by an infinite variety of stimuli in light, color, and
objects; the skin responds to many contacts and temperatures; and every
other type of end-organ of the body is acting as a "sender" to telegraph
a message in to the brain. Add to these the powerful currents which are
constantly being sent to the cortex from the visceral organs--those of
respiration, of circulation, of digestion and assimilation. And then
finally add the central processes which accompany the flight of images
through our minds--our meditations, memories, and imaginations, our
cogitations and volitions.
Thus we see what a complex our feelings must be, and how impossible to
have any moment in which some feeling is not present as a part of our
mental stream. It is this complex, now made up chiefly on the basis of
the sensory currents coming in from the end-organs or the visceral
organs, and now on the basis of those in the cortex connected with our
thought life, which constitutes the entire feeling tone, or _mood_.
MOOD COLORS ALL OUR THINKING.--Mood depends on the character of the
aggregate of nerve currents entering the cortex, and changes as the
character of the current varies. If the currents run on much the same
from hour to hour, then our mood is correspondingly constant; if the
currents are variable, our mood also will be variable. Not only is mood
dependent on our sensations and thoughts for its quality, but it in turn
colors our entire mental life. It serves as a background or setting
whose hue is reflected over all our thinking. Let the mood be somber and
dark, and all the world looks gloomy; on the other hand, let the mood be
bright and cheerful, and the world puts on a smile.
It is told of one of the early circuit riders among the New England
ministry, that he made the following entries in his diary, thus well
illustrating the point: "Wed. Eve. Arrived at the home of Bro. Brown
late this evening, hungry and tired after a long day in the saddle. Had
a bountiful supper of cold pork and beans, warm bread, bacon and eggs,
coffee, and rich pastry. I go to rest feeling that my witness is clear;
the future is bright; I feel called to a great and glorious work in this
place. Bro. Brown's family are godly people." The next entry was as
follows: "Thur. Morn. Awakened late this morning after a troubled night.
I am very much depressed in soul; the way looks dark; far from feeling
called to work among this people, I am beginning to doubt the safety of
my own soul. I am afraid the desires of Bro. Brown and his family are
set too much on carnal things." A dyspeptic is usually a pessimist, and
an optimist always keeps a bright mood.
MOOD INFLUENCES OUR JUDGMENTS AND DECISIONS.--The prattle of children
may be grateful music to our ears when we are in one mood, and
excruciatingly discordant noise when we are in another. What appeals to
us as a good practical joke one day, may seem a piece of unwarranted
impertinence on another. A proposition which looks entirely plausible
under the sanguine mood induced by a persuasive orator, may appear
wholly untenable a few hours later. Decisions which seemed warranted
when we were in an angry mood, often appear unwise or unjust when we
have become more calm. Motives which easily impel us to action when the
world looks bright, fail to move us when the mood is somber. The
feelings of impending peril and calamity which are an inevitable
accompaniment of the "blues," are speedily dissipated when the sun
breaks through the clouds and we are ourselves again.
MOOD INFLUENCES EFFORT.--A bright and hopeful mood quickens every power
and enhances every effort, while a hopeless mood limits power and
cripples effort. The football team which goes into the game discouraged
never plays to the limit. The student who attacks his lesson under the
conviction of defeat can hardly hope to succeed, while the one who
enters upon his work confident of his power to master it has the battle
already half won. The world's best work is done not by those who live in
the shadow of discouragement and doubt, but by those in whose breast
hope springs eternal. The optimist is a benefactor of the race if for no
other reason than the sheer contagion of his hopeful spirit; the
pessimist contributes neither to the world's welfare nor its happiness.
Youth's proverbial enthusiasm and dauntless energy rest upon the supreme
hopefulness which characterizes the mood of the young. For these
reasons, if for no other, the mood of the schoolroom should be one of
happiness and good cheer.
DISPOSITION A RESULTANT OF MOODS.--The sum total of our moods gives us
our _disposition_. Whether these are pleasant or unpleasant, cheerful or
gloomy, will depend on the predominating character of the moods which
enter into them. As well expect to gather grapes of thorns or figs of
thistles, as to secure a desirable disposition out of undesirable moods.
A sunny disposition never comes from gloomy moods, nor a hopeful one out
of the "blues." And it is our disposition, more than the power of our
reason, which, after all, determines our desirability as friends and
companions.
The person of surly disposition can hardly make a desirable companion,
no matter what his intellectual qualities may be. We may live very
happily with one who cannot follow the reasoning of a Newton, but it is
hard to live with a person chronically subject to "black moods." Nor can
we put the responsibility for our disposition off on our ancestors. It
is not an inheritance, but a growth. Slowly, day by day, and mood by
mood, we build up our disposition until finally it comes to characterize
us.
TEMPERAMENT.--Some are, however, more predisposed to certain types of
mood than are others. The organization of our nervous system which we
get through heredity undoubtedly has much to do with the feeling tone
into which we most easily fall. We call this predisposition
_temperament_. On the effects of temperament, our ancestors must divide
the responsibility with us. I say _divide_ the responsibility, for even
if we find ourselves predisposed toward a certain undesirable type of
moods, there is no reason why we should give up to them. Even in spite
of hereditary predispositions, we can still largely determine for
ourselves what our moods are to be.
If we have a tendency toward cheerful, quiet, and optimistic moods, the
psychologist names our temperament the _sanguine_; if we are tense,
easily excited and irritable, with a tendency toward sullen or angry
moods, the _choleric_; if we are given to frequent fits of the "blues,"
if we usually look on the dark side of things and have a tendency toward
moods of discouragement and the "dumps," the _melancholic_; if hard to
rouse, and given to indolent and indifferent moods, the _phlegmatic_.
Whatever be our temperament, it is one of the most important factors in
our character.
3. PERMANENT FEELING ATTITUDES, OR SENTIMENTS
Besides the more or less transitory feeling states which we have called
moods, there exists also a class of feeling attitudes, which contain
more of the complex intellectual element, are withal of rather a higher
nature, and much more permanent than our moods. We may call these our
_sentiments_, or _attitudes_. Our sentiments comprise the somewhat
constant level of feeling combined with cognition, which we name
_sympathy_, _friendship_, _love_, _patriotism_, _religious faith_,
_selfishness_, _pride_, _vanity, etc._ Like our dispositions, our
sentiments are a growth of months and years. Unlike our dispositions,
however, our sentiments are relatively independent of the physiological
undertone, and depend more largely upon long-continued experience and
intellectual elements as a basis. A sluggish liver might throw us into
an irritable mood and, if the condition were long continued, might
result in a surly disposition; but it would hardly permanently destroy
one's patriotism and make him turn traitor to his country. One's feeling
attitude on such matters is too deep seated to be modified by changing
whims.
HOW SENTIMENTS DEVELOP.--Sentiments have their beginning in concrete
experiences in which feeling is a predominant element, and grow through
the multiplication of these experiences much as the concept is
developed through many percepts. There is a residual element left
behind each separate experience in both cases. In the case of the
concept the residual element is intellectual, and in the case of the
sentiment it is a complex in which the feeling element is predominant.
How this comes about is easily seen by means of an illustration or two.
The mother feeds her child when he is hungry, and an agreeable feeling
is produced; she puts him into the bath and snuggles him in her arms,
and the experiences are pleasant. The child comes to look upon the
mother as one whose especial function is to make things pleasant for
him, so he comes to be happy in her presence, and long for her in her
absence. He finally grows to love his mother not alone for the countless
times she has given him pleasure, but for what she herself is. The
feelings connected at first wholly with pleasant experiences coming
through the ministrations of the mother, strengthened no doubt by
instinctive tendencies toward affection, and later enhanced by a fuller
realization of what a mother's care and sacrifice mean, grow at last
into a deep, forceful, abiding sentiment of love for the mother.
THE EFFECT OF EXPERIENCE.--Likewise with the sentiment of patriotism. In
so far as our patriotism is a true patriotism and not a noisy clamor, it
had its rise in feelings of gratitude and love when we contemplated the
deeds of heroism and sacrifice for the flag, and the blessings which
come to us from our relations as citizens to our country. If we have had
concrete cases brought to our experience, as, for example, our property
saved from destruction at the hands of a mob or our lives saved from a
hostile foreign foe, the patriotic sentiment will be all the stronger.
So we may carry the illustration into all the sentiments. Our religious
sentiments of adoration, love, and faith have their origin in our belief
in the care, love, and support from a higher Being typified to us as
children by the care, love, and support of our parents. Pride arises
from the appreciation or over-appreciation of oneself, his attainments,
or his belongings. Selfishness has its genesis in the many instances in
which pleasure results from ministering to self. In all these cases it
is seen that our sentiments develop out of our experiences: they are the
permanent but ever-growing results which we have to show for experiences
which are somewhat long continued, and in which a certain feeling
quality is a strong accompaniment of the cognitive part of the
experience.
THE INFLUENCE OF SENTIMENT.--Our sentiments, like our dispositions, are
not only a natural growth from the experiences upon which they are fed,
but they in turn have large influence in determining the direction of
our further development. Our sentiments furnish the soil which is either
favorable or hostile to the growth of new experiences. One in whom the
sentiment of true patriotism is deep-rooted will find it much harder to
respond to a suggestion to betray his country's honor on battlefield, in
legislative hall, or in private life, than one lacking in this
sentiment. The boy who has a strong sentiment of love for his mother
will find this a restraining influence in the face of temptation to
commit deeds which would wound her feelings. A deep and abiding faith in
God is fatal to the growth of pessimism, distrust, and a self-centered
life. One's sentiments are a safe gauge of his character. Let us know a
man's attitude or sentiments on religion, morality, friendship, honesty,
and the other great questions of life, and little remains to be known.
If he is right on these, he may well be trusted in other things; if he
is wrong on these, there is little to build upon.
Literature has drawn its best inspiration and choicest themes from the
field of our sentiments. The sentiment of friendship has given us our
David and Jonathan, our Damon and Pythias, and our Tennyson and Hallam.
The sentiment of love has inspired countless masterpieces; without its
aid most of our fiction would lose its plot, and most of our poetry its
charm. Religious sentiment inspired Milton to write the world's greatest
epic, "Paradise Lost." The sentiment of patriotism has furnished an
inexhaustible theme for the writer and the orator. Likewise if we go
into the field of music and art, we find that the best efforts of the
masters are clustered around some human sentiment which has appealed to
them, and which they have immortalized by expressing it on canvas or in
marble, that it may appeal to others and cause the sentiment to grow in
us.
SENTIMENTS AS MOTIVES.--The sentiments furnish the deepest, the most
constant, and the most powerful motives which control our lives. Such
sentiments as patriotism, liberty, and religion have called a thousand
armies to struggle and die on ten thousand battlefields, and have given
martyrs courage to suffer in the fires of persecution. Sentiments of
friendship and love have prompted countless deeds of self-sacrifice and
loving devotion. Sentiments of envy, pride, and jealousy have changed
the boundary lines of nations, and have prompted the committing of ten
thousand unnamable crimes. Slowly day by day from the cradle to the
grave we are weaving into our lives the threads of sentiment, which at
last become so many cables to bind us to good or evil.
4. PROBLEMS IN OBSERVATION AND INTROSPECTION
1. Are you subject to the "blues," or other forms of depressed feeling?
Are your moods very changeable, or rather constant? What kind of a
disposition do you think you have? How did you come by it; that is, in
how far is it due to hereditary temperament, and in how far to your
daily moods?
2. Can you recall an instance in which some undesirable mood was caused
by your physical condition? By some disturbing mental condition? What is
your characteristic mood in the morning after sleeping in an
ill-ventilated room? After sitting for half a day in an ill-ventilated
schoolroom? After eating indigestible food before going to bed?
3. Observe a number of children or your classmates closely and see
whether you can determine the characteristic mood of each. Observe
several different schools and see whether you can note a characteristic
mood for each room. Try to determine the causes producing the
differences noted. (Physical conditions in the room, personality of the
teacher, methods of governing, teaching, etc.)
4. When can you do your best work, when you are happy, or unhappy?
Cheerful, or "blue"? Confident and hopeful, or discouraged? In a spirit
of harmony and coöperation with your teacher, or antagonistic? Now
relate your conclusions to the type of atmosphere that should prevail in
the schoolroom or the home. Formulate a statement as to why the "spirit"
of the school is all-important. (Effect on effort, growth, disposition,
sentiments, character, etc.)
5. Can you measure more or less accurately the extent to which your
feelings serve as _motives_ in your life? Are feelings alone a safe
guide to action? Make a list of the important sentiments that should be
cultivated in youth. Now show how the work of the school may be used to
strengthen worthy sentiments.