Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- BOOK I GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY
- BOOK II SPECIAL PHYSIOLOGY
- CHAPTER X OF MEMORY
- CHAPTER XI OF COMMON SENSE
- CHAPTER XII OF IMAGINATION
- CHAPTER XIII OF UNCONSCIOUS CEREBRATION
- CHAPTER XIV OF REVERIE AND ABSTRACTION:—ELECTRO-BIOLOGY
- CHAPTER XV OF SLEEP, DREAMING, AND SOMNAMBULISM
- CHAPTER XVI OF MESMEBISM AND SPIRITUALISM
- CHAPTER XVII OF INTOXICATION AND DELIRIUM
- CHAPTER XVIII OF INSANITY
- CHAPTER XIX INFLUENCE OF MENTAL STATES ON THE ORGANIC FUNCTIONS
- CHAPTER XX OF MIND AND WILL IN NATURE
- APPENDIX. DR. FERRIER'S EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES ON THE BRAIN
- INDEX
CHAPTER XIV - OF REVERIE AND ABSTRACTION:—ELECTRO-BIOLOGY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- PREFACE
- Contents
- BOOK I GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY
- BOOK II SPECIAL PHYSIOLOGY
- CHAPTER X OF MEMORY
- CHAPTER XI OF COMMON SENSE
- CHAPTER XII OF IMAGINATION
- CHAPTER XIII OF UNCONSCIOUS CEREBRATION
- CHAPTER XIV OF REVERIE AND ABSTRACTION:—ELECTRO-BIOLOGY
- CHAPTER XV OF SLEEP, DREAMING, AND SOMNAMBULISM
- CHAPTER XVI OF MESMEBISM AND SPIRITUALISM
- CHAPTER XVII OF INTOXICATION AND DELIRIUM
- CHAPTER XVIII OF INSANITY
- CHAPTER XIX INFLUENCE OF MENTAL STATES ON THE ORGANIC FUNCTIONS
- CHAPTER XX OF MIND AND WILL IN NATURE
- APPENDIX. DR. FERRIER'S EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES ON THE BRAIN
- INDEX
Summary
442. It has been shown (Chap. VI., Sect. 2) that the sequence of the Thoughts and Feelings, when left to follow their own course by the suspension of the controlling power of the Will, may be determined by suggestions either from within or from without; that is, by the promptings of previous ideational states recorded in the Cerebrum, or by those of new sensorial impressions. In the former case, the attention is so engrossed by the objects which present themselves to the internal senses, that impressions made on the external are either not felt at all, or their meaning is not apprehended. But when the Mind is not following any definite direction of its own, one idea may be readily – substituted for another by new suggestions from without ; and thus the whole state of the convictions, the feelings, and the impulses to action, may be altered from time to time, without the least perception of the strangeness of the transition.—Such are the characteristics of the states known as Reverie and Abstraction; which are fundamentally the same in their character, though the form of their products differs with the temperament and previous habits of the individual, and with the degree in which his consciousness may remain open to external impressions,—Reverie being the automatic mental action of the Poet, Abstraction that of the Reasoner.
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- Principles of Mental PhysiologyWith their Applications to the Training and Discipline of the Mind, and the Study of its Morbid Conditions, pp. 544 - 567Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1874