A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins.

  • Mary Whiton Calkins
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the study of association involves the distinction, already dis¬ cussed, between (1) my subject-self, the unique and persist¬ ing subject of complex experiences; and (2) these same ex¬ periences regarded as impersonal, though not externalized, objects belonging to a special point of time. Such a treat¬ ment proves to be necessary to adequate psychological description. It is dangerous only if one forget that the dis¬ tinction of subject-self from its experiences is an abstrac¬ tion — that the experiences never occur except as experienced by a self and that a self is not absolutely divorced from, or opposed to, but rather inclusive of, these experiences. III. The Direction of Association The discussion of association has thus made evident the close interweaving of partial contents of our complex total experience. It is evident that when one of these partial experiences ‘ recurs,’ as perception or imagination, some other, previously continuous with it, recurs also, as imagination. A very vital question concerns the actual direction of association. Given a recurring perception or imagination, it has perhaps already occurred a score of times in as many different connec¬ tions. Which, then, of the images that might conceivably follow on it will actually be associated ? If, for example, the sight of a topaz necklace is the starting-point of the associa¬ tion, will it be followed by a vague imagining of Delhi, from which it came, by an imagination of the crown jewels in the Tower of London, or finally by some mainly verbal image — the image, for example, of the words Topaz necklace’ or of | the verses — “And I would lie so light, so light I scarce should be unclasp’d at night.”
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