Mental mechanisms / by William A. White.

  • White, William A. (William Alanson), 1870-1937.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mental mechanisms / by William A. White. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    temperature. As heat goes along with increase in resistance in an electric circuit so consciousness goes along with increase in resistance in a mental circuit. Herrick^ has said the various degrees or grades of consciousness are expressions of succes- sively higher forms of the coordination of forces. We must think then of full, clear consciousness as only accom- panying those mental states of adjustment to new and unusual conditions: conditions permitting of various reactions and involv- ing therefore selective judgment, critique, choice—in short, rea- son; and in proportion to the frequency of the repetition of the same adjustment the mental state accompanying such repetition tends to sink out of the field of clear consciousness. If we will consider the infinitude of adjustments the individual has to make to his environment we will see that this is a conservative process. As soon as a given adjustment is well formed it is pushed aside and the field of clear consciousness left free for new problems. The same sort of process is responsible for phenomena in the race consciousness. The word chandelier originally was ap- plied to a holder for a candle. The application continued for a long time, was frequently repeated, and was organized, therefore, into a stably reacting mechanism. The change in the source of light to gas failed absolutely to change the reaction and it is only lately, now that gas has long since been replaced by electricity that we occasionally hear the word electrolier. Stated in this way the method of reaction will be seen to have a biological signifi- cance and not merely an individual or even a human importance. All of these considerations go to demonstrate that the field of full consciousness and rational self-control is a very limited one, but that on the contrary the great majority of our mental states, our desires, inclinations, and actions are conditioned by mechan- isms of which we are more or less unaware. It is worth while in passing to call attention to the principle that in proportion as the * C. L. Herrick: The Metaphysics of a Naturalist cited by Professor Mary Whiton Calkins in General Standpoints: Mind and Body. The Psy- chological Bulletin, January 15, 1911.