The story of thought and feeling / by Frederick Ryland.

  • Ryland, Frederick, 1854-1902.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The story of thought and feeling / by Frederick Ryland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    change the metaphor, hop from one object to another. If we notice carefully what happens, we still see that attention is being focussed, then diffused, then focussed again on a fresh object. There is a kind of rhythm in this, a period of emphasis followed by a period of relaxation, and that again by a period of emphasis. We pass not only from ideas to ideas and percepts to per- cepts, but even from percepts to ideas without any perceptible jolt, and vice versa. There are transi- tions, but during the transitions the attention is less vivid. Inattention. Inattention is as necessary to mental activity as attention. Morbid attention to a particular subject shows a tendency to insanitj^; we often speak of people being “mad on music” or “mad on politics.” A perfectly healthy mind has special interests, but these are held in proper check by other interests, so that it is always possible for us not to attend to our hobby. With the majority of people the difficulty is to overcome the distractions of the world around ns. The child learning his task on a summer morning in full sight of daisied meadows and inviting comrades, the weary barrister getting up his brief after dinner when he wants to be in the smoking-room, are examples. The cases differ, because the barrister has acquired greater ability in withdrawing his attention from the counter- attractions than the child, and has acquired .greater interest in subjects originally uninterest-