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TRANSLATION,

---* c.T
R4-Gf
CHICAGO :
THE OPEN COURT 169 PUBLISHING 1890. COMPANY La Salle street

TRANSLATION

COPYRIGHTED

BY

THE O PEN COURT PUB~SHING 16g-175

COMPANY,

La Salle street,

P. 0. Drawer F, CHrCACo; ILL.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY.
PAGE.

Purpose of the book : the study of the mechanism of Attention Division of the subject.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Definition of Attention.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER I.
SPONTANEOUS OR NATURAL ATTENTION.

7 8 12

Always caused by emotional states : basal facts.. . . . . . . . . . . Its physical manifestations : vase-motory phenomena, respiratory phenomena, motory phenomena, or phenomena of expresslon.................:............................. The supposed effects of attention are its indispensable factors

12

2 5 and constitutive elements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Attention is only the subjective aspect of the physical manifestqtions expressing it., . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Concerning surprise. o.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Origin of Spontaneous Attention : its attachment with the necessary conditions of life.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . CHAPTER II.
VOLUNTARY OR ARTIFICIAL ATTENTION.

29 32

Its formation : a product of art.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The three principal periods of its genesis : actions of simple feelings, of complex feelings, and of habit.. . . . . . _ . . . . . . It is an apparatus of perfectionment and a result of civilization T h e m e c h a n i s m o f v o l u n t a r y a t t e n t i o n . . . . . :. . . . . . . . . . T h e r&e o f a c t i o n s o f i n h i b i t i o n i n p h y s i o l o g y : f a c t s a n d theories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Attention acts only upon muscles and through muscles.. . . .

35 39 42 45 46 51

Motor elements in perceptions, emotions, images, and general ideas.................................................. 5 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS'.
PAGE.

The meaning of voluntarily to direct ones attention towards an object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Of the feeling of effort in general . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Of effort in attention : effort in attention results from co*comitant muscular contractions, and its point of deparlure is peripheral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Experimental researches upon voluntary attention. . . . . . . . . . Expectant attention : what it consists in ; its motory and intellectual aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CHAPTER III.
THE MORBID STATES OF ATTENTION.

62

65

66
72

74

Distraction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Classification of pathological forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. H y p e r t r o p h y o f a t t e n t i o n : t r a n s i t i o n f r o m t h e n o r m a l statetothemorbidstate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Hypochondria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fixed ideas : their varieties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

78 80 82 83 84

Resemblances and differences with and from attention . . go Ecstasy : its varieties and different degrees ; the state of 94 perfect monoideism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 2. Atrophy of attention : maniacs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The state of exhaustion : the enfeeblement of attention and that of the power of motion go hand in hand. . . . . 103 Attention in sleep and in hypnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Attention in idiots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rag
CONCLUSION.

Attention dependent upon emotional states . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I I Emotional life reducible to needs, tendencies, desires, whether accompanied or not accompanied with consciousness . . . . . . 1 1 2 These states always imply a motory innervation in some degree or other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Upon the most general physical condition of attention., . . . . . 118