Sketch of an Organismal Theory of Consciousness 323 



It was not alive because all the life was taken out of it (by 

 the theoretical antithesis) and put into "The Soul." 



Glance at the Equiltbrative Interaction Between "Body" and 



"Soul" 



Going forward from such predominantly observational 

 descriptions of psychic life in its emotional phase as those of 

 Darwin and James, to such experimental descriptions as 

 those being produced by the investigations of Pawlow, of 

 Crile, and especially of Cannon, we are getting considerable 

 insight into the rationale of how "Body" and "Soul" vitalize 

 each other. Modern researches on the physiology or the 

 psychology (which one calls it depends entirely on the direc- 

 tion of his approach) of psychic life is revealing something 

 of the why and how of the poet's instinctive perception, "Soul 

 needs Body as much as Body needs Soul." Only one aspect 

 of this "why and how" need be noticed in the present discus- 

 sion. That is the fact of the balancing off of antagonistic 

 emotions to make the normal emotional life just as reflex- 

 actions and instinctive actions are largely phenomena of 

 equilibration, or balancing-off. 



It should be recalled that we have found this antagonistic- 

 equilibrative principle to run through the entire neuro-psy- 

 chic life. In the strictly reflex phase the mode of operation 

 of the opposing muscles, the flexors and extensors of the 

 limbs, as brought out by Sherrington, was cited as a good 

 illustration of the principle. A manifestation of the prin- 

 ciple in a broader way, as measured by the extent of organic 

 parts involved, was seen in the relation of the vagal (cranial) 

 and splanchnic (thoracico-lumbar) autonomies, as empha- 

 sized by Cannon (Chap. 19, this book) this illustration being 

 chiefly in the reflex phase. In a yet higher phase we saw, 

 again from Cannon's work, the principle in operation 

 through the emotions (Chap. 23) thus bringing it up to the 



