Illusions: A Psychological Study

by James Sully

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
THE STUDY OF ILLUSION.
Vulgar idea of Illusion, [1], [2]; Psychological treatment of subject, [3], [4];
definition of Illusion, [4]-[7]; Philosophic extension of idea, [7], [8].
CHAPTER II.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF ILLUSIONS.
Popular and Scientific conceptions of Mind, [9], [10]; Illusion and
Hallucination, [11]-[13]; varieties of Immediate Knowledge, [13]-[16]; four-fold
division of Illusions, [16]-[18].
CHAPTER III.
ILLUSIONS OF PERCEPTION: GENERAL.
Psychology of Perception:—The Psychological analysis of Perception, [19],
[20]; Sensation and its discrimination, etc., [20], [21]; interpretation of
Sensation, [22], [23]; construction of material object, [23], [24]; recognition
of object, specific and individual, [24]-[27]; Preperception and
Perception, [27]-[31]; Physiological conditions of Perception, [31]-[33];
Visual and other Sense-perception, [33], [34].
Illusions of Perception:—Illusion of Perception defined, [35-38]; sources
of Sense-illusion, [38-40]: (a) confusion of Sense-impression, [40-44];
(b) misinterpretation of Sense-impression, [44]; Passive and Active
misinterpretation, [44-46]; Passive Illusions as organically and
extra-organically conditioned, [46-49].
CHAPTER IV.
ILLUSIONS OF PERCEPTION—continued.
A. Passive Illusions (a) as determined by the Organism.
Results of Limits of Sensibility:—Relation of quantity of Sensation to
that of Stimulus, [50-52]; coalescence of simultaneous Sensations,
[52-55]; after-effect of Stimulation, [55], [56]; effects of prolonged
Stimulation, [56-58]; Specific Energy of Nerves, [58], [59]; localization
of Sensation, [59-62]; Subjective Sensations, [62-64].
Results of Variation of Sensibility:—Rise and fall of Sensibility, [64-67];
Paræsesthesia, [67], [68]; rationale of organically conditioned Illusions,
[68], [69].
CHAPTER V.
ILLUSIONS OF PERCEPTION—continued.
A. Passive Illusions (b) as determined by the Environment.
Exceptional Relation of Stimulus to Organ:—Displacement of organ, etc.,
[70-72].
Exceptional Arrangement of Circumstances in the Environment:—Misinterpretation
of the direction and movement of objects, [72-75];
misperception of Distance, [75], [76]; Illusions of depth, relief, and
solidity in Art, [77-81]; Illusions connected with the perception of
objects through transparent coloured media, [82-84]; visual transformation
of concave into convex form, [84-86]; false recognition of
objects, [86], [87]; inattention to Sense-impression in Recognition,
[87-91]; suggestion taking the direction of familiar recurring experiences,
[91], [92].
CHAPTER VI.
ILLUSIONS OF PERCEPTION—continued.
B. Active Illusions.
Preperception and Illusion, [93-95].
Voluntary Preperception:—Choice of interpretation in the case of visible
movement, [95], [96]; and in the case of flat projections of form,
[96-98]; capricious interpretation of obscure impressions, [99], [100].
Involuntary Preperception:—Effects of permanent Predisposition, [101], [102];
effects of partial temporary Preadjustment, [102-105]; complete Pro-adjustment
or Expectation, [106-109]; subordination of Sense-impression
to Preperception, [109-111]; transition from Illusion to Hallucination,
[111], [112]; rudimentary Hallucinations, [112-114]; developed
Hallucinations, [114-116]; Hallucination in normal life, [116], [117];
Hallucinations of insanity, [118-120]; gradual development of Sense-illusions,
and continuity of normal and abnormal life; [120-123];
Sanity and Insanity distinguished, [123-126].
CHAPTER VII.
DREAMS.
Mystery of sleep, [127], [128]; theories of Dreams, [128], [129]; scientific
explanation of Dreams, [129], [130].
Sleep and Dreaming:—Condition of organism during sleep, [131], [132];
Are the nervous centres ever wholly inactive during sleep? [132-134];
nature of cerebral activity involved in Dreams, [134-136]; psychical
conditions of Dreams, [136-138].
The Dream as Illusion:—External Sense-impressions as excitants of
Dream-images, [139-143]; internal "subjective" stimuli in the sense-organs,
[143-145]; organic sensations, [145-147]; how sensations are
exaggerated in Dream-interpretation, [147-151].
The Dream as Hallucination:—Results of direct central stimulation
[151-153]; indirect central stimulation and association, [153-155].
The Form and Structure of Dreams:—The incoherence of Dreams explained,
[156-161]; coherence and unity of Dream as effected (a) by
coalescence and transformation of images, [161-163]; (b) by aground-tone
of feeling, [164-168]; (c) by the play of associative dispositions,
[168-172]; (d) by the activities of selective attention stimulated by
the rational impulse to connect and to arrange, [172-176]; examples
of Dreams, [176-179]; limits of intelligence and rational activity in
Dreams, [180-182]; Dreaming and mental disease, [182], [183]; After-dreams
and Apparitions, [183-185].
NOTE.—The Hypnotic Condition, [185-188].
CHAPTER VIII.
ILLUSIONS OF INTROSPECTION.
Illusions of Introspection defined, [189-192]; question of the possibility
of illusory Introspection, [192-194]; incomplete grasp of internal
feelings as such, [194-196]; misobservation of internal feelings: Passive
Illusions, [196-199]; Active Illusions, [199-202]; malobservation of
subjective states, [202-205]; Illusory Introspection in psychology and
philosophy, [205-208]; value of the Introspective method, [208-211].
CHAPTER IX.
OTHER QUASI-PRESENTATIVE ILLUSIONS: ERRORS OF INSIGHT.
Emotion and Perception, [212]; Æsthetic Intuition, [213]; Subjective Impressions
of beauty misinterpreted, [213-216]; analogous Emotional
Intuitions, [216], [217]; Insight, its nature, [217-220]; Passive Illusions
of Insight, [220-222]; Active Illusions of Insight: projection of individual
feelings, [222-224]; the poetic transformation of nature, [224-226];
special predispositions as falsifying Insight, [226-228]; value of
faculty of Insight, [228-230].
CHAPTER X.
ILLUSIONS OF MEMORY.
Vulgar confidence in Memory, [231-233]; definition of Memory, [233-235];
Psychology of Memory, [235-237]; Physiology of Memory, [237], [238];
Memory as localization in the past, [238-241]; Illusions of Memory
classified, [241-245].
(1) Illusions of Time-Perspective:—
(a) Definite Localization of events: constant errors in retrospective
estimate of time, [245-249]; varying errors: estimate of duration
during a period, [249-251]; variations in retrospective estimate of
duration, [251-256].
(b) Indefinite Localization: effect of vividness of mnemonic image
on the apparent distance of events, [256-258]; isolated public events,
[258], [259]; active element in errors of Localization, [259-261].
(2) Distortions of Memory:—Transformation of past through forgetfulness,
[261-264]; confusion of distinct recollections, [264-266]; Active
Illusion: influence of present imaginative activity, [266-269]; exaggeration
in recollections of remote experiences, [269], [270]; action of
present feeling in transforming past, [270], [271].
(3) Hallucinations of Memory:—Their nature, [271-273]; past dreams taken
for external experiences, [273-277]; past waking imagination taken
for external reality, [277-280]; recollection of prenatal ancestral
experience, [280], [281]; filling up gaps in recollection, [281-283].
Illusions connected with, Personal Identity:—Illusions of Memory and
Sense of identity, [283], [284]; idea of permanent self, how built up,
[285-287]; disturbances of sense of identity, [287-290]; fallibility and
trustworthiness of Memory, [290-292].
NOTE.—Momentary Illusions of Self-consciousness, [293].
CHAPTER XI.
ILLUSIONS OF BELIEF.
Belief as Immediate or Intuitive, [294-296]; simple and compound Belief, [296].
A. Simple Illusory Belief:—
(1) Expectation: its nature, [297], [298]; Is Expectation ever intuitive?
[298]; Expectation and Inference from the past, [299-301]; Expectation
of new kinds of experience, [301], [302]; Permanent Expectations
of remote events, [302]; misrepresentation of future duration,
[302-305]; Imaginative transformation of future, [305-307].
(2) Quasi-Expectations: anticipation of extra-personal experiences,
[307], [308]; Retrospective Beliefs, [308-312].
B. Compound Illusory Belief:—
(1) Representations of permanent things: their structure, [312]; our
representations of others as illusory, [312-315]; our representation
of ourselves as illusory, [315]; Illusion of self-esteem, [316-318];
genesis of illusory opinion of self, [318-322]; Illusion in our
representations of classes of things, [322], [323]; and in our views of the
world as a whole, [323], [324]; tendency of belief towards divergence,
[325]; and towards convergence, [326], [327].
CHAPTER XII.
RESULTS.
Range of Illusion, [328-330]; nature and causes of Illusion in general,
[331-334]; Illusion identical with Fallacy, [334]; Illusion as abnormal,
[336], [337]; question of common error, [337-339]; evolutionist's conception
of error as maladaptation, [339-344]; common intuitions
tested only by philosophy, [344]; assumptions of science respecting
external reality, etc., [344-346]; philosophic investigation of these
assumptions, [346-348]; connection between scientific and philosophic
consideration of Illusion, [348-350]; correction of Illusion and its
implications, [351], [352]; Fundamental Intuitions and modern psychology,
[352]; psychology as positive science and as philosophy, [353-355];
points of resemblance between acknowledged Illusions and Fundamental
Intuitions, [355], [356]; question of origin, and question of
validity, [356], [357]; attitude of scientific mind towards philosophic
scepticism, [357-360]; Persistent Intuitions must be taken as true,
[360], [361].

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