546 PSYCHOLOGY. 



THE OBSTRUCTED WILL. 



In striking contrast with tlie cases in which inhibition 

 is insufficient or impulsion in excess are those in which 

 impulsion is insufficient or inhibition of in excess. "We all 

 know the condition described on p. 404 of Yol. I, in which Ihe 

 mind for a few moments seems to lose its focussing jjower 

 and to be unable to rally its attention to any determinate 

 thing. At such times we sit blankly staring and do nothing. 

 The objects of consciousness fail to touch the quick or break 

 the skin. They are there, but do not reach the level of effect- 

 iveness. This state of non-efficacious presence is the nor- 

 mal condition of some objects, in all of us. Great fatigue 

 or exhaustion may make it the condition of almost all ob- 

 jects ; and an apathy resembling that then brought about 

 is recognized in asylums under the name of abulia as a 

 symptom of mental disease. The healthy state of the will 

 requires, as aforesaid, both that vision should be right, and 

 that action should obey its lead. But in the morbid con- 

 dition in question the vision may be wholly unaffected, 

 and the intellect clear, and yet the act either fails to follow 

 or follows in some other way. " Video meliora prohoque, 

 deteriora sequor " is the classic expression of the latter con- 

 dition of mind. The former it is to which the name abulia 

 peculiarly applies. The patients, says Guislain, 



" are able to will inwardly, mentally, according to the dictates of reason. 

 They experience the desire to act, but they are powerless to act as they 

 should. . . . Their will cannot overpass certain limits: one would say 

 that the force of action within them is blocked up : t\iQlwill does not 

 transform itself into impulsive volition, into active determination. 

 Some of these patients wonder themselves at the impotence with which 

 their will is smitten. If you abandon them to themselves, they pass 

 whole days in their bed or on a chair. If one speaks to them or excites 

 them, they express themselves properly though briefly ; and judge of 

 things pretty well."* 



In Chapter XXI, as will be remembered, it was said* 

 that the sentiment of reality with which an object ap- 

 pealed to the mind is proportionate (amongst other things) 

 to its efficacy as a stimulus to the will. Here we get the 



Quoted by Ribot, oz) cii. p. 39. 



