RELATIONS OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 745 



becomes confused, clumsy, boyish, and full of defects; their whole 

 character becomes coarse and debased. These general depressions 

 are analogous to more definite disorders, and here again the disturb- 

 ances of memory must be mentioned. Oblivescence of the event 

 which occasioned the emotion, and inability to remember facts 

 which immediately preceded, have frequently been found to accom- 

 pany intensely emotional experiences in the form of continuous 

 and retrogressive amnesia. 1 But it must not be thought that these 

 phenomena are merely pathological caprices. They are an exag- 

 gerated form of a general disturbance of memory which is charac- 

 teristic of all emotions. 



In his celebrated book on Mind and Body, Hack Tuke remarked 

 that emotions frequently render the subject insensible, and he 

 reported having seen subjects become blind and deaf as the result 

 of violent emotion. I too have described many similar observations 

 and they have now become a commonplace. These disorders of 

 sensibility and memory are analogous to certain disturbances of per- 

 ception and attention; and the analogy holds alike whether the 

 object of apprehension be one's self or whether it be the external 

 world. As to will, there can be no doubt that it disappears in the 

 depressive emotions and that the subject, when under intense emo- 

 tion, is unable to decide what to do; indeed he even loses the power 

 to act upon previous decisions. Hence one may well ask whether 

 the mental commotion is not a more important characteristic of the 

 emotion than is the visceral change. And one seems justified in 

 regarding the consciousness of an emotional state as being something 

 more than a mere counter-effect of peripheral disturbances. These 

 intellectual modifications, these losses of memory, these lacks of 

 decision, these doubts, these failures to see reality as it is and to 

 react upon it as one has previously learned to do, together with the 

 feelings of depression which result from the changed mental con- 

 ditions, constitute, in my opinion, the essential feature of emotion; 

 and the sensations which arise as a " back-stroke" from the 

 peripheral disturbances are nothing more than a reinforcement, like 

 the added tone in the chord. 



It is a remarkable fact that certain emotions are attended by 

 effects which are diametrically opposite to those just described. 

 This second type of emotion may induce calmness, strengthen the 

 visceral functions, arrest the useless mental agitation and replace 

 it by an increased activity of attention and will. This improved 

 condition of attention and will strengthens the tenacity of memory; 

 it gives rise to valid representations of reality and to effective 

 reactions upon one's environment. There are emotions which 



1 Cf. L'amntsie et la dissociation des souvenirs par V emotion, Journal de psycho- 

 logic normale et pathologique, September, 1904. 



