PART IV
It is beyond the province of this paper to report the accounts the subjects have attempted to give of the complex feelings aroused by the pictures of statues. The primary and limited purpose is to try to trace out the influences of the feelings before dealt with for colors when these are also present in some way related to the now complex æsthetic states. The Einfühlung, often reported for the simple forms, is here much more easily detected, if the statues arouse agreeable feelings. They "work themselves into the statue," or assume the position, or the facial expression if this is prominent, or feel very strongly in their own body what seems to be the most prominent element in the feeling portrayed by the figure. Few subjects liked all the statues. Incipient if not actual tendencies to motion of some sort, with the sensory counterparts to these situations called for when the subject feels that he is in the "proper attitude" to get most feeling from the presentations, chiefly constitute what was in different ways reported.
These statues presented on colors as backgrounds are variously and interestingly modified. The feeling-tones for colors distinctly affect the meaning of the statues. Of the above colors our shade of red is preferred with Venus by all subjects. Here the feeling-tones more nearly fuse. Always the feeling-character of the statue predominates, and the other feeling-elements of the situation are accepted or rejected in proportion as they harmonize or fail to harmonize with the predominant partial tone. Red, for example, here adds to the "richness and luxuriousness." It accentuates the strength, poise, grace, balance, ease, rest, wisdom, composure, endurance, and dignity. It is more soothing, and calls for no unnecessary action. One subject never liked any color as a background. In this case colors were good in proportion as "they kept out of the way." This is the reason for red being always preferred to yellow or green. With these latter colors there is an interplay of reactions not coöperating. The color-exciting element is more immediate, tension is brought about, the color asserts itself, is pleasant, and tends directly to inhibit the feelings for the statue. The pleasure in the color is called "thin" in comparison, and the power of sympathetic appreciation of Venus is lessened. There is suggestion now in the statue still of its strength, but with no "enduring" quality. It has become commonplace, merely a "pretty woman," jaunty, self-sufficient, cynical, and with little dignity. The motion element, now prominent, is not pertinent. The statue looks "cheap," and as a figure is volatile and unsteady.
In a similar way one finds these feeling-tones for colors variously playing their part. The statue of Apollo is not pleasing to some subjects. They want it "toned down." The red effects this. To some it is most pleasing by its suggestion of easy grace and springy, elastic step. The yellow harmonizes and accentuates this chosen feeling. The blue often destroys its moral meaning. The red hampers the feeling for the Laocoön group. They become listless, dead, and have still strength, but no struggle. Yellow increases the amount of activity, but often lessens the "serious despair." Fierceness is added, but the liveliness thus furnished is at the expense of the necessary balancing solemnity. The color again becomes intrusive. "The snakes fairly dance," and the "flashing action behind" the statue is now too prominent.
For the Dying Gladiator or Dying Alexander red is preferred. It, however, as do all the other colors, often produces an overbalance in the whole situation. Here it suggests no conflicting feelings. It adds—often too much—to the hopelessness of the situation, and gives to them an exaggerated solemnity and resignation, which emphasizes a melancholy cast, not altogether called for. Green and yellow are always incongruous. They tend to distract the attention to certain particular muscles, thereby lessening the whole general effect. The little "prettiness" they still retain is not called for, and is not "of the right sort." They do not allow one to be sufficiently contemplative or thoughtful. They have little depth, and cause inharmonious bodily commotions, and too much intensify the life-struggle and anguish.
The general effect of the statues here is much like that of the simple forms above. Both not only call for something to be done by the subject, but some action more or less already definitely outlined. The Einfühlung for little wooden figures, such as cones, columns, pyramids, etc., was clear and decided. The tipping character or the straight erectness caused a feeling which seemed describable in terms of the way in which the bodily position, as one naturally adapted himself to the object, took place. Statues afford richer experiences, but the principle is not different. They seem full of suggestions of abstractions, such as strength, wisdom, grace, beauty, power, and, in general, what are often called spiritual feelings. These are not so easily imitated in detail. Subjects have their own ways of adapting themselves. They want to carry out the suggestion or impulse in their own way. These impulses are projected into the figure, and all of the vigor inhibited in one's own body becomes a living part of the figure. The impulses thus from the colors may or may not be of such a character as to bring about the same proportionate adjustment as a desirable intensification equally of all the feeling-elements. Whether desirable or not, however, these feeling-combinations furnish additional illustrations of the various mutual relations of coexisting feelings.
The Angelus or the Shepherdess Knitting bring about feelings in striking contrast to the feeling for the Horse Fair picture. The latter arouses suggestions of a tumultuous bodily condition, increased muscular tonicity, muscles twitching everywhere, breathing heavier, shoulders strained, and in comparison, great general innervation. When the characteristic feeling had been aroused, the subjects were requested to close their eyes and observe if possible to what extent the feeling already aroused was dependent upon the retained images. The results were clear. If the feeling is slight, as it is for some subjects, the feeling tended to vanish and return with the recurring images. If it is fairly strong, the feeling persists for some time after visual imagery is lost. If very strong, the feeling is constant for a still longer period and still less dependent upon the original peripheral excitation. The feeling is always more constant than any imagery. Not often for example is the whole picture retained. Sometimes one prominent part only remains. Often again various kinds of imagery aid in preserving the feeling. Besides visual, auditory, the sounds of the horses' hoofs, of the tones of the Angelus bell, are chiefly prominent in preserving the situation and the condition for the feeling. Articulatory impulses again, in the tendency to repeat to one's self such words as are descriptive of the moral meaning of the pictures, offer sufficient clues to keep the desired feeling aroused. When the feeling has "struck deep," subjects report motor imagery pervading the whole system. In such cases the recurring visual imagery has little effect upon the feeling. On the whole, the feelings for the more quiet pictures last longer and are more easily retained than is the case with the more exciting ones, if the original feelings are, as to mere intensity, approximately equal.
The character and strength of these feeling-tones determine also to a large extent the lines of association followed. Here the mutual influences of feelings are clearly recognized. The character of the new associated images and situations is colored by the feelings which were connected with the original stimulations. The pictures, such, for example, as the Angelus and the Horse Fair, were presented to the subjects in quick succession. These were to be merely starting-points for association. For all the subjects who were able to report anything definite, the feeling-tone for one was read into the associations which were aroused by the other. The second of the two starting-points as a rule controls the imagery. A few examples will illustrate how both feeling-tones are retained. The Angelus was presented first in these cases, and the Horse Fair second.
For subject K, the parts of the picture of the Horse Fair remained. The feeling of seriousness and quietness, foreign to it itself, was projected into it. Solemnity and the feeling of strength and power was accentuated. The gaiety originally present was very much lessened, and finally not noticed at all.
For subject C, a sacred feeling was aroused. Wars of the Bible were recalled. There was a fusion of the imagery. He saw the church on a battlefield near a cavalry fight. The feeling of active earnestness and the sacred moral character was reported as due to the retained feeling first brought about by the Angelus. The influence of the other starting-point is clear.
Subject B found the incongruity between the two feelings very strong. The Angelus was the stronger in influence. The other caused one to stress the lighter, more trivial character of the former. Meadows, streams, pools, and enchanted regions typified the fanciful mood thus brought about.
It is not a question as to whether such trains of thought would have occurred if only one starting-point had been used. It is rather that, in such cases as the above, two distinct feeling-tones were actually detected as playing their part in the resulting complex experiences. It is with some effort that both feeling-tones can be thus at first retained. The resulting undertone or general mood, however brought about, colors and determines to a certain extent the associations which follow. The feeling is more deeply seated than the image, and here also it is retained longer.
The above recorded account of the behavior of simple feelings fairly represents the accumulated data at our disposal. How they can be adjusted to modern theories of the relation of consciousness to movement may be briefly suggested. Yet the rudimentary state both of the psychology and of the physiology of feeling makes the present task a hazardous one. Psychologists are not agreed as to the best way to conceive of the relation of feelings to sensations. Feeling-tone is in some ways dependent upon sensations; and at the same time, in comparison with other sensation attributes, it is relatively independent. Physiologists are still farther from agreement with regard to the nervous processes involved.
But the deeply organic seat of feelings is unquestioned. However the concept of feeling itself may differ, all are looking for corresponding bodily processes by means of which to classify these affective states. Clearly, to say that feeling is of such a nature that one need never hope to be able to predict it from psycho-physical conditions, is no more justified than to say that we can never predict exactly the intensity nor the vividness of any stimulation. Feeling-tone is here simply on a par with other attributes ascribed to sensation.
According to Münsterberg's Action Theory the intensity of the sensation depends upon the strength of the incoming current. Its quality depends upon the position or location of this current in its particular neurone. The vividness depends upon the "openness" or "closedness" of the neurone conditioning the outgoing current. And finally to the feeling-tone shall correspond the local difference of this discharge in outgoing currents. For instance, the pleasant feelings have, related to them, central outgoing paths which lead to approach, and thus to the continuation of the stimulus, and the unpleasant feelings have related to them in turn central neurones which lead to withdrawal or escape, and thus to the breaking-up of the stimulus.
Our empirical data gathered from the experiments above reported demand not so much a modification as an elaboration of this theory. The tridimensionality of the feeling-tone itself must be physiologically described. We must conceive the feeling-tone itself as possessed of its own vividness, intensity, and quality.
It seems clear indeed that any explanation of the affective or feeling-character of experience must be sought somewhere in the outgoing currents from the motor region. This alone will serve to account for the inevitable volitional or "intent" aspect which invariably accompanies feeling, and I think may serve to account also for the organic or necessarily coördinating or functioning aspect required by some writers who so stoutly object to "barren atomistic or structural" psychological explanations.
The Action Theory might then be specialized in the following way:
The intensity of the feeling will depend upon the force or amount of the outgoing currents from the motor cells. This would enable one to explain that state of mind when a sensation only is experienced from a stimulus which ordinarily has a characteristic feeling-tone, but which feeling-tone in the special instance is lacking. Many cases have been cited above where one feeling seemed to efface another. The nerve-energy called for in arousing the unpleasant feeling-tone for the sandpaper inhibited the process of the discharge from the cells conditioning any response to the ordinarily pleasing red color. Others again can reënforce or at least not seriously interfere with each other. All cases already cited where two feeling-tones were detected as existing simultaneously are examples in point. It is quite clear of course that the intensity of feeling is not at all commensurate with the intensity of sensation. Commotion is not the only condition for emotion. Yet where there is no tendency to do anything, as is so noticeable in the reported introspections above, there is no feeling. A mere shock, even though intense as a sensation, simply benumbs one. In thus describing any feeling for a particular stimulation, one should include, besides the original results of the chosen peripheral excitation, all the reënforcing factors that accumulate by reason of the sensory counterparts to this originally called-for movement. When one is, for example, feeling sandpaper, the feeling for the soft red, when it exists at all, is less intense. Subjects say, "It ought to be more pleasant than it is. The trouble is in me, not in the color." The suggested movement which conditions the intensity is lessened in amount, or partially inhibited. One could scarcely say, so far as the sensation is concerned, that it has lost some of its brightness, or that it is not strong enough to arouse its customary feeling-tone. This is distinctly reported as not the case. It is of course almost always recognized as the same shade of color. The recorded examples, showing that intensity of feeling is itself one dimension of a feeling-tone in no way necessarily related to the intensity of the sensation, are numerous.
The vividness of the feeling-tone is likewise a relatively independent phenomenon, and it, too, is not commensurate with the vividness of the sensation as such, and hence demands a different explanation. It can then be dependent upon the actual stage in the process of completing the movements suggested by the color or tone or form in question. All feelings dealt with in this investigation one can describe by relating them to the actual stage in the process of completing the coördinated adjustments. Without some progress in such a process no feeling would cross the threshold of awareness. In Part III above are recorded many illustrations, where degrees of vividness for feelings are noted by the subjects. When they were attempting to report the actual time when a feeling became definite enough to be called such at all, there was much difficulty in knowing just when to give the signal. Feelings develop much more slowly than do perceptions. Subjects often give the signal too soon, at once correcting themselves by saying that it was too vague at that moment. It grows in definiteness, and has degrees of vividness. A movement in the first stages of the process, before the feeling-tone has sufficiently developed, is a state of vague feeling. Again, many states of so-called indifferent feeling meant, according to the subjects, not lack of feeling, but rather vagueness, lack of vividness. Three or more stimulations from different sources resulted in confusion where no feelings were vivid. When the color again, for example, is pronounced "dead" so far as feeling is concerned, other feelings and other movements are too prominent. The sensations are in such cases unchanged. The intensity and vividness of the feeling-tone for the color are at a minimum.
And thirdly the quality of the feeling-tone must be dependent upon, and must be described in terms of the particular kind of coördinated movements suggested or actually carried out. Thus the characters of the feeling-tones for the yellow color above described, for the upright ovals, for the very high tones, for the Laocoön group, and for the Horse Fair, are in some respects alike. They have the same general Gefühlsgrundlage. The qualities of the feelings for soft deep red, for tactual plush, for low tones, and for the Angelus, and, for most subjects, for Venus, would represent another class having the same Gefühlsgrundlage. This admits of all the uniqueness specific feelings may have, and at the same time permits of a general classification and description. Some subjects, D and F, for example, may have a feeling whose quality is disgust at some color-form combination. The accompanying sensations may be localized, as they frequently are, in the arms, with impulses to "ward off" the displeasing influence. Subject B often for the same feeling finds sensations of contraction in the throat most prominent, and subject A a stiffening of the features and incipient scowl. The most prominent localization depends upon the habits of the person and the habitual kind of reaction he has acquired and developed during his lifetime. The localization of muscular activity may differ, but the kind of coördination does not, so far as our introspection shows. The regularity, the rate, the smooth light ease, or the heavy, ponderous, deep-seated character of the suggested responses indicate some of the terms which would serve as aids in classifying kinds of processes which are physiological conditions for feelings of definite character. Again, feelings of pleasant repose, of depression, or of sudden collapse are still changes also in innervation tonus. These are adaptations for situations just as are the more positive or aggressive kinds illustrated above. Feelings where quick collapse occurs differ in quality from feelings of calm repose. All can be conceived as kinds of adaptations or responses, and clearly correspond to the characters of feeling-tones rather than to any other dimension of feelings or sensations.
Certainly the central preparedness for discharge largely determines the feelings. The external excitations are merely the clues. The internal apparatus is set vibrating in a constant manner if no other external or central stimulus is present to demand other adjustments or to intensify the same kind. When such synergetic or antagonistic stimuli are also present the mutual influences of feelings do seem to be, indeed, of great significance.