SPINOZA: A LOOK AT HIS PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS

JOOST A. M. MEERLOO, M.D.’

Scientific interests, among other things, secuted immigrants-the Huguenots, the

are also rooted in childhood experience. Spanish Jews, the Pilgrim fathers-all of
Around the corner from our house in The whom were to contribute to its flourishing
Hague, my hometown, there was a statue cultural life. Yet internally the country was
of Benedictus de Spinoza. We youngsters split by the most destructive theological
used to play our games at the feet of the schisms.
contemplative philosopher ensconced in Spinoza was born in 1632. He was the
his chair of stone. At one end of the street son of a successful merchant and one of
stood the famous “Court of the Holy Spir. three children, but he lost his mother when
it,” a sixteenth century group of dwellings he was only 6 and his father while he was
built for the purpose of affording the aged still a minor. The boy nevertheless re-
a peaceful haven in the evening of their ceived an excellent education in Jewish
lives. On the opposite side was the restored philosophy, in Latin and the classic philos-
renaissance house where Spinoza once ophers. From the beginning he must have
dwelled. been deeply affected by religious intoler-
Questions about this mysterious figure in ance and was one of the first to advocate
stone were answered later as we became religious freedom. At the tender age of 14
better acquainted with the dramatic his- he was excommunicated and ostracized
tory of Holland. We learned that Spinoza, from his people after refusing an annuity
the gentle refugee and polisher of eye- offered him in exchange for his spiritual
glass lenses, was the close friend and ad- silence. From then on his life was dedicat-
viser of Jan de Wit, the principal Regent of ed to the mind’s battle against religious
the Seven Dutch Provinces. It was said superstition, persecution, and intolerance.
that the only time in his life that Spinoza His keen psychological interest was stim-
lost his composure and equanimity was ulated by a strong optimism about the
when his friend was brutally put to death value of reason and rationality. Repeatedly
by the crowds in a political mutiny. At he criticized the political theoreticians
that point he was ready to fight the riotous who were always talking about the way
violence with his bare hands. Spinoza’s man ought to be before knowing what
lonely grave stands not far away in the man is.
beautiful yard of an old Protestant church “I have taken great care to understand
of stately baroque style, under which lies human actions,” he wrote, “and not to de-
buried his murdered friend. More was ride, deplore, or denounce them. I have
gleaned about the significance of this soli- therefore regarded human passions, such
tary philosopher when studying at the Uni- as love, hate, anger, envy, pride, pity and
versity of Leyden, in the town near where other feelings that agitate the mind, not
Spinoza lived and left his spiritual mark. as vices of human nature, but as proper-
The family of Benedictus de Spinoza ties which belong to it in the same way as
had to flee religious persecution in Spain heat, cold, storm, thunder, and the like
and Portugal at the close of the sixteenth belong to the nature of the atmos-
century and settle in Amsterdam, Holland, phere”(7). Throughout his Ethics there is
a town and country then undergoing tre- great emphasis on understanding and ex-
mendous mercantile expansion. The young ploration of the human intellect.
Dutch republic, although still at war with Spinoza’s life is a continual search for
Spain, was dispatching its ships all over the equanimity and inner restraint in order to
seven seas. At the same time the country be able to disregard the wrong inner striv-
was opening its arms to the various per- ings “because I saw that the wrong things
of the mind were not incurable.” Though
1 300 Central Park West, New York City. he was the most passionate of thinkers, he

890
1965] JOOST A. M. MEERLOO 891

felt that a philosopher should remain hid- time. He was one of the founders of mod-
den behind his work. He never liked to em affect psychology. A hundred years
show his own emotions, whether in re- before him, the Dutch physician, Joannis
sponse to praise or criticism. Wier, in his battle against the persecution
Spinoza’s psychology was rooted in the of witches, described the phenomenon of
power he ascribed to clear awareness, al- delusion and deluded thinking. Wier knew
though this power can be dominated by that the inquisitor and prosecutor project-
inner drives and passions that render the ed his own evil onto the persecuted. Dutch
thoughts inadequate. However, when a theologians in Spinoza’s time were already
passion that confuses our thinking finally so thoroughly indoctrinated as to this form
relinquishes its hold over the mind, the of collective persecution mania that there
essential thought comes into sharp focus. was no longer any witch burning at the
The enlightened man is then master of stake.
himself. Here we find the significance of As was the scholastic custom of the time,
insight, described so many years later in Spinoza had elaborate exchanges of letters
Freudian psychology. with various leading doctors of his day.
Spinoza’s teaching was directed to the Because psychiatry had not yet been split
search for peace of mind, to removing fear off from medicine as a whole, Spinoza’s
and suffering. The sense of utter rejection thinking about the influence of feeling and
by his peers and later by his family must emotions on men came to fruition in those
have inspired him in his lonely quest. He contemporary physicians who had a need
was very much aware of the masochistic for philosophical guidance. Spinoza did
tendencies in all people. At one time his not attempt to make it easy for his con-
sister tried to cheat him out of his inherit- temporaries to understand him. In his
ance. After he won his case in court he principal work, Ethica, written in Latin,
turned around and gave it back to her. and a lesser treatise in Dutch, he tried to
Apparently, holding up the mirror of good formulate his insights as abstractly as pos-
ethics was enough for him. sible in a geometric framework. Living at
We find his recognition of ambivalence a time when the iatrochemical school dom-
in human relations clearly expressed in inated medical thinking and when even
the following: “A rational man sometimes Descartes, who also lived in Holland, tried
has to do what he knows to be unreason- to prove that the functions of life could
able, as he must choose the lesser of two be explained like the functions of a ma-
evils”(7). Spinoza is quite familiar with chine, it was Spinoza who repeatedly em-
the vacillation between conflicting emo- phasized the guiding influence of subjec-
tions out of which our modern concept of tive inner experience.
ambivalence was born. Determination from Why is man bound to the blindness of
without is bondage; self-determination his emotions? What puts him in bondage
from within is freedom. to the passive emotions? Why can we not
In Book II of the Ethics he tells us that substitute love for hate? (Ethics, Book
we suffer when we are only partially the IV). Repeatedly, we find mentioned his
cause of events. Then the body’s power to concept of statica of affects, an equilibri-
act is weakened and we are guided by in- um of passions directing man’s happiness
adequate ideas. Suffering and passivity and equanimity. Only a stronger emotion
bring us to a lower state of existence. The can displace another. We depend on our
soul vacillates between love and hate. If natural power and our training to oppose
we strip the emotion from the thought a emotions that make us suffer. It is as if our
more steadfast love is found. “One has to modern concept of internal and external
love God but not expect any personal re- homeostasis was already with Spinoza in
turn from him.” Spinoza was very much status riascendi. He theorizes about emo-
aware of the by-passion-driven need for tion as the power behind the increased
reciprocity. or diminished body action, at the same
The lonely philosopher had a stimulat- time being the guiding spirit of these
ing effect on the medical thinking of his modifications. As Spinoza put it, “People
892 SPINOZA: A LOOK AT HIS PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS [March

usually disagree with their emotions; the and the passivity of the personality. Pas-
guidance of reason makes them agree.” sive man acts the way he does because of
In his introduction to the third book of the unripeness of his thinldng and image-
the Ethka, Spinoza wrote: ries, whereby what can only be understood
by inner notion is too greatly influenced
Most people who have written on the affects, by outside stimuli. The outcome of this
emotions and way of life of people are ob- being molded by outside influences are
viously not concerned with the internal phe- emotions, passions and suffering. To suffer
nomena that follow the laws of nature, but is to be moved from without.
only with the outside events obeying those Spinoza defines emotion and feeling as
laws. It seems as if they see man in nature as a bodily situation in which the drives to
a state inside the state, more disturbing the
action, the agendi potentkz, either become
order of nature than following her, and that
fortified or diminished and correspond
man is only able to act by himself while not
influenced by anything or anybody. They do with a specific image and idea. He does not
not ascribe man’s lack of power or capacity distinguish between body and psyche as
and his uncertainty and precariousness to na- separate entities, since we know two facets
ture itself but to some strange foible inside of nature only, namely, thinking and being
him. This inner failure of man they either re- in space. The attributes of thinkability and
gret or make ridiculous, or they despise it. spatiality emanate from a universal all-
Those theologians who deprecate this impo- penetrating principle, the pantheistic prin-
tence of the human mind are admired and
ciple of Spinoza.
held up as divine.
The necessity of studying both the psy-
My thinking, however, tells me that nothing
chology and psychologic explanation of
happens in nature that one can call nature’s
mistake. Ideas are not independent phenom- man’s passivity and its changes led Spinoza
ena but have to be placed in proper locus to his theory of identity and mutual inter-
within the divine nature, meaning in relation action of psyche and soma. When the ac-
to other ideas and phenomena. Nature is al- tivity of the mind is not able to affect the
ways the same. The rules and laws of nature physical causal relations, there is nothing
which change things in their appearance are for us but to accept the fact that mental
always and everywhere the same and that is and physical activities do not alternate or
why one and the same principle must prevail substitute for each other but take place at
That is why knowledge of general rules the same time because they are being de-
and laws is necessary. No action can be
rived from a common cause. All we know
viewed in isolation but only in interrelation
is that one and the same principle is active
with other actions. Temporal viewpoints re-
flect unimproved reason. Emotions such as in both subjective and objective manipula-
hatred, anger, envy, follow the same general- tions.
ities and requirements of nature as other ob- According to Spinoza, the common cause
jects of study. They have specific causes and principle lie beyond our understand-
through which they can be understood and ing. Thus he corrected the more mechan-
they have constant qualities that have the istic explanations of Galileo and Descartes
same importance for our investigative curiosity and the idea of l’homme machine. Spinoza
as every other object we can see with the does not speak of psychophysical parallel-
naked eye.
ism but of correlation and interaction be-
Although Aristotle believed that human
tween body and mind. “The sensation and
conduct was not amenable to scientific
impression I have at this moment corres-
knowledge, Spinoza held that emotions are
ponds with a momentary situation of my
subject to the same laws as those govern-
brain, as one and the same being is active
ing all natural phenomena. Here Spinoza in both brain and consciousness. One can-
touched on our modern holistic concept of
not draw the convex side of a circle seg-
the relation between inner and outer man, ment without at the same time having
especially as applied in psychosomatic drawn the concave side.”
medicine. “Nothing can happen to the This theory of identity and correlation
body which is not perceived by the mind.” of psychophysical interaction proved to be
Spinoza distinguishes between the activity of considerable importance for the further
 1965] JOOST A. M. MEERLOO 893

study of human emotions. Spinoza’s analy- tion of reminiscence and anticipation.

sis emphasized three fundamental princi- “Through the image of something past or
ples in the affective life of human beings: future, man is touched with the same
1. The individual urge to self-assertion feelings of joy or sorrow as through the
as inner essence and as spatial being. representation of the actual occurrence”
Spinoza’s concept of conatus preservandi, (Ethica III, Prop. 18).
of the self-preserving instinct, can be com- We find the notion of emotional associa-
pared with Freud’s concept of the libido. tion and transference of affect in essence
2. The urge to keep or select that which described in Spinoza’s works. He held that
increases or improves the mental and phys- through emotional association with an ob-
ical potentialities (potentia agendi, vis ex- ject that is associated with another object,
istendi). arousing a specific feeling in the past,
3. The principle of ups and downs, of man can acquire a non-justified feeling in
increase or diminution of feelings, what the present.
we would now call the circularity of feel- Even more advanced were his psycho-
ings. The feeling of joy stimulates the logical observations when describing the
mind to greater potentiality; sadness di- facts of emotional sympathy, imitation and
minishes the power of the mind. psychic contamination. “Who runs away
What Spinoza called the law of inter- because he sees others running away, or is
relation of emotions expresses his notion afraid because others are afraid, such a
that sorrow and happiness are experiences person imitates the feelings of others.”
of inner transition from less completeness Again, “Freedom means existing out of the
to greater completeness (or as we would necessity of one’s own nature alone, in-
now say, maturity) and vice versa, and do dependent of the bondage of other
not represent the state of completeness it- people’s emotions” (Ethica I). Here he
self. “Pain is man’s transition from a great- foresees the as yet barely investigated phe-
er state of perfection to a lesser one. I say nomenon of mental contagion.
transition, for pleasure is not perfection in Spinoza also accepted a tendency to ex-
itself. If a man were born with the per- pansion of man’s emotional life. “The mind
fection to which he passes he would be tries as much as possible to imagine things
without the emotion of pleasure. And the that will help or augment the body to
contrary of this makes it still more appar- better action” (Ethica III, Prop. 12). In
ent” (Ethica III). Always of importance is the love of life, the amor fati man will
the relation to the former situation. It is as try to take hold of himself and absorb es-
if Spinoza were introducing Wilder’s law pecially that part of life that fills him with
of initial value(8), saying it even more joy and he “perceives things under a cer-
pregnantly: “Nothing can be understood tain species of eternity” (Ethica II, the
in isolation” (Ethica I). end). “Forming a clear idea of a passion
Spinoza was aware that our ignorance makes the emotion cease to be a passion”
of true causation gives man a false im- (Ethica V).
pression of indeterminism. As long as man Spinoza was much aware of the facts of
is dominated by his emotions he is unfree. prejudice and projection although he de-
The philosopher distinguished three pri- scribed them in other than the usual termi-
mary feelings: joy, sorrow and drift. From nology. Strong emotions tend to become
those he derived the more complicated dictatorial and color the actions of the
special feelings of love and hate. Love is mind. Finally, they override all the weaker
joy connected with the image of its cause; representations and emotions. This is what
hate is sorrow connected with the repre- causes us to accept as real what we expect
sentation of the latter’s specific cause. Both to be real.
love and hate make use of the drift, the Another of Spinoza’s concepts is the ac-
first to preserve, the latter to destroy. We tion of contrast. The greater the sorrow,
may translate the word drift as drive, or the greater the drift will be urging com-
being drawn to. pensation for the negative feelings. The
Spinoza was also cognizant of the ac- same is true of the joy that enters the mind
894 SPINOZA: A LOOK AT HIS PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS [March

after having conquered sorrow and hatred. how difficult this ultimate control of the
Besides Spinoza’s amor fati, his concept of mind was. At the close of his Ethica he
the joy of conquered sorrow remains a well conceded that, “Valuable things and
known psychological aphorism alive in the thoughts are not only rare but also diffi-
literature. cult to acquire.”
Finally, we should mention Spinoza’s
BIBLIOGRAPHY
early idea of displacement of motivations,
by which he meant that a feeling can 1. Hampshire, S.: Spinoza. London: Pen-
serve to justify a less noble intention. He guin Books, 1952.
expressed himself as follows: “There are 2. Lankhout, J.: Nederl. J. Med., 83: 523,
people who feel humble or rejected. Yet 1939.
human nature rebels against those feelings. 3. Runes, D. D.: Spinoza Dictionary. New
York: Philosophical Library, 1951.
True humility is rare. Those who are
4. Scharfstein, B.: “Depth Psychology and
thought to be humble and servile can be-
Philosophy.” Am. Imago, 13: 1, 1956.
long to the most envious and ambitious of
5. Spinoza, B. de: Brieven. Amsterdam:
beings”(2). Describing this displacement
S. L. Van Looy, 1897.
and compensation another way, he wrote,
6. Spinoza, B. de: Ethica. Amsterdam:
“He who despises himself is the nearest Wereldbibliotheek, 1915.
thing to a proud man” (Ethica III). 7. Spinoza, B. de: The Political Works,
Although Spinoza had started out by ed. by A. S. Wernham. Oxford: Oxford Univ.
overemphasizing the value of conscious Press, 1958.
awareness and rational thinking, he gradu- 8. Wilder, J.: J. Nerv. Ment. Dis., 125:
ally became less stoical and more aware of 1957.