Sketch of an Organismal Theory of Consciousness 317 



to day, and year to year under all the varied conditions, 

 happenings, purposes, and impulses to which he is subject. 

 In doing this a special point should be made of looking back 

 scrutinizingly at experiences of particular satisfaction, ela- 

 tion, joy, sorrow, irritation, anger, fear, dread, humiliation, 

 and shame, as soon after their occurrence as possible that 

 they may be fresh in memory. But incidents and episodes 

 of one's remoter past which stand out with special vividness 

 from the intensity of the particular emotions when they were 

 experienced, or because of results which flowed from them, 

 will be found illuminating. 



To what extent and in what particular fashion was our 

 bodily organization implicated in the feelings and emotions 

 we experienced, is our problem. Fortunately one can "live 

 over again" as we say; can "work himself into" rather pro- 

 nounced emotional states, through a combination of memory 

 and imagination. That is, he can be much of a genuine dram- 

 atist when all alone, as touching events and scenes of his 

 own past experience. What happens to your body when you 

 do that sort of thing? is the central question before us. The 

 very criterion by which you answer this question you will 

 find will be that of how far the body-manifestations appro- 

 priate to the particular emotions are elicited through your 

 efforts. If your hands do not clinch somewhat, if many of 

 your arm, leg, and abdominal muscles do not contract some- 

 what, if your respiration does not quicken somewhat, and 

 other manifestations, various corporeal indices of anger, do 

 not appear quite independently of direct intention on your 

 part, you will be sure you have not "worked up" a genuine 

 state of anger. The only real knowledge of an emotion is a 

 lived knowledge of that emotion. In order to be a true actor 

 your body parts must act, directly, automatically, spon- 

 taneously, so far as any rational purpose is concerned. And 

 what is true of anger is clearly true of all other emotions. 

 Our emotional activities may be described as instinctive 



