THE EMOTIONS ANALYSED.

Shannon News, 11 September 1923, Page 4

THE EMOTIONS ANALYSED.

+ INTERESTING W.E.A. LECTURE. In the course of a recent lecture to a W.E.A. class, Mr Ernest Mander dealt with, some, aspects of the relationship between mind and body, mental and physical life. He began by pointing out that mood and temperament depend very largely, if not entirely, upon the state of the body,-, illustrating bow our moods are -varying from day to day, almost from nour to hour, according to our varying physical ‘tone.’ The lecturer''went on to quote a number of cases, in each of which (a sulrgioail joperation the brain had resulted in changing the whole disposition of the subject; and he followed this up with a brief description of tlie. bram end nervous system, the autonomic system- and the system of ductless glands. - “We have already discussed the real nature of emotion,” Mr Mander continued. -“And we have found that every emotion is simply a set of physical sensations. ■ We feel certain things- happening in our bodies; and we call that feeling fear, anger, pity, mirth, fatigue, sorrow, or whatever, it may be. All emotions are essentially 'physical sensations.” Fear is as much a physical senstion as indigestion,, and mirth is as physical as seasickness.

ENJOYMENT OF MUSIC.

In the course of this address, the speaker dealt- with the enjoyment of music. “What we actually enjoy,” he said, “is the sum total of our own physical sensations, sensations produced by the effect of the music upon our bodies. It is not the band or the organ over there which I directly enjoy; it is what is happening here, here in my own body. I experience sensations which .1 describe as ‘a. lump in my throat’; a sudden catch in miy breathing; a sensation as though my heart were swelling, almost bursting; a tendency to sway the body gently to the rhythm of the music. Slow, solemn music causes me to breathe slowly and deeply. Quick, lively music sets my nerves tingling and my feet ‘itching to dance..’ Now, we don’t all beat time to the music with our feet; and those of us who don’t probably smile at those of u|s who do. But if we don’t keep time with our feet; at 'any rate we do with our breathing! Anybody can verify that for himself. The next time you are absorbed in music, you may notice that you are breathing in tiinei to the music, and half-conscious-ly you feel yourself doing that. But there is all the difference in the world between the sensation (and mood) of slow. deep breathing, slow shallow breathing, quick deep breathing and quick shallow breathing. Oui - mood changes as our rate and depth of breathing are changed, by the influence of the music. So the music is enjoyable because it produces a certain rhythmic series 'of reactions in our own bodies, and these sensations in our bodies are pleasant to experience. The musician is playing directly upon his own orgmn or ’ceiiu,.. but indirectly upon our bodies.” POLITICIAN AND EVANGELIST. After dealing with various other aspects, of tihe question, Mr Mander concluded with a description of the way in which the emotional speaker, like the musician, can play upon, the bodies of his hearers. “It is an interesting study in psychology,” he said, “to attend some political or religious meeting conducted by a speaker of the ‘emotion monge/ring’ type. You should sit where you can observe both the speakers and some oi the audience at close, quarters.: Observe how the speaker plays upon the bodies of his. hearers, how the gets them into one emotional state after another. He may get at their bodies through their minds; hut it is tire body that lie plays upon. When he starts there is a certain amount of expectancy? His hearers tend to sit up straight, breathe quickly but not deeply, keep their eyes wide open and their bodies rather tense. Then the speaker begins. For the first tew minutes he talks in qutiet, rather deep, measured tones. It does not matter much what he is saying: the effect of his tone and manner is to get ns hearers to relax their lacial muscles, to sit back and breathe more freely, tnd so to feel friendly and comp os'* l. Then the speaker strikes a new i ote. He raises his voice abrutly. He begins to talk in short, sharp sentences. He has. broken the old i rhythm. He throws out a few ideas which carry a suggestion of alarm. Hg hearers sit up straight again aim begin to breathe quickly. The speaker suddenly lowers his voice and m low. vibrant tones which ‘send a shiver through us,’ he goes on o give us ideas which put us into a Male ol fear. He calls up the fears that were irstilled in us in childhood; hr strengthens them by suggesting some i tw and more* terrible menace: his manner, 'his tone, his words, the ideas that he forces upon us, the asso vations that those ideas already Pave i i our minds—everything helps to put us more completely into a st-ite o* fear. We sit rigid. We find that we •ire hardly breathing. Our hearts slow down. Certain glands are opening within us and altering the chemical constitution oi our bleed, Just at the right moment, he strikes a new note again. Again he raises liis voice—challengingly! He shouts and waves his arms about. He throws out a few ideas which are calculated to put us into a state of anger. Now we are breathing hard and fast. Our hearts are pounding furiously. Our hands clench. All our muscles are tensed. Further chemical changes take place in our blood-stream, me flow of saliva is checked *n our . mouths and the flow of digestive juices in our stomachs. in short, our bodies are now in a state of anger. So it goes on. He puts us into one emotional state after another—anger, fear anger, contempt, mirth, pity, am ger again, and so on. At last he gets us worked up into an almost hysterical condition. . Then-sudden]y-at # the. very climax—he sits down; and for a moment we are stupefied. Then we go home rubbing our hands and telling one another what an ‘‘intcliectual treat” we’ve .had!