You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
This voluminous book is probably the most detailed and systematic presentation of Janet's work. The material is divided into nineteen chapters. Fourteen of these are devoted to general problems: Development of Psychical Functions, The Instincts, Actions, The Course of Higher Mental Activities, The Feelings, Mental Tension, Emotion and Emotivity (emotivity means hypersensitivity), Traumatic Memories, The Conscious and the Subconscious (Unterbewusst), The Function of Believing and Suggestion, Sensation and Pain, Mental Forces. The second part deals with neuroses and consists of five chapters: Asthenic Syndromes, The Psychasthenias, Hysteria, Melancholia, On the Therapy of the Neurosis.
It is impossible to review each chapter in detail. A few quotations will convey the spirit of this book. On page 32 we read: 'The psychopathology of Janet originated solely from the observation of patients, and his hypotheses—one would have the right to call them a doctrine—fill as "Höhenpsychologie" [psychology of the surface?] a gap which found but little attention in the studies and theories of depth-psychology'.
On pages 45 and 46 the origin of language is discussed. According to the ideas presented, language emerged as a result of the interplay between commanding and obeying actions. The basis from which such communicative behavior develops is 'a combination of two perceptive actions which are synthesized into one behavior consisting of two acts: on the one hand the production of the tool and its use, and on the other hand the learning of its operation'.
On page 61 Schwartz states Janet's definition of an instinct (Trieb) as follows: 'An instinct is a disposition of the organism to perform a certain action which is characterized by a certain amount of locomotion of any organ; these movements take place in a certain