The Origin and Nature of Emotions, George W. Crile [classic novels to read .TXT] 📗

course of evolution no pain receptors were placed, or in those diseases in which muscular inhibition or contraction is of no help.

In a biologic sense pain is closely associated with the emotional stimuli, for both pain and the emotions incite motor activity for the good of the individual. The frequent occurrence of postoperative and post-traumatic pain is accounted for by the fact that the operation or the injury has lowered the threshold of the brain-cells to trauma; the brain and not the local sensitive field is the site of the pain.

I have found that, by blockingthe field of operation with local anesthesia, postoperative pain is diminished; that is, since the local anesthesia prevents the strong stimuli of the trauma from reaching the brain, its threshold is not lowered.

There is a close resemblance between the phenomena of pain habit, of education, of physical training, of love and of hate. In education, in pain habit, in all emotional relations, a low brain-cell threshold is established which facilitates the reception of specific stimuli; all these processes are motor acts, or are symbolic of motor acts, and we may be trained to perceive misfortune and pain as readily as we are trained to perceive mathematical formulae or moral precepts.

In each and every case, readiness of perception depends, as it seems to me, upon a modified state of the brain-cells, their threshold especially, the final degree of perception possible in any individual being perhaps based on the type of potential molecules of which the brain is built.

We must believe also that every impression is permanent, as only thus could an individual animal or a man be fitted by his own experience for life’s battles. LAUGHTER AND CRYING What is laughter?

What is its probable origin, its distribution, and its purpose?

Laughter is an involuntary rhythmic contraction of certain respiratory muscles, usually accompanied by certain vocal sounds.

It is a motor act of the respiratory apparatus primarily, although if intense it may involve not only the extraordinary muscles of respiration, but most of the muscles of the body. There are many degrees of laughter, from the mere brightening of the eyes, a fleeting smile, tittering andgiggling, to hysteric and convulsive laughter.

Under certain circumstances, laughter may be so intense and so long continued that it leads to considerable exhaustion.

The formation of tears is sometimes associated with laughter.

When integrated with laughter, the nervous system can perform no other function. Crying is closely associated with laughter, and in children especially laughter and crying are readily interchanged.

We postulate that laughter and weeping serve a useful purpose.

According to Darwin, only man and monkeys laugh (Fig. 26); other animals exhibit certain types of facial expression accompanying various emotions, but laughter in the sense in which that word is commonly used is probably an attribute of the primates only, although it is probable that many animals find substitutes for laughter.

The proneness of man to laughter is modified by age, sex, training, mental state, health, and by many other factors. Healthy, happy children are especially prone to laughter, while disease, strong emotions, fatigue, and age diminish laughter. Women laugh more than do men.

The healthy, happy maturing young woman perhaps laughs most, especially when she is slightly embarrassed. What causes laughter? Good news, high spirits, tickling, hearing and seeing others laugh; droll stories; flashes of wit; passages of humor; averted injury; threatened breach of the conventions; and numerous other causes might be added.

It is obvious that laughter may be produced by diverse influences, many of which are so unlike each other that it would at first sight seem improbable that a single general principle underlies all.

Before presenting a hypothesis which harmonizes most of the facts, and which mayoffer an explanation of the origin and purpose of laughter, let us return for a moment to some previous considerations—

that man is essentially a motor being; that all his responses to the physical forces of his environment are motor; {illust. caption = FIG. 26.—LAUGHING CHIMPANZEE. “Mike,” the clever chimpanzee in the London Zoo, evidently enjoys a joke as well as any one else.

(Photo by Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.)}

 

that thoughts and words even are symbolic of motor acts; that in the emotions of fear, of anger, and of sexual love the whole body is integrated for acts which are not performed.

These integrations stimulate the brain-cells, the ductless glands, and other parts, and the energizing secretions, among which are epinephrin, thyroid and hypophyseal secretions, are thrown into the blood-stream, while that most available fuel, glycogen, is also mobilized in the blood.

This body-wide preparation for action may be designated kinetic reaction.

The fact that emotion is more injurious to the body than is muscular action is well known, the difference being probably caused by the fact that when there is action the above-mentioned products of stimulation are consumed, while in stimulation without action they are not consumed and must be eliminated as waste products.

Now these activating substances and the fuel glycogen may be consumed by any muscular action as well as by the particular muscular action for which the integration and consequent stimulation were made; that is, if one were provoked to such anger that he felt impelled to attack the object of his anger, one of three things might happen: First, he might perform no physical act but give expression to the emotion of anger; second, he might engage in a physical struggle and completely satisfy his anger; third, he might immediately engage in violent gymnastic exercises and thus consume all the motor-producing elements mobilized by the anger and thus clarify his body.

 

In these premises we find our explanation of the origin and purpose of laughter and crying, for since they consist almost wholly of muscular exertion, they serve precisely such clarifying purposes as would be served by the gymnastic exercises of an angry man.

As it seems to me, the muscular action of laughter clears the system of the energizing substances which have been mobilized in various parts of the body for the performance of other actions (Figs. 27

to 29). If this be true, the first question that presents itself is, Why is the respiratory system utilized for such a clarifying purpose?

Why do we not laugh with our feet and hands as well?

Were laughter expressed with the hands, the monkey might fall from the tree and, if by the feet, man might fall to the ground.

He would at least be ataxic. In fact, laughter has the great advantage of utilizing a group of powerful muscles which can be readily spared without seriously interfering with the maintenance of posture. Laughter, however, is only one form of muscular action which may consume the fuel thrown into the blood by excitation.

That these products of excitation are often consumed by other motor acts than laughter is frequently seen in public meetings when the stamping of feet and the clapping of hands in applause gives relief to the excitation (Fig. 30). Why the noise of laughter?

In order that the products of excitation may be quickly and completely consumed, the powerful group of expiratory muscles must have some resistance against which they can exert themselves strongly and at the same time provide for adequate respiratory exchange.

The intermittent closure of the epiglottis serves this purpose admirably, just as the horizontal bars afford the resistance against which muscles may be exercised. The facial muscles are not in use for other purposes, hence their contractions will consume a little of the fuel.

An audience excited by the words of an impassioned speaker undergoes a body-wide stimulation for action, all of which may be eliminated by laughter or by applause (Fig. 31).

 

Let us test this hypothesis by some practical examples.

The first is an incident that accidentally occurred in our laboratory during experiments on fear which were performed as follows: A keen, snappy fox terrier was completely muzzled by winding a broad strip of adhesive plaster around his jaw so as to include all but the nostrils.

When this aggressive little terrier and the rabbit found themselves in close quarters each animal became completely governed by instinct; the rabbit crouched in fear, while the terrier, with all the ancestral assurance of seizing his prey, rushed, upon the rabbit, his muzzle always glancing off and his attack ending in awkward failure.

 

This experiment was repeated many times and each time provoked the serious-minded scientific visitors who witnessed it to laughter. Why? Because the spectacle of a savage little terrier rushing upon an innocent rabbit as if to mangle it integrated the body of the onlooker with a strong desire to exert muscular action to prevent the cruelty. This integration caused a conversion of the potential energy in the brain-cells into kinetic energy, and there resulted a discharge into the blood-stream of activating internal secretions for the purpose of producing muscular action.

Instantly and unexpectedly the danger passed and the preparation for muscular action intended for use in the protection of the rabbit was not needed. This fuel was consumed by the neutral muscular action of laughter, which thus afforded relief.

 

A common example of the same nature is that encountered on the street when a pedestrian slips on a banana peel and, just as he is about to tumble, recovers his equilibrium. The onlookers secure relief from the integration to run to his rescue by laughing.

On the other hand, should the same pedestrian fall and fracture his skull the motor integration of the onlookers would be consumed by rendering physical assistance—hence there would be no laughter.

In children almost any unexpected phenomenon, such as a sudden “booing”

from behind a door, is attended by laughter, and in like manner the kinetic reaction produced by the innumerable threats of danger which are suddenly averted, a breach of the conventions, a sudden relief from acute nervous tension; a surprise—indeed, any excitant to which there is no predetermined method of giving a physical response—

may be neutralized by the excitation of the mechanism of laughter.

 

In the same way the laughter excited by jokes may be explained.

An analysis of a joke shows that it is composed of two parts—

the first, in which is presented a subject that acts as a stimulus to action, and the second, in which the story turns suddenly so that the stimulus to action is unexpectedly withdrawn.

The subject matter of the joke affects each hearer according to the type of stimuli that commonly excites that individual.

Hence it is that a joke may convulse one person while it bores another, and so there are jokes of the classes, bankers’ jokes, politicians’ jokes, the jokes of professional men, of the plebeian, of the artist, etc.

If the joke fails, the integration products of the excitation may be used in physical resentment (Fig. 32).

 

Another type of laughter is that associated with the ticklish points of certain parts of the body, the soles of the feet and certain parts of the trunk and of the abdomen. The excitation of the ticklish receptors, like pain, compels self-defensive motor acts.

This response is of phylogenetic origin, and may be awakened only by stimuli which are too light to be painful. In this connection it is of interest to note that a superficial, insect-like contact with the skin rarely provokes laughter, and that the tickling of the nasal, oral, and pulmonary tracts does not produce laughter.

The ticklish points that cause laughter are rather deeply placed, and a certain type of physical contact is required to constitute an adequate stimulus. That is, the contact must arouse a phylogenetic association with a physical struggle or with physical exertion.

In the foot, the adequate stimuli for laughter are such contacts as resemble or suggest piercing by stones or rough objects.. The intention of the one who tickles must be known; if his intention be