The Nature of Human Conflicts
- Author:
Luria, Professor of
Psychology, State Institute of Experimental Psychology, Moscow. Translated by W. Horsley Gannt. New York: Liveright. 1932.
The author presents here the results of a series of objective experiments conducted by him at the State Institute of Experimental Psychology, Moscow, during the years 1923-30, and devised to investigate certain aspects of the disorganization of behavior during emotional stress. Luria rejects the postulates of Pavlov and other conditioned reflex adherents and aligns himself with that group represented by Child, Lashley, Kohler, et al.
Convinced that “… only a system of active behavior … appears capable of manifesting an actual structure, changing under the influence of the affective behavior … ,” the author abandoned the use of reactions of the involuntary type?reflexes, bioelectrical changes, chemical reactions?and employed throughout a voluntary reactive pattern in which a simple motor act was incorporated into the complex receptor-effector process called out by the experiment. The subject sitting before the apparatus places his right hand on a pneumatic key, his left on a weight. These are connected to tambours attached in the usual way for kymograpliic recording. With the several processes involved in the situations a pressure by the right hand is incorporated, the left hand remaining at rest. Under normal conditions with normal adult subjects the motor act proceeds as an integral part of the process with?so far as the practical purposes of the investigation require? the regularity of a reflex. Furthermore, emotional disturbances, however slight, are immediately reflected in the disorganization of the pattern. The records permit of both qualitative and quantitative interpretations.
Beginning with investigations of the mass affect in normal individuals and in criminals, Luria experimented with complexes, conflicts and neuroses artificially produced by hypnosis in normal individuals, and also with conflicts in true apliasiacs. Using neurotic subjects, he then attempted to determine the levels of complexity at which disorganization might occur. The levels of complexity from the genetic point of view were studied in children. The nature of the functional barrier between the receptor and the motor phases of behavior was then made the object of experimentation. Finally, an investigation of the factors underlying control of behavior completed the picture. Although statistical analyses are frequently included, the clinical method of presentation predominates.
For the investigation of mass affect, the author took advantage of an examination conducted in the USSR in 1924 to eliminate from the universities all but the most adequate (and soviet minded) students. Since the examination would result in either the continuance or abrupt termination of studies and ambitions, the situation was one arousing intense emotional tension. The subjects were taken directly from the line awaiting examination. Some were retested immediately after the examination. The experiment consisted of a controlled association test after Jung in which the subject gave a pressure with his right hand at the moment of the response. In the group of words were included some considered critical because of their reference to the situation. The records show both the diffuse affect and its particular concentration on the critical words. Disturbances occurred both with reference to time and the qualitative nature of the curves. Controls were used and statistical as well as clinical treatment included. The experiment was repeated upon students just before an ordinary examination.
The affect in criminals was investigated on murderers tested immediately upon arrest, frequently before questioning, and in some cases at various times during the course of the trial. As with the first group, the evidences of diffused and concentrated foci of affect are clearly shown in the motor records. The author points to the possibility of using the method of critical words on suspects immediately after arrest for the purpose of diagnosis of guilt. Since only the guilty party would?under those circumstances?be acquainted with the details, the non-guilty suspect, although showing the effects of the diffused affect connected with the arrest, would not show the concentrated foci of affect connected with the critical words.
Artificial complexes were induced by hypnosis. A course of action opposed to the personality of the individual was suggested as accepted. When the suggestion itself had been accepted, the subject was awakened with posthypnotic amnesia and given both the controlled association test with critical words, and also a free association test?experimental psychoanalysis. The results are most interesting and merit particular study.
By hypnotically suggesting the desire to think of names of particular objects and later using free association, he created artificial compulsions. Inhibited compulsions with conflict were produced by hypnotically suggesting the desire to repeat certain words with the further suggestion of inability to do so.
With neurotic subjects Luria then endeavored to determine the levels of the conflicting processes by employing reaction patterns graded in complexity. These, beginning with the simplest, were (1) simple rhythmical pressures, (2) simple reactions to a signal, (3) slow motor reaction, (4) controlled association, (o) simple judgments on the presentation of words, followed by a series in which the definitions were to be absurd. Interesting cases are presented in which the disorganization occurred at different levels with different individuals. The author next considers the genetic aspect of the organization and disintegration of the reactive process, employing with children of various ages the experiments of rhythmical reactions, reactions to a signal, experiments with slow movements, and reactions of choice (using a special apparatus designed to give a quantitative record), together with drawings having a neutral and emotional content. The records included give evidence of fairly definite levels of organization and control arid of corresponding levels at which disorganization of the pattern occurs in the genetic series.
In dealing with the nature of the functional barrier, Luria devised experiments covering the condition where the excitation aroused is excessive, where the functional barrier is weak due to congenital deficiency, where the barrier is weak per accidens in normal individuals, and where there has been injury of the higher mental processes. The first was demonstrated with neurotics, the second with the mentally retarded, the third with normal individuals fatigued by the day’s work, and the last by aphasiacs. The weakening of the functional barrier and the consequent immediate reflection in the motor system of the excitation are clearly shown in the records.
Despite the title, the investigations deal not so much with the nature of the conflict as with the nature of the disorganization produced by the conflict. Disorganization is seen in the disappearance of the reaction pattern and the transformation of the excitation into a process of diffused character due to the fact that the motor setting has a tendency to be directly realized. This immediate passage of excitation from receptor to motor process is the result of the inadequacy of what the author terms the functional barrier. The condition of inadequacy of the barrier arises when an excessive amount of excitation is aroused (particularly seen in neurotics), or where the barrier itself is weak, due to lack of development (in very young children and the mentally retarded), or to the normal weakening in fatigue, or to organic destruction (as in aphasia).
Concerning the nature of the functional barrier, Luria points to the higher mental processes, particularly internal speech.
Although Luria has by no means solved the chief problems of abnormal psychology, his work is an exceedingly welcome relief from the usual writings in this field where the imaginative hypotheses of the authors are paralleled only by those of the patients. His experiments are ingenious and, appearing particularly at a moment when attempts to use other laboratory instruments in the analysis and diagnosis of emotional states have proven inadequate, should be particularly stimulating to psychologists working in the abnormal field. Of special interest is his work dealing with experimental psychoanalysis and the methods suggested will undoubtedly be used by investigators to examine the validity of the analysts’ claims. The book is in no sense popularized and will find few readers outside the field of professional psychologists. Thomas J. Snee University of Pennsylvania
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