Creative imagination : studies in the psychology of literature / by June E. Downey.

  • June Downey
Date:
1929
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Creative imagination : studies in the psychology of literature / by June E. Downey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    48/264 (page 36)
    CHAPTER VI THE SIGNIFICANCE OF IMAGES It is a fascinating study in the psychology of the scientific mind to note the curious fluctuations in its interests from one decade to another, quite like the learning curve fluctuations of the humblest tyro. At one time much work will be motivated by a particular interest, then another topic comes to the fore; later on, another still. By the time that the first topic is focused again it is necessary to modify the treat¬ ment of it by the new discoveries made in other fields. This is what has happened concerning the doctrine of the image. Galton's questionnaire1 in 1880 initiated active interest in the image. Since Gabon's day there have been attempts to explain all things by the course of the image and there have been reactions against it which have held the image to be a more or less useless encumbrance of the process of thought. Imagery has been conceived by some as an extravagance of nature—a sort of mental appendix—fortunately harmless in the main as well as useless. As a final protest we have the Behaviourist’s dismissal of the image with a wave of the hand and the casual remark that psychologists have given up the image. Possibly there may be two questions for debate : whether the image exists, and if it does what it is good for. The first question seems worth discussing only in terms of a more accurate definition of the criteria of the image. The image as a descriptive phenomenon is abundantly attested to by very expert observers. Moreover—again significant of the curious trends in the development of thought—right on the heels of the dismissal of the image by the Behaviourist has come the investigation of the eidetic disposition. The question of the specific utility of the various forms of 1 Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development.