著者

黒田 亮

出版者

The Japanese Psychological Association

雑誌

心理学研究 (ISSN:00215236)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.9, no.5, pp.891-900, 1934

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When any emotion reaches to a high degree of intensity there takes place a sense of graze in a certain locality over the external surface of our body. The sense of graze is in quality something like a feeling experienced when we, in a bath, receive on the abdominal region a surge caused by moving our hand. It is rough and devoids of compactness, it is felt near the surface of our skin, being never taken for visceral disturbance which usually appears deep in the visceral cavity. In looking down from height, we are aware of the sense at the calf of our legs the same instant when we experience danger. The author calls this a calf phenomenon.<BR>In the negative emotions, for instance of fear or dread, it is felt at the back, but in case of positive emotion of joy on the other hand it is localized on the ventral side, especially on the chest. While the sense is static in the calf phenomenon, it is dynamic in nature in intense fear or joy, that is it runs a certain distance with a certain speed; the speed seems to increase in accordance with the increase of their intensity. It closely resembles a sense of touch and is clearly distinguished from visceral or organic sensation by its superficial, at least somatic origin. The fact that it disappears as soon as the emotion concerned looses its intensity or comes to disappeare shows that it is essential bodily changes subjectively experienced in intense emotions.<BR>Though at present its physiological nature is not clear enough, we are prone to accept Cannon's thalamic theory in so far as it is of somatic kind, shallowly seated and has no direct connection of with excitations visceral organs. The James-Lange theory is not consistent with the existence of the sense of graze essential to emotions.<BR>The sense is differently localized in different qualities of emotions, in general the positive emotions on the ventral side and the negative on the dorsal one. This fact is biologically of significance because the positive emotions have to do with situations favorable and acceptable and the negative ones on the other hand with those unfavorable and rejected to an organism.(The author)