The Reflex Nature of Bodily Responses in Pain and the Major Emotions, and the Useful Character of Reflexes
The most significant feature of these bodily reactions in pain and in the presence of emotion-provoking objects is that they are of the nature of reflexes—they are not willed movements, indeed they are often distressingly beyond the control of the will. The pattern of the reaction, in these as in other reflexes, is deeply inwrought in the workings of the nervous system, and when the appropriate occasion arises, typical organic responses are evoked through inherent automatisms.
It has long been recognized that the most characteristic feature of reflexes is their “purposive” nature, or their utility either in preserving the welfare of the organism or in safeguarding it against injury. The reflexes of sucking, swallowing, vomiting and coughing, for instance, need only to be mentioned to indicate the variety of ways in which reflexes favor the continuance of existence. When, therefore, these automatic responses accompanying pain and fear and rage—the increased discharge of adrenin and sugar—are under consideration, it is reasonable to inquire first as to their utility.
Numerous ingenious suggestions have been offered to account for the more obvious changes accompanying emotional states—as, for example, the terrifying aspect produced by the bristling of the hair and the uncovering of the teeth in an access of rage.[1] The most widely applicable explanation proposed for these spontaneous reactions is that during the long course of racial experience they have been developed for quick service in the struggle for existence. Earlier writers on organic evolution pointed out the anticipatory character of these responses. According to Spencer,[2] “Fear, when strong, expresses itself in cries, in efforts to hide or escape, in palpitations and tremblings; and these are just the manifestations that would accompany an actual experience of the evil feared. The destructive passions are shown in a general tension of the muscular system, in gnashing of the teeth and protrusion of the claws, in dilated eyes and nostrils, in growls; and these are weaker forms of the actions that accompany the killing of prey.” McDougall[3] has developed this idea systematically and has suggested that an association has become established between peculiar emotions and peculiar instinctive reactions; thus the emotion of fear is associated with the instinct for flight, and the emotion of anger or rage with the instinct for fighting or attack. Crile[4] likewise in giving recent expression to the same view has emphasized the importance of adaptation and natural selection, operative through myriads of years of racial experience, in enabling us to account for the already channeled responses which we find established in our nervous organization. And on a principle of “phylogenetic association” he assumes that fear, born of innumerable injuries in the course of evolution, has developed into portentous foreshadowing of possible injury and has become, therefore, capable of arousing in the body all the offensive and defensive activities that favor the survival of the organism.
Because the increase of adrenin and the increase of sugar in the blood, following painful or strong emotional experiences, are reflex in character, and because reflexes as a rule are useful responses, we are justified in the assumption that under these circumstances these reactions are useful. What, then, is their possible value?
In order that these reactions may be useful they must be prompt. Such is the case. Some observations made by one of my students, Mr. H. Osgood, show that the latent period of adrenal secretion, when the splanchnic nerve is stimulated below the diaphragm, is not longer than 16 seconds; and Macleod[5] states that within a few minutes after splanchnic stimulation the sugar in the blood rises between 10 and 30 per cent. The two secretions are, therefore, almost instantly ready for service.
Conceivably the two secretions might act in conjunction, or each might have its own function alone. Thus adrenin might serve in coöperation with nervous excitement to produce increase of blood sugar, or it might have that function and other functions quite apart from that. Before these possibilities are considered, however, the value of the increased blood sugar itself will be discussed.