able.

{129}

The James-Lange Theory of the Emotions

The American psychologist James, and the Danish psychologist Lange,
independently of each other, put forward this theory in the early
eighties of the last century, and it has ever since remained a great
topic for discussion. According to the theory, the emotion is the _way
the body feels_ while executing the various internal and expressive
movements that occur on such occasions. The "stirred-up state of mind"
is the complex sensation of the stirred-up state of the body. Just as
fatigue or hunger is a complex of bodily sensations, so is anger, fear
or grief, according to the theory.

James says, we do not tremble because we are afraid, but are afraid
because we tremble. By that he means that the conscious state of being
afraid is composed of the sensations of trembling (along with the
sensations of other muscular and glandular responses). He means that
the mental state of recognizing the presence of danger is not the
stirred-up state of fear, until it has produced the trembling and
other similar responses and got back the sensations of them. "Without
the bodily states following on the perception"--i.e., perception of
the external fact that arouses the whole emotional reaction--"the
latter would be purely cognitive in form, pale, colorless, destitute
of emotional warmth. We might then see the bear, and judge it best to
run, receive the insult, and deem it right to strike, but we should
not actually _feel_ afraid or angry."

It has proved very difficult to submit this theory to a satisfactory
test. The only real test would be to cut off sensations from the
interior of the trunk entirely; in which case, if the theory is right,
the conscious emotion should fail to appear, or at least lack much of
its "emotional warmth". Evidence of this sort has been slow in coming
in. One or {130} two persons have turned up at nerve clinics,
complaining that they no longer had any emotions, and were found to
have lost internal bodily sensation. These cases strongly support the
theory, but others have tended in the opposite direction. The fact
that the internal response is the same in anger, and in fear of the
energetic type, shows that the difference between these emotions must
be sought elsewhere. Possibly sufficient difference could be found in
the expressive movements, or in minor internal responses not yet
discovered. If not, the theory would certainly seem to have broken
down