The diseases of the will / by Th. Ribot.

  • Théodule-Armand Ribot
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The diseases of the will / by Th. Ribot. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The impairments of the will constitute the most important part of its pathology ; they show the mech- anism out of order. We shall subdivide them into two groups. 1. Impairment by defect of impulse ; 2. Impairment by excess of impulse. 3. Because of their importance we shall examine separately the impairments of voluntary attention. 4. Finally, under the title of “The Realm of Ca- prices,” we shall study a peculiar state in which the will never succeeds in forming itself, or does so only by accident. 1. The first group contains facts of a simple and clear character, the examination of which is instructive. In the normal state a suggestion of it is found in those easy-going characters who, in order to act, need to have another will added to their own ; but disease will show us this state prodigiously exaggerated. Guislain has described in general terms that im- pairment which physicians designate by the name of abulia. “The patients know how to will interiorly, mentally, according to the dictates of reason. They may experience the desire to do something, but are powerless to act accordingly. There is at the bottom of their understanding an incapacity. They would wish to work and they cannot. . . . Their will cannot go beyond certain limits; one would say that this power of action undergoes an inhibition : the I will does not transform itself into impelling volition, into active determination. Some patients are themselves astonished at the impotence with which their will is stricken. . . . When they are left to themselves they
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