A manual of psychology.

  • Stout, George Frederick, 1860-1944.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A manual of psychology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    counter to a volition which has lapsed only for the time being, and recurs in consciousness immediately after the act is over, in the form of remorse. In the third place, the action may take effect before a voluntary decision has been arrived at. In the midst of the conflict of motives, the idea corresponding to the animal appetite may become so vivified as to pass into action while the process of deliberation is still working itself out. We may act before we know our mind. A man, while still mentally hesitating whether he is to drink a glass of spirits or not, will find that the organic craving has so vivified the idea of drinking* that he is swallowing the spirits before he has determined whether to do so or not. The action is then involuntary, because it interrupts the process of forming a volition. It may also be involuntary in a deeper sense; it may be that from the constitution of the man’s whole nature, he would certainly have willed otherwise if full deliberation had been possible before acting. In the fourth place, the organic craving may be the motive of a genuine volition, and the action may therefore be volun- tary at the time at which it takes place. None the less, there is a sense in which the action may be regarded as involuntary. A comparison may be made between the totality of interests defeated by indulging in the drink or opium, and the animal craving itself considered as a relatively isolated impulse. If the craving were taken away the self would still be left. If on the other hand, all the interests which are opposed to the indulgence were taken away, there would be little left but the morbid appetite itself. Thus the denial that the act is voluntary may have a good meaning. It may mean that the volition of the moment is discordant with the general volition of a lifetime, so that the intervals between the periods of indulgence are embittered by remorse. It is supposed that the morbid craving by its isolated intensity prevents full deliberation. There is, it is assumed, in the man’s nature a va.st system of conative tendencies which, if they had found fair play, and developed themselve.s in consciousness, would have determined volition even if they did not determine action.