Volume 2

The principles of psychology / by William James.

  • James, William, 1842-1910.
Date:
1950, ©1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The principles of psychology / by William James. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    takes consist in using entire wrong words instead of right ones. It is only in grave lesions that he becomes quite in¬ articulate. These facts show how subtle is the associative link; how delicate yet how strong that connection among brain-paths which makes any number of them, once excited together, thereafter tend to vibrate as a systematic whole. A small group of elements, ‘ this,' common to two systems, A and B, may touch off A or B according as accident decides the next step (see Fig. 47). If it happen that a single point leading from ‘ this ’ to B is momentarily a little more per¬ vious than any leading from ‘ this ’ to A, then that little advantage will upset the equilibrium in favor of the entire system B. The currents will sweep first through that point and thence into all the paths of B, each increment of ad¬ vance making A more and more impossible. The thoughts correlated with A and B, in such a case, will have objects different, though similar. The similarity will, however, consist in some very limited feature if the ‘ this ’ be small. Thus the faintest sensations will give rise to the perception of definite things if only they resemble those which the things are wont to arouse. In fact, a sensation must be strong and distinct in order not to suggest an object and, if it is a non¬ descript feeling, really to seem one. The aurae of epilepsy, globes of light, fiery vision, roarings in the ears, the sensa¬ tions which electric currents give rise to when passed through the head, these are unfigured because they are strong. Weaker feelings of the same sort would probably suggest objects. Many years ago, after reading Maury’s book, Le Sommeil et les Reves, I began for the first time to observe those ideas which faintly flit through the mind at all times, words, visions, etc., disconnected with the main stream of thought, but discernible to an attention on the watch for