[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

concept. This gives the conceptual idea a greater definiteness. At the same time there is
always connected with this idea the consciousness that it is merely a representative. This
consciousness generally takes the form of a characteristic feeling. This conceptual feeling
may be traced to the fact that obscure ideas, which have the attributes that make them
suitable to serve as representations of the concept, tend to force themselves into
consciousness in the form of variable memory images. As evidence of this we have the
fact that the feeling is very intense so [p. 266] long as any concrete image of the concept
is chosen as its representative, as, for example, when a particular individual stands for the
concept man, while it disappears almost entirely so soon as the representative idea differs
entirely in content from the objects included under the concept. Word-ideas fulfil this
condition and that is what gives them their importance as universal aids to thought. These
aids are furnished to the individual consciousness in a finished so that we must leave to
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
OUTLINES OF PSYCHOLOGY
153
social psychology the question of the psychological development of the processes of
thought active in the formation of language (comp. § 21, A).
18. From all that has been said it appears that the activities of imagination and
understanding are not specifically different, but interrelated. inseparable in their rise and
manifestations, and based at bottom on the same fundamental functions of apperceptive
synthesis and analysis. What was true of the concept "memory" holds also of the concepts
"understanding" and "imagination": they are names, not of unitary forces or faculties, but
of complex phenomena made up of elementary psychical processes of the usual, not of a
specific, distinct kind. Just as memory is a general concept for certain associative
processes, imagination and understanding are general concepts for particular forms of
apperceptive activity. They have a certain practical value as ready means for the
classification of an endless variety of differences in the capacity of various persons for
intellectual activity. Each class thus found may in turn contain an endless variety of
gradations and shades. Thus, neglecting the general differences in grade, we have as the
chief forms of individual imagination the perceptive and the combining forms; as the
chief form of understanding, the inductive and deductive forms, the first being mainly
concerned with the single logical relations and their combinations, the second more with
general con- [p. 267] cepts and their analysis. A person's talent is his total capacity
relating from the special tendencies of both his imagination and understanding.
[1] "Dichtung und Wahrheit"
§ 18. PSYCHICAL STATES.
1. The normal state of consciousness upon which the discussion of the foregoing
paragraphs has been based may undergo such a variety of changes that general
psychology must give up the attempt to discuss them in detail. Then, too, the more
important of these changes, namely, those which are observed in the various forms of
nervous diseases, brain diseases, and insanity, belong to special branches of pathology
which border upon psychology and are more or less dependent upon it. All that
psychology can do is to indicate the main psychical conditions for such abnormal states
of consciousness. We may distinguish in general, in accordance with what has been said
about the attributes of psychical processes and their interconnection in consciousness
three kinds of such conditions. They may consist 1) in the abnormal character of the
psychical elements, 2) in the way psychical compounds are constituted, and 3) in the way
psychical compounds are combined in consciousness. As a result of the intimate
interconnection of these different factors it scarcely ever happens that one of these three
conditions, each of which may appear in the most various concrete forms, is operative
alone; but they usually unite. The abnormal character of the elements results in the
abnormity of the compounds, and this in turn brings about changes in the general
interconnection of conscious processes.
Get any book for free on: www.Abika.com
OUTLINES OF PSYCHOLOGY
154
2.The psychical elements, sensations, and simple feelings, show only such changes as
result from some disturbance in the normal relation between them. and their psycho-
physical conditions. For sensations such changes may be reduced to [p. 268] an increase
or decrease of the sensitivity for stimuli (by hyper-aesthesia, and anaesthesia) resulting
especially from the of certain physiological influences in the sensory centres. The most
important psychological symptom in this case is the increased excitability which is one of
the most common components of complex psychical disturbances. In similar fashion,.
changes in the simple feelings betray themselves in states of depression or exaltation as a
decrease or increase in the affective excitability. These different states may be recognized
from the way in which the emotions and volitional process occur. Thus, changes in the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

  • zanotowane.pl
  • doc.pisz.pl
  • pdf.pisz.pl
  • moje-waterloo.xlx.pl

    •