The Mental Highway
	Physiology And Biology Of Feeling <  Previous Contents Next  >

The psychological elements, which we separate for the purposes of study, are in fact inseparable both in psychology and physiology. They are not centered in different parts of the body. Plato placed thought in the head, feelings like honor and courage in the breast, and the sensations, impulses, and passions in the lower part of the body. Aristotle attributed all sensation to the heart, while pure reason was not united in the corporeal functions at all. Descartes placed the phenomena of consciousness in the brain. Bell and Gall were the first psychologists of the 19th Century who placed all consciousness, whether it is cognition, feeling, or will, in the brain. Apart from the fact that certain sections of the brain influence certain parts of the body, very little basis seems to exist for the claims of phrenology, which determines one’s various tendencies and dispositions by the shape of the head.

Feeling, which is represented by greater extension of the nerve processes in the brain substance, seems to rise more slowly than cognition. However certain elementary feelings like fear and pain may arise without cerebral action. A rat, having the higher parts of his brain removed, will display signs of fear at the cry of a cat, showing that while no apparent connection with the brain exists, the vegetative organs, the viscera, still exercise a very important influence on the feelings. Doubtless the observation of these influences led to the idea of a conflict between feelings and cognition, between the heart and the brain, and placed humanity in warfare between the "law of his mind and the law of his members."

Feeling makes a greater demand on the nerve centers than does cognition. Cognition concentrates the energy in the brain, while feeling distributes its energy to every part of the body, especially the visceral tract. The sympathetic system furnishes their energy, and through its action sudden violent emotions, like sorrow or joy, may react on the heart and cause death. It may seem strange that two opposite feelings should produce the same result, but the strongest element in the feeling takes effect, not the nature of the feeling itself.

These effects are due to the influence of feeling on the vasomotor nerves, which close the arteries under the influence of sudden emotion, and drive the blood to the heart or brain with fatal results. The face turns pale under fright because the blood is driven to the heart. In blushing produces the opposite movement. A similar movement is apparent in sorrow, which produces tears. It is a question whether we weep because we are sorry, or are sorry because we weep.

The effect of fear on the bowels and kidneys shows that the emotions do affect the organs. Anger contracts the liver, and one gasps for breath when terribly startled.

Thus it appears that the emotions decidedly influence the bodily functions, but it is not pronounced enough to claim a correspondence between every ill in the various parts of the body and some specific emotion. When the feelings are pleasurable, our muscles are firm and vigorous, our bearing is upright, our glance is frank, and our face is open. On the other hand, if the feelings are unpleasant, the muscles loosen, bearing shrinks, the step shuffles, we look downhearted, and downcast.

The vasomotor nerves arise in the sympathetic system, and in the cerebrum, which explains the tremendous influence of the emotions. The vasomotor nerves furnish nerve impulses to the blood vessels’ walls, causing them to contract and expand, and are in direct contact with both the cerebral and sympathetic systems. Thus, it becomes clear why every emotion like hope or joy or love makes for health while fear, anger, and hatred make for disease. If the emotions’ effect on the sympathetic system can stimulate the circulation and produce a sensation of health or disease, then the organ may get out of order, and affect the emotions adversely. If mental strain, and depression can produce constipation, then constipation arising from other causes may and does produce mental depression and nervousness. In fact, such a vicious circle as this is present in most nervous disorders. [In physiology, this is called a positive feedback loop.]

As a rule, things that we understand to contribute to our general well being are pleasurable. Sugar is a large nutritional factor, and its pleasurable sweet taste is based upon that instinctive feeling that it contributes to the general vital feeling of welfare. Some things that are pleasant momentarily are harmful, while substances bitter to the taste are helpful. We must judge by the outcome, not by the momentary impression. Pleasure evokes cognition, from which springs the desire to secure that which gives pleasure. This calls forth the will to make the object a permanent possession. Pain follows the same method. We recognize by a mental process that a certain thing is harmful and call the will into action to push it away. Pleasure and pain are educative. The first appearance of pain warns us that the body is on the retrograde, while the feeling of pleasure tells us that things are moving along favorably.

The law of relativity for the feelings states that the value of a thing is determined by its relation to the individual’s interest. A fortune left to a person with millions already will not be as valued as a $5000 bequest would to a person who has lived in the clutches of debt. As we distinguish between the various shades of a color, so we can take pleasure and pain, which are fixed forms of feeling, and determine them by their contrasts, one with the other. By contrasting the various shades, we may see a person’s disposition, his attitude toward the various shades of pleasure and pain, which is a sort of regulator. If we drop below the usual level of feeling, our disposition tends to rise again, while if our pleasure rises above a certain level, our regulator will soon bring us to the normal.

Heredity, experiences of life, and the circumstances under which we live determine our disposition. If the shift between pleasure and pain is great enough to break the unity of conscious experience, and reaches beyond what seems normal for the disposition to grasp, we lose our regulator and have a divided personality. Many such cases occur from shock or grief, and unless they can reassociate the personality, and weld the stream into one again, the consciousness is in danger of ruin.

We express feeling fully only when we contrast it with another feeling. Feeling general moves from one strong feeling to its opposite. "If you laugh before you eat, you will cry before you sleep." Often, peace of mind comes to a person only when they have expended tremendous passions or emotions. Many people cannot overcome temptation at first, but only when it reaches great heights. Conscience awakens in some criminals only after they have committed a heinous crime. Religious conversion often occurs after working conscience-stricken feeling up to exhaustion, followed with emotionally setting the ideas of peace and forgiveness. The swing of the feelings gives that spectacular exhibition its emotional fervor.

Underlying all such experiences is the fact that continued action tends to exhaust any sort of feeling. A person may suffer until he loses the power to suffer. Then he may rest and gather himself up for more suffering. Our capacity for constant suffering or pain is therefore limited. Happiness, through its very excess, may lead to unhappiness, while pain may exhaust itself and end in pleasure.

The ancients considered wonder to be the beginning of wisdom because it set new currents of feeling in motion, keeping life fresh and pleasure unalloyed. The person who knew how to find new inspiration for his wonder would come to know the secret of all living experiences. The constant repetition of any act or feeling weakens the freshness of its experience unless enough time elapses to let wonder enter again. By adding wonder, each repetition enlarges the capacity for enjoyment.

Emotion is a sudden burst of feeling, a storm of feeling, while passion is a continual steady stream of feeling. Feeling begins in emotion, and if sufficiently fed, ends in passion. Anger and sorrow are emotions that develop into the passions of revenge and depression. The law of relativity applies here: Repeating an emotion weakens it, while repeating a passion steadily strengthens it. Some formerly thought that reason and passion were in conflict, but they are not. Reason cannot and need not try to suppress any sort of passion. Reason can affect passion only by producing another passion and holding it before the mind as a substitute for the original.

The criterion of feeling well or ill is the vital feeling. If the vital feeling is lowered, then physical and mental depression is apt to be present. If the vital feeling is raised, then mental and physical exhilaration results. Pleasure, to grow, does not need pain in the background.

The greatest pleasures often have their source another pleasure that is relatively of the same class, though weaker in feeling. All pleasure is a positive state. It does not matter whether a sensuous joy is based on fact, illusion, or chimera. It is joy for all that, and a real thing. Likewise the hallucination of pain is just as real as if it were based on a physical lesion. The hypochondriac does feel real physical discomfort, and we cannot argue him out of the experience. His experiences are as real as if they had physical foundation.

We can draw a median line between the strongest pain and highest pleasure. Approached as pain, it becomes pleasure, while approached as pleasure, it becomes pain. So that the fact and the degree of pleasure or pain are determined quite largely by the mental approach to the experience. We find pleasure in many things because we expect to find it, while we experience pain very often because we expect it to hurt.