744 ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 



these motor phenomena, which have quite correctly been called 

 extra-motions, there occur intra-motions which constitute modi- 

 fications of consciousness; and these psychical resultants are no less 

 important than their physiological concomitants. Emotion is 

 attended by a mental agitation just as it is attended by a physical 

 agitation. A multitude of ideas surge into consciousness and disturb 

 the equilibrium. Some years ago, attention was called to a phenom- 

 enon which has since been referred to as the hypermnesia of the 

 dying. Those who have escaped from imminent danger report that 

 at the moment of impending death they saw before them, as in 

 a panorama, the chief events of their lives. This is simply a case 

 of the phenomenon of hyper-ideation which characterizes many of 

 the emotions. Dreams, muttering in somnambulistic states, hallu- 

 cinations, and even indefinite interrogations are only an exaggerated 

 form of the phenomena observed in the normal individual who 

 talks to himself of an event which has made a violent appeal to his 

 emotions. 



Then, too, the emotions are characterized by feelings which are 

 analogous to those already discussed feelings of weariness and of 

 powerlessness. The subject's personality undergoes a change; he no 

 longer feels like himself, and even the external world loses its reality 

 in greater or less degree. 



Depression is no less a feature of emotion than is agitation. The 

 depression may be visceral; it may manifest itself in a diminution 

 of circulation or of respiration (which in emotion as in sleep assumes 

 the intermittent type of Cheyne Stokes), 1 in impairment of digestion, 

 and in gastro-intestinal debility. It may be motor, and evince 

 itself in all the forms of weakness and paralysis which are found to 

 attend certain emotions. A passage from Tolstoi which has been 

 cited by Dumas in his book on La tristesse et la joie, furnishes an 

 excellent illustration of this feature: "The assassins could easily 

 have escaped from the scene of their crime, but they were so over- 

 come by emotion, so enfeebled in all their limbs, that they found 

 themselves incapable of flight. Feeling wearied as though by a long 

 walk, they lay down upon the road, and there they remained until 

 they were arrested." The mental depressions are particularly inter- 

 esting. Popular observation noticed long ago that the individual, 

 when overcome by emotion, is " not himself," that he is " beside him- 

 self." And I have shown on numerous occasions that the character- 

 istics which have been acquired by education and moral develop- 

 ment may suffer a complete change under the influence of emotion. 

 People who have learned to speak correctly revert to dialect or 

 resume a foreign accent when they are deeply moved. Their writing 



1 The rhythm of Cheyne Stokes, determined by emotion. Comptes rendus du 

 IV Congres de Psychologic, 1901, p. 924. 



