An outline of psychology / by Edward Bradford Titchener.

  • Titchener, Edward Bradford, 1867-1927
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An outline of psychology / by Edward Bradford Titchener. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    them methodically, we are finally able to write out a law of mental combination or connection. When we have our law, we can apply it in difficult cases as they occur, and so gain help in our later analyses. (3) Every mental process is connected with a bodily process ; we do not know anything of mind apart from body. Mind and body, that is, always go together in our experience. And ordinary observation will convince us that body influences mind in various ways. Consciousness when the eyes are closed is different from consciousness when the eyes are open ; if the bodily state varies, the mental state varies also; the dropping of the eyelids pre- vents the ether waves from gaining access to the sensitive parts of the eyes, and with this physical fact go the men- tal facts of the sensation of darkness, the ‘ feeling ’ of bodily unsteadiness and uncertainty, etc. The mind of a man who has been blind from his birth is essentially dif- ferent from the mind of one endowed with normal vision. Where the latter sees, the former hears and touches : I see my path, but the blind man hears and ‘feels ’ his way. Even the highest and most abstract processes of thought give evidence of the close connection of mind with body. We cannot think, unless we have ideas in which to think; and ideas are built up from impressions received through bodily sense-organs. Thus most of us remember, imagine, dream, and think in terms of sight. When we remember an event, we see it occurring ‘ in our mind’s eye ’; when we ‘ imagine ’ an experience, we have a mental ‘ image ’ of it, we seem to see it take place; when we dream, we ordinarily see ourselves or our friends engaged in this action or in that; and when we think, we often see the words in which we are thinking, as if they were printed or