Herrick, Modem Algedonic Theories. g 



perience of the organism ; moreover it is only those realizations 

 which impress them more deeply on the habits of the organism 

 that are pleasurable. His statement of theory is open to the 

 criticism that it attempts to place the matter on a physiological 

 basis without really approximating such an explanation. Gil- 

 man's theory is confessedly close to Fechner's stability theory. 

 We need not follow this theory into its aesthetic applications in 

 which field the author finds his most frequent confirmations. 

 We cannot doubt that there is a large grain of truth in this the- 

 ory and that its presentation will contribute much to the solu- 

 tion which shall finally be adopted. 



The same may be said of Marshall's book, with its wealth 

 of quotation and suggestion. In this connection we notice an 

 interesting passage on habit which applies to the theory 

 above noted. 



" Pain does not necessarily tend to bring about oblitera- 

 tion of its content in future psychoses ; but may, in fact, on the 

 whole, conduce to its vigorous reappearance in pleasurable form." 



This fact the author explains upon the theory that repeated 

 excitation increase the storage power [i. e. — the nutrition]. It 

 is, however, capable of another explanation. When a violent 

 stimulus has occurred in a cell group and is checked in its ten- 

 dency to irradiate, summation occurs until the barriers are 

 beaten down. The frequent repetition of this process sets up a 

 tract of communication, irradiation becomes easy and a super- 

 normal stimulus of this cell complex finally produces pleasure. 

 Thus acquired tastes and thus the pleasures of intricate manipu- 

 lation are explained simply and consistently. In a larger field 

 too it is obvious that this theory explains the function of pain 

 as preliminary to pleasure. Almost every new pleasure must 

 be acquired by the painful process suggested. On the other 

 hand too frequent and indifferent repetition causes the worn 

 channel to pass off the stimulus with such facility that the 

 threshold of pleasurable excitement is not reached. Attention 

 aids in restoring the pleasure (or in relieving satiety) in so far 

 as it inhibits and dams up, as it were, more or less of such waste- 

 ful overflow. 



