Psychology of Feeling and Emotion
- Author:
Ruckmick, Ph.D.
Pp. xiii, 529. McGrawHill Publishing Co. London, 1936. 25/-. Books dealing with feeling and emotion are much needed in the present state of psychological knowledge, and this volume should find a place in every college library.
The author has his own view of feeling, its place in mental life and its relation to emotion. His is a phylogenetic theory. He regards feeling as primordial and consciousness as beginning with subjective affective states. This primitive consciousness is represented at the human level by the states described as ” pleasantness ” and ” unpleasantness.” Cognitive and effective development have gone on together. He accepts Coghill’s view of development as ” individuation,” organisation from within. For Coghill progress in the motor and nervous system is from the undifferentiated whole to the part organised in relation to the whole, so for Ruckmick there is advance in the affective life from feeling connected with the whole organism to feeling connected with the special senses in their relation to the whole organism. At the perceptual level of life a further stage of individuation is possible, emotions arise. In emotion there is the subjective affective state, but there is also the objective reference of the expressive movements and of cognition, there is awareness of a given situation. As the nervous system grows in complexity, so the expressive movements become more varied; while on the cognitive side diversity of emotion arises with diversity of meaning in the perceived situationWith the development of ideational meanings there will be an advance to sentiments. There is continuous development in the wealth of affective organisation. There is also degeneration with a consequent relapse to more primitive forms of affective experience. For instance, Ruckmick regards emotional moods as less organised than emotions.
The book, however, is far from being only afl exposition of the author’s own constructive contribution to the theory of feeling. This is> indeed, only set out after justice has been done to the views of other psychologists. The student will find an historical outline of the early doctrines of feeling, a full discussion of Wundt’5 famous tridimensional theory and of the criti’ cisms levelled at it. A statement of the various attempts to classify the emotions leads up to a^ excellent account of the James, Lange and Serg1 doctrine of emotion. There is a report of tfte later presentations of the problems which the Lange-James view involved. Three chapter5 are devoted to the main directions of present’ day experimental work on the facial and bodi!)’ expression of emotion, including work with the psycho-galvanic reflex. There is a chapter 011 the use of the method of impression, and one on the qualitative description of emotion.
The author checks his own theory by bringing it into relation with the data of pathological studies and by an examination of the principles underlying psycho-analysis. An account of the development of emotion in the child and of the expression of emotion in animals brings out more clearly the bearing of the phylo-genetic theory. The volume concludes with a consideration of the educational and cultural problems involved !n any study of affective phenomena.
Appended to each chapter is a summary of Jts contents, a series of review questions, and references for further reading. These features add greatly to the value of the book from a student’s point of view. ” The Psychology of Feeling and Emotion ” is more than a text-book, but it has the merits of a first-class text-book, clearness of style and emphasis on key-points. Beatrice Edgell.
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