W.E.A. LECTURE

Southland Times, Issue 20666, 23 April 1929, Page 3

W.E.A. LECTURE

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE EMOTIONS

The weekly meeting of the Invercargill W.E.A. was held in the Y.M.C.A. Hall on Monday evening. Mr I. L. Petrie was voted to the chair. The chairman briefly introduced the lecturer, Mr A. G. Butchers, M.A., who gave a summary of the various authors dealing with the emotions. Quotations were given from McDougall’s works. The lecturer gave about a hundred different adjectives used by that author to describe the emotions. Dr Watson’s experimental works were then discussed. Fear, Love and Rage were found to be the primary emotions, out of which all other (‘motions grew. The author subjected the primary emotions of infants to a careful analysis, noting the visible or outward reactions, also the inward or visual changes, the latter being the more significant. Dorsey’s work on the emotions was next quoted. His conclusions, too, showed that the chemical changes in the visceral organs were far more important than the overt, manifestations whilst under emotional stress. The lecturer then went on to, give a descripion of the visceral organs, with special reference to the glandular system, showing their secretions could be either increased or retarded during emotion or excitement. A very important task of psychology was to show how to bring our visceral organs under control. This will be dealt with at. next week’s lecture. An interesting discussion followed, in which the following took part: Mesdames Wilson, Erskine, Messrs Petrie, Dorman, Fisher and others. The subject for next week's lecture will be “The Physiological Basis of Mental Life Generally.”